The event industry is the fastest growing industry in the world. The event and entertainment industry is going through tough and challenging times since the outbreak of the coronavirus.
The economic instability has build disruption in businesses across various sectors to see a huge downfall in their growth. The majorly affected are the event industry who are facing the worst period in their business due to the cancellation of events worldwide.
However, the daily wage workers and the small scale agencies are facing a brutal problem and need some relief from the event community as well as the government.
The events industry supports jobs, brings money to local economies, and boasts dozens of industries, including small scale to big scale. According to a survey, the event coordinator is listed under the top 5 most stressful jobs in the world. According to the US data, 98% of US federal employees say – In-person meetings, conference and events are important to advancing their agency’s mission.
The event industry also has a large impact on the entertainment industry, award functions, sports meets, concerts and many more. Moreover, as a matter of fact, we also know that the world is fighting with the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to which the event industry is shattered, and it is not going to rise up for a few more months.
Let us try and understand the impact that COVID-19 has had on this industry.
According to the report, in India alone, the sectors account for the employment of 60 million people of which 10 million were directly affected due to the crisis; which means – more than 8% of people are affected. In a recent survey done by EEMA (Events and Entertainment Management Association) INDIA; shared with GOI and Ernst & Young suggests that – the Indian events and exhibition sector is expected to take an INR 1 TN hit as almost all big scale events across categories have been postponed or cancelled because of the outbreak.
The categories which got affected under events industry are exhibitions, trade fairs, sports, entertainment, conferences, seminars, product launches tech meets and many more. The impact of the abolition of the events was extremely intense, and we do not predict a revival before the end of 2020, at the least. All the major events are already postponed for the year 2021.
Exhibitions and trade fairs alone account up to 60,000 events in leading 11 countries. These events observe a large gathering of buyers and sellers across and provide heavy business to the venues and companies.
These vendors will be the most affected amongst the sector due to the coronavirus lockdown since a major portion of their earnings is through sponsorships and exhibitor. Major Sports’ events like TOKYO OLYMPICS, DUBAI EXPO 2020, FOOTBALL LEAGUES and IPL have also cancelled.
These events are also organized to support tourism, hotels and regional businesses.
Government norms have restricted religious conferences, weddings, parties, festive gatherings and more. To even conduct a small gathering, now we have to go through multiple permissions and approvals, which will include lots of paperwork and responsibilities. Eventually, what is happening now will reflect on the event industry for six months or probably a year from now.
Some of the data collected according to a survey
- 63% companies around 107 companies suffered a revenue loss upto 1 CR.
- Around 53% of companies resulted in more than 90% of their business being cancelled due to COVID-19.
- Around 7-9 companies foresee a 60% – 80% retrenchment of their current workface.
- Around 35-40 companies foresee a 30% – 50% retrenchment of their current workface.
Around 100 companies will need to raise capital or debt from institutions, fundings or shareholders etc.
Steps which can be taken to alleviate the damages are video conferencing, webinars, and, digitization of physical events, virtual platforms and social media platforms. Plan an event which can be introduced and execute later when things get under control. More and more innovate virtual or digitization event ideas should be introduced.
In India Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) have urged the government to extend processes such as tax refunds, loan facilities for the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector and artistes to help reduce the negative impact on the livelihood of people involved in the entertainment and event space.
The event and entertainment industry is going through tough and challenging times since the outbreak of the coronavirus. The economic instability has build disruption in businesses across various sectors to see a huge downfall in their growth. The majorly affected is the event industry who are facing the worst period in their business due to the cancellation of events worldwide.
However, the daily wage workers and the small scale agencies are facing a brutal problem and need some relief from the event community as well as the government. We do not need food packages to support yourself, but the government can at least approve permissions for gathering of 200 people. By doing this, we can at least run our business and would be able to support all the local and small scale vendors.
