As an industry , we have less ability to dictate to freelancers what they should be charging because we don ’ t commit to them and post Covid-19 that has flipped into their favour . Highly specialist event freelancers are now unable to undertake all the work at their feet so it is a case of who they want to work for , who pays in good time , who commits earliest , when they will make decisions on requirements and how much they pay . This has resulted in a call for one specialism being put out on an eye watering rate of £ 2,000 for a shift – that was , I believe , a one off , however it shows the extreme volatility of the market .
In the pandemic , we had a beautiful opportunity , where we were going to work stronger together and listen to each other . Most contractors will say that that has not followed through into reality .
How will protect duty affect the industry ? Ultimately protect duty will come down
to the fact that we can ’ t continue going down zero commitment , zero contracts and pay as little as possible for people to guard premises from potential terror attack or any other kind of security issue . There will be more accountability for those decisions .
Some organisers are currently not paying their security companies the amount that would enable them to pay national living wage . That hourly rate needs to cover things like their uniforms , their training , insurance , welfare . When you start breaking down , there ’ s not much profit in there at all . It is not enough to accept pricing without the knowledge of what that means . ESG needs to mean something .
I think the overall message is , there are no longer the kind of margins that the contracting community once had and it is in things like this that the knock-on is really starting to show .
As an industry , we need to be better . Until then , we are relying on the people in our industry who have pride in what they do , to underpin the delivery because they love the job . We can ’ t rely on that , it ’ s not sustainable . It ’ s not morally correct either .
How is the Ops Foundation helping those at the front line of dealing with the issues ? The course is about taking input from lots of people – organisers , venues and contractors - to help opsprofs fully understand their role , the essential position they hold in managing their supply chain and venue relationships and output .
Our understanding of each of the inputs into our events must be strong as we can make some catastrophic decisions for suppliers without understanding consequences .
I have always valued collaboration throughout my career , working for lots of different organisers and seeing lots of different procurement practices .
Within the Ops Nest generally , and more specifically via Ops Foundation , it has been so beneficial to get that training across to people who can really affect change .
Ops are the only group of people who fully interface venues , supply chain and organisers . They are the kingpins in our industry relationships . EN
October — 13