PLATF9RM Presents: Our Event Economy

The full impact of COVID-19 is yet to be understood in our event economy. So far Brighton Marathon Weekend, Brighton Festival, The Great Escape, Brighton Fringe, Brighton Pride and countless other events in independent venues across the city have all been cancelled or postponed.

 

We've brought together many of the great people who organise, create, run, supply and promote these events as well as those deeply affected by the crisis to explore a central theme: The short term support & long term prospects of our local event industry.

 

PLATF9RM is a community of businesses and entrepreneurs, who, along with many others have been affected by recent events. This is a public series of online events exploring the impact of COVID-19 on our economy and how we can work together to recover positively and build resilience for the future.

 

• Alex Murray Founder of One Inch Badge
• Andrew Comben CEO of Brighton Festival & Brighton Dome
• Donna Chisholm Assistant Director - Culture, Tourism & Sport, BHCC
• Ian Baird Brighton E.P.I.C
• Julian Caddy CEO of Brighton Fringe
• Nancy Platts Leader of Brighton and Hove City Council
• Peter Kyle Labour MP, Hove & Portslade
• Rory Bett CEO of MAMA Festivals & Director of The Great Escape
• Sarah Cole Director of Talent at AEI Group, Booker Land Beyond and Boundary Festivals
• Tom Naylor MD of Grounded Events & Brighton Marathon

Hosted by Steve Bustin & Anthony Prior

PLATF9RM Presents: Our Event Economy Part II

Conversation Starters

 

• What is being done now to reinforce Brighton & Hove's position as a go to destination for leading cultural events with huge knock-on benefits for the leisure and tourism economy?

• And, is there anything we can learn from other cities who are currently dealing with the same issues?

• Is May a weakness? Would our economy be better protected if the high profile events were planned to take place throughout Spring to Autumn?

• How will you future-proof your business now to be more resilient?

• How can we make sure any support that is offered also benefits the huge number of performers, freelancers & independent operators?

 

Q&A Summary

 

These answers were provided by contributors during the event, like we mentioned this is a work in progress and none of these answers are complete or final. We encourage you to watch the event video for any further guidance.

 

Support

 

Govt Support, notes from BHCC: The council has moved very quickly to distribute the money from govt esp to those who've been paying business rates, in terms of the £10k grant to anyone receiving business rates relief, and also for the £25k grant for those of a rateable value between £15k and £51k, particularly in the leisure and hospitality sectors. We've also frozen business rates in 2021 so organisations don't have money being taken by direct debit in April from the Council. And also aware that ACE will open grant for artists and organisations. We ask anyone who needs this to apply. The Council is only one of the partners in the city ACE is another and we want as much funds to be able to come into the city.

 

What networks, groups or places online can I connect to and exchange support and ideas over the coming weeks and months?

PLATF9RM, Wired Sussex, Brighton & Hove Chamber, SOL Design Collective, Brighton EPIC, Brighton & Hove County Council

 

What top skills and characters can we be acquiring and developing as events professionals, during this time, to prepare ourselves for when we emerge? Can we be using this as 'chrysalis' time almost, ready to emerge stronger/changed? And if so, what are the key areas for development potential that you see as priorities for our sector to invest time and energy in?

 

We need to build resilience into our supply chains. Small business directors and owners are looking at huge loss at incomes - 70/80% drop in income.

 

What we're looking at here are people who can build you a town in 10 days, we have people who are ready to move, and if we can make use of these people now, we'll be better prepared once the ban is lifted.

 

Upskilling: Event safety and event hygiene might be a good move!

 

For artists, now is the time to think about what platforms are available to them digitally to engage with their audiences, using this time to build momentum until lockdown is lifted and they can once again go back to shows. Stream where you can, host live events, use the all the social media platforms available to you.

 

Grassroots Organisations

 

Obviously there is a huge concern for the future of the grassroots venues and whether any will survive this and be able to open their doors again. What should we be doing now to prevent this, given that all of the staff have been furloughed and can't even look at rescheduling shows?

 

From the Panel: One outcome of this could be a design of a mechanism for this to trickle through. Brighton E.P.I.C is one outcome already from this. The concern is that there is limited access for a large number of individuals/organisations to national funding pots e.g. ACE funding. They are therefore reliant on firstly diversifying their businesses. One key thing to see is how the Council will be proportion the funding and whether or not there will be an ability to see what other funding pots they are accessing when making these decisions to ensure that the aforementioned group of people without access to any grant funding are allocated their fair share.

 

From the panel: Another option for organisations is finding out whether customers are willing to pay subs (small fees) for exchange of non-financial rewards. A bit like the principle of crowdfunding. As well as potential for pay-forward schemes.

 

From the Council: Prior to the pandemic the Council have been working on a Community Wealth Building Strategy whose sole purpose is on how to keep the wealth in the city and make sure it is distributed fairly. One idea from this is a Greater Brighton Bank, which is along the lines of a local investment bank, whose turnaround time is unsure at the moment. These ideas however are still very much in infancy but we could look at ways to accelerate those.

 

What about the funding for grassroots organisations and those that fall out of any category for support either from government funds or the ACE?

 

From the panel: The nature with government funding is that it doesn't recognise many of the artists/event organiser/venues. ACE funding also set aside 65-70% of their announced COVID19 funding to those that had previously been financed by ACE in the past year. Another smaller part from that was also put aside, however the prerequisite was that, to apply, you must be able to demonstrate you have previously/already put on work that has been publicly funded. This then means that all the freelancers, grassroots businesses are flying under the radar and missing out on any of this funding. All public funding bodies need to recognise that there are a huge cohort of individuals and businesses that they're missing out on.

 

The advice for event organisers/artists/independents is to join the CPA (Concert Promoters' Association) and the AIP (Association of Independent Promoters). Both associations are working hard to offer advice on funding pots to the aforementioned group of people that they would otherwise be unaware of or incapable of accessing. And for any musicians/performers, head to the PRS Foundation for funding options.

 

Independent arts/music venues should also get in touch with Music Venue Trust. They are offering grant support for independent venues.

Future of Events

 

Is there anything we can learn from other cities who are currently dealing with the same issues?

 

From the panel: Manchester, Edinburgh & Bristol already speaking about how to market the offer collectively i.e. are there any resources we can pull to stimulate the events business when we are in a position to restart. There's also conversations about aggregating content across digital platforms. The main learning here is that Brighton is a good partnership city - there's an interconnectedness around the whole creative ecology. It feels now more than ever we could be thinking about, to an extent, sacrificing our individual identities and thinking about the city's identity.

 

What might the ripple effects be in the months/years after lockdown? What can we do to reduce the negative effects and boost the positive opportunities? Postponing is cannibalising future revenue, future work for freelancers, future revenue for others in the supply chain. Should everyone move events to Autumn/2021, is there an issue here on cannibalising future revenue but is there also an issue of cannibalising each other's revenue if suddenly we have an over saturated period of events?

 

From the panel: The problem is everything will move further forward for events that would have been postponed so losing out on revenue from the original period. And yes, there is the worry of a number of events all happening at the same time meaning some organisations, for instance One Inch Badge, have had to postpone their events to the same day meaning they are in competition with themselves.

Resources

 

• Culture In Our City

• Music Venue Trust

• PRS Foundation

• AIP (Association of Independent Promoters)

• CPA (Concert Promoters' Association)

• Brighton E.P.I.C

• ACE (Arts Council England)

• PLATF9RM

• Wired Sussex

• Brighton & Hove Chamber

• SOL Design Collective

• Brighton EPIC

• Brighton & Hove County Council

• Independent Venue Week

 

 

PLATF9RM

 

PLATF9RM is a community of businesses and entrepreneurs, who, along with many others have been affected by recent events.