by H. K. Wilson
The legendary Beatles gave the world much simple, yet profound, words of wisdom: “Let it be,” “All you need is love,” and “I get by with a little help from my friends.” During dark days and unforeseen challenges, we are all learning to worry less, love more and rely more on each other. This week, we are shining the spotlight on our friends at Fern, ECA and Event Tech Group who are helping us to “get by” with digital innovations, advocacy and education. “Well you know, we all want to change the world.”
Fern HealthCheck’s Digital Health Passport & Vaccine Registry Powered by ShareMy.Health
To help transition people back to live events comfortably, Fern, one of the nation’s largest event strategy and production companies, has partnered with leading cloud healthcare platform ShareMy.Health to present Fern HealthCheck. This revolutionary technology gives event participants an increased level of safety and comfort as they return to face-to-face experiences.
Fern HealthCheck’s latest functionality includes vaccine management with electronic consent capture to securely share immunization credentials. The platform captures details such as date of vaccination, manufacturer, lot number, location, and the vaccine administrator. Event organizers can also test any attendees. The tests—saliva-based, PCR tests—are shipped directly to home or office, overnighted to ShareMy.Health’s CLIA-certified labs for priority processing, and instantly paired with on-site, rapid antigen testing.
Key benefits of Fern HealthCheck:
- HIPAA compliant platform that can share testing and vaccines credentials via Digital Health Passport
- COVID-19 testing with verification and certification—PCR and Antigen testing options available
- Confidential & Encrypted QR Codes
- Event organizers manage health and safety of event staff, attendees and exhibitors with analytics and dashboard reporting
- API Integration with industry registration and mobile app solutions
“One of the industry’s first steps in getting attendees back to in-person events is helping them feel comfortable with and confident in the safety protocols that organizers are putting in place,” says Fern Vice President of Marketing & Industry Relations Jim Kelley (pictured right). “The enhancements to the Health Passport component of Fern HealthCheck make the testing and vaccine credential experience simple and transparent in a way that we expect will help ease the mindset of attendees and exhibitors as they return to trade shows and events.”
The ShareMy.Health-Fern partnership brings the leading healthcare cloud platform together with the experience and reach of giant service provider Fern that includes more than 1,400 trade shows and hundreds of corporate events across North America. ShareMy.Health has helped professional sports leagues, Olympic teams, universities, and live events operate safely and has helped employers around the globe get employees back to work safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The long wait to return safely and responsibly to in-person conferences and live events is almost over,” said Galen Murdock (pictured left), founder and CEO of ShareMy.Health. “As the vaccines have been rolling out, the technology has caught up—right on your smartphone with Fern HealthCheck, powered by ShareMy.Health. We couldn’t be more excited.”
Originally founded in 2018 to help homeless shelters in New York access critical health and medical record data, ShareMy.Health saw a need in the spring of 2020 to get college campuses back open in time for fall and winter classes. Starting with higher education, the company quickly pivoted to community-based organizations, sporting events, the travel industry and the corporate world.
For more info about Digital Health Passport, visit: www.fernexpo.com or www.sharemy.health.
Business Events Industry Launches New Advocacy Coalition: ECA
On February 12, the business events industry announced the formation of the Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance, an advocacy group that will champion the common interests of U.S. exhibitions and conferences with legislators. This new coalition of eight industry associations will promote the impact of the sector, drive general industry awareness, initiate legislation on behalf of business events and work with partners globally to maintain a favorable operating environment within the U.S.
Existing advocacy initiatives Go LIVE Together and Exhibitions Mean Business will continue under ECA and carry out their respective missions — Go LIVE Together in advocating for federal COVID-19 recovery funding and Exhibitions Mean Business in promoting the value of face-to-face and the economic impact of exhibitions at the local, state and national levels. Freeman SVP of Corporate Strategy Sue Sung will continue to serve as executive director of Go LIVE Together. ECA’s organizational structure will also allow for the development of new advocacy campaigns as specific needs arise in the future.
“Through lessons learned with Go LIVE Together, Exhibitions Mean Business and other efforts, we know that advocacy is an ongoing process, and not one that can be easily impacted by jumping in only when there is a crisis,” says David Audrain (pictured right), CEM, executive director of the Society of Independent Show Organizers and co-president of ECA. “ECA will enable us to develop and maintain a long-term strategy to raise our industry’s profile among policymakers, ultimately helping to move us forward.”
The initial ECA board is comprised of:
- Cathy Breden, CMP, CAE, CEM, CEO, Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR)
- Melissa Cherry, COO, Destinations International
- Jim Wurm, executive director, Exhibitor Appointed Contractor Association (EACA)
- Chris Griffin, CEO of Crew XP, representing Experiential Designers + Producers Association (EDPA)
- Bob Priest-Heck, CEO of Freeman, representing Exhibition Services & Contractors Association (ESCA)
- Megan Tanel, CEM, SVP of Association of Equipment Manufacturers, representing International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE)
- Clifford “Rip” Rippitoe, CVE, CEO of San Diego Convention Center, representing International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM)
- Douglas Emslie, CEO of Tarsus Group; Hervé Sedky, CEO of EmeraldX; Nancy Walsh, President, Americas of Informa Markets; and Yancy Weinrich CGO, Americas of Reed Exhibitions, representing Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO)
“We are grateful for the generous support of ECA’s alliance partners and their board representatives,” says David DuBois (pictured left), CMP, CAE, FASAE, CTA, president & CEO of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events and co-president of ECA. “We’re confident that combining our resources will strengthen our advocacy influence for exhibitions and conferences, effectively ensuring that our voices are heard, to generate positive outcomes for our industry on Capitol Hill as well as at the state and local level.”
Want to get involved? Visit www.exhibitionsconferencesalliance.org or contact david@siso.org or ddubois@iaee.com. For information about Go LIVE Together, visit www.golivetogether.com or contact sue@golivetogether.com.
Launch Your Next Virtual Conference With Help From Event Tech Group
Global event management software and service provider Event Tech Group has a mission: to optimize event and trade show management by offering a comprehensive suite of event management technology specifically designed to manage every aspect of your event from beginning to end.
Recognizing that virtual conferences and events are still new to most event professionals, Event Tech Group decided to share some of the insights it has gained from working with its clients and more than 1,000 virtual events in 2020. The company has put together some of the most asked questions in a helpful Virtual Conference FAQ.
The guide answers the following questions and many more:
- How can I drive revenue with a virtual conference?
- How do I keep attendees engaged during a virtual event?
- How much should I charge for a virtual event?
Event Tech Group is helping event planners and organizers to maximize efficiency, simplify data management and deliver more impactful experiences to attendees, whether their event is virtual, hybrid or in-person.
To download the Virtual Conference FAQ, click here
Upcoming stories in this series will feature companies and individuals who have pivoted or created new products to survive these difficult and challenging times. Please email us at newsdesk@exhibitcitynews.com for inclusion in future stories in this series.
