Friday 11th September 2020: by Simon Hughes, BVEP Chair - I’m not going to take up too much of your time with this update as words are failing me at the end of a roller coaster week of ups and downs. Since the announcement that introduced the Rule of Six was made by the PM, chaos has ruled in our industry. I don’t think I have ever heard so much genuine anger and frustration before, from right across the event business. Organisers thwarted and closed down by intransigent local authorities despite everything they have done to risk assess and meet Covid-19 secure standards. Venues that have staffed back up to help market Q4 now find that they are dealing with more cancellation calls from concerned clients that have got the rule of six message loud and clear – and bailed. Many of those teams will now finally get some certainty in this uncertain world. They will be made redundant.

This Thursday 25th June 2020, a petition calling for the UK government to provide economic assistance to businesses and staff employed by the UK events industry will finally be debated in the House of Commons. The BVEP encouraged all our partners to sign the petition and in the end 153,152 people from across the industry did so. So far, so good.

Author – Simon Hughes

“We have a simple message to all countries – test, test, test,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva. He described the pandemic as “the defining global health crisis of our time.” There is no doubt that we are all being tested – tested to the limits across the global event industry. In the UK however we are not all being tested for the virus (unless you are already ill or in hospital, a care home or prison). But from a business continuity point of view the test that we are being subjected to is unprecedented. Across every sector in our diverse industry, our trade associations are working flat out to provide advice, share best practice and information and support their members as best they can in a really fast moving and dynamic crisis.

By Nick de Bois, chair, Events Industry Board

(originally published on ConferenceNews)

The UK Events industry Board was formed in January 2016 as the government advisory board on the UK Events and Exhibitions sector. Its job is to: advise the Government on how to successfully implement their Business Visits and Events Strategy; look for ways to improve and promote the UK Events sector; and finally, to act as a sounding board and point of dialogue between Ministers and the industry.

By Simon Hughes, Vice Chair BVEP

I wonder what Humphrey Bogart would make of it all? The year started badly for the organisers of the Presidents Club Charity Dinner, when the FT published the results of their investigation into this 33 year old event. Past tense now though after the undercover reporters from the FT revealed details of how the 130 hostesses were treated – from the instructions about the clothes they should wear to the appalling behaviour they were subjected to by some of the guests. Groping, lewd comments and invites to bedrooms made the headlines. These in turn made some of the charities that benefitted from the money raised refuse to accept the donations.