PRODUCT NEWS FEATURE
The UK’s £11bn exhibition industry is in danger of collapse
By ALAN JENKINS, managing director of Quadrant2Design
AS the number of COVID-19 infections fall, the UK Government’s focus is rightly shifting from tacking a purely public health crisis, towards saving the economy and jobs.
In practice, this means different things across industries. The Government are relaxing social distancing rules to save pubs and restaurants, while other sectors of the economy are gradually being allowed to reopen.
My business, Quadrant2Design, operates within the exhibition industry and has yet to receive clarity about reopening. Whilst waiting patiently, many of the individuals working in the events industry have lost
their jobs. Businesses have gone under. And venues lie dormant.
The UK’s exhibitions and events industry is, however, facing a bigger and potentially more catastrophic problem; our primary venues have been turned into unused Nightingale hospitals. With the rate of COVID-19 infections falling and these hospitals mothballed, the exhibitions industry is in urgent need of clarity about when and where venues might be able to open again.
None of this is to say the Nightingale hospitals should not have been created. At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the Government’s advisers warned there was
a real risk that infections would increase exponentially. If this had happened, current NHS hospitals and resources could have been overwhelmed; potentially leading to a large number of unnecessary deaths.
To take one example, the ExCel in London was converted into a Nightingale hospital in just 10 days. The hospital had plans to house 4,000 beds, but closed in mid-May having seen a handful of patients. Similar Nightingale hospitals opened in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Harrogate have likewise been mothballed as existing NHS capacity has more than dealt with COVID-19 cases.
Government doesn’t allow the mothballed Nightingale hospitals to be put back to use, the events and exhibitions industry will crumble. "
To be frank, if the 24
This is good news and demonstrates that COVID-19 has not reached anywhere near the catastrophic levels of infection that were predicted. While there are uncertainties about the potential for regional flare-ups, COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to fall.
With the virus in remission, the exhibitions industry is now right to ask for a timetable to return Nightingale hospitals to normal use. Without clarity on when exhibition facilities will open, event organisers and industry of support suppliers can’t work or plan ahead.
To be frank, if the Government doesn’t allow the mothballed Nightingale hospitals to be put back to use, the events and exhibitions industry will crumble. The economic impact
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35
