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Black added : “ National and city convention bureaus also form an important layer in the UK event industry , being well connected with event suppliers and wider regional stakeholders such as academic and inward investment organisations .”
Room to grow
Whilst it is clear that UK & I have strengths along the lines of creativity and that the need is there to utilise the existing strengths to their fullest , where ’ s the pain points for the events community ?
Having now tentatively recovered from the pandemic and events return to something resembling 2019 levels , the attention now turns to what we can do to improve out offering to internationals .
Fullard talked about the fact that the industry is still feeling the impact of Brexit and how it impacts the talent acquisition and
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retention within events . He said : “ We ’ re certainly very culturally astute within our industry . I think that where our problem lies at the moment , you could perhaps to pin the tail on the Brexit donkey purely on the grounds that it has impacted the resource that we can employ is now harder to recruit across our hospitality settings .
“ Other organisations in our industry are struggling to find the right talent , we ’ ve always been open to workers coming in joining us from abroad , which has obviously taken a dive . While talent retention and recruitment is an issue worldwide , and it ’ s not solely down to Brexit , it ’ s certainly not good PR for the country to attract the right talent .”
For de Bois , it is more along the lines of leveraging local regions to their fullest capacity . He said : “ We need to recognise the breadth of knowledge and experience across the business community and the significant economic role and
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“ Having a ‘ seat at the table ’ with strong regional and national stakeholder relationships maximises the opportunities of hosting important business events , aligning with key sector policy goals .”
– Nick de Bois
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societal impact of hosting events . Having a ‘ seat at the table ’ with strong regional and national stakeholder relationships maximises the opportunities of hosting important business events , aligning with key sector policy goals .”
He continued by highlighting tracking how events impact local areas as well as how DMOs can contribute to demonstrating the impact of events on local communities . He said : “ Other areas to address include more robust and uniform data , to demonstrate the economic importance of business events and effective impact management strategies , working with stakeholders and clients to show the societal benefits .
“ We can however do more to improve our competitiveness , our welcome and to ramp up local and national advocacy to support in securing bids . A new empowered DMO structure would facilitate this .” CN
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