Market Gaps

Picking the Right Venue

You’ll need to choose a venue that fits your budget, has the necessary amenities, and is available
at the times you need it. This can feel overwhelming when there are many different
options to consider. 

1. The events sector is worth £42.3 billion to the UK economy in terms of direct
spending by event delegates, attendees, and organisers, an 8% rise from the previous
report. A substantially higher figure is achieved once the wider economic impacts
(indirect and induced spending plus accompanying persons’ spend) are included.

2.  The Value of Britain’s Events Sector – direct spend by segment. 

 

• Conferences and meetings – £19.9 billion
• Exhibitions and trade fairs – £11.0 billion
• Incentive travel and performance improvement – £1.2 billion
• Corporate hospitality and corporate events – £1.2 billion
• Outdoor events – £1.1 billion
• Festivals and cultural events – £1.1 billion
• Music events – £1.3 billion
• Sporting events – £2.3 billion

There are over 1.3 million business events held in the UK annually. Just under £40 billion was spent by those attending these events, and the segment generates more than £20.6 billion in gross value added (GVA) and £58.4 billion in the gross domestic product (GDP). The direct spending associated with UK meeting organisers is £24.7 billion. Of this spend, £6.4 billion is funded by registration fees paid by delegates and attendees. 

Exhibitions play a vital role in the UK economy in generating exports. Many
exhibitions held in the UK have established themselves as a strong base for
international trade. UK exhibitions attract over 13 million visitors each year,
generating £11.0 billion in spending. In 2010 over 265,000 exhibitors participated
in events, 20% from outside the UK. In 2010 exhibitors spent £2.7 billion on goods
and services to demonstrate at events.
More than 10.4 million music tourists spent £2.3 billion in 2015. Around 41% of
live music audiences are music tourists. Overseas music tourists spend on average
£657 each while in the UK. It is estimated that around 24,251 full-time jobs are
sustained by music tourism. In 2015, an astonishing 27.7 million individuals
attended music events in Britain, with 15% of UK festival-goers spending over £250
while at the event.

  • A sponsorship is essentially supporting, either financially or through products and
    services, that an individual or company provides to others. Certain sponsorship
    categories include sports, entertainment, causes, arts, festivals, fairs, annual events,
    associations, and membership organisations.
    In 2015, global sponsorship spending amounted to 57.5 billion US dollars.
    Sponsorship has slowly been increasing yearly and rose to 62.7 billion US dollars
    in 2017. The majority of the global sponsorship spending came from North
    America, totalling 22.3 billion US dollars in 2016, followed by Europe with 16
    billion US dollars and the Asia Pacific with 14.8 billion US dollars. North America
    has had the highest growth of global sponsorship spending since 2010, increasing
    by 4.2 billion US dollars over the course of five years, while Central/South America
    only had a growth of 0.7 billion US dollars from 2010 to 2015. Out of the 3 major
    regions, North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific, Europe had the lowest
    growth, increasing by only 2.4 billion US dollars over five years.

    4  Sponsorship spending worldwide 2007-2018 | Statista
    Importance of Event Management in the UK Industry: Event management is
    closely linked to another thriving UK industry, the hospitality industry. This
    booming sector employs more the 1.9 million UK workers and is crucial to the UK’s
    recovery. In every UK county, there is a degree of reliance upon the hospitality
    industry. The importance of this sector has changed the way employers think about
    what they do. A study performed by the Hotel Catering and International
    Management Association indicates that 93% of hospitality employees are happy
    with their jobs. 5
    Over 67% of organisers expect their events to grow, 39% of corporate event
    planners expect their event budgets to increase, and around 7000+ major outdoor
    events are arranged annually.6
    The UK’s events industry, when considering direct spending, is estimated to have
    a value of £70 billion. This figure represents over 50% of the UK visitor economy.
    Out of this total, business events, including meetings, conferences, and exhibitions,
    contribute approximately £31 billion.7
    Events can play a major role in asserting Britain’s international trading strength,
    highlighting components of its emerging industrial strategy, its creativity, and
    commercial inventiveness and bringing the country together to present its intrinsic values.
    Conferences and meetings attract 95.3 million delegates generating £18.3 billion of
    direct expenditure. In 2018, there were an estimated 1.48 million conferences and
    meetings in the UK. These events were attended by 95.3 million delegates
    accounting for approximately 152.8 million delegate days.
    There was an average of 428 conferences and meetings per venue in 2018 – this was
    up from 2017 (373 events) and 2016 (419 events). The average event duration was
    1.6 days.
    5   Event Management: A Booming UK Industry — Tricostar
    6   liveforce.co
    7   uk-events-report-2020—executive-summary.pdf (excel.london)