Business Visits & Events Partnership – BVEP – Testing Times

TESTING TIMES

Tempting as it is to simply slam the door on 2020, demand a re-boot and try to struggle on into 2021, everyone working in the UK event industry knows that we are facing a massive and fundamental change to the way that we work and live our lives. We are now helpless spectators in a dreadful race between vaccination and mutation, as the variant strain of Coronavirus identified at the close of this truly dreadful year locked down vast swathes of the country and ripped up Christmas plans across the land. What a shambles.

Yet because we are an industry teeming with creative problem solvers there are already some indications of where we need to focus our energies and passion in order to re-build and re-connect the shattered UK event industry. These include sustaining the industry over the next 6 months, building confidence by ensuring we come up with deliverable solutions on issues such as rapid testing, getting both LAs and PHE (or SAGE) onside and developing insurance solutions that provide effective cover for a wide range of events.

There is also the longer term impact of Covid 19 on the mental health and well being of so many people that have seen their livelihoods destroyed through no fault of their own. The help and support that the government have provided on an unheard of scale to try and support as many businesses as possible is of course very welcome – but particularly in the event industry there have been many examples of that help not being available in time to save jobs and sustain well established and experienced event businesses.

We are already seeing evidence of contractors and suppliers that have ceased trading and the loss of specialist suppliers to the industry is one of the factors that we will need to take into account as we re-group to move forward. One Industry One Voice (OIOV), the coalition of events industry campaigns, associations and businesses that have come together to ensure strong alignment and more effective communication in fighting for awareness and financial support for the whole industry provides an invaluable resource for the

future – the trick will be sustaining it as work starts to percolate back over the next 6 months.

It has been humbling to see the support and solidarity being provided from people across the UK event industry – but the voluntary donation of their time and expertise will hit the demands of getting back to business sooner rather than later, so the on-going role of OIOV and the many associations involved in supporting and championing our world will need to be debated and agreed so that the future tactical and strategic needs of our industry are met. Maintaining dialogue with government will of course be critical and the benefits of having a single voice made loud by the crowd behind it has been an important feature which I personally think needs to be sustained in some form or other. 2021 will be a challenging year – but working together I’m confident that we can meet that challenge.

Simon Hughes, Chair BVEP