How Associate Events Can Help Your Venue Thrive Post Covid-19

The pandemic has undoubtedly caused a blow to the venues sector, and there is little optimism in the community surrounding how far this depth will continue to go. Venues, agencies and suppliers hope for more guidance around the operational aspects of reopening venues and hosting events this year, especially with many other parts of the world such as New Zealand already underway a full nation-wide Covid-19 recovery with large outdoor gatherings such as festivals and concerts already taking place.

Despite how well the industry has adapted through digital innovations to cope with the strain placed on the sector, it is not enough to fully replace our human need for real-life conversations, physical interactions and events bringing us together literally. With England still in a national lockdown, nearly one whole year after the first lockdown restrictions, venues have been shut during this entire time resulting in zero events, zero income and zero exposure. This means they have missed out on seasons of weddings, festivals, concerts, business conferences, award shows and many other large gatherings and commercial events which they rely on to keep their buildings open.

Over the coming weeks and months as we have a staggered approach to the end of lockdown, venues need to look at the way they operate in order to disrupt the market and future-proof themselves. No venue should go back to marketing, selling or operating themselves in the same way they did, because we are no longer living in the same old world!

Venues need to take advantage of the situation and create a new normal.

Venues want to make a big comeback this year, but they too need to be wary of how the population’s mindset has changed since the beginning of 2020, and focus on instilling and rebuilding confidence into event bookers, attendees and visitors, which will take some time. Associate Events has designed a unique opportunity, outlining the different avenues that venues can take to identify the ways that they can not only be brought back to life, but thrive through safe measures, considering the financial impacts Covid-19 has caused.

Last year, we highlighted the different ways venues can survive after the pandemic. But, we have taken this a step further to provide a productive service offering for the events industry, so that those who persevere can survive. We aim to work transparently and openly with the market to shake up the way that venues operate to ensure our great industry has the foundation to move forward more effectively in years to come. With our own tailored offering we are able to carefully review and customise the ways in which venues can cut fixed costs, in order to regain control and boost revenues once again.

This project is being led by our Director of Venues, Becci Thomson, who is extremely experienced in events and venue sales. Based in London, Becci has successfully launched a range of different events and venues early in her career at Prince Philip House, before moving to world-class entertainment arena, The O2. Her expertise then extended to CH&CO Catering as Head of Business Development for go ask eve, a one stop shop for venues, F&B, production and event management.

Becci has already hit the ground running since joining us six months ago. Her previous positions have gained her insight, industry knowledge and experience in taking a venue further, increasing their revenue and streamlining sales and operations. Becci’s background in venue sales has enabled Associate Events’ to understand unique venues and help change the way in which they operate whilst saving money, talent and experience. With some of the capital’s most prestigious venues already on-board, we are very excited to watch this venture take shape in 2021 and expand further than London. We welcome venues from all over the UK to get in touch to see how we can help you return to live events, when COVID-19 government restrictions allow.

It is being predicted that it could take up to 2-3 years until the number of events are anywhere near back to 2019 levels, but Associate Events aims to contribute in driving the successful return of live events through our cost-effective, innovative and results driven approach.

There is a new era and a huge opportunity ahead for us all, and we need to attack head-on, but with caution and consideration for all that was lost in 2020. Associate Events’ Covid-19 venue recovery plan process can help venues return with more power, insight and innovation than before.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how we can help your venue thrive, please get in touch with us by giving us a call on 0116 464 5995 or email hello@associate-events.com and let’s talk!