MICE AFFAIRS MEDIA, 14 Aug 2020, India
Seoul cautiously resumed on-site
MICE events starting with exhibition and congress in June. Though few
conventions were on the event calendar of COEX, the most well-known venue of
Seoul, it started to have large-scaled exhibitions and more each month from
June. From July to December, COEX has about 8 international exhibitions and
conventions listed on the event calendar even though it is very vulnerable to
abrupt changes. Other convention centers in Seoul such as SETEC, aT Center,
Sejong University Conference Center also started holding events under thorough
quarantine measures around the same time and on.
The Korea Landscape and Garden
Expo 2020 held from June 3 to 6 was the first exhibition in 3 months since the
industry was put on a halt followed by Seoul International Dental Exhibition
and Scientific Congress 2020 (SIDEX 2020). SIDEX 2020 was the first
large-scale event that had 4,860 attendees in two days, 6-7 June. Enforcing
the event had stirred some worrisome between the stakeholders in regards to
handling the safety measures for COVID-19 considering the probability of having
too big of the crowd from its known popularity. However, organizing body of the
SIDEX 2020 had a spotless success in providing the quarantine measures- keeping
the attendees safe and well and disinfecting the venues and equipment often.
The success led to a notification on the official website two weeks later
announcing that there were no infected cases occurred from the event or anyone
in relation.
The Central Disease Control Headquarters
and the Central Disaster management Headquarters released Disinfection
Guidelines to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 at Public and Multi-purpose
Facilities on April 2, 2020, and convention centers also have their own
procedures and measures in supporting the document. Taking this further, each
organizer goes through the necessary measures themselves and announces specific
measures considering the character of their events-for example, plastic gloves
were given on top of checking on other personal protection equipment (PPE) at
the Seoul International Wines & Spirits Expo 2020 considering much grabbing
would take place on-site.
The first step of quarantine for
each attendee is to be registered with a QR code. With the precise tracking
system of the country, it’s much faster to find anyone with potential exposure
to the virus. Wearing a mask is mandatory to enter any public gatherings
including MICE events. Body temperature measuring at entries, providing
applicable PPE, disinfecting the venues and sometimes the attendees at entries,
and frequent reminders and changing of the indoor air. To apply the current
climate of the industry, the PLUS SEOUL support program added more options
including Personal Hygiene Kit support, Rentals of Thermal Imaging Cameras,
Venue Disinfecting Services on the revised version.
Even though the gatherings seem
risky, more people practice the safety measures at personal levels on regular
bases that gatherings are slowly stepping back into the comfort zone for some
people. The 10th Korea Smart Device Trade Show 2020 (KITAS), which
was held from July 23 to 25, welcomed 19,862 in 3 days. KITAS was one of 7
international MICE events happened at COEX in July. There will be 25 including
the events inviting locals only. It is almost unfair to compare the current
situation to the time before the outbreak. The difficult situation has been
prolonged for more than half a year now and there has not been many positive
prospects for the near future of the global MICE industry or tourism. However,
Seoul is keeping its place on the top for recovery and on the bottom for
severity according to the Global COVID-19 Index released. The MICE industry of
Seoul is showing an increase in catching up like a tortoise in the classic
story-Slow but steady wins the race, the race with invisible but not
invincible.
