ICC Sydney set to reopen for face-to-face events in mid-October

The International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) is preparing to reopen its doors to in-person events from mid-October, in line with NSW’s reopening roadmap.

The NSW government announced its plan to gradually reopen the state earlier this month, with conferences and exhibitions at ICC Sydney allowed to return at one person per four square metres, and entertainment events allowed to return at 75 per cent of their fixed seating capacity.

ICC Sydney chief executive Geoff Donaghy said the team would be contacting its customers about their events and had been receiving vaccination certificates from its workforce for months.

“We have over 90 events in the diary from October through to Christmas, and we’re contacting our customers to ensure they are able to proceed with a fully vaccinated workforce, event attendees, suppliers and contractors – everyone that will need to enter the venue,” he said.

“Our people are also keen to get back to doing what they do best – running extraordinary in-person events – and have been sending in their vaccination certificates for some months before last week’s announcement.”

Through its internal COVID taskforce, ICC Sydney has updated its EventSafe Operating Guide, which integrates NSW government health regulations and parent group ASM Global’s rigorous VenueShield program, and capacity charts.

“We’ve digested the details of the roadmap and the latest health order, and we’re confident the team at ICC Sydney will be ready well before the reopening date is confirmed,” Donaghy said.

“We have been advised that the vaccination certificate checking process is currently being tested and will be ready for our reopening to in-person events, and that vaccination attendance will be outlined in a forthcoming health order.

“In the meantime, we have enough information to start planning the return of events and we have operated under these capacity conditions previously.”