5
TIMES ARE
CHANGING
or a couple of years now, I have often thought what
to write in this magazine when the Big Day comes
(the Big Day being Brexit). I have seen, as I am sure
you have too, countless articles in both print and
online about ‘what Brexit means for the UK’, and ‘what will
happen’. To be honest, most of it is rubbish: such things are
created by shoehorning in copy and paste quotes from
C-level executives and passing it off as intelligence.
We technically left the EU on 31 January and entered a
transition period, whereby everything is essentially the
same. There is now much muscle-flexing from both UK and
EU governments, as is part of the dance, before the ‘future
relationship’ talks start in March. We do not know what the
future relationship will look like, and comments offering
predictions should be taken with a pinch of salt: we must
stick to fact-based evidence.
So far, the only evidence of change pertinent to the
Editor’s Letter
events industry are the issues around language skills and
the government’s policies on immigration and wages. I was
lucky enough to sit in on the CEO Roundtable at
UKinbound’s recent AGM, and I urge you to read what is
being presented (p24).
Change is also occurring with how we book meetings, as
you will read in our cover story (p20). Meetingsbooker.com
has conducted research among its 137,000-strong
database and the results show evidence of increased
consumerisation of how we book meetings. Is the hotel
sector able to keep up with the rise in popularity of
co-working spaces?
Change can instil fear in some, and no doubt there may
be some bumps in 2020, but there’s nothing to say it
shouldn’t be embraced. The events industry is resilient, and
that’s something I don’t see changing. Just give the Brexit
‘predictions’ a wide berth.
Martin Fullard
Editor
Conference News
www.conference-news.co.uk