Big-name tech conferences scheduled for the rest of the year will draw thousands of people to Detroit, Las Vegas and San Francisco convention centers. Attendees will leave with new tech knowledge, wider business networks and, possibly, COVID-19.
Security consultant Paul Grabow believes he caught COVID-19 at the RSA Conference in San Francisco in June. Organizers required attendees to show proof of vaccination or a negative test result upon arriving at the security technology event.
Grabow, who bought a one-day pass only for the showroom floor, expected RSA workers to prevent clusters of people from forming around the booths. Instead, attendees were allowed to jam together to get close to presenters.
Grabow was vaccinated and said he wore a mask most of the time. Nevertheless, he tested positive for COVID-19 the weekend after the show. Because of a respiratory condition, his doctor put him on the antiviral drug Paxlovid.
He suffered from shortness of breath, loss of appetite and severe fatigue. “It’s brutal,” he said. “You’re sleeping a lot, but you can’t seem to get your energy together.”
Grabow’s wife also came down with COVID-19, but her symptoms were milder. In hindsight, Grabow takes responsibility for spending hours on a crowded expo floor and assuming RSA would enforce crowd control.
There’s only so much that conference organizers can do, and are willing to do, to minimize the risk.
Paul GrabowSecurity consultant and RSA Conference 2022 attendee
“There’s only so much that conference organizers can do, and are willing to do, to minimize the risk,” he said.
In a statement, RSA acknowledged that attendees tested positive for COVID-19, but said it did not collect data on whether the conference was the source. Instead, it encouraged expo returnees to test for the virus, monitor for symptoms and “make responsible health choices.”
Experts agree that the best health protectors are vaccinations and booster shots to drastically reduce the chances of hospitalization and death. But an infected employee returning from conference parties and meetings can spread COVID-19 to colleagues back at the office, lowering productivity as other workers recover from the illness.
Then there’s the risk of long-term effects, known as long COVID-19. Symptoms including depression, difficulty breathing, fatigue and headaches can last for several weeks — even months. A recent study published in medical journal The Lancet found that 1 in 8 people infected with COVID-19 experienced long COVID symptoms.
The health of conference attendees should be a top priority. The most successful companies will see COVID-19 not as an isolated event, but as a springboard for developing a disease prevention plan for future pandemics or severe flu seasons.
“The best practices that our clients are implementing are around the fact that COVID is with us to stay,” said Matthew Bradley, senior vice president at Montreal-based risk management company Crisis24.
Teaching COVID-19 safety
The most effective plan encourages employees to take all government-recommended precautions, according to experts. Mandating behavior at a conference doesn’t work because employers can’t monitor compliance during tech conferences.
Also, due to medical privacy laws, managers are unlikely to know whether employees are vaccinated or have medical conditions that make them susceptible to severe illness. Covering both possibilities during education sessions is critical so that people can decide for themselves whether …….