Trade Shows can take place again in Belgium as from September 1st!

I’m so relieved to bring this good news after blood, sweat and (yes, also) tears. Take 2 minutes of your precious time to read how we got there. This is an interesting case for the “Trade Show Industry” all over the world.

To ensure an environment that is as safe as possible under the current circumstances, Belgium has introduced separate protocols per sector. (Dutch & French link: https://www.info-coronavirus.be/nl/protocollen/)

Trade Shows are classified as “events” in Belgium until today. The current protocol says that Events can take place as from July 1st with a SITTING audience of 400 people outdoor and 200 people indoors. This would have been raised on August 1st to a SITTING audience of 800 people outdoor and 400 people indoors. Since there is a current fear of a second wave, this “relaxion” will not take please. The idea was that this would have been raised to an unlimited amount of SITTING audience as from September 1st but it seems very unlikely to take place. Next to the fact that it looks like events will be “stuck” with a very limited audience, the second issue is the word SITTING. Like this, Trade Shows would have been impossible on the longer term in Belgium!

Thanks to the great work of 6 parties ( #Febelux , #Easyfairs , #KortrijkExpo , #TheFairExperts, #FisaLivecom & #beMatrix ) with both a lot of negotiations & intense legal action, the “Trade Show Industry” could change its classification from “Events” to “Trade”. This means that trade shows can reopen as form September 1st with protocols that are much more acceptable to start organizing a Trade Show. 1 person per 10m2 at the same time is an acceptable start, especially if we work with controllable time slots for visitors! This really allows organizers & venues to start working on reopening!

We just need to behave all and take care to prevent a second wave (and a new lockdown) and everything will be OK one day. #waytogo (at least a start to that) #UFI #EDPA #IFES