Corporate Events Plus

Commonly known as Coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused the cancellation of the annual event where over 100,000 delegates and 2,800 exhibitors attend.

Held each year in Barcelona the event is an annual fixture in the events calendar, months of pre event work dashed as the event organisers GSMA were forced to cancel the event after many major exhibiting companies withdrew from attending because of the duty of care they felt they owed to their staff and customers who may attend the event. Not wishing to put people at risk of spreading the disease further across the world.

As part of the pre build we were working full days building to keep to schedule while neighbouring exhibition stands were derigging or indeed not starting work. The Halls had an odd feel, some people were working flat out and some people were slowly derigging work they had completed the previous day.

We were advanced on the build of our booth.

The knock on effect to the cancellation of the event is far reaching, the local economy in Barcelona benefits, reported to be worth over 450 million euros to the local economy and between 11 and 14,000 temporary jobs at the event no longer required, cleaners, students, security, catering, taxi’s and hotels and cafes all affected.

We took our own precautions with face masks (although we did not use them) at the ready, gloves, hand sanitiser and instructions to staff to wash hands more regularly and to clean surfaces that many people may use, like pallet pump truck handles, locker doors, shared tools and safety equipment.

Here is an image of one of our suppliers on site welfare chest

It was sad to be derigging the project once we were given the cancelation notice. The venue is still in turmoil about what services will be charged for, particularly as power and internet services had not been switched on. We await the decisions from the organiser and the venue so we can complete our final budgets and costs for the project.

However, after an initial disappointment the next challenge was to derig safely and get all our onsite crew home which we managed to achieve – what next?

A project in London at a venue I have not worked at before and some paperwork to tie up a cancelled event in Amsterdam in April, now that is a shame, not only because we like working with the Dutch but it’s an event we have been working on for the last 5 years which we really enjoy working on – times they are a changing as some would say.