The Business Visits & Events Partnership (BVEP) have said that with still no sign of a roadmap to reopening, event businesses, suppliers and event professionals, having faced nearly a year without trading and employment, are now on the brink of collapse from the lack of government support.

• Just Giving has gone live again (!)
• ACTION: Now the page is back up, please can those amazing people/organisations that have pledged pending contributions make them asap this week on the justgiving site please, as we are now engaged with the PR agency and if everyone does that we’ll be at over £50k - thank you! www.oneindustryonevoice.co.uk 
• Good progression generally from new supporters – sporting/hotel/expo/cultural - representation growing all the time across the different associations - for example: Advertising Association, IPM, PRCA, Elsevier, The Arena Group, Accor Group, CVENT, A Man About A Dog (main London festival/music event organiser) – great work TeamWasserman, Martin, Tim, Claire etc!
• Movement on high profilers - close to securing more music/Sporting individuals as well as looking at DJ’s, regional mayors etc.
• Claire + Anita to liaise on conversations with NSPCC and other charity CEOs.
• ACTION: If anyone knows of any large-scale charities CEO’s – please let us know?

PR update/Creative Group - Action Plan review

• Had second PR agency meeting, Friday 18th September reviewing key Action Plan and Messaging document
• Concern around not seeing anything in Q4- potentially seeing another 3-week national lockdown – how do we manage that around our campaign? Still have everything ready to go for first few weeks of October and then go live as appropriate from PR agency advice/national press vibe etc – ie looking forward to 2021 etc.
• Need to be clear on a core narrative – around safety but need to keep in mind messaging vs lockdown.
• ACTION: keen for general views on timing – we cannot be insensitive to where we are at nationally, public perception wise?
• Need to liaise with PHA for a strategy based on all the above – possible underlying message to say we are ready when we get the say so…

Action update from sub-groups:

Content

• A lot more content coming through. Anita has sent through the diff types of events to represent.
• ACTION: anything majorly missing – let us know?:
  o Conferences/Congresses
  o Global Leaderships Events
  o Motivational & Events
  o Training
  o Awards Dinners
  o Incentives
  o Exhibitions
  o Experiential activations
  o Brand Activations – sport/cultural
  o E-Sports
  o Public Ceremonies
  o Product Launches
  o Festivals
  o Concerts
  o Weddings/Social gatherings (private)
  o Charity events/fundraisers
• Rick to develop a story board with creative/video team collective

Communications

• Introductions with Tim and HBAA on more venues/hotels etc
• Hearing really bad things from the hotel sector around closing, restructuring etc.
• Gentry- needs a narrative for her influencer cousins to say something (Rick to send it over).

Launch/Press Event

• Under review with PR agency as deffo need to do it – but timing key – does it lead or conclude campaign - tbc

Social activation - website update

• Everyone needs to give a big push with this
• ACTION: please keep reaching out to networks – see banner attached if you want to use it with link to www.oneindustryonevpice.co.uk – some great work from associations done on this and coming up as well from Headbox and Delegate Wranglers across their dbases/networks recently.

Overriding content but please amend as appropriate:

One Industry One Voice - a truly cross-industry initiative that aims to raise funds for the first ever UK-wide events industry campaign #wecreateexperiences, aimed at the public and corporate buyers through the national media:

to reassure that we are the experts globally, especially in safety measures, as well as creative, digital and sustainability

to inspire by showcasing what we do, the lives our work touches and the genres of events we deliver

to educate our contribution to the economy in employment, GDP, exports, our eco-system inc young employment opps/range of jobs on offer.

The call to action is to:

ACTION 1: Go to www.oneindustryonevoice.co.uk click on just giving page and donate

ACTION 2: Spread the word to own networks

ACTION 3: Provide any creative content or high profile industry ambassadors.

Other campaign alignment - LTMP & WME

• Consistency and avoid confusion and stick to our mantra- nearly there .. wording has now been agreed (good news!) - www.oneindustryonevoice.co.uk website being updated with all 3 campaign overviews and then press release to go out likely Tuesday/Wednesday...
• Commissioning the BVP Research team to start collating all the stats/figures/data that everyone is using.
• Paul (Freelance Facebook community lead) facilitating cross campaign taskforce meetings: Reps from each campaign to ensure we are all aligned with messaging, who says what, who is campaigning on what aspect, to create consistency of messaging- one voice feel

If you've not had the chance to see it yet please see the link (https://www.ukhospitality.org.uk/page/UKHospitalityGuidanceforHospitality) for the guidance that currently includes the specific guidance developed by the MIA for conferences and meetings and a link to the eagerly awaited guidance from the AEO for exhibitions and trade shows, which is still in final review but we hope will be available early next week.

Great work from so many people - and that work continuing as we understand that a FAQ section is in development to help with the many anomalies that have been spotted so far. So very much a living document subject to revision and additions.

We are planning to set up a Partners update for the end of next week or start of week commencing 6th July - just checking availability with executive team now. We are also working on supporting a submission bring prepared for the Culture Secretary The Rt Hon Oliver Dowden CBE MP.
Officials have requested thoughts on a phased programme of re-opening and types of events that might feature in each phase. There was also a suggestion that some events still on the books might be run as pilot events.
Having consulted widely across all the different sectors, there is general agreement that some type of phasing might be a practical way of re-opening the event industry. There are indications that this is the kind of approach being developed in Scotland.
However all the guidance we have produced is based on establishing risk assessments for each individual event regardless of size, type, format or venue. So piloting events will not be acceptable to businesses that are desperate for a start date. We need to get going as soon as possible.
So more engagement with officials is required to support these efforts. However that is subject to getting a clear and concise answer to the following question:
Why is the events industry being legally prevented from returning to delivering the economic impact this country desperately needs to recover and renew?
I look forward to sharing the answer to this question as soon as I have it.
Simon Hughes

The BVEP has prepared a Covid 19 Partner & Media Briefing to summarise the actions taken by BVEP since the beginning of the pandemic, with a focus on the key activities carried out between November 2020 and January 2021. 

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The All Party Parliamentary Group for Events (APPG) and the Business Visits & Events Partnership (BVEP), have today submitted a series of recommendations to the Covid Recovery Commission.