Pause in the party business
Fewer events amid pandemic means harder times for many, especially contract workers
It has been a devastating year for those in the events business. Todd Fiscus, of Dallasbased Todd Events, said his company made $2.4 million in December 2019 alone from largely corporate holiday gatherings. Butthis year, his December revenue will drop to just $191,000.
Between Thanksgiving and the end of the year, Chris Starkey, who co-owns Imprint Group, an entertainment business based in Colorado, with outposts in Florida and Nevada, typically would have 15 to 35 corporate events scheduled every week. The pr e-pandemic income from these gatherings provided 25% to 30% of his annual revenue of $25 million. While his company has organized some digital events as substitutes for in-person gatherings, the volume is a fraction of 2019.
As companies cancel their year-end events, the 2020 holiday season has made a terrible year even worse for those in the events business. According to a report from job placement and coaching firm Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc., only 23% of companies surveyed planned holiday gatherings this year, and of those, 74% were virtual. In 2019, 76% of companies had parties at the end of the year.
“For the industry, it’s a big ‘aha’ moment,” said Amy Calvert, chief executive of the Events Industry Council, a trade organization based in Washington. “Events touch all sectors — so many who work in events are gig workers, or minority- or women-owned businesses. These people are disproportionately affected with the cessation of in-person events.”
Fiscus’ company, for example, organizes celebrations for an average of 300 people. Those gatherings often employ as many as 58 subcontractors, from florists and cake vendors to lighting specialists. As a result ,150 to 170 people “are living off these events,” he said. “With a drop of 85 to 90% in revenue, that’s a lot of humans without work.”
Some companies have chosen to help these small businesses, and the contractors they use, by rolling over deposits to 2021 or 2022 or working with them to provide alternative ways of entertaining this year, such as virtual events. But without additional deposits, many will be effectively working for less pay in the future.
Seasoned entertainers said careful budgeting for their businesses as well as their own lives helped them ride out the year, irrespective of whether they received government loans through the federal Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, generally known as PPP — although the unknown duration of the pandemic makes that a tricky long-term proposition.
Others, like Darrell Martin, who heads Hip Parties, based in New York and Philadelphia, were unable to get PPP loans and had to rely on personal savings. Living through both the aftermath of Sept. 11 and the 2008 financial crisis, he said, has reinforced his tendency toward conservative spending. This year, of course, has been different.
“For the most part, our clients are really good-hearted people. So they understood when we calculated the amount of money we had paid to our subcontractors — like dancers, photographers and lighting experts — and returned the difference to our clients,” said Martin. “But I personally felt it was out of the question to ask our subcontractors for money back because many were struggling more than wewere.”