Pennine Events Ltd meets with Rishi Sunak and pledges for urgent support for the events industry

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As part of a visit to Pennine Events’ sister company: ‘The Coast to Coast Packhorse’, Pennine Events took the opportunity last week to highlight the urgent pledge for support for the events industry. 

The meeting, which was supported by the National Outdoor Events Association, formed part of the Rt Hon Rishi Sunak’s visit to the region to highlight ‘staycations’ to the British public. The Chancellor was also looking to highlight the importance and economic impact of the historic Coast to Coast route and to highlight innovative business development during such a major crisis, for which C2C Packhorse (wholly owned by Pennine Events Ltd) was hailed as an example.

During the planned visit, Mark Sandamas, Owner of both companies, and Pennine Events’ Chief Executive, Alissa Koopal-Brown, took the opportunity to nudge Mr Sunak about the distressing situation that the events industry continuous to face and presented him with a letter drawn up by NOEA President Tom Clements. In the letter, NOEA outlined the present crisis for the industry, and outlined a series of requests that could best safeguard the industry from total collapse.

Tom Clements, President NOEA adds:

“This was a tremendous forum to get our argument into the hands of one of the most influential people in the country, and one who could do so much to support our industry. The meeting, which was instigated by Pennine Events, just underlines the importance of every business contacting their local MPs and contacts in government. The response to the letter was warm, and we hope it instigates action that can save thousands of businesses.” 

Alissa Koopal-Brown, adds:

“We felt it was our duty to take to take this opportunity to not only let C2C Packhorse shine, but to also reiterate that other industries such as our all-important events industry – an industry that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs and contributes a whopping £70 billion to the UK economy annually – is being left behind and feels forgotten in the midst of all these businesses that have been fortunate enough to start trading again.

It feels as if the importance of the industry, and the social, wellbeing and economic contributions made by the industry are not fully comprehended by Government. They need to understand that, like others industries that are receiving additional support, we are on the brink of collapse and we need immediate intervention.

Pennine Events was set up 18 years ago and has survived the craziest of periods and genuine tough years to get to where we are. 2020 was set to be an incredible year.

We, like so many of our peers are doing everything we can to survive; we are thinking outside the box, launched innovative new projects to attract new revenue streams rather than your general physical mass participation event, and much more, but we simply cannot carry on in this manner without further proper- i.e. genuine industry adapted- support from 10 Downing street. Will we survive this otherwise? I honestly don’t know.”

Mark Sandamas, company owner adds:

“We hope that we have been able to relay the urgency, and dire situation that the events industry finds itself in, to Mr Sunak; on behalf of not only our own company Pennine Events Ltd, but on behalf of all our peers in this incredible industry.

We will continue to fight- both for survival, and for support- and hope that the meeting with Mr Sunak will help him to understand the situation and will ensure immediate intervention.”

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.