“Don't expect a smooth ride - it‘s going to be a bit of a roller coaster.”

Simon Hughes is chair of the Business Visits and Events Partnership. He has worked in creative industry management and production roles for more than 30 years, including 10 years as director of live events at COI, where he worked on high profile events for government.

When Covid hit, my own experience made me think that we could be in big trouble very quickly. I've had experience working on major government campaigns around things like foot and mouth and swine flu. I knew that we were very well prepared for a flu pandemic, but we were not prepared for any other kind of pandemic.

We saw early on how quickly some of our industry was able to adapt and change. I came across registration platforms going to track and trace systems, suppliers who immediately started to offer testing facilities. We’re creative problem solvers.

I think that collaboration is the foundation of lots of the positive stuff that we are seeing. New venues are collaborating with their clients in ways they haven't before. People are collaborating across the supply chain in ways they haven't before. They're now seeing that they’re working in the same ecosystem. I think that's a big plus.

Short term, there's massive pent up demand for experiences of all different types. I think there is confidence out there in the marketplace. There is definitely demand. If you move into the world of business events that demand might be shadowed slightly by concerns about corporate responsibility. Is it a good thing to put a lot of people together? Are we alright about travelling, what are the sustainability issues around that?

Sustainability is going to be a really big issue in the short term, medium term and the long term. Both from a business and commercial point of view but also in terms of climate change impact. We've got to get that right.

I think the fact that we've got a cabinet minister in charge of COP26 is significant. He will be really focused on how that event is going to be a major item on the agenda for quite a long time. I think that's a step forward.

Alok Sharma has been busy racking up air miles in his role as COP26 president. His defence is that nothing beats meeting people face to face. That's fantastic, and he’s absolutely right. We need to keep echoing that at every opportunity.

Nothing equals face to face if you want to get something done with commitment, real engagement, and you want support for major issues like climate change and the future of our planet. Meeting people face to face is the only way to build that engagement and that trust, to deal with really difficult issues and the difficult conversations which are going to have to be had.

There is a lot of confidence around late autumn and then the beginning of next year. I'm slightly worried about the medium term because again, none of us can really predict where this pandemic is going to go. In terms of new variants or new issues that we have to worry about, I think there is some concern.

There are a number of things that might hold us back, not least in which will be international travel. The level of international business travellers is still very very low and I think airlines privately, saying they think it's going to stay that low for a good couple of years. I suspect they're probably right, and that that's going to have a dampening effect.

This might be where the hybrid solution comes in. You have much more local events taking place, and you have outreach through hybrid to audiences that are not travelling. There will be without doubt organisations and businesses that have looked at their balance sheet over the last 18 months and gone, ‘Wow, we’ve saved a shedload of money’. Somebody in that organisation hopefully is making a very good argument about why it's so important to bring people together at the same time, in the same space.

I don't think we should expect a smooth ride - it‘s going to be a bit of a roller coaster. But the restrictions have been lifted and we are seeing demand come back, particularly on the consumer side. We're hearing more confidence coming into the marketplace on the corporate side too.

BVEP has done a report called The Shape of Events. It brings together the impacts in terms of what happened for business events over the last 18 months. We’re looking at September, October for corporate and business events. And sustainability and hybrid will be two of the big issues going forward.

There needs to be a systemic change in the way we engage with government. It's really interesting to see how different sectors deal with different bits of government, because they do treat all the different sectors pretty much in isolation.

Should we still be under the headline of tourism? Or are we wealth generators, globally positioning ourselves as going out there and being the best in the world? Is that tourism, or is that business? Or is that international trade? It's difficult – and it remains a systemic issue.

We have an issue with the civil service. Young, highly intelligent officials come along to the department and they spend two years learning about a particular sector of an industry. In year three they finally get it, they understand how it works. Then, finally, they get promoted and moved on to another department. And you have to start all over again.

That's just happened to us. A number of key officials who demonstrated their understanding of the events industry have been moved to help support the team delivering COP26. Because they need help. So now we've got these wonderful new people who are very engaged, very willing to learn, but we're starting all over again.

I’m excited about going to events, sharing those experiences again. Last weekend I was at a wedding. The couple actually got married last year and people attended online, and whoever set the camera managed to do it so you couldn’t see their heads.

A headless wedding shared on Zoom is ridiculous. So to actually meet up with lots of family and friends after 18 months of not seeing them, that experience was absolutely wonderful.