The Business Events Council of Australia (BECA) has joined the live entertainment industry's calls on federal and state governments to establish a business interruption fund to help event organisers plan future events amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week, BECA representatives Deputy Chair Geoff Donaghy (ICC Sydney), Kate Smith (Waldron Smith Management), Matt Pearce (Talk2 Media & Events), and Andrew Hiebl (Association of Australian Convention Bureaux) talked online with Senator the Hon Don Farrell (Shadow Minister for Sport and Tourism) and the Hon Tony Burke MP (Shadow Minister for the Arts).
The discussion focused on the peak industry body's three key priorities: business survival and retention of specialist industry skills, risk mitigation and confidence, and recovery needs to stimulate demand.
During the online meeting, Donaghy warned that BECA expects many parts of the industry's critical supply chain to face challenges surviving without functional revenue, given the significant lead time required to restart the Australian business event industry.
Farrell commented: “There can be no doubt that the business events sector has suffered significantly as a result of the pandemic. In addition, like many other industries, it's clear that the business events sector can't just snap back as soon as borders open.”
BECA also backed the Live Performance Federal Insurance Guarantee Fund Bill 2021 and the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee's position that the lack of COVID-19-related event insurance would impact industry confidence and slow the recovery of the business event industry in 2022.
“BECA identified risk mitigation as a key challenge for governments to resolve more than twelve months ago, and we continue to see this as a priority for recovery,” Donaghy said. “A national Commonwealth Government-led event insurance scheme, achieved in partnership with state and territory governments, remains our preferred model.”
The event industry has been calling for an event insurance scheme since 2020 as it was one of the hardest-hit sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic. The scheme would act as an insurance fund for event companies planning future events while considering public gathering restrictions and other issues caused by the pandemic.
However, after more than 18 months since the pandemic hit the country, the industry continues to struggle. Some industry leaders even warned that the Australian live entertainment industry might not recover without an insurance scheme.
Last week, Frontier Touring chief operating officer Dion Brant said in a statement that the industry has been behind the curve in bringing international acts back into Australia because of the financial risks around cancellations.
“We are now in a situation where, largely, there will be very few if any international artists [who enter the country] who have just been fortunate enough to be rescheduled into that period a year ago,” he said, as reported by Business Insider Australia.
