We’re back for the second instalment of the Events Industry Bulletin. Hold onto your hats because it’s a good one!
The positive news has continued over the last few weeks, with the UK becoming the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, and large business events returning in Tiers 1 & 2 in the UK 👍🏻
But first, let’s kick-of with a celebration of everything and everyone that makes up the events industry.
#WeCreateExperiences Campaign Launches
Yesterday, 7th December, the #WeCreateExperiences campaign launched to promote the UK’s £84bn events and experiences industry, which employs more than 1.5m people, many of who haven’t been unable to work since March.
The star-studded campaign video aims to raise awareness of the power of business events to educate, inspire, and contribute to the economy.
The campaign is backed by One Industry One Voice, a coalition of events industry associations and businesses, representing thousands of agencies, promoters, organisers, venues, suppliers and freelance communities, that HeadBox proudly supports.
Business events are back!
[Disclaimer] We’re pretty excited about this… 🙊
After a very challenging year for the events industry, Boris Johnson announced that In Tiers one and two, spectator sports and large business events can resume indoors and outside with capacity limits and social distancing in place.
In Tier 1 events are permitted at 50% capacity or 4,000 outdoors and 1,000 indoors, whichever is lower and in Tier 2 events are permitted at 50% capacity or 2,000 outdoors and 1,000 indoors, whichever is lower.
Venues hosting business meetings and other such events will need to follow the Meeting Industry Association’s Government-approved guidance, while larger events will need to comply to the AEO, AEV, and ESSA’s All Secure Standard.
Pfizer vaccine to be rolled out from Tuesday 8th December
Following the news that the UK was the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, it has been confirmed that it will start being rolled out from today and has been described as the “beginning of the end” of the epidemic in the UK by Prof Stephen Powis.
Although the vaccine will take a number of months to be rolled out, it provides some confidence that we are back on the road to normality once again. It should also be a boost to the events industry, allowing planning and booking an event roadmap for 2021 to resume, whether it’s virtual, live or hybrid.
Quarantine exemption proposal for three-day business trips
The World & Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has welcomed a recommendation for those making international business trips of up to 72 hours to be exempt from quarantine rules.
The recommendation has been made by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and is now under review and study by the UK Government.
The guidelines proposed by EASA and ECDC considered the reduced likelihood of the infection for those travelling for short periods and where contact with the local population is limited.
The exemption would be a very positive step for many sectors, including events, tourism, hospitality and aviation that all rely heavily on business travel. Keep your fingers crossed 🤞🏻
State of the Events Industry
Last week we hosted our latest HeadBox Connect virtual panel. HeadBox COO, Charlie Marr was joined by Jane Longhurst, CEO of the MIA, Claire Wormsley, Director of the Global Conference Network and HeadBox CEO, Andrew Needham, to discuss the ‘State of the Events Industry’.
The panel explored the challenges the events industry has faced (and continues to face), the migration to virtual, and what we can expect events to look like during the Covid-19 Winter Plan and beyond.
So, that’s all for this edition of the HeadBox Events Industry News Bulletin, stay tuned for more updates, insight and comment in two weeks time! In the meantime, if you’re planning an event we can help. Simply send us your enquiry here.
