If you hadn’t noticed, it’s been a little warm this week and three of the Brightelm team, including myself, have braved (!) the extreme weather warnings to make it to London. (At the time of writing, we’ve not yet started our return journeys, so thoughts and prayers please!).
As you can imagine, there have been a lot of conversations around the impact of the weather on this and other events. Many of which have started with “what are you wearing”, which I didn’t expect, but actually makes complete sense.
From an organisers perspective we obviously have a duty of care to ensure our delegates remain safe and well during our events, but there are a number of other considerations too.
Here’s my take on how to prepare for extreme weather:
Onsite care – this is where your venue and catering supplier can excel. Ensure there is plenty of free drinking water around the venue and spaces to sit and relax. Ask for the aircon to be switched on a couple of hours before arrival and monitor it with the venue throughout the day. If you have the luxury, switch sessions to different rooms if you anticipate there will be a problem with temperature. Keep doors and windows closed to keep air filtered (your hay fever and asthma sufferers will love you for this!). If you haven’t done so already, create one or two cool, quiet and dark spaces for delegates who are suffering the most to use.
Warm environments can also play havoc with food safety and food presentation, so it’s worth having a discussion with your caterer in advance to discuss any issues arising (no one wants a runny chocolate mousse!). Yes, we’re British and we all seem to love a cup of tea no matter what the weather, but can your caterer service iced coffee or tea as an addition or alternative?
Speaker contingencies – as we’ve seen this week, high temperatures can play havoc with transport of any kind, but particularly our creaking train network. Consider contingencies for speakers. Do you have someone on hand that can slot into a panel if need be? Can you connect a speaker virtually to a session easily if they decided not to travel?
Connectivity – hot weather can play havoc with both the internet and power. If you rely on cloud-based services to run your event it’s worth considering various contingencies for their failure, whether that be app, email communications, WhatsApp groups and the like. It’s always worth adding a set of radios to your on-site equipment for added resilience.
Communication – to help reduce attendee anxiety, ensure you communicate any changes you’re making to delegates across all your channels. If you’re able to, relax the dress code, or make it explicit that summer or casual wear is welcome. Talk about hydration, and the signs of dehydration. But most of all, try to put delegates at ease about attending the event.
Hopefully that gives a few helpful pointers. I’ve only recently discovered the joys of an iced black americano, so I’m off to partake.