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and beverage, training, and personal
hygiene.
Overall, attendee sentiment will
drive the recovery of events and it is
vital that venues, organisers and all
stakeholders work jointly to provide
event attendees with the right
information and environments that
will in turn rebuild the necessary
confidence to the industry.
Big Interview
Larger events are penned to return
from 1 October (conditionally):
what trends are you seeing with
regards to conferences; is Q4 too
soon, are most now looking at
2021?
Our customers overwhelmingly want
to be running events to drive and
help the recovery of their businesses
and where there is a defined,
immediate need (for example exams,
statutory training and film shoots) we
are seeing event confirmations for
Q4 and into Q1 of 2021.
Recent research from trade
associations such as ICCA and PCMA
is showing that how quickly events
resume is driven by industry sectors.
It is clear that the corporate market
will be cautious for the remainder of
2020, however if the Covid-19
situation remains stable, the pent-up
demand we are seeing points to a
slow first quarter in 2021 but with
rising confidence as the year
progresses. We will balance the
lower corporate demand with other
business and also share the
successes of that other business
with our corporate customers as a
showcase of how we are able to run
safe, responsible events in the
present circumstances.
Undoubtedly, the discussions for
2021 revolve around risk mitigation
and a trend towards a hybrid event
format, allowing organisers to plan
for a mixed element of face-to-face
and digital event experiences. This
trend is really seeing an exponential
advancement of how the most
forward-thinking event organisers
were already operating whereby
digital and online content supported
the face-to-face event and drove
future attendance. The change now
is that the mixed format is
Above: CentrEd
at ExCeL
embedding digital into the overall
experience rather than simply to
promote future face-to-face activity.
As far as the international congress
circuit is concerned, how has this
been impacted? Have association
congresses booked in had to
change, I guess this is dependent
on travel restrictions?
Understandably, all of our affected
associations have needed to
postpone their planned 2020 event
and most have decided on hosting a
virtual congress to maintain their
members’ need for educational
content. We have seen this impact
mirrored across Europe and beyond.
There is still a big desire to host
their events in London and each one
has rescheduled, or is finalising new
dates, for a year in the future. In most
cases, rotation patterns mean that
2021 and often years beyond that
are already committed and so we are
re-booking clients into the earliest
available year.
With Brexit back on the agenda, do
you feel it has never been more
vital for the Government to
recognise the economic power of
events? We know the tourism
minister reads Conference News,
how would you articulate the
importance of events to the UK
economy?
I would start by saying that I think the
role of our industry has never been
more important. The UK events
industry is one of Britain’s biggest
success stories, the sixth largest in
the UK and now contributing £70bn
annually in economic benefit,
supporting over 700,000 jobs across
25,000 businesses.
In the last few months, we have
redoubled our efforts to raise
awareness of the power of our
industry and there can be no doubt
that events, from every sector, will be
crucial in driving the economic
growth and societal change that will
be needed for economic recovery.
The events hosted in the UK are a
huge catalyst for trade and a key
driver of the visitor economy. They
create billions of pounds worth of
import and export activity and
actively support the Government’s
Industrial Strategy. Without them,
other sectors such as travel,
transport, hospitality, catering, and
entertainment will be significantly
impacted and in a post-Brexit world it
is vital that government is supportive
of an open legislative approach
which encourages and harnesses
the power of what the event industry
can generate.
We cannot wait to get back to
doing what we as an industry do
best: driving billions of pounds of
import and export activity, resulting
in investment, jobs, and economic
growth.
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