Tuesday 11th August 9pm: Andover based Symbiosis UK Ltd joined over 700 companies & event locations – from the Albert Hall to the Blackpool Tower – across the UK that lit up their buildings in RED to highlight the dramatic situation facing the live events industry.
The #LightItInRed campaign aims to draw attention to the dire straits the events & exhibitions industry, & its entire supply chain is facing; the sector includes exhibition design & build, manufacturers, audio, lighting & video specialists, logistics, transportation, rigging & many more.
Event Industry Plight
The industry is now issuing a ‘Red Alert’ with many organisations, businesses & live events staff coming together to shed light on a sector worth over £70 Billion & employing over half a million that is set to collapse, unless the government provides the right support.
Redundancies have already started with research indicating 10% of companies losing staff in July, with an additional 15% in August, & 70% plan to make redundancies by end of 2020 with a fifth expecting to lose 70% of staff.
The UK is regarded as a global leader in delivering large, complex events and exhibitions without financial support from the government, the sector is at risk of closing for good & potentially losing over £100Bn contribution to the UK GDP to European & US production companies, some of whom are receiving government support. Over a million estimated members of staff, freelancers and businesses will experience unachievable loan repayments, loss of furlough payments, and bailout funding will go directly to venues instead of the staff.
Peter Heath, CEO of leading trade body PLASA, comments: “The live events industry supply chain that contributes to every single event in the UK is set to completely collapse, social distancing prohibits mass events, and even if this stopped now, long- term planning for events won’t enable a return until around March 2021. Now the whole industry is coming together to initiate a Red Alert. We have been campaigning for financial support from the government using #WeMakeEvents because the sector is on its last legs.”
Nigel Targett, MD of Symbiosis, Andover based exhibitions design & build business and a key supplier to the events industry, adds: “As the first industry to stop working back in early March, we will also be the last to get our businesses working again. Without an ongoing sector specific furlough scheme which other European countries have introduced, we cannot secure the long-term future of the UK’s leading, internationally respected and commercially contributing events & exhibitions industry.”
After 17 years of building their Andover-based business Symbiosis to a multi-million pound turnover, Nigel & his co-founder Vanessa Okell have had to apply for the maximum CIBL & to let valued staff go because the company’s work dried up overnight due to Covid19. While the DCMS has given the exhibitions industry an official restart date of 1 October many trade shows are being cancelled or postponed into 2021. With very little government support outside of the furlough scheme business like Symbiosis are facing a very uncertain future.
#WeMakeEvents & #LightItInRed worked together once again to co-ordinate buildings across the UK switching to red along with many other events taking place on the same day.
For more information
Please contact: vanessa@symbiosis.co.uk or call Nigel on 07977 466 739.
