The Event Production Show opened on 26th May at the Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre. It saw senior event professionals welcome the opportunity to meet face-to-face, for the first time in 14 months, to discuss challenges for the sector on the road to reopening.
Talks and panels focused on: sustainability, supply chain, diversity, creativity, crowd control, the challenges for independent festivals, and spectator safety at sporting events.
One panel focused on the return of events and resilience of the industry: ‘Building Back Better – A New Future For Live Events.’ Phil Bowdery (Live Nation Executive President) said: “It’s been a long 15 months and it’s obviously done a lot of damage but we’re very resilient and we’ll bounce back, no question. The love of music and people going out – they want to see events and we want to put them on.”
Attendees also heard from festival executives, who revealed how they are adapting to the current circumstances by running reduced capacity versions of their events. Mair Morel (Boomtown) spoke about Boom Village set to go ahead 12th-15th August 2021 targeted at the local community, Chris Johnson (Shambala Festival) spoke about Baby Sham, and Matthew Phillip (Nottinghill Carnival) spoke about the steps that his team are taking to make the carnival safe if it is able to go ahead.
Another key panel focused on ‘Sustainability Matters – Sowing The Seeds For A New Beginning’. Chris Johnson (co-founder and sustainability lead, Shambala Festival) said that sustainability measures should be “threaded into what we do, like health and safety – we have to take it seriously and budget for it”. Claire O’Neill (A Greener Festival co-founder and director) emphasised that it was important to remain positive about the benefits of taking measures to reduce the environmental impact of events. She also commented: “I am hearing from MEPs and EU officials that unless your event is sustainable within the next 10 years, you will not have an event.”
Source: Exhibition News
Image Source: Exhibition News
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