Events industry suffers blow to confidence as lockdown forces cancellations

Event staff at Te Papa required to pack up a large dinner event as New Zealand enters lockdown [Photo supplied]

The business events industry is nervous for its future as events are cancelled or postponed due to the government’s COVID-19 response, adding further uncertainty to the industry, which has already been significantly impacted by the pandemic.

Lizz Santos, owner of event staging and decorating company Cut The Mustard, is “worried about where [the] industry is going to end up”.

Ms Santos had just finished setting up for a large conference dinner at Te Papa in Wellington when the lockdown was announced on Tuesday afternoon.

Initially, despite some guests’ nervousness, the organisers were keen to try press ahead with their dinner event. However, when the lockdown was announced later in the afternoon, the call was made to cancel, despite guests already starting to arrive.

“It’s the first time in 20 years that I’ve got as far as setting up for an event, only to have it cancelled before it takes place,” said Ms Santos.

“It’s a really sad situation, [the organisers] will be up for 100% of the costs, the food and everything, for an expensive event that never happened.”

Ms Santos believes the effect of the current lockdown will be felt in the industry long after restrictions end, as the risk of the future snap lockdowns make organisers uncertain their events can go ahead.

“We’re all sitting here hoping we can do these events, but no one knows if we actually can,” said Ms Santos, “People get very nervous about being able to deliver the events they’ve been planning, and so they pull the plug.”

Those organisers who are willing to postpone their events are also finding it difficult to do so.

Chief executive of Business Events Industry Aotearoa (BEIA) Lisa Hopkins points to issues, such as the availability of venues, means back up plans can be difficult to enact.

“Every time we’ve gone into a lockdown and people have tried to rebook there’s become a crunch situation with availability,” said Ms Hopkins, “that coupled with the fact that hotels that are normally used for business events are now being used for MIQ, it makes it hard work to get your plan B in place.” 

Ms Hopkins rates the government’s support to the events industry as a “B-”

She acknowledges that general business support, such as the wage subsidy, has helped keep event businesses afloat but believes the government hasn’t sufficiently engaged with the industry in order to provide targeted support.

“They haven’t recognised that our industry is very nuanced,” said Ms Hopkins, “we just can’t turn the lights on, day one, and automatically be up and operating in the way, say a café, might be able to do. Nor do the understand the repercussions of not having our industry operational and sustainable.”

“Before COVID hit, the Business Events sector was worth over $1.5 billion to New Zealand’s economy,” said Ms Hopkins, “so it’s a sizable sector in anyone’s terms.”

Ms Hopkins expects data will be available soon to show how badly the sector has been affected in business terms but knows that the industry is “certainly nowhere near where we were.”