London Venues are ready to open their doors...
Wednesday 17 June 2020
It is clear from a recent webinar hosted by our Founder, Sam Gill, that London's leading venues are now ready to open their doors to events as soon as they are prermitted to do so. More importantly, results from a survey indicate that the vast majority of potential attendees are keen to attend!
In his latest London Launch Lounge 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 our colleagues at 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 it 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 drinks and an early dinner to follow.
and finally...
Please don't forget that our free venue finders at Venue Search London are ready, willing and able to assist you with navigating your way through what will be a tricky and challenging return to delivering impactful, memorable and safe events in our diverse and wonderful city! So please give us a call on 0207 870 9305 or start your free venue search now!
Free Webinar Download
You can view the 50 minute webinar "The Future of Venues" here.