“2022 could be a really special year for the event sector.”

Michael Hirst is chairman of the UK government’s Events Industry Board and is immediate past chair of the Business Visits & Events Partnership, which he led for 21 years from its formation in 1999. He also serves on the Tourism Industry Council and in 2004 was appointed an OBE for his services to tourism in Britain.

I started in the 1960s, working for Forte when it was a restaurant and banqueting company. It had the Talk of the Town theatre restaurant in central London, which was London's first and only large scale Las Vegas style cabaret room.

We used to have artists like Shirley Bassey, Sammy Davis and Tom Jones. They were on stage with 40 dancers in Las Vegas style costumes and three orchestras and dinner for 100 people. You couldn't afford to do it anymore. That was where one of Judy Garland's last performances took place. She wasn’t well, I was actually the person who pulled her on stage.

My main claim to fame was as chairman and chief executive of Hilton International. We operated all of Hilton's hotels outside of the United States. I retired from that in 1995 and then got involved in the event sector. I was at a government meeting and Virginia Bottomley looked up and said, “We need to get business tourism into our strategy, who's going to do that?” I happened to be sitting opposite her and her eyes found my bowed head, and I got lumbered with it.

In 1997, the incoming Labour government thought this was a really good way forward. We formed the Business Tourism Partnership, which morphed into the Business Visits and Events Partnership later on, and I chaired that for 21 years. I think 21 years of bringing the industry together was probably a greater challenge than the pandemic!

The fact that we got the industry together in advance of the pandemic meant that we could react far faster, far more coherently and far more collaboratively. As an industry we have been able to talk on common issues with a lot of unity. That has facilitated some of the wins that we've had, although people would argue that the wins that we've had have been few and far between, if you compare it with other sectors of the economy.

When the pandemic struck, I recognised that we were as an industry going to be at the back of the queue. Our industry is about bringing large volumes of people together. And if we're being told by the scientists that that is the way in which infections spread amongst the population, it's clear that we're a sector that is going to be denied opportunities.

I was struck by the unfairness of it. For example, retail department stores, indoor markets, they were continuing to function. And we weren't able to function. As somebody representing the industry, I was shouting about why are we being left behind, but also understanding at the back of my mind, if I was sitting as a policy maker, I could understand why we were being left behind.

I think understanding where policy makers are coming from is an important part of fashioning your advocacy. Just being a blunt instrument saying, “We deserve better”, doesn't help, you have to actually say why you deserve better. And you have to back it up with evidence.

That was really a big challenge, because as an industry, we're very disparate. And we're very unused to collecting data in the way in which it needs to be presented to government. We really found it difficult to gather the necessary information as quickly as we wanted. We’ve become much better at that now.

Heads of trade associations have really emerged as not only responsible but responsive. When the government says, “Well, you justify that”, they've come back and justified it. Because this government only provides taxpayer support if you can validate your claim.

We have had to validate a lot of our claims by providing evidence, and we will continue to have to do that. And that's been through the trade associations. There are doubters and cynics in our industry have always questioned why there are so many trade associations. I think they should really pay tribute to the leaders of their associations. The only way of getting that consolidated support is to back the sector of which you are part.

Our ecosystem is one of the most complex within any of the sectors, whether it be manufacturing, or retail or engineering. We should recognise that it's not an easy industry. Trying to teach people who aren't in it to understand it, you need a university course.

Civil servants think we're like tourism, but we’re not. We have a buyer that briefs an agency, that briefs a destination management company, maybe that finds a venue that then goes out and has to find a caterer, that then goes out and has to find a coach company to bring the people to the place, that then has to find hotels to accommodate the people. The ecosystem is really quite dynamic. And unless you understand how the industry functions, you can't really properly look after it or support it.

It's not going back to how it was, there's going to be a lot of change. Clearly there's been a lot of pain and sacrifice in the sector, and we have lost some businesses. On the other hand, others have managed to find other ways of making money.

There's going to be a problem as we get back into full business activity. Some businesses will be focused on other areas of activity and may not be so fleet of foot to facilitate event needs. Also, we employ so many freelancers and self employed people, and many of them have gone off to earn their living in other areas and whether they'll come back or not is up for debate. That diversification is going to be a continuing factor.

There's nothing better than having an event in the UK that shines the spotlight on the country. It’s our soft power. When you look at the G7, or COP26, those are very strong advocacies for Britain on the global stage.

Next year, we have the Commonwealth Games and the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. And we have a real biggie called the Festival UK* 2022, which is following on from the Festival of Britain in 1951, and the Great Exhibition of 1851. That's going to happen all over the country. So 2022 could be a really special year for the event sector. And we will be very close to the government as we do that.

There's a job to get the government together on events. One of the things I'd love to see before my term looking after the event sector is up, is creating a real body, Events UK, which would be like the Arts Council, like UK Sport, and be responsible for the strategic growth and delivery of a vibrant and exciting and successful event sector in the United Kingdom.

In the last 23 years it's been a privilege to have helped the industry get to where it is. I only hope I can find the energy and the strength to get it back to where it was.