The COVID-19 outbreak is placing overwhelming pressure on healthcare infrastructures across the globe. Since early 2020, swiftly and on a massive scale, convention and exhibition centres have become part of the front line in fighting the disease, from serving as ICU hospitals to conducting thousands of tests a day. Many members of the International Association of Convention Centres (AIPC) and the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) are leading this unprecedented effort to save lives.

Convention and exhibition centres have been used in an emergency capacity across the world many times in recent decades, sometimes for weeks or months on end. Temporary Emergency Facilities (TEFs) are most often set up in the wake of major natural disasters that damage or destroy large amounts of infrastructure. They have been proven crucial to the survival of communities serving as care centres, shelters, hubs of aid distribution, and other emergency purposes. 

Since early April 2020, health, safety, security and operations experts and managers of AIPC and UFI have worked together via the AIPC-UFI Safety & Security Task Force to develop a Good Practice Guidance manual. While the information is applicable to all kinds of TEF uses, its main emphasis is on the use of TEFs as emergency hospitals. The guideline covers the three main phases of repurposing or conversion of a facility: setting up facilities, running an operation, and finalisation of the task force in preparation for a return to normal. The circumstances for using a convention or exhibition centre as a TEF will vary widely. Therefore, so will the legal and compliance rules and frameworks. In some cases, the government may simply confiscate a facility for TEF use; in others, management might draw up a proper contract. 

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