Now that COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted throughout the UK, the events industry is adapting to a new normal. Organisers can hold in-person events at full capacity with little or no restrictions. Yet, events must also be organised safely with public health in mind.

The threat of COVID-19 has not completely passed, requiring venues and event managers to pay attention to lessons learned from the pandemic. Some of the possible precautions include social distancing and streamlined check-in processes.

The right online event platform helps you run events in a post-pandemic world. Seatlab gives you access to useful features for managing events safely. Here is what you should know about selling tickets and running events after COVID-19.

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How to Use Seatlab’s Online Event Platform to Manage a Safe Event and Reduce Potential Health Risks

One of the first considerations when planning an event is the current government health restrictions. Luckily, the UK lifted almost all COVID-related restrictions in July of 2021.

Social distancing rules and mask requirements have been lifted for almost all types of businesses and venues. However, the government still recommends that event organisers carefully develop an event management plan to minimise health risks.

Careful planning is needed to keep the public safe as they resume attending events. Some of the areas of concern include:

• Social distancing
• Reduction of human interaction
• Food and beverage safety
• Facilities

You also need to ensure that staff, visitors, and participants understand the procedures you plan to implement. Staff may require training on social distancing precautions and crowd management.

Any events where food and beverages are served should also employ COVID-19 risk mitigation procedures. This may involve establishing socially distanced queues for food stalls or adding more vendors to minimise lines.

The venue and facilities used for the event may also have specific COVID-19 protocols. Event organisers should always review the requirements of the chosen venue to ensure compliance. Some facilities may require all visitors to wear masks or show proof of vaccination. Along with complying with the safety policies of the venue, event organisers can develop additional policies.

For example, event organisers can use social distancing and crowd management procedures to reduce human interaction and keep people safe. Crowd management helps visitors comply with safety precautions and minimises risks by controlling the movement of crowds.

Our online event platform can assist with several key areas of your overall event safety plan, including crowd management. At Seatlab, our system is built with the latest technologies to simplify event management.

Reduce Human Interaction with E-Tickets and QR Scanning

The use of electronic tickets (e-tickets) and QR scanning assist with crowd management. You can reduce human interaction and long queues during check-in.

Our online event platform allows you to supply customers with printed tickets or e-tickets. If you use physical tickets, attendees and staff need to exchange items. E-tickets are sent to a customer as an email attachment after completing a purchase.

You can include your branding on the e-ticket, along with any instructions for visitors. For example, you may pass along any safety precautions that guests need to follow, such as maintaining a distance of at least one metre or wearing a mask in certain situations.

Along with e-tickets, our system supports QR scanning. Your staff can easily check-in guests by scanning a QR code on the e-ticket. This limits human interaction and allows you to get guests inside faster, which cuts down on the crowd size near the entrance. Using these features also provides enhanced fraud protection. With QR scanning and our cloud-based online event platform, the same ticket cannot be used twice.

Maintain Socially Distanced Seating with Smart Seating

Socially distanced seating is another area where our ticketing solution saves time and energy. You can easily adjust the availability of seats to maintain a safe distance between seats or groups of guests.

After creating an event, you can create an interactive seat map. You can then let our “smart seating” feature optimise the availability of seats to ensure that your venue follows social distancing recommendations. Our algorithm can automatically make seats available at a safe distance from one another, eliminating the headache of dealing with social distancing policies.

Ensuring that you provide socially distanced seating may also be a useful selling point when marketing your events. Make sure that you inform guests that you are taking every precaution available to maintain a safe space. This reassurance may keep potential visitors from changing their minds due to safety concerns.

Allow Guests to Choose Seats with Interactive Seat Mapping

Along with social distancing, guests may feel safer selecting their own seats. Offering seat selection allows them to pick an area that works for their comfort level.

Some guests may still want to sit in the front rows, while others prefer to sit near the back or close to the exits. You can let them choose their seats and get a view of the venue’s layout, such as the location of the exits and the food stalls or restrooms.

Our interactive seat map allows users to pan across the venue’s layout and zoom into different areas. They can also use filters or the “best available” function to narrow their search.

Our “best available” function automatically selects the best seat based on the remaining options. This saves customers time and allows them to quickly check what they can get with seats in the next price range.

Host a Hybrid Physical/Virtual Event to Limit In-Person Attendees

Social distancing may require you to limit the capacity of an event to keep guests further apart. Unfortunately, limiting your available seating also limits your potential revenue.

Our system provides a solution for maximising ticket sales without adding more physical seats. You can sell virtual event tickets to your in-person event. Using live video streaming, you can broadcast to virtual attendees who cannot attend your event locally.

Seatlab’s online event platform allows you to create multiple ticket types for single events. You can also set different prices for each type of ticket; you can offer virtual tickets at a lower cost than physical tickets to increase engagement.

Communicate with Your Guests to Ensure Compliance with Safety Policies

After developing safety policies for minimising the spread of COVID-19, you need to ensure that everyone attending understands your policies. Create a list of all the requirements for the event, such as:

• Social distancing
• Wearing masks
• Vaccination status
• Check-in procedures

These details keep everyone on the same page and help establish trust with your customers. Ease your customers’ concerns by outlining the steps that you plan on taking to ensure their safety. Consider sending these details via email so that customers can quickly reference them before the event.

Additional Suggestions for Holding a Safe Event in the Post-COVID World

Our platform gives you many tools for planning a safe event, but there are additional steps that you can take to maximise everyone’s safety. If possible, consider hosting your event outdoors.

Scientists believe that COVID-19 is much less likely to spread in outdoor spaces compared to indoor spaces. By holding an event outdoors, you can ensure that everyone has a great time instead of worrying about the spread of a virus.

You may also want to consider looking for alternative venues for your event. Some venue owners may not be able to accommodate your requirements or safety policies, requiring you to change the location of an event at the last minute. Finding alternatives ahead of time prepares you for potential venue changes.

Large public events also benefit from additional entrances, facilities, and vendors. Instead of corralling everyone through a single gate, you can check-in guests through multiple gates to cut down on lines. Using multiple food stalls or merchandise stands also helps limit human interaction by keeping people from congregating together.

Conclusion

COVID-19 forced the cancellation of many events, from sporting events to music festivals and corporate conferences. Now that the restrictions are lifted, people are ready to resume their old activities. Focusing on the safety of the public is essential for ensuring that people can enjoy events again.

COVID-19 has not disappeared.

If the virus becomes a serious threat again, restrictions may resume. Seatlab offers a flexible ticketing solution to help you quickly adapt to any potential changes. As the UK gets back to a new normal, our platform can ensure that you hold events in the safest manner possible.

Using Seatlab gives you access to useful features for maintaining a safer event, including e-tickets and QR scanning. Scanning e-tickets can help limit human interaction and cut down on long queues. Interactive seat mapping and “smart seating” also decrease health risks. Our algorithms can automatically make seats available or unavailable to create a safe distance between attendees.

Our online event platform is also built for physical and virtual events. Offering tickets to virtual attendees helps you maximise revenue by reaching customers who may not be able to attend due to restrictions in their region or capacity limits.

Book a demo today to get started with planning safer events and selling more tickets.

Start selling tickets online today!

Schedule a 30-Minute product demo with an expert Q&A