Opinion
Resilient, but fragile in places
ESSA director Andrew Harrison
gives his view on the state of
the event industry
T
he trouble with writing a column in
the teeth of a fast-moving national
and international emergency, is that
by the time this is published a month
from now, the situation is likely to have
changed greatly. I am of course talking
about the COVID-19 pandemic that has,
in all probability, continued to dominate
many of our working lives since the
digital ink dried. We are in truly
uncharted waters in the events industry.
So, rather than try and make any
predictions - an activity for experts
only at this point - I’m thinking about
the event industry’s resilience (and
fragility) when faced with major
disruptions beyond their control.
We’ve faced crises and inimical
situations before. 10 years ago there
was the Eyjafjallajökull eruption on
Iceland in 2010 that brought air travel
in Europe to a standstill, and a year
before that the swine flu pandemic
swept the globe. Both events either
overlapped or followed a deep UK
and international recession. Over the
last decade, we’ve also faced sudden
changes to regulation and legislation
that have had the potential to upend
businesses within our sector. However,
it looks like COVID-19 is going to be an
even tougher challenge, to the events
industry in particular than some if
not all of the incidents I mentioned,
combined.
What factors confer resilience, or
fragility, on a business? You might think
that the primary consideration here
would be financial - and it’s true, a small
firm with a finely balanced cash flow is
more vulnerable to sudden disruption
than, perhaps, a larger business with
reserves and financial instruments at its
disposal. Smaller companies, however,
can be more agile, quicker to respond
to rapidly changing circumstances,
and more able to reverse direction, put
innovations to market and so on.
Fragility, on the other hand, can affect
the largest and most stable businesses
the most, and history is littered with
colossal brands that failed to see what
was coming or refused to respond to
events and developments.
Is the events industry fragile?
Collectively, less so. I believe it has
responded and reacted deftly to
disruption and threats over the years.
If proof were needed, the industry
now contributes a respectable
proportion of the country’s revenues,
provides thousands of quality jobs and
careers, and sustains a wide variety of
businesses across the whole country.
The current situation, at the time
of writing, poses a real risk to the
wellbeing of many event industry
businesses. We’ve already seen some
high profile event cancellations in
Europe and some in the UK, and one
European country has already placed
severe travel restrictions on all 60
million citizens as I write. In addition
to a lot of financial hardship, these
cancellations and travel restrictions are
bound to have a chilling effect on events
across the continent.
The majority of ESSA members, and
event companies as a whole, are SMEs
and micro-businesses by definition,
and the mass cancellation of events in
Europe and the early onset of events
cancelled in the UK will pose serious
financial challenges for them and their
extended supply chains.
Whilst hoping government support
will be forthcoming in the interim,
I believe that it is the duty of the
industry, as a whole, to support these
firms that face losing the most in this
crisis. At the point of writing, the spirit
of the industry has continued to shine
through and I have ended possibly
the most challenging three weeks of
my working life encouraged by many
positive stories of collaboration and
support
I know that, a month from today,
whatever situation the industry finds
itself in, we will be able to look back and
say that we continued to pull together,
in the same direction.
April — 63