Winning the war is hard - but winning the peace can sometimes be harder. That’s the essence of the struggle back to the new normal for many governments, companies and people. The Covid Pandemic has been awful around the world, but as it starts to slowly recede into the rear-view mirror, we are trying to deal with a new and sometimes unrecognisable world.
Many workers have been grappling with how to come back to work in as similar a way to pre-Covid, without crossing over any of the new barriers - physical or moral - that have now been erected between us and our erstwhile co-workers.
Widespread vaccinations, daily or twice-weekly Covid tests, physical barriers between desks, increased ventilation and hand-washing, mask-wearing, di¬fferent shift patterns - they are all being used to reduce the possibility of anyone being in work while infected with the virus, to make it as unlikely as possible that an unknowingly infectious person could infect anyone else at work and finally - if these two barriers to the virus should fail - that if you catch the virus that you will not fall seriously ill. So far, these approaches seem to be working, with very low or in some case no infections reported at individual cement plants and other cement industry workplaces.
It’s been very interesting to see the results of the various polls that we have launched during our very many virtual seminars over the last 18 months. By now, very high proportions of our worldwide audiences have been fully-vaccinated, typically around 80-90%, with another 5% or so due to be fully jabbed in the coming months. Consistently about 5% of respondents in these polls say they will not get a jab, although we don’t know whether that is for medical or some other reason. About 10% of our audiences have had Covid - so there may be some overlap with those who say they are unwilling to get a jab.
Global Cement Magazine - as you may know - organises a number of events which have taken place online through the Pandemic. Attendees at our many virtual events have found them to be useful - but almost unanimously, they say that they cannot wait to meet again in the real world.
In consequence, we will bring back events to the real-world as time goes on. e in-person events planned so far are Global Slag (January 2022, Vienna); Global CemFuels (February, Lisbon); Global Cem Boards (April, Brussels); and Global CemProducer (May, Munich). We have a mandatory common Covid Policy1 to attend these events, essentially as follows:
- Non-attendance if ill (obviously!);
- Proof of full vaccination, or of infection and re covery, or of medical exemption;
- Daily on-site quick lateral flow testing, by independent staff, with costs included in the registration fee;
- Mask-wearing inside optional but encouraged.
We’ve elected to have these particular measures in place for a number of reasons:
- To reduce to a low level the possibility of contracting coronavirus at the event;
- To reduce the impact of any infection;
- To allow delegates to interact as freely as possible;
- To give all delegates reassurance that the same rules apply to everyone.
We have done a lot of polling on these measures, with about 10% of respondents saying that they are too much to ask, 60% saying that they are about right, and 30% saying that they are not enough (which begs the question, what more could we ask delegates to do?). As I have learned over the years, you cannot please all of the people all of the time.
Interestingly, we have had negative feedback from only two people. One said “I will not attend any event where my personal medical information becomes ... a basis for discrimination,” while another said that “I refuse to be treated like cattle.” On the first matter, I would say that we are strongly in favour of health measures that apply equally to all attendees - and that are not optional. On the second point, my reply would be that testing will be done with sensitivity and dignity - but that it must take place, for the protection and reassurance of all. It is certain that if we did not have these health measures in place, then the events would not happen at all.
From our polling and from our day-to-day experience, it appears that people will put off¬ their registrations for as long as possible - even more than they did pre-Covid - ‘to see how the situation develops.’ However, contrary to the limited negative feedback outlined above, we have already had a lot of positive feedback in the form of many delegate and exhibitor registrations for the upcoming events.
The real-world events will be real-world only, without a digital/virtual option. This means that to attend, you have to be there. Doing face-to-face business, meeting new people and networking while still keeping everyone safe will be the new reality.
