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CAEM Exposition Recovery Taskforce Update – May 21

May 21, 2020

What You Need to Know This Week

CAEM has had a very productive week, including a number of good conversations with taskforce members and the industry-at-large, in order to guide our plan and strategy for moving forward. CAEM's Exposition Recovery Taskforce had their second meeting on Tuesday, May 19th, during which we discussed position letters to go to the government, online advocacy tools and receiving input from a public health expert.

The taskforce covered the following topics during the meeting:

  • Overview Taskforce Goals
  • Draft Position Letter
  • Advocacy Approach
  • Updates on Guidelines

The CAEM Taskforce will send an Exhibition-specific position letter to elected leaders, on a province-by-province basis to the respective minsters of health, tourism, finance, economic development and the premiers, as well as duplicate this on a federal level. In it, we will define the Exhibition Industry and differentiate it from festivals, concerts and mass gatherings.

The position letter will lay the groundwork with the government, explaining that a Guidelines document will be coming in June and it will outline a collaborative set of best practices, vetted by a Public Health expert. The position letter will be specifically asking Government to allow our industry to be part of the next phase of provincial openings. The letter will also include a link to an economic impact study for our industry which includes Canadian and Global economic impact – available on the MMBC website.

To mobilize the entire industry in a grassroots letter writing campaign and to make it easy and quick for members, CAEM has made the investment into an online advocacy tool that specializes in the formulation of politically motivated campaigns. This platform will connect our members and the industry-at-large, directly to Federal, Provincial, and Municipal representatives right at the push of a button.  Stay tuned for more details early next week on how you can add your voice to CAEM’s advocacy campaign.

Once the letters have been delivered, the taskforce's next focus will be a set of proposed Guidelines to be available in two weeks. They will be a collaborative effort and CAEM will continue to consult with associations including MMBC, Convention Centres of Canada and APEQ and will take into consideration existing guidelines such as those recently published by industry and available on our website.

The next taskforce meeting will be scheduled for the week of May 25th. We plan to provide you with another update from the taskforce group after the next meeting. We are committed to keeping you updated on our progress and will be sending weekly update emails, similar to this one, until further notice. Stay tuned!
Key Developments
CAEM has made the decision to engage a Public Health Expert to ensure the suggested guidelines are substantiated and vetted by a professional in the field. We are currently exploring contacts at Infection Prevention and Control Canada. If you have any other suggestions, particularly about public health officials we might explore, please send them by email.
Take Action
We’ll be going live with our grassroots online advocacy campaign early next week.  We’ll need your support!  Power is in the numbers!  We will send you an email, with step-by-step instructions, for how you and your organization can personally help CAEM advocate for the responsible, safe and effective reopening of our industry.