World Trade Center Metro Manila (WTCMM) advocates for the reopening of stand-alone venues in the midst of a joint memorandum order recently released by the Department of Tourism and the Department of Trade and Industry where it states that essential meetings, colloquia, symposium, business meetings and events are only allowed in venues attached to hotels, restaurants and malls.

WTCMM believes that exhibitions and events held in stand-alone venues provide a safer and more secured environment, alongside permitted venues such as hotels, malls and restaurants. Safety protocols and guidelines have been established that will strictly ensure that health risks are mitigated during the conduct of exhibitions and events when crowd control is more manageable with specific capacities.

With its vast indoor and outdoor spaces, the halls and meetings rooms can be flexibly subdivided and used for smaller meetings, thereby allowing more space for distancing. Generous spaces are available to comply with the required distance for booth setup, seating capacities and people movement.

WTCMM hosts business events where participants provide complete and correct information as part of their event registration. Business events held in WTCMM are not dependent on crowd size but on the quality of targeted exhibitors and participants. Lastly, participants attend for a specific purpose which makes handling & managing foot traffic more efficient and easier to control.

WTCMM believes that one of the keys to economic recovery lies in robust trade activities such as trade shows. The exhibition industry is essential in creating the connections that will help rebuild economies.

Physical trade shows and exhibitions held in stand-alone, world-class venues, like the WTCMM, will never replace creative executions using digital platforms. Live events in such venues need to be allowed soon. #reopenstandalonevenues