Michael Begley, managing director of venuedirectory.com, a UK database of meeting and event venues, recorded a 32.5 per cent growth in enquiries.
"This is an encouraging sign of growing confidence among meeting and event bookers even though the industry still doesn’t have a date for reopening and events are likely to be operating under social distancing guidelines," Begley said.
Michael BegleyIn the between 6-12 July, venuesdirectory.com revealed it had experienced significant uptake in venue booking enquiries for live events.
“Most revealing is that around a third were for Q4 this year, about two thirds for 2021 and nearly all are for the UK,” Begley added.
“We are still somewhat below our normal levels of 4,000 enquiries per week, but these are green shoots of recovery for Meetings and Events, and once we have a date from the government, hopefully very soon, for all venues to reopen their conference rooms and exhibition halls, then I expect volumes to shoot up much further and faster.”
Recently, Begley also called for a united approach from venues to regrow the events industry.
“Safe events plans should not be an area of competition between venues; this is time for a united approach to restore attendee confidence,” he said.
In a bid to help restore attendee and planner confidence, venuesdirectory.com has been putting together its 'Safe Meetings' database which brings together the safe events information of more than 15,000 hotels, conference centres and venues of all types and makes it easy for event planners to find safe venues.
“During their discussions, my team have noticed a common view and purpose among everyone they speak to. They tell us – ‘we must all do everything to reassure everyone that can attend face-to-face events with confidence,’” said Begley.
“We want to act as a catalyst for recovery and to make it easy for meeting planners to source venues that are suitable and ready to receive meeting delegates.”
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
