UK Events

Welcome to our Spring Briefing from The Business of Events.

It has been a busy winter and we are excited to share our Plan of Activity for 2024-2025. The full calendar and plan can be viewed via the link below.

2024 is set to be an election year in the UK and there are of course question marks over when the general election will be. It is widely tipped to be in the autumn, most likely November, but we cannot rule out the chances of a Spring election either.

Of course we cannot just sit around and wait, so we have approached 2024 with a mindset of agility and flexibility and decided to move our flagship Policy Forum to February 2025. An election year is also an opportunity increase our engagement across parts of the political spectrum, and as you will see we are planning on running more regionalised events this year, as well as increasing connections between planners and our partners.

We are very much at a time when we need to be highlighting the opportunities that our sector offers for growth. As such, we are looking forward to sharing details of our Policy Agenda very shortly.

Elsewhere we have released our Events Economy Tracker for Q4 which also gives us some average figures for 2023 as a whole in the conference and meetings industry across the UK. The report is available to download for free and you can access that below. One thing is certain: the demand for in-person events is greater than ever, but it is putting immense pressure on businesses in the sector.

We are working to schedule the next meeting with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Events over the coming months, and we look forward to sharing more information about that shortly.

Finally, we are looking forward to announcing our first partners for 2024-2025 over the next few weeks. We cannot undertake our work without the support of the industry and we are grateful to those who have already signed up for next year. A new package for this year is our Industry Sentiment Roundtables, which will offer the chance to hear from industry stakeholders and then share this sentiment with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Events.

If you would like to enquire about hosting one of these roundtable sessions, please download the Partner Prospectus below.

I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Events

This year, TBOE will undertake an expanded calendar of activity to reflect a critical time for the events economy and engaging with more politicians, policy makers, stakeholders and planners than ever before. 

Reports

In Q4 2023, the conference and meetings industry continued its upward trajectory, culminating in the highest number of events held in November, according to the latest Events Economy Tracker Report by The Business of Events, which uses data by Venue Performance.

News

The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget for 2024 carries the hallmarks of an election year, yet it falls short in providing significant benefits for the events industry. With the next general election looming in November, it’s crucial to seize this moment to advocate for the sector to a new generation of MPs. 

Opinion

By Michael Hirst OBE, Chair, UKEVENTS Working Group for Advocacy and Government Relations

Ahead of the Spring Budget on the 6th March 2024, it is important that UKEVENTS lays out its recommendations to His Majesty’s Government on what the events industry can offer the United Kingdom. While the sector continues to underpin so much in terms of cultural vitality, societal advancement and trade, there is much more it can offer the Government in terms of supporting its own policy agenda.

Partnership update

The Business of Events is able to deliver its programme of activities thanks to the generous support of its strategic and commercial partners.

These activities provide the perfect opportunity to promote your organisation as a brand leader, share a platform with sector leaders, government and influencers, help shape content and deliver key messages to industry and policy makers.

We have a range of cost-effective partnership opportunities available for our 2024 programme.

More news

Our partners

In partnership with

To find out more about our content partners, or for more information for prospective partners, head to The Business of Events website where you'll also discover more about our events, our work with the APPG for events, our Advisory Council, and how to get in touch.