As a tech event organiser (and someone who also attends techie events/conferences in the past), I was curious how people felt about attending local tech community events/conferences?
Given the following "Public health measures that will come into place from September 6" by the recent announcement by the Irish Government.
Organised indoor events and mass gatherings* can take place with capacity limits of 60% of venue capacity where all patrons are immune (fully vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19 within previous 6 months), or accompanied minors (under 18), in line with sectoral guidance.
Where patrons have mixed immunity status, there will be no change to the current restrictions during September.
*Indoor events and mass gatherings includes conferences, trade fairs and exhibitions and large-scale business events involving external audiences, and bingo venues.
And I have been talking to various people (mostly online) and decided to post out a tweet poll, and hoping people would vote. 😆
The most recent check at "2021-09-01 at 18.37.50", more people feel comfortable going to tech events/conferences in early 2022.
I felt relieved as I thought I was the only one who felt that way as many seemed ok to meet up.
But let's keep safe and as countries start to open up, let's be mindful to those who might not be as comfortable and the feeling of FOMO is high when pics/vids are shared on social of folks having so much fun while some are still stuck at home.
I do whole-heartedly look forward to meeting all the awesome people in the community again, it's been something like 18 months, I haven't even seen family proper in that time. I want to at least be safe and healthy enough to hopefully visit them this Crimbo.
I am curious how other events are doing, like PyBay, they did a survey recently and these are the results:
Of the 200+ that have responded to our pre-conference survey:
97.5% are fully vaccinated
89% are cool with wearing masks at this outdoor conference to keep everyone safe
64% want to meet in-person, 8% can only attend if online is offered (some have moved away)
Another 6% would attend if we enforce vaccination and mask policy (many have kids and elderly at home)
There will be a lot more work for organisers who host and run events to take precautions to make sure everyone is safe into account.
I also saw this post on ITC slack #events channel about NLNOG Day, an in-person event, and their measures to make sure people are safe. So it's also a great opportunity for community techie organisers to take note of how to keep our community safe when in-person/hybrid events come back.
We recognise that everyone will have different comfort levels regarding limiting potential exposure. We’ll provide lanyards in two colours: white and blue. White means you’re ok with physical touch like shaking hands, blue means you’re not. You can choose your preferred colour lanyard at registration. We expect everybody to respect these expressed wishes.
Stay safe everyone, the Roarin' 20s will happen, and it will be one heck of a partae!
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Here's an update to the tweet poll I made a couple of days ago.