Event Precautions: Hosting Events in Unusual Times

With COVID presenting so many uncertainties, we at Home Office have discussed at length how to best offer Advisors support given the greatly varied pace of reopening. As always, our greatest concern is the health and safety of Advisors and customers. We know COVID will be with us for the foreseeable future, and each one of us will have to gauge our own vulnerability and risk tolerance, as each individual is ultimately responsible for their own health. It is also vital we do everything we can to keep each other safe. 

At large in-person gatherings, it may be difficult to monitor and enforce guidelines intended to guard against the spread of COVID. Should Advisors decide to host an in-person event where permitted, we suggest they communicate clearly with attendees in advance of the event and share the precautions they will be taking. This would include an outline of how they plan to follow Federal, Provincial and local guidelines regarding things like occupancy requirements, maintaining social distancing, disinfection of surfaces, meals, masks, temperature checks and procedures for ensuring people stay home who are not feeling well, have recently travelled or have been exposed to anyone with COVID. Listing precautionary measures before your event and enforcing them at your event will help protect all from the virus and you as an Independent Business owner from liability. It will also allow each attendee to make an informed decision whether they wish to accept the risk of attending the event.

Even with stringent precautions, in-person events carry risk, but those risks can be mitigated. With Provinces beginning to re-open, we will resume sharing photos of in-person events Advisors submit via the Facebook group. We wish to underscore the importance of gathering safely and ONLY in accordance with guidelines in place in each province and local community. It is not possible for us to verify compliance at each event in each community across Canada and we will assume all COVID restrictions around gatherings have been complied with at the events which photos are being posted from.

We have added new training resources for you to host virtual events, which have been incredibly successful and are guaranteed to keep our community safe — again, our primary concern. Our Advisor Success coaches are currently supporting the field by virtually attending Advisor sponsored events being held both virtually and in-person, where safety measures are in place (contact Diane Lampert). Our Advisor Success Coaches are not currently travelling to in-person events.

Thank you for your continued cooperation as together we work to safely navigate these unusual times.