Events: Help us stay afloat
The events industry says level 2 will be a disaster, and, as prominent figures tell Steve Kilgallon, they fear the Government isn’t listening to their pleas.
On Wednesday evening, Shaun Collins sent a cheerful email to the customers – including me – of his Auckland events company, Lactic Turkey, which organises trail running and orienteering races.
‘‘We’re very excited,’’ it began, accompanied with pictures of his events team jumping for joy. With level 2 coronavirus restrictions on the horizon, he’d made plans for how he could safely run events capped at 500 entrants, and duly outlined his remaining calendar for 2020.
Then, the following lunchtime, during the announcement that level 2 was indeed coming, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made an important tweak to the rules – a cut in the limit for outdoor events from 500 people to 100 (indoor events stayed at 100), saying: ‘‘I know this will affect many, but we have to keep working on getting things right so that we can get to a place where larger events are possible again.’’
Yes, said Collins afterwards, that had ‘‘thrown a spanner in the works’’. All his events were on hold again.
Thursday’s decision sent a deeper wave of depression through an industry already rocked to its core. As event organisers say, they were the first industry to stop and will be the last to return.
More than 14,000 events have been cancelled or postponed. A snapshot survey by the New Zealand Events Association (NZEA) of its 3000 members found that of 276 respondents, they employed 1761 staff between them. And they had collectively made another 403 redundant because of coronavirus – about 18.6 per cent in total.
If that impact was reflected across the whole industry, job losses would be in the thousands. The event sector also talks of its ‘‘long tail’’ – so that ripple would also pass through security firms, caterers, merchandisers, hotels, traffic management companies, marketers, ticketing companies and portable toilet providers.
Tonight, NZEA general manager Segolene de Fontenay will formally submit their pitch to Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford on how to save the industry. She has majority backing from its members for four proposals: an extension of the wage subsidy scheme, a $100,000 fund for making events work at level 2, and two contestable funding pots of $80 million for organisers to putting on events.
But some fear they are not being heard by the Government. When the NZEA met Twyford, he acknowledged keep that the events industry crossed several portfolios, so he would take on the challenge of representing them. He declined an interview, but says he ‘‘understands the issues’’ facing the industry.
But when one event organiser, Nicola Carter of outdoor sports events specialist Total Sport, emailed Twyford late this week to protest about the level 2 rules, his office said she should instead contact the Ministry of Health. ‘‘We’ve been forgotten,’’ she says.
An $80m rescue package sounds like a lot, but the industry says it’s not much if you consider they are worth about $1b a year to the economy.
‘‘It’s not throwing money after nothing – it’s money that will be returned many times over… it shouldn’t be seen as a cost, but an investment,’’ pitches David Higgins, director of Duco, which stages business dinners, celebrity speakers like Richard Branson and Bob Geldof, sporting contests like cricket’s Black Clash and the NRL Nines and boxer Joseph Parker’s fights.
Higgins, who has laid off staff and postponed 15 events hopes for unity behind the NZEA’s pitch and that the Government would see the value in events investment.
He’d like the money to be dispensed to local councils’ tourism or economic development arms to give upfront grants so promoters nationwide, large and small, have an equal crack.
‘‘I think the appeal for support is legitimate and appears to have wide support,’’ he says. ‘‘I think a lot of support has been forthcoming for a lot of industries, but noone has been really championing events as yet.’’
Higgins’ business partner, Rachael Carroll, says other industries had traditionally been more coherent and so had a stronger voice. ‘‘This is not about being ignored,’’ she says, ‘‘it’s about being organised.’’
Except that the industry isn’t quite in agreement. Because there’s another organisation, called the Promoters Association, which includes all the major music promoters – and chaired by one of the industry’s titans, Brent Eccles. And he’s not keen on the idea at all.
‘‘I want a business,’’ he says. ‘‘Not being a smart-arse, getting money is great, but is it going to last you a month, six months, two years? I just want to get a business going, that’s what I care about.’’
Eccles and another music powerbroker, Campbell Smith (Big Day Out, Auckland City Limits, etc) met Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
The meeting was chastening, he says, in
that they left
‘‘A lot of support has been forthcoming for a lot of industries, but no-one has been really championing events as yet.’’ David Higgins,
fully understanding the severity of the situation – but it also gave him the drive to help fix it.
If you’re struggling to imagine a calendar without any events, try this for size: New Zealand’s biggest music promoter reckons it will be the summer of 2021-22 before we start getting big international acts coming back to these shores. Eccles, who has brought in overseas acts like Ed Sheeran, Paul McCartney, The Killers and David Byrne in recent years, is instead intent on rescuing an entirely-domestic 2020-21 summer festivals calendar with bands like Six60, Bene and Drax Project.
On that point, he’s in agreement with Higgins, who has no immediate plans to import any big-name offshore speakers, saying it’s ‘‘no longer about big, shiny international events’’ but domestic events which can drive internal tourism and economic recovery
The other thing everyone agrees upon is certainty. Events need long lead times, and need organisers to have a bit of confidence to take risks. ‘‘What I want is a pipeline,’’ says Eccles. ‘‘If I can see something coming in, I will be OK, and bridge my way to the next lot of shows.’’ In a former life, he was the drummer with Aussie hard rockers The Angels. ‘‘If we have no business in two years, I won’t be in the business. Maybe I go play drums again – hopefully not!’’
‘‘Part of this is about confidence,’’ says Rachael Carroll. ‘‘For David and I, if we don’t know we can get back up again and run events in December, January or February, then we are draining our cash reserves to keep staff on and pay bills – and it becomes hard to [justify it].’’
That’s why Thursday didn’t help.
Adirector of Duco
fter Shaun Collins watched the announcement from the Beehive, he went straight to the Sport New Zealand website to read up on the new rules. And there he found quite precise instructions about how team sports, golf and skiing could start.
But there was nothing about organised outdoor events. If football could proceed with 100 people permitted at one pitch, and another 100 permitted on the next pitch, why couldn’t he have waves of runners separated by half-hour intervals monitored by their timing chips? asked, but he’s not got an answer yet.
But he’s got to try. ‘‘My thinking is that with so much opening in level 2, you can imagine we will stay at level 2 for a long time because most of the economy will be considered open. If it’s the next six months or longer, it’s a big worry.’’
Collins is as boutique as they get: he works one day a week in the business; his wife Madeleine was full-time until lockdown brought an abrupt end to their series of schools orienteering events, and she went back to her old teaching career.
So if they had to, Lactic Turkey could go into hibernation. But Collins is thinking about the big events, events which generate economic dollars – the marathons, the Tarawera Ultra-Marathon, the Godzone adventure race – and he’s worried.
On Tuesday, I spoke to Total Sport’s Aaron Carter. They employ 14 staff with offices in Taupo¯ and Auckland. He had a ‘‘bit of hope’’ back then. That was shattered on Thursday.
By yesterday, his wife Nicola had launched a change.org petition to reinstate the 500 limit, already with over 1500 signatories, had emailed MPs, enlisted the support of National’s sports spokeswoman Nikki Kaye and pursued Twyford’s office.
Staging a party for your mates was entirely different to a professionally-run outdoor event with a full health and safety plan, yet here they were – all lumped together.
‘‘People can see the unjustness,’’ she says. ‘‘Schools can open with guidelines, and skifields with guidelines, and sportsfields – just give us a chance to adhere to those guidelines too.’’
For Scott Rice, who runs the NZ Ocean Swim Series, there was no such immediate impact on his business – his swim races run December to April – but he was just as concerned.
He fears the industry faces a much longer hiatus than anticipated.
When coronavirus arrived, he cancelled the final three events of his 2020 season and issued credits for next year. Then, ‘‘like most organisers, you think practically about what we do next’’. That was organisand He’s