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The London Conference & Meetings Industry Update from a conference & meeting venues point of view !

Our Industry has been on an enthralling adventure over the past few decades but WOW  that adventure turned into one hell of a tornado in March 2020 and the damage has been, to quote a politicians favourite new word,  “Unprecedented”….but then who can believe Any politicians nowadays??

Before.

Over 3 months ago the transport sector were warning the government about driver shortages, our wonderful transport secretary said, as did our PM,  no no everything is under control we in Britain are wonderful and have no issues! Likely story, but what do we now find?  Petrol stations are closed or have huge queues, food shortages and worst of all Wine shortages, DISASTER! We are back to the ‘70’s when queues were common for everything but now in 2021 again we are looking at shortcomings and  all because of shortages of drivers and the complete BS from those that supposedly run the country, how can you possibly trust a politician???

I digress, but to get back to our sector in Events and with a steady increase from the 1990’s the industry contributed over £42 billion to the UK economy in the pre Covid era, compare that to the horticulture industry which brings in a mere £24 billion, we are no slim pickings and even though tumultuous times are upon us we will survive and get back to a good place with everyone’s help.

Cavendish Venues is a small but dynamic company with an incredibly smart group of people at its forefront and continues to see positivity through its amazingly loyal customer portfolio and long may that last, we will always be grateful to our clients who came back year after year, fantastic people.

At the beginning.

When we opened the current Cavendish Conference Centre near our neighbours the BBC, on the 10/09/2001, yes the day before 9/11,  little did we know the journey ahead of us but then again we opened our wonderful City Venue, America Square in October 2008 and then shortly after that another West End Venue, The Hallam Conference Centre in January 2009, smack bang in the middle of an economic downturn, so we know how to Survive those episodes but  if our journey was not challenging enough, throw Covid in on top of that and you really see the difference between the ‘men and the boys’ or should I say ‘ladies and girls’ or ……whatever…we need to learn to be more neutrally inclusive isn’t that the term nowadays and how would I know anyway, I’m just an old f…! The events sector has certainly changed since 9/11, we thought at that time the big new thing on offer was Video Conferencing and well that was going to change things but that did not materialise to the degree expected and now with Covid, everyone is Zooming here and Zooming there and streaming this and that and Hybriding everything, what’s that all about then??? A Hybrid to me is a ’combination of 2 different elements ’ so I guess we are not managing as yet to get everyone back into Cavendish Venues with ‘bums on seats’ but we are getting some and a lot of our clients  are viewing from home, streaming online! There is NO substitute to being back in a Conference Centre again with face-to-face meetings, Zoom etc is not the way forward but has been a ‘good fix’ for now! The Events Industry has only been able to grow to the £42++ billion a year contributory to the UK economy on the back of F2F events and the IN Venue experience, there is NO other permanent solution, we all need to get back to these experiences so we start once again giving so much back to the economic survival of this Great Nation!