State of the Industry 2010

The definitive guide to the UK events industry

As recovery dawns, are events fit for purpose?

By Yasmin Arrigo

Turn the clock back 12 months to the first quarter of 2009, and redundancies, budget cuts, stay-at-home policies and event cancellations were the talk of every event industry gathering as the global economic downturn shook this industry with force.

Indeed, 2009 was something of an annus horribilis for the industry, with agencies including THA winding down operations and 136 event professionals made redundant across the UK's top 50 agencies.

Yet, just one year on, agencies and clients are displaying cautious optimism, with some 16.7% of clients surveyed expecting the events share of their marketing budget to increase in 2010 and 72.3% of agencies predicting business to improve this year.

C&IT's annual State of the Industry report surveyed more than 50 of the top event management agencies in the UK and ranked them by event-based turnover (p25), and interviewed more than 50 corporates including event professionals from John Lewis, Schroders and Santander (p26) to forecast the health of the industry in 2010. And while it remains far too early to start forecasting clear recovery, across the pages of this report, there are signs of an upturn in the priority of events at major brands across the UK.

Google EMEA head of events Vishal Patel says: "Face-to-face events will never be replaced by virtual events because you can't get personal interaction via a TV screen. In many countries, although they have the technology, culture dictates that you do business on a personal level."

It is a view backed up by Sanofi Aventis head of congress and events Patrick Mahoney. "Rather than a significant reduction in the number of meetings, some have been cut from three days to two and, as our sales forces have decreased, so have delegate numbers," he says. "We are now looking at almost half the number of delegates we have had in previous years."

Yet while an air of optimism is welcome after a year defined by budget cuts, tricky supply-chain negotiations and job losses, overcoming the perception issues that dogged 2009 remains high on the agenda, with 51% of buyers naming perception and proving ROI as their main challenges (p29, p31).

And it is the clients and agencies able to provide clear frameworks for ROI measurement - either by financial or other metrics - that look set to reap the rewards. Line Up managing director Duncan Beale says: "As the recession continues, employee engagement and internal communications will become even more important. Certain sectors will continue to prioritise events because they can see a direct ROI."

Read more content from C&IT's State of the Industry Report:

Download the PDF table of the top 50 UK event agencies ranked by event-based turnover.

State of the Industry 2010: Clients feel the pinch

State of the Industry 2010: Is the industry shrinking?

State of the Industry 2010: Destinations - home or away?

State of the Industy 2010: Perception adds to the burden for events

State of the Industry 2010: The challenges of ROI