43 Venue data
“ Conference bookings doubled in February compared to January and of those the majority were for 2021 , so that is extremely encouraging ” one event that isn ’ t conducive to Covid protocol .
Banqueting is all about sitting next to each other in close proximity and really rather intimate when compared to a Covid-secure meeting or conference . Not only are banqueting-style events being booked few and far between at present , but the very few that are being booked have long lead times when presumably the client is predicting a ‘ back to normal ’ timeline . From the data , that is either late 2021 or early 2022 .
Parties are one type of event to keep an eye on . Hopefully , there will be some uplift for summer parties and the best news of all would be the return of the Christmas party bookings . Not surprising , it ’ s too early for those bookings to show just yet and remember we ’ re only talking about January and February data . What can we conclude , when we remember we are just looking at bookings at this stage , not enquiries ? Bookings are the sanity numbers we all need ( for cash ), not the vanity numbers , which are the enquiries .
Meetings are being booked but small and low cost . Conferences are picking up with a focus on the back end of 2021 and early 2022 . Banqueting is slow , parties are pretty much non-existent and other events are spread thinly and evenly across weddings , filming , exhibitions and receptions .
Now when one summarises it like that there is a certain logic to it : why book a wedding now when in a few months the restrictions will lift , and you will be able to have the wedding of your dreams after all ( if you can get a date )? No one can quite see a big banquet going ahead just yet , so the corporates are probably holding off for a while yet .
Meetings and conferences need to go ahead to keep the wheels of industry turning and they can be flexed around Covid restrictions , so
Above : Peter Heath , founder , Venue Performance
they are getting traction , and the summer and Christmas party bookings seem just a little bit premature to book in January and February .
The real challenge for venues , of course , is going to be making those decisions about when to bring back sales staff . If we believe all the hype , we have been reading recently then the level of enquiries is off the scale compared to the last year and that is very exciting news indeed . But let ’ s still be careful that we don ’ t get above ourselves because if all goes to plan , we still won ’ t be opening for another 13 weeks ( at the time of writing ). Bearing in mind that ’ s three months away , the key decision for most venues will be when to cut the furlough scheme short and ‘ go for it ’? If you bring back staff too early , you lose the furlough , but if you bring them back too late then you might miss a wave or two or three . So , when we talk about enquiries being vanity and bookings being sanity it really is going to be a balancing act over the next few months , while we wait for the deposits to roll in .
It has never been more important to watch the data . The events industry ’ s reopening should be driven by data , not dates . Where have we heard that before ?
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