It is clear from the recent London Launch Lounge webinar hosted by Sam Gill, that London’s leading venues are now ready to open their doors to events as soon as they are permitted to do so. More importantly, results from a survey indicate that the vast majority of potential attendees are keen to attend!
In our webinar “The Future of Venues“, Sam was joined by three directors from very different venue groups – ETC Venues, Tobacco Dock and Inception Group, which gave the 350 viewers in the virtual audience valuable current insights into their plans and thinking around delivering safe and engaging events this Autumn.
The key findings and outcomes from the Webinar (which you can view via the link below) were:
Attendee Sentiment
A survey of 181 event buyers in the last few days undertaken by The London Christmas Party Show, indicates that 81% of event buyers would currently choose to attend a live industry event this Autumn. This indicated clearly to us that the vast majority of people working in London companies are feeling OK about attending events (with the right controls in place of course).
Bio Security
All panellists were confident that they have plans now in place to operate safely, with special focus on access/egress, food service, toilets and of course, social distancing (to whatever the rules are at that time). They have all got new capacity charts and floorplans in place to deliver this safely and with confidence and are ready to adjust as regulations require it.
Pricing
There appears to be broad agreement that venues need to be flexible on their pricing, offering discounts and incentives to encourage event buyers to buy as early as possible and with the necessary Covid postponement clauses in place to reassure clients and get contracts signed for the Autumn. Sam Gill felt that the onus is on the venues to offer every encouragement possible to welcome these early bookings which will, in turn, deliver early evidence back to the buyer community that is safe and good to operate events.
Christmas 2020
All panellists agreed that it was still too early to understand what events might happen during the traditional London Christmas party season and that it would depend very much on what happens between now and September. It was felt that exclusive venue hires would be favoured and that some clients may change their formats to early starts and finishes without dancing, possibly to be replaced by a conference/internal awards, with a drinks and early dinner to follow.
Following the webinar, Sam Gill commented “Venues are ready to open safely, the attendees are happy to attend – so it is beholden on everyone in the event supply chain to make the return to live events in London as easy, cost-effective and reassuring as we can for the corporate buyers and their decision-makers.”
You can view the 50 minute webinar “The Future of Venues” here.
Author: Adam Parry
Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.
