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One Great George Street has been officially recognised by Visit England as being fully compliant with government guidelines, in regards to health & safety, hygiene and social distancing.

The venue has also been accredited by The Meetings Industry Association as AIM Secure (assurance of excellence in business meetings and events).

These accreditations serve to give planners and delegates full assurance of the venue’s commitment to an outstanding quality of service, regardless of size or circumstance.

Measures undertaken include thorough maintenance and deep cleaning, stringent plans for the safe operation of catering and staff training.

A full list of measures can be found here.

IET London: Savoy Place has released a comprehensive series of hybrid event packages to break down the borders of events in London to far-reaching audiences.

The IET as an organisation has exerted a worldwide pioneering ability to revolutionise and inspire for almost 150 years and Savoy Place, supported by an unparalleled tech team, continues to lead the way in redefining the nature of events through innovative AV, placing delegate integration at the forefront.

Savoy Place was already well-versed in the streamlined delivery of technical AV long before lockdown. In recent weeks, the approach of the AV teams has been to refute the concept of online streaming as an interim makeshift solution for live events, and endorse the elevated importance of interaction through the use of the very best technology to come up with a worthy solution.

Savoy Place is offering the unique services of IET.tv, using its in-house video and webcasting team with its own independent broadcasting channel, offering both live and post-event uploads to the highest standards. Hybrid events require top quality AV and video production so that virtual participants are provided a similar experience to in-person participants. Knowing every inch of the venue like the back of their hand, the experienced team know every angle and hidden trick to ensure the lighting, sound and delivery of video is of unbeaten quality.

To ensure the success of hybrid events, the venue’s AV team has been integrating popular online meeting platforms into their own AV system, so online and live audiences can interact simultaneously with presenters and speakers, as well as with each other. Multi-layer video switchers and digital sound desks allow the management of audio and video coming from different sources and locations and can merge them together in a multilevel communication layout. The packages offer optional add-ons like Sli.do, which can be embedded into the streaming to encourage interactivity.

In light of the new regulations, RSA House is now offering a ceremony-only package and intimate wedding package for up to 30 guests.

For those with thwarted wedding plans up until now, a smaller wedding with close friends and family will now be possible at short notice in August or September at RSA House.

The new intimate weddings package and ceremony-only package have been created for couples that want to safely celebrate their love in these current times and beyond. All the procedures in place are in accordance with the government guidelines to ensure the venue is a safe space and the team is keen to support each and every couple, adapting their offer to couples’ needs in any possible way.

Just steps away from The Strand in the heart of London, RSA House is a hidden gem. With the glorious Georgian architecture, stunning interiors and iconic sweeping staircases the house superbly combines contemporary design with period features to provide surprising spaces under one roof.  The house is absolutely everything you could dream of for an exclusive London wedding.

For more information on weddings at RSA House, contact the team on 0207 451 6817.

Fellows of The Royal Society and people it funds are contributing to the UK and global effort to tackle Coronavirus COVID-19.

They are working inside the UK government as well as providing independent support for national and international efforts. The work includes: research on the biology of the virus and therapies to combat it; longer term goals such as the development of vaccines; and reviewing evidence to inform policy making.

Tackling such pandemics will require both basic and clinical research at every stage, and the scientific community is doing all it can to help fight this terrible disease and reduce its toll.

For more information, visit https://royalsociety.org/whats-new/covid-19/.

Neil Chandler of QEII: “We are prepared and will make the best of whatever is thrown at us.”
Neil Chandler joined The QEII Centre as operations director earlier this year, but just four weeks into his new role the venue was closed to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Here, the former Fairfield Halls Arts Centre venue director talks about his experience so far at QEII and how he and his team are getting things prepared for re-opening.

How would you describe the first few months of your new role?
“It has been an interesting time to join an events venue. While COVID-19 has been very disruptive to QEII it has given me a good opportunity to understand every aspect of the business in a very short space of time; something that under normal working conditions I wouldn’t have had the luxury to do.”

What has been the most challenging aspect you’ve faced so far?
“Getting to know the team without actually being sat with them. I like to get to know individuals and manage them as individuals, but I only had four weeks on site with the team before lockdown and that was mostly spent finding my way round. In fact, two of those weeks were gradual lock down so little business as usual was achieved. Over the last 10 weeks, through daily team calls we have achieved a lot but it has taken a huge amount of effort on all sides to understand personalities properly. I think that takes real face time.”

What plans have you been making ahead of re-opening?
“We have liaised with national organisations and worked hard to produce our response policy for clients; devising new room layouts for events in different configurations and capacities, cleaning regimes and additional signage production. We have purchased new equipment to assist with sanitization and thermal imaging and created an animated infomercial for clients and delegates detailing processes in place at the Centre. We are ready to re-open and like all venues are waiting patiently for the next announcement from government.”

What are some of the challenges you’ve come up against for re-opening?
“The (understandable) lack of clarity at this moment in time, on how we will be able to re-open. We have planned for many different scenarios and are sharing these with our clients, but as time moves on the clients need to firm up plans for their event, but we aren’t able to give them the information they need. QEII has always been proud of its relationship with clients and at the moment this is the biggest cause of sadness across the teams. We want to work with our clients to deliver the very best events, but right now we just don’t know what we will be permitted to host. What we do know is that we are prepared and will make the very best of whatever is thrown at us.”

Can you tell us about some of the steps you’re taking to reassure visitors to QEII that the venue is COVID-secure?
“From a 48-hour pre-event health screening process, (managed by our clients but expected by the Centre) to temperature checks on arrival we have a lot of plans in place.  Lifts and toilet facilities are restricted to minimum numbers and we are encouraging pre-registration and QR scanning on arrival.  Additional precautions are being taken in our cloakroom and by the teams at QEII Live and QEII Taste. Our cleaning team will carry out nightly deep cleans with our new fogging machines and continual sanitisation of touch surfaces from open to close.”

We have a created a video outlining our measures and to provide reassurance which can be viewed here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6678682071809970176/

What are you finding most challenging about planning for re-opening?
“The lack of clarity, at this moment in time, on how we will be able to re-open.  We have planned for many different scenarios and are sharing these with our clients, but as time moves on our clients need to firm up plans for their event and we aren’t able to give them the information they need.  The Centre has always been proud of its relationship with its clients, so not being able to confirm events is currently the biggest cause of sadness across the teams.  We want to work with our clients to deliver the very best events but right now we just don’t know what we will be permitted to host.  What we do know is that we are prepared and will make the very best of whatever is thrown at us.”

Church House Westminster has embraced the emergence of virtual and hybrid events to counteract the impact of COVID-19 and physical distancing to keep meetings going.

In a further step to facilitate meetings and events to resume, Church House is offering event organisers complimentary use of its hybrid event technology, when hosting a conference or meeting at the Westminster venue.

The in-house Audio-Visual team of event production experts deliver a range of virtual and hybrid interactive online events with the use of new event technology.

Whether you are planning a multi-presenter event such as a virtual panel discussion or a webinar with virtual break-out rooms, the venue’s approach is to connect in-person and virtual audiences and to deliver an interactive delegate experience utilising expert event production and technology. There’s no need to worry about the logistics of the event, as a rehearsal with the AV team pre-event is also included.

Options include live-streaming, on-demand and hybrid packages. For full details, visit the venue’s website here.

10-11 Carlton House Terrace has issued a statement of commitment to delegate safety once events are permitted to resume.

The team has been undertaking intensive preparations, implementing social distancing measures, cleaning
procedures and protective practices to ensure the venue is safe to deliver events for guests and
staff in relation to COVID-19.

Measures currently include:

• Signage specifying site and event specific social distancing measures
• Working with clients to prevent congestion i.e. staggered arrival and departure times, catering breaks etc
• Capacities will be limited, and furniture layouts have been revised to ensure safe social distancing for guests
• Staff workstations in offices, reception and kitchens have been revised to ensure social distancing
• Free video conferencing facilities and video conferencing facilities available to organisers for each event
• Contactless AV and catering service to be introduced where possible
• Staff members provided with face masks and gloves
• Face masks will be available for visitors and event guests
• Hand sanitising gel readily available at entrance, restrooms, in each event space and throughout the venue
• Special rubbish bins for disposal PPE provided throughout venue
• All restrooms, handrails, door handles and lift panels disinfected every hour
• Tables, chairs, equipment and other high traffic touch points in meeting and event spaces disinfected at least twice a day or between uses
• Staff will be working from home as much as possible; any onsite staff members will be instructed to isolate if they display any symptoms. Facilities to check temperatures and isolate available onsite.

As part of plans to reopen in the coming months, One Great George Street has shared details of their safety measures to reassure event planners in a digestible video format.

Measures include revisions to capacities to ensure the safe social distancing of guests and a new one-way system throughout the venue to control the flow of people. As part of an extensive hygiene programme, hand sanitising stations will be implemented around the venue and high-touch points will be thoroughly cleaned multiple times per day.

Catering initiatives include a ‘grab and go’ lunch bag scheme as well as clearing stations for the return of cutlery and crockery avoiding unnecessary contact with staff.

For a full list of One Great George Street’s measures, watch the video here.