BVEP launches events industry manifesto
The Business Visits & Events Partnership (BVEP) has launched a manifesto for the meetings and events industry that will pass on its recommendations to government on how the £39.1billion sector can help shape Britain’s future.
The manifesto will be issued to senior policy makers, government departments, MPs and Ministers. The document is entitled ‘
Events Can Win for Britain’ and takes on the GREAT campaign branding; underlining the role the industry can play to boost both business and tourism.
The partnership’s Manifesto Working Group, under the leadership of
Brian Kirsch, Managing Director of Event Assured, put the document together with input from the partnership’s 22 leading representative
bodies.
“Increasingly we are getting the ear of government and we wanted a manifesto that not only sells our industry, but explains how ministers and policy makers can create a better environment for the industry to flourish,” says Kirsch. “We have extended print runs so that anyone in the industry that has a relationship with government departments can pass on a copy ahead of the General Election.”
The manifesto’s 39 recommendations are set out in eight sections highlighting a role for national and local government, focusing on better regulation and more competitive taxation, together with proposals for infrastructure, marketing and training.
Some of the specific proposals include:
1. Place events at the centre of economic growth
2. Fully incorporate Events in the GREAT campaign
3. Integrate the Events sector into the Creative Industries Strategy
4. Create a Special Events visa
5. Provide subvention funds to DMOs
6. Increase the annual tax exemption for staff parties and social functions
“With a General Election only seven months away, now is a crucial time to start convincing politicians, prospective parliamentary candidates and those who compile the Party manifestos that the Events Industry can help to shape Britain’s future,” commented
Michael Hirst, Chairman of the BVEP
. “The document is comprehensive and lays out the ways government can support the £39.1billion events industry; any political party seeking to win the election needs to take note of it.”
The ‘Events Can Win for Britain’ report will be widely distributed across government departments and directly to Ministers, as well as through the All Party Parliamentary Group for Events, Chaired by Nick de Bois MP.
Article by
Mike Fletcher