Over the past few months, we’ve heard lots of talk from across the whole of the events industry about when events might be allowed to restart, and how they will look. We’re as guilty as everyone else in that respect because like every other company in the events industry, we’re all desperate to get back to doing what we all love doing – putting on great events for our clients. The one thing we haven’t heard a lot of is how other companies view the position we’re all in at the moment. We’ve not seen much talk from those clients who would normally be holding corporate conferences and events over the next few months. In some respects, part of the industry has managed to ride out the covid storm so far because in the corporate sector, not a great deal takes place between July and September, but by now all the project managers would normally be juggling large numbers of events to deliver before Christmas. We know that a number of events have gone virtual and that’s fine. We expect virtual to be a part of most events in the future, but it would be good to understand what the thinking is in corporations that would normally be bringing hundreds if not thousands of delegates together for their events. As an industry, we’ve adapted very quickly to what seem to be ever-changing guidelines and restrictions, but there is much more we can do if we understand what is required.
We now know that (as expected) the 1st October date for the re-starting of larger conferences and events has had to be postponed, but the good news is that events of up to 30 people can still take place where social distancing guidelines can be adhered to – providing that the rule of six is observed within those events. Yes, it’s very different to what we were used to, but in no way is it impossible to carry on holding events.