ICCA liveblog on Coronavirus outbreak

The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) has started a liveblog on the Coronavirus outbreak.  The goal is to help meeting professionals find reliable information about the novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak and to share meetings industry-related resources with the global ICCA community of meeting suppliers and associations. When facing uncertainty or crisis, identifying reliable and timely sources of information is critical to making responsible decisions, the organisation states.

Support and solidarity

Earlier ICCA CEO Senthil Gopinath expressed on behalf of the ICCA President and Board of Directors the solidarity and support of the global meetings industry community with its members in Wuhan, including their staff and families, and all others affected by this outbreak globally. ICCA is in touch with all members affected and will make every effort to help them.  |Gopinath urges the ICCA family to extend their support to the industry colleagues, the members and people in China.

Restore confidence

ICCA and JMIC, representing the combined interests of 19 international Meetings Industry associations, call upon all industry members to actively support measures that help restore and build confidence in event participation, including:

• Ensuring that all policies and procedures within the industry’s spheres of influence that help secure the health and safety of event participants are in place and up to date
• Maintaining detailed awareness of both local and global actions and restrictions in order to be able to advise on factors that may affect upcoming events
• Cooperating with local / national authorities to implement any measures that have been determined to potentially impact event attendees
• Consulting with event organizers and related service providers to explore ways in which any program adjustments that need to be made in response to outbreak-related impacts can be accommodated
• Continuing to support awareness of the essential roles of meetings, conventions, exhibitions and business events as drivers of recovery and advancement of global economic and societal development