Credit Festival to go ahead - with extra precautions 

The Credit Festival begins with Credit Week tomorrow, kicking off with the Credit Summit from 3-6 November, but also featuring the Women in Credit Awards on 4 November and the Credit Awards on 5 November.

Although the new restrictions are due to take effect on Thursday, during Credit Week, Credit Strategy will continue to host the events but under extra and tighter measures. These measures were conceived in view of a potential second lockdown.

Measures already in place

For Credit Festival sessions that have been recorded so far, doors between the studio and the waiting room were sanitised, and will continue to be, while microphones will continue to be cleaned each time after they’re used. All other facilities at the studio will still be cleaned in between each production.

The small film crew at the studio where the digital broadcasts are being filmed, will also continue to wear protective gear including masks and gloves.

Total numbers of people in the studio and the rooms immediately adjacent will remain strictly limited, with hand sanitiser provided in each room. With any host and panellist broadcasting inside the studio together, they will be over a metre apart, with a maximum of three socially-distanced presenters appearing on camera at any one time.

New measures

Any presenters appearing live in person, will now have their temperatures checked before entering the studio building and once presenters are in the studio building, (which continues to have a one-way system), there will be strict social distancing between them. All presenters will be in designated areas before their broadcast slots and instructed how to maintain their distance from others when walking into the studio.

As a digital TV broadcaster through the festival, Credit Strategy is also following guidance issued by Oliver Dowden, secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, who has stated: “The changes mean people should WFH where possible. But where this is not possible, travel to a place of work will be permitted - e.g. this includes (but not exhaustive) elite sport played behind closed doors, film & tv production, and telecoms workers.”

Luke Broadhurst, chief executive of Shard Financial Media, Credit Strategy’s parent company, said: “When consulting with the team and the studio after the Prime Minister’s announcement, the safety of our team and speakers was the number one priority.

“We worked out how the Credit Festival’s conferences and awards, held as digital broadcasts, could still be delivered safely with extra precautions on top of the measures we already had in place – for sessions we’ve pre-recorded. The studio we use has been following stringent rules and these will be ramped up.

“We have also been reading the new restrictions line by line, and found a key point made by the culture secretary Oliver Dowden. He has stated, as shown above, that TV production can go ahead as before, but with relevant safety standards. So we are thrilled that our hard work in developing digital broadcast TV production content, can still go ahead as planned

“Our digital broadcasts of awards and conferences also have a critical educational value for the audience, and it’s vital that in this period, we provide that service when members need to share information, challenges and best practice in an incredibly tough period, where their staff may be isolated.

"Ultimately, we are looking forward to uniting our members across multiple sectors, enabling education and the accumulation of CPD points, rewarding and sharing their outstanding achievements, and above all, helping them find a way forward through this abnormal period."

For more information on all the events coming up, which collectively constitute an extensive programme of broadcast-quality content, visit the Credit Festival website. Passes for the entire festival can be bought at our online CS shop.

Some speakers throughout the Credit Festival will now be appearing remotely, broadcasting from their homes live. Some sessions, where panellists appeared in person at the studio, have already been pre-recorded for the Credit Summit.