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for the events space , that money is not being viewed as event revenue , but rather just making it look as if lots of people are staying at hotels . The same is true of sporting venues such as stadiums , which use event revenue as a secondary stream .
Venues which exist solely to service events are a mixed bag with how they are registered , only two on my list are related to the events industry . Some I couldn ’ t even find .
Then there are those on the supply-side of the industry , such as those providing event technology , exhibition stand building , signage and so on . Catering , mercifully , does have its very own SIC code , although one of the country ’ s largest contractors doesn ’ t actually use it , opting instead for ‘ 74990 - Non-trading company ’. Yes , I triple checked .
Many event technology firms are registered as ‘ 63990 - Other information service activities not elsewhere classified ’ and one furniture hire company uses ‘ 93290 - Other amusement and recreation activities not elsewhere classified ’. One major supplier of event services isn ’ t registered as a UK company and therefore its ( presumed ) mammoth contributions aren ’ t registered in a way that would strengthen our case .
Event organiser businesses are the group which consistently uses the assigned SIC codes , perhaps unsurprisingly . There are few unusual ones , such as one organsier of note registering themselves as ‘ 64209 - Activities of other holding companies not elsewhere classified ’. Ideally , what we
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want is for every business operating in the event supply chain to register themselves as an events business on the available codes in the short term , but it is understandable that some may want to do the opposite .
God forbid anything like this were to happen again , but people are going to look back at what businesses the Government decided to save during Covid-19 . Why would they willingly assign themselves to a sector that has barely been acknowledged ? Unless we all re-register using the available codes to show the strength of our sector , I can ’ t see that changing .
Of course , unless the SIC codes are revised ( and I can tell you that the Business Visits and Events Partnership ( BVEP ) is already working on this ), then we will never be recognised as the industry we know we truly are .
The decision-makers will not pay attention to us when we tell them the events industry as a whole is ( or was ) worth £ 84bn to the UK economy each year . They are only interested in what the audited accounts on Companies House tells them , and right now , we are telling them we don ’ t exist .
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55100 |
64209 |
SIC codes
68209
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