Adam Simpson, Director of Marketing, etc.venues
“Judging by the increase in contracts confirmed and bookings moving to contracts that we have seen in three days since the news of the lifting of the Plan B restrictions, many event planners are gaining greater confidence to run live events,” says Adam Simpson, Director of Marketing for etc.venues.
Contracts worth £1.6m were signed and in addition, business valued at £0.4m moved forward from enquiry to draft contract: £0.5m was for events taking place in Q1.
The number of enquiries was also up week-on-week, increasing by nearly 20 per cent.
“This is a great start to the year for our business and a terrific boost to the recovery of the industry. Many clients are relieved we did not have another national lockdown as it bodes well for the rest of the year and has encouraged them to plan for multiple events through to the end of 2022.” Adam Simpson continued.
“These are mostly for live only events and backs up our latest research which revealed that event planners are returning to live only events faster than expected.”
Research carried out by etc.venues at the end of last year showed that 28 per cent of respondents have already held live only events. This was 8 per cent higher than forecast in the July survey for a return to live only events in 2021. The recent research also suggested that a further 23 per cent will go back to live only events in 2022 but based on the recent increase in demand this could be closer to 60 per cent.
“This suggests 2022 will be the year of meeting up.” Adam Simpson concluded.
