Running events for the people in our industry has always been an important element of our work at INCA. In light of the current situation regarding the coronavirus epidemic we have developed the following policy statement which we hope will provide some clarity for our members and everyone involved with our events programme.
INCA Policy on Coronavirus and Events
As you know the Coronavirus (Covid-19) disease is causing serious concern around the world. INCA has a series of events planned during the Spring and Summer, through to our Autumn Conference and we see these as an important part of our operation in supporting our members' interests.
We are keeping the situation under review and will follow official guidance, particularly as it relates to event organisation. If advice is given to suspend physical workshop events and conferences then we will, of course follow the guidance. In the mean-time we aim to develop approaches that allow us to continue to deliver our events programme. We are investigating ways of providing full webinars in case we do have to suspend physical workshop events, and of providing online access to physical workshops – to meet the requirements of member organisations with travel restrictions, or individuals needing to self-isolate, for example.
Many INCA members will know that the core team and board of INCA are very familiar with using video-conferencing for organising meetings and other activities - INCA has no office, our core team members all work remotely from home. Our preferred video-conferencing system is Zoom which we find very effective and copes well with variable bandwidth available to different participants. We will make presentations available online and organise suitable engagement for event sponsors. We are even looking at ways we can replicate some of the social networking aspects that are so valuable at INCA events.
Currently planned working group meetings on 'Policy & Regulation' and 'Switching & Wholesale’ will be organised as Zoom calls.
Our highest priority is that all of our colleagues in INCA’s member organisations and our team stay well and virus free.