SISO Update

How many steps forward? How many steps back? New quarantines - for different state-to-state travel, and more...The pace of change these days is fast, even if it may feel as though we're barely moving. As the summer heat drags on, do not get discouraged. Our industry and the business of live events will return. We will bounce forward, not just back. Let's continue to do our part to ensure a strong return, eventually. 

SISO Activities

Designed with you, our members in mind, get involved with SISO's special interest groups. Or, take some time to watch a recent webinar. Connect with the content you should be watching now. 

• SISO Small Business SIG - Starting on August 11, SISO will introduce a new online roundtable discussion for the Small Business SIG, spanning eight-sessions. Sessions include: 
  • 8/11 - Online Revenue Examples and Options
  • 8/20 - Legal Issues Related to COVID-19
  • 9/1 - Insurance Issues Related to COVID-19
  • 9/10 - Financial/Accounting/Tax Questions Related to COVID-19
  • 9/22 - Human Resources, Dealing with COVID-19
  • 10/1 - Health & Safety Issues Related to COVID-19
  • 10/13 - Mergers & Acquisitions
  • 10/22 - Marketing in the Era of COVID-19

Small business members that would like to participate should contact info@siso.org. 

• SISO's Women's Leadership SIG - Stay tuned for programming details, coming soon!
   
• NEW! SISO Consumer Show Organizers SIG - SISO is pleased to announce the launch of this new SIG. More details to come soon! Interested in participating? Email info@siso.org. 
   
• SISO Webinars - SISO has partnered with mdg to produce the series, The Six Dimensions of Live, sponsored by Freeman. Multiple episodes are available. If you haven't watched yet, what're you waiting for? Here you'll also find past Town Halls and additional webinars.

Moving Forward Updates 

In some ways, looking at the United States it almost looks like we're looking at a mix of many smaller individual countries. At the end of last week, leaders of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut expanded their 14-day quarantine rule for visitors from states where cases of COVID have spiked. See also state-by-state gathering limits and the latest updates, too. 

NPR's special series provides Coronavirus restrictions in each state as well. Here they breakdown by: status of stay-at-home order, reopening, closed/canceled/delayed, testing and tracing, relief and resources, and more. This is quite comprehensive. 

As people continue to yearn for human connections, along with the joys that come with summer vacations, many sources have pulled together their version of U.S. State travel restrictions, here's one more pulse. 

Coalition Updates

Go Live Together‘s newest proposed legislation is the Business Events Recovery Act, which includes a temporary tax credit to help defray the costs of participating in business events, especially for the 1.4 million small businesses that rely on exhibiting as a critical sales and marketing channel. Last week, Go Live Together secured key committee members of the House and Senate as champions of the bill, making us one step closer to passing legislation that will jumpstart events when it is safe to do so and get our industry back to work.

Last issue, we asked that you complete this form to help the coalition map your connections (your friend/colleague/neighbor might just be a senator/representative/ or staffer). If you haven't completed this to-do, please take that easy step. The Coalition's next ask is that you write your senators and congresspeople. Go Live Together has made that easy! Enter your address and zip code and with a few quick clicks, you can send off your email 1:1, personalize it if you wish and even tweet them for an extra touch. Thank you for taking action to continue to help support events and our industry. 

Additionally, last week the Senate released their draft of the next coronavirus relief bill, the HEALS Act. Over the next several weeks, the Senate and House will seek to negotiate a “HEROES-HEALS” compromise bill. As it relates to the business events industry, several provisions that Go LIVE Together supported and advocated for are included in the current Senate draft, and we'll continue to fight to ensure they remain in any final bill:

• PPP (Continuing Small Business Recovery and PPP Act): expands eligibility to include some 501(c)6 as well as DMOs previously excluded and expands forgivable expenses to include covered supplier costs, worker protection expenses, and operating expenses. Additional funding accessible for some second-time borrowers (with < 300 employees and demonstrated 50% reduction in gross revenues), $25 billion set aside for entities with 10 or less employees, $10 billion for community lender loans, and additional funding to SBICs to invest in businesses with significant revenue losses from COVID-19
   
• Liability protection (SAFE TO WORK Act): provides liability protection that will be critical to our industry's ability to restart business events safely, without fear of frivolous lawsuits
   
• Health & safety tax credit (American Workers, Families and Employer Assistance Act): refundable payroll tax credit to cover testing, PPE, cleaning supplies, and qualified workspace modification and technology expenses (e.g., contactless technology, partitions)
   
• Funding for increased testing and vaccine development (Coronavirus Response Additional Supplemental Appropriations Act): additional $16 billion for states to offer testing, contact tracing and surveillance, and $26 billion for vaccine development and distribution

1.4 million small businesses depend on exhibitions for their livelihood. Watch Go Live Together's recent video highlighting small business Little Buros and how integral its attendance at The National Hardware Show was to their success. Please consider sharing this, along with other Coalition materials with your network. 

Reminder: The Coalition has a toolkit of one-pagers for you to use with clear and concise snapshots of each of the key advocacy and legislative goals. 

Resources

Need more masks? Ordering is available through SISO. Visit our resources to address COVID-19 for additional resources, the latest updates and guidance. 

Q&A

Remember, SISO is your community. We cannot wait to see you face-to-face. Till then, stay engaged with our community through SISO's social channels. Members, engage in our online member forum. Have questions? Send those to info@siso.org. 

Share what you're doing! If your trade show or organization has created new guidance or resources that would be beneficial to your SISO peers, please share those on our online community. 

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay strong. Stay connected.