Exhibition World Issue 4 — 2020 | Page 17

Big Interview team across the world to work from home. There was very little time to launch virtual events and we were at full capacity simply trying to find new tenancies and manage our customers’ expectations. Since then we have cancelled or postponed a further 23 events and co-locates. Rather than try to replace them with virtual platforms, we have taken our time to really understand what our communities would want from a digital solution and we feel that hybrid rather than fully virtual platforms are the future. In the meantime, we have helped support our communities with a programme of webinars which have been very well received. Which regions, where you have business, do you see coming back first? Speed of recovery in a specific territory is predominantly down to reduced infection rates. In China and Taiwan, where we run art and photography fairs, it is encouraging to hear how well they are recovering, albeit with mostly domestic shows. Parts of Asia have undoubtedly learned from the previous challenges of the likes of Avian Flu and SARS. However, as we have seen in Hong Kong this week – where we run another art fair – the situation can change quickly and controls can be re-imposed with little warning. Speed of recovery is also heavily dictated by government policy as well as their understanding of our industry. In the UK it has been frustrating trying to get a re-start date and I still don’t think the politicians really understand how events can be a catalyst to get economies going again and the value that they bring to destinations. Those countries whose governments have understood that we run ‘organised gatherings’ rather than ‘mass gatherings’ seem to have given an earlier ‘green light’. However, fundamentally a quick recovery is about building the confidence of our exhibitors and visitors and that is down to us all. It is also interesting to experience the different support schemes being offered. Asia is definitely more proactive and supportive, with Hong Kong offering free tenancies to help the recovery and cushion the risk for all tenancies in 2021. We have seen Informa Markets, among others, tap the financial markets to ease their cash balance. How has Montgomery handled the financials of the situation? As a private family business, we have had to rely on our own resources and conventional lines of credit. We have, however, taken advantage of all the government concessions such as the furlough scheme and we have also applied for a CBILS loan in case the recovery is delayed into the second quarter of next year or beyond. In addition, there have been savings, however these have been marginal in comparison to the loss of income. Which sectors that you are involved in do you expect to return first for tradeshows? A return for tradeshows is more about general confidence in a Above: Montgomery believes that hybrid rather than fully virtual platforms are the future market than about the sector served, although some industries have obviously boomed during this crisis and in theory will be happier to re-engage earlier. We have a full programme of events for 2021 starting the year with art fairs across Asia followed by food, drink and hospitality events in the UK, and a doors, windows and glass show which is benefitting from people’s desire to refurbish their houses rather than to move. After several months on Zoom and Microsoft Teams, I believe the desire to meet has never been stronger and we need to re-iterate to our customers with smaller budgets, the value of events over other forms of media. I fundamentally believe that our future should remain focussed around face to face and bringing people physically together. Even before this pandemic, we felt the need to really spend the time developing our data strategy and insight tools to ensure that we fully understand our communities needs and to subsequently ensure they get the best return on their investment. This strategy has only become more important with the impact of the pandemic. www.exhibitionworld.co.uk Issue 4 2020 17