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SINGAPORE: A business meeting in Singapore is using motion dongles to ensure participants keep their distance, as the country prepares to start hosting large events safely in the run-up to the World Economic Forum Special Annual Meeting ( WEF) in August.
The pocket dongle, which uses Bluetooth technology, tracks user information such as location, distance, and interaction time between attendees at a two-day technology conference that began Wednesday (March 24) at Marina Bay Sands. (MBS).
Technology used in GEO Connect Asia on March 24, 2021.
The collected data will be uploaded to a system intermittently and organizers can check to see if someone is violating the government’s social distancing rules and intervene if necessary.
The event, GEO Connect Asia 2021, also uses meeting modules with transparent screens to separate participants, while speakers, venue staff members, and some conference delegates are required to undergo rapid COVID-19 antigen testing at the place.
The motion tracker, which is not required to be used at the conference, is different from Singapore’s contact tracing dongle, TraceTogether, which says it shares data only in response to confirmed infections.
The conference has divided the participants into zones and to reduce the frequency of contact. A typical infraction would be being within a meter of someone in another area for more than 15 minutes.
Dongle manufacturers also provided facial recognition and a quick-response contactless registration system, or QR code, for the event.
GEO Connect Asia saw around 1,000 physical attendees over two days.
“BUILDING BLOCKS” TO RECOVER
Technologies such as the dongle are “building blocks” for the eventual resumption and recovery of the tourism industry, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan said at the event.
“These are all very important building blocks so that we can give confidence to the MICE industry … and eventually also consider how to set these building blocks for a successful celebration and organization of the World Economic Forum in August this year,” he said. .
READ: Holding the WEF meeting in Singapore will send a ‘strong signal of confidence’ in the country’s capacity: Alvin Tan
So far, Singapore has held 60 events with around 250 attendees.
GEO Connect Asia 2021 is between two large-scale events with approximately 1,000 participants physically present. The other was the TravelRevive international travel fair that was held in November.
“For each of these events, it gives us that confidence, which is basically building muscle for a calibrated and gradual opening of the industry,” Tan said.
READ: World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab in Singapore to prepare for Special Annual Meeting in August
The technology used in GEO Connect Asia 2021 gives a good idea of what technology is currently available and being tested, Tan said.
He cited facial recognition technology used Wednesday, which enables non-contact temperature taking, contactless video projection of faces, as well as contact tracing and proximity alarms.
On whether vaccines would be a requirement for the WEF, Tan said: “I think vaccines will be a game changer.”
Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan at GEO Connect Asia on March 24, 2021.
However, he noted that different countries are advancing their vaccination programs very differently and that there is still time to assess the situation before August.
When asked if the WEF meeting would take place at MBS, Tan said he is an icon for Singapore.
“I think it’s a natural place for a lot of the organizers to use this venue. So we’ll see what happens. I think the WEF has to make the decision. But MBS is a very, very good place for, as you have seen today, with Geo Connect and TravelRevive which was in November. “
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