Martin Fullard, editorial director, Conference News, says progress was made under the last tourism minister, but now the industry must define itself.
Michelle Donelan MP has taken over as secretary of state for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), which even by name is a bit of a mouthful. Henceforth, we shall refer to her as the culture secretary, and she is the 11th MP to hold the role in as many years. She has a big remit, too, overseeing everything from music rights and arts galleries to the internet and the BBC.
Of course, buried deep within her Outlook is a folder most likely named ‘events industry’. Naturally, she can’t be on hand to go too far down that rabbit hole, so the job of looking after us falls to the tourism minister, a junior minister position within the DCMS.
Until very recently, this role was occupied by Nigel Huddleston MP, who I have had the pleasure of speaking with and interviewing on a few occasions during the pandemic. He was previously head of travel at Google which included some healthy crossover into the worlds of meetings and events and, truth be told, he seemed pretty capable in his ministerial position.
It’s a shame, then, that he has now been moved from this post to take up a new desk in the Whip’s office. Minister Huddleston did understand the frustrations and plight of the events industry during the pandemic – he did – but the reason why the sector got no support is an issue that runs far deeper.
“You [the industry] need data to prove your value,” he told me at the Meetings Industry Association’s annual conference in 2021 (or words to that effect). And he’s right, without data to back up our claims of £19bn value, we’re just shouting without context.
One thing that could go some way to fixing this is the SIC codes. These are maintained by the Office for National Statistics and, if you’ve been following, will know could be reviewed in time. On the premise that every event business in the land adopts these codes on their tax returns, it would give the government a clearer understanding of what the industry is all about.
Identifying our industry
Say that happens, then what? What do we want as an industry? This is a painful question because, at present, there is no answer. Conferences and meetings are part of a wider ‘business event’ mix. Add in experiential and brand events, incentive travel, exhibitions and trade shows and it begins to get a little cloudy, even overwhelming.
The industry must identify itself first. This can be done in part by using existing SIC codes, and it must then engage with trade bodies to establish what it wants.
How can we call for support without knowing what support we actually need? We made progress with Huddleston, and now we must start again with a new tourism minister. The right department? Probably not, especially if you’re an exhibitions organiser, but when we don’t even know who we are ourselves, what else should we expect?
Ask yourselves, where do you sit in the mix, and what do you need?
