Safe Exhibiting Guide

ESSENTIALS

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W hether it’s a ritzy promotional item like a leather wine valet or more reasonable one such as lip balm, most giveaways have one thing in common: They’re touched by one or more staffers who hand them to attendees, or they’re deposited in, say, a bowl from which guests pluck a tchotchke, often fondling several others before making their choice. Even with the welcome success of vaccina tions and the decline of new COVID-19 cases, a lingering question is do giveaways still pose a risk? According to the Mayo Clinic, the chances of catching COVID-19 by touching an infected surface (rather than via respiratory droplets you might directly breathe in) are generally minimal. Minimal, nevertheless, does not mean impossible. According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the virus can persist on various surfaces anywhere from hours to several days, which could pose a problem for giveaways that are constantly handled by both

staff and attendees. For example, COVID-19’s lifespan on surfaces ranges from 24 hours on cardboard to three days on plastic, five days on paper, and up to nine days on metal — all materials that might regularly comprise giveaways of various kinds. While we hope the worst of the pandemic is behind us, Stuart Campbell Ray, vice chair of medicine for data integrity and analytics at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, notes that variants of COVID-19 — the worst of which might be as much as 50 percent more transmissible — appear weekly and could disturb the industry’s return to the show floor. So exhibitors should remain vigilant. For those face-to-face marketers who wish to communicate they’re sensitive to the potential of transmission through promotional items, EXHIBITOR canvassed several experts in the exhibition industry for easy-to-implement tactics that will ensure your giveaways won’t end up giving attendees some thing they don’t want. By Charles Pappas

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