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excited about the numbers . We can be optimistic about the upward curve though , that is a positive .
On booking trends ( lead time ), the good news is that most of these bookings are for 2021 , mostly falling into the last quarter ( unsurprisingly ) with November being the most popular month . This is really positive and shows the appetite businesses have to get back to holding these types of events .
Summer parties These numbers are a lot simpler to decipher . The numbers of bookings are up and there does seem to be the starting of some summer party activity but it ’ s such small volumes it ’ s difficult to get too excited about the numbers .
To go from 0 to 1 is a 100 % increase but still not enough to get the juices flowing . However , the indicator is positive , and the sentiment is there and there is movement so it ’ s definitely a case of ‘ watching this space ’. But has the great ‘ unlock ’ come a little too late for the fabulously exciting , fun and prosperous summer party this year ? I suspect so .
Christmas parties ( Fig 1 - left ) These numbers are , as expected , more encouraging than the summer party numbers , but they still come with a cautionary note . The bookings have gone from 0 to 2 , so impressive and there does seem to
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be a flurry of activity with parties , banquets and receptions around the Christmas period but again the numbers are still low .
I have more optimism for Christmas than I do for summer though , mainly because we are only reporting the first quarter ’ s numbers and there ’ s a lot of dates , and confidence-boosting months ahead of us all for the bonanza Christmas party season to be rescued . I don ’ t think anyone is expecting a season like 2019 but I sense we may all be surprised as to how badly companies want to spread the love , thank their staff and say goodbye to 2021 and we all know there is no better way of doing that than a good old fashioned staff Christmas party .
That ’ s the big three out of the way so what else does the data tell us ?
Banqueting Banqueting seems to have made a speedy return in March with an increase from pretty much zero bookings in January and February to a healthy 2.5 on average per venue in March . Again , big increase , but low volume . What is encouraging about banqueting is that there is a nice healthy spread of bookings from June through to next year . Maybe banqueting is the event type to watch , keeping the tills ringing while waiting for the big events to return ? Certainly , worth considering with regards to your sales and marketing focus .
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Bookings – all types , by booking date - Fig 2
Right : Peter Heath
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Meetings , weddings , filming , awards These event types make up the rest and are ticking along . Gentle uplifts in the charts but nothing too adventurous in the data to suggest any spikes that need specific attention . The surprising stat this month comes from banqueting , which was name-checked in last month ’ s Data Miners Vlog with Martin Fullard .
So , in summary , we can safely say that event bookings are starting to come back . It ’ s only one month ( March ) but the data is the evidence we need to give us the confidence and help make those critical decisions , like which staff to bring back from furlough , and when , as well as some venues trying to figure out when to re-open .
It might also be an idea to compare this data with your enquiry data as well as your search traffic data . Fingers crossed for the upward trend .
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