An update from Mike on COVID-19

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Hi everyone, I hope you are all safe and well?

I wanted to give you all a brief update on our position regarding COVID-19 and what happens next. As you know, restrictions are starting to lift and we are starting to consider what the future will look like. We understand that despite the restrictions easing, this remains an emotive topic and I wanted to assure you that even though we are bursting with excitement at the prospect of events coming back, we will continue to put your safety and wellbeing first.

Our next live event is the National Running Show which will take place in 7 months’ time on 30-31 January at the NEC in Birmingham. We expect that by then we will be able to deliver the same vibrant, community-lead, exciting and inspiring event that we have delivered in previous years and that is what we are working towards. I am also working closely with our industry body (the AEO) to ensure that we take all of the appropriate steps to ensure everyone’s safety at the event. We will be using a dynamic risk-assessed model linked to the Covid Alert Level and will follow the advice from the All Secure Standard which you can read more about here. As I’m sure you know, our venue partner (the NEC) was converted into a Nightingale facility during the pandemic, however it did not receive any patients and was subsequently put on standby. The NEC is following government guidance and will be implementing measures across the venue to ensure everyone is safe and protected as events return.

We know that the first events will be returning in August 2020, so we fully expect to be able to deliver our events in January 2021 without any significant disruption. However, our promise to you is that we will continue to put your safety first and we will err on the side of caution rather than take risks. If we feel that this will substantially impact the delivery of the event then we won’t go ahead – it is important to us that you get the same fun, buzz and excitement from our shows that you are used to and if we can’t deliver that then we will wait until we can. If (as we did with our London show) we decide not to run the event then we will offer our customers a refund or a transfer to a future event.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for their support during this period – to all of our sponsors and exhibitors who keep booking stands and our visitors and partners who have been promoting and supporting the shows. Thank you for sticking with us through this difficult time and whilst we aren’t out of the woods yet, there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel!

I look forward to seeing you all at a live event soon!