AAA White Paper The political economy of informal events, 2030 | Page 114

Second, local authorities will need to improve their forecasting
of social and cultural trends – not just local ones, but national
and international ones. They’ll also need better intelligence
on competitor events, as well as intelligence about how event
technologies are likely to evolve.
Last, each local authority will have to learn how to knit its events
strategy into the centre of its wider plans. Successful events are no
longer nice to have; it’s actually imperative that local authorities
perfect their knowledge of how to help bring such successful events
to fruition.
Between now and 2030, in what used to be the fairly quiescent
realm of British politics, great events will undoubtedly take place.
Whatever happens, local authorities must now make sure that,
in their own way, entertainments in their area try to match the
grandeur and the excitement of the upheavals to come.
In fact, the need is not just for councils, but also for event
organisers and all levels of government to take events more seriously.
Much will always be improvised in events; but better planning and
more ambition on the part of organisers will surely improve them. So,
too, in government and politics, would more readiness and backing
for the achievements that events are likely to chalk up by 2030.
This White Paper has shown some of the creativity that already
surrounds informal events in Britain. Our discussion of tourism and
events, and of the impact of transport on them, suggests that support
for events in these difficult areas is not just a local question, but of
national importance. The same is true of the reforms needed to the
Licensing Act 2003.
Yet if the tasks with Britain’s events sector and the licensing
around it need thinking about on a national scale, that also means
that the potential payoff, for events in 2030, could be a great one.
We have shown that IT will likely play an even bigger role in
festivals and indoor events than it does today. Advances in electricity
generation, air quality, noise reduction and litter removal will also
make informal events more efficient. The opportunity, then, is
for the informal events business not just to go on expanding the
employment it offers, but also to raise its productivity – something
that doesn’t happen enough in the British economy today.
Aided by ambition and new technologies, as well as by a more
rounded licensing regime, informal events can join with formal
ones to form a new, cohesive and unique wealth-making sector for
Britain – events tourists into the UK, and events exports out of it,
very much included. For 2030, British events could win worldwide
acclaim for their creative, technological and social innovation.
That’s a prize worth winning.
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