MARCH | AGENDA
Quote of the month:
“Shout out to anyone waking up feeling a bit lost, anxious or off kilter ... take
a few deep breaths and keep moving xx”
Bestival and Camp Bestival founder Rob Da Bank via Twitter @RobdaBank
Council to charge
non-local tax payers
AV company pre-empts
no deal Brexit
Equipment rental company Press Red Rentals is
opening a subsidiary in Holland to see off the perceived
threat to its business from a ‘no deal’ Brexit scenario.
The company rents audio-visual, sound, video and
lighting equipment for use at events and exhibitions
across the EU, working with exhibition stand builders,
marketing agencies and productions companies from
around the world.
The company, which can freely move equipment and
people around the EU thanks to freedom of movement,
sees ‘no deal’ as a threat to this efficiency.
“To protect the business within the EU, which
accounts for some 70% of the company’s turnover, the
decision was made to invest in setting up a base in The
Netherlands said managing director Derek Tallent. “At
the moment, servicing our clients’ requirements within
the EU is quite straightforward. We can load a truck
in Telford and deliver freely around the EU thanks to
frictionless borders. Brexit will put a stop to that. We
expect to still be able to trade with our clients in the
EU, but this will only be possible by having to use ATA
Carnets for the equipment, and Schengen Area Visas for
our staff, processes that are costly and time consuming.
It’s like turning the clock back 26 years to before the
single market came into being.”
He added: “We’ve had to make this decision to move
part of our business from Telford to Roermond to
protect the company and the livelihoods of our existing
staff. We would far rather be investing in jobs here in
Telford, but we have to be pragmatic.”
The company is now actively recruiting staff in
Holland, with the operation being headed up by existing
staff member Joe Hoyle, who is relocating from the UK
to The Netherlands. Europe post-Brexit.”
Godiva Festival could be set to
charge visitors if they live outside
its home city of Coventry under
new proposals.
Coventry City Council, in an
attempt to boost revenues and
attract headline acts to the three-
day event, could start charging
people who live outside the city
from next year.
The festival, which has attracted
performances from Tony Christie
and Ronan Keating, attracts over
100,000 people each year, and
would remain free for Coventry
taxpayers.
If approved by councillors, the
new charge would come into force
from 2020.
Last year's 20th anniversary
show saw performances from
Tony Christie, Gabrielle and Ronan
Keating.
The council spent £460,000
staging the show in 2018 - three
times higher than its original
£150,000 budget.
Plans will go before the city's full
council on 19 February.
Fyred up
Deborah Armstrong, founder of
event design company Strong
& Co, weighs-in on the issue’s
theme, Fyre Festival. She didn’t
mince her words.
“Oh dear, that means I’ll have to
watch it” I thought when Access
asked me to do a column on the
Fyre Festival.
Despite all the chat about it, I’d
basically avoided delving in.
I had a sense of feeling deeply
sorry for people who work really
hard to achieve a dream which
then fails. Watching those fails
is not how I love spending my
evenings.
That sympathetic feeling
continued right up till the
moment I realised this wasn’t
so much a film about the event
industry as it was about a cynical
con. That was the moment he
said: “selling pipe dreams to the
average loser”. What a [....].
I’ll bet not a single one of you
reading this resonates with that
line, because we in the event
industry are in the business
of bringing wonderful dreams
to life, to communicate, to
elevate, to create memories and
relationships.
Not that guy, with him it could
have been anything, a credit card,
a festival... it was all just bullshit.
07