The Safe Business Project by IEG Is Ready

#SAFEBUSINESS by IEG is the name of the project launched by IEG Italian Exhibition Group. The project provides over fifty guidelines with a rigorous regulatory and organizational protocol upstream. These include: sanitized shuttle transport between the airport, hotels and Expo Centres, all equipped with disinfectant, the obligation to wear face masks on board and a fixed number of passengers; conventions with bike sharing and electric scooter companies in accordance with hotels and the territory; ticket office and payments exclusively on line, scheduled entries according to hall capacity and extended trade show opening times, face mask distribution desks (with mandatory use and specific aids for those with special needs such as transparent face masks for IEG staff to facilitate relations with the hearing impaired); multiple entrances, safety aisles and distancing signage, dematerialized entry tickets, temperature checks on the public using thermo scanners and a sanitization route, wardrobe with automatic rack and disposable individual coverings. 

The entire outfitting supply chain will be organized and managed in safety, visitor flows will be monitored with centralized digital tracking and on-site controls by remotely guided stewards. All the areas, rooms and bathroom facilities will be sanitized on a continuous cycle and air-conditioning channel filters will be sanitized.

Digitalized informative material, multi-media productions and live streaming to support events, conferences and the media. Catering: temperature checks for the workers, gloves, face masks, disposable overalls, skip-the-line payment apps, single portion lunch and coffee boxes, coded delivery system to the stands. A strict crisis management protocol will be established which defines on-site behaviour should suspected cases occur. IEG employees and trade show staff will also undergo training for their own safety and to ensure the safe execution of their duties, the use of PPE, respect of the strict procedures for personal hygiene, sanitizing and distancing. We talked about it with Patrizia Cecchi, Exhibitions Italy Director at IEG Italian Exhibition Group.

IEG has just released the SAFE BUSINESS project with all the measures to adopt for the next trade shows on the calendar, Oroarezzo and Vicenzaoro.
We have developed a "Safe Business" model for all IEG trade shows. In terms of health safety, it is a document with good practice guidelines and techniques aimed to ensure safe organization and environments when activities re-start. A workgroup has been set up that is also engaging the expertise of international experts to deal with the topic. 

With the Covid-19 emergency, what are the perspectives and reactions for the gold-jewelry world? 
The open dialog with the players and sector traders, with which Italian Exhibition Group constantly interacts, is showing us a scenario in which companies are reacting to the current situation with enormous energy. A trade show platform like Vicenzaoro offers the fastest way to meet the market, especially for SMEs where so much of our Made in Italy skills are concentrated. Companies want to be ready, on the starting blocks, so as to be first in line for recovery and to immediately seize the business opportunities that will arise. We will be there with them and we are making every effort to support them in the best possible way. 

The re-start after the crisis will probably induce companies to review their business logics and internal dynamics in response to a new approach to consumption. How will IEG support and sustain small businesses? 
IEG’s commitment is to offer companies useful tools to strengthen their business and help them to be increasingly competitive without seeking to change them but by supporting their decisions with constant cutting-edge content and new opportunities, both during our annual events, in the Expo Centers and on-line. Every company has to adopt its own modalities and we place innovation and technology, future trends and training, young talents and start-ups, commercial contacts and unique networking opportunities at the service of the entire sector. 

This year, IEG’s trade show agenda has undergone several changes. What are the best tools for not making an exhibitor feel the absence of a physical encounter? 
IEG has managed to move all the shows that were set to take place in the second quarter to the autumn period. But even during this “suspended moment” we are flanking our customers by listening to them in order to better understand their needs and by using digital technologies to relaunch webinars, training moments and provide information. We want to promote their excellence and help competition through dialog and relations.

Do you think that, like companies, trade shows can also seize opportunities during this moment? 
What we are working on and involved in at the moment is how to evolve from the integrated physical trade show model to an increasingly broader digital platform to offer services and opportunities to help our customers expand their businesses. With 48 trade shows, either directly organized or hosted, 190 congress events and participation at important events abroad, IEG operates in many strategic sectors of the economy in contact with the very best of Made in Italy, offering formats, which, edition after edition, are further enriched with new and digitally integrated attractions. An urge for innovation that continues to guide us.

What are the strong points that jewelry companies attribute to IEG?
The fact of representing Italian gold-jewelry production which, due to know-how and creativity, boasts enormous prestige the world over, is certainly a highly valuable asset for IEG, which offers the sector its unique experience in directly organizing numerous leading trade shows for strategic economic sectors. Having one single management that aligns jewelry events throughout the year and coordinates them uniformly, is of great value to the entire industrial supply chain. Supporting company internationalization with intense buyer incoming activities, taking companies to the most interesting marketplaces for Made in Italy and a wide range of promotion activities are initiatives of particular relevance in this precise moment when economic recovery needs such strong support. 

In January, we spoke of Vicenzaoro as a cross-fertilization moment, the accelerator for the entire system that puts Italian jewelry in the spotlight.
We have had extremely positive feedback and received requests to extend the activities we enacted. The perspective, therefore, is to focus further on innovation, trends, technologies, training, start-ups and young talents.

What are the main criticalities that, as a Group, you are afraid might undermine the balance of today’s trade show market in the medium and long-term period?
IEG operates in a perspective of continual evolution that makes us optimistic and convinced that the strategy undertaken will continue to increase opportunities for our customers and offer greater possibilities for growth. Our skill in organizing trade show events in various sectors and our disposition towards innovation, give us a broad vision and the possibility to gain huge opportunities from cross-contamination to support development.

You can download the SAFE BUSINESS project here: https://www.iegexpo.it/en/safebusiness