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Mike Kershaw
  - Joined on 10-30-2009
- London
- Posts 1
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Creating a Voice For the Industry One of the frustrations about working in an event business in this country over the past twenty years has been witnessing amazing growth in the industry as a whole whilst seeing very little recognition for that industry at a national level. This is a £20 billion a year industry, twice as valuable to the economy as farming, yet is there anyone in the Government fighting our cause or recognising the desperate position many companies are in as a result of the recession? I recognise that there is a problem with the fact that we are a fragmented industry encompassing many disciplines and that we have a number of trade bodies representing different areas, and it may be that it is impractical to genuinely create one voice for the whole industry (I know these bodies are trying), but perhaps there is something to learn from the publicity we have managed to get from the ‘Say Thank You At Christmas Campaign’. This was campaign focused on one issue, Christmas parties, it was funded through voluntary donations from a handful of companies with an interest in the market and one trade association (ISES). It cost £6000 – not the £20K that was reported. Yet in last week we have had significant coverage in The Sunday Times, The Mail on Sunday, The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Evening Standard, we have been covered on Radio 1, the issue discussed by Chris Evans on Radio 2, we have been interviewed on Radio 5 Live and the BBC Ten O’Clock news. When was the last time an event industry story made it onto National Television? I am not sure it has ever happened. I think the reason it made it that far was because we turned it into a business story about the impact on small businesses and crucially, because it was NOT fronted by an event industry body or company with a vested interest, it was fronted by a business lobbying organisation, The Forum of Private Business. This was not a story about event businesses, it was a story about small businesses, and this I think may be the route to getting publicity for our industry in the future. We are an industry made up of thousands of small businesses that just happen to be in events. Where we are different, and why we may attract more interest than other industries, is what we do is actually quite interesting, and quite fun, and most people understand an event. I think we may be onto something here and the FPB are keen to talk to the industry, I hope our trade bodies will give their Chief Exec, Phil Orford a call.
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