Safe in-person meetings in the COVID-19 era
2020 was a year we will remember for quite a lot of reasons, but mostly because of COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the world economics. Social distancing and avoiding contact with potentially infected items will be crucial for quite a long time.
While video-conferences are a great compromise to keep the business going in case of very long distances or in the middle of a pandemic, we are stong believers that in-person meetings will still offer for a long time a great added value, so we put together a list of guidelines to meet in person with your business partners without compromising the safety of yourself and of your guests.
1. Always wear a mask in closed environments
According to your country, this point could be enforced by law already, but it is extremely important and it should be made part of your company policy. Basic surgical masks or self-made masks are ok, as long as they cover both mouth and nose of every individual in the room.
Remember that most of the masks do not protect much from being infected, but they are quite effective in limiting the spread of the breathing around, viruses included, so it is essential the everybody wears one.
2. Apply social distancing
If a mask can only limit the spread of breathing, being far from each other furtherly decreases the chances of being infected.
Not all the meeting rooms are created equal, but, if there is enough room, a good rule of thumb would be to keep one seat empty between each participant side by side. Also consider that front-facing people should be avoided, so a shifted seats arrangement on the two sides of the table should be preferred.
3. Adopt tools for a contactless experience
Despite aerial infection is the most common case of COVID-19 spread, direct or indirect contact with other people can still be a possible way to transmit the virus, but we know very well that who will need to show slides will be touching the video cable and adapters left on the table, and the same will likely be happening for the clicker too, if there is one.
SlideTrick app can help providing a complete contactless experience for you and your guests: just set up the meeting room making sure that the projector screen shows the slidetrick.com home page with the QR code visible, and any of your guests will be able to cast his/her slides in seconds, and control the presentation touching nothing more than his/her personal smartphone. No touching of cables, adapters or clickers to achieve the same result, in full safety and in a shorter time.
4. Use alternative greetings
Kiss, bow or shake hands, quoting the title of a very popular book, are three extremely common ways to greet each other and start a business meeting around the world. While kissing and shaking hands will need to be forgotten for a while, bowing will gain popularity, but it's not the only way to safely greet somebody.
- Elbow bump: the closest compromise to replace an handshake. Keeps a physical contact, buy it is shorter in time and involving a part of the body that isn't usually touching anything during the typical day, thus drastically reducing any chanche of infection.
- Foot shake: quite tricky and easy to mess up, recommended with everyday co-workers only. It avoids any upper-body parts getting close to each other, so it is almost as effective as a contact-less greeting.
- Wave: the classic informal greeting, nowadays more and more accepted in business scenarios too because of the social distancing policies.
- Namaste / bow: while bowing does not involve hands, namaste consists in a slight bow and hands pressed together close to the chest. Both ways are very respectful greetings in any situation, and they will be appreciated by any culture. The same cannot be said for the previous three methods, not recommended if you do not know very well the other person.
For more information and guidelines on this topic, please refer to COVID-19 Employer Information for Office Buildings written by CDC.