30
Big Interview
Scotland Will Wait
Neil Brownlee, head of business events at VisitScotland, tells CN how Scotland’s
business events community is coming together during this time of uncertainty
o corner of the events
industry is unaffected by
Covid-19, so to forge a
path to recovery, regional
convention bureaux are going to
need to keep their stakeholders
together. Scotland is a strong player
both domestically and internationally,
and if there is one example of unity
to follow, you could do far worse than
follow themю
Neil Brownlee, head of business
events at VisitScotland is tasked with
shepherding the sector through this
crisis, and as a destination, things
are already looking up. Currently Q4
in 2020 is looking strong and 2021
positive further. VisitScotland reports
60% of association business across
Scotland postponed into 2021 or
future years, too. While setbacks are
possible, you can only play the hand
you are dealt: a nettle Brownlee has
had to grasp.
The impact Covid-19 has had on
the events industry needs no
further explaining, so now is the
time to plan and think about
rebuilding: how are you leading
VisitScotland into the future?
The first thing we did was to start
planning for recovery before there
was even a sign of one. That was
important, as it enabled us to bring
all parts of the business events
community together across Scotland
and let everyone know that we are
here to support them; as difficult as
it may seem, that they are not alone.
We worked with davies tanner, our
global communications agency, to
develop a three-step
communications plan and we are
now in step two of that plan and
moving quickly towards step three.
All of our messaging so far has
centred around #ScotlandWillWait,
which shares positive news from our
partners and key updates and advice
from both VisitScotland and the
Scottish government. It’s also there
to build confidence as we look to
rebuild for the future.
I understand you have been talking
regularly with your partners and
clients, what are their concerns
and how have you helped them?
As soon as the true scale of the
impact of Covid-19 on our industry
became known, we set up calls with
all our key delivery partners across
Scotland. This included the main
events cities and convention centres,
agencies and DMCs, hotels and
universities. This enabled us to find
out exactly what was going on in their
market, rather than rely on rumour
and speculation, and in turn
understand what support they
needed. It also meant that we could
share intelligence that we were
getting from across our key markets,
including the UK, Europe and North
America.
As part of our recovery planning,
we have also set up some specific
task forces, which again are
designed to help key sectors within
the business events community
recover as quickly as possible. We
also have a major new marketing
campaign that we have been working
on, and which will launch in the next
couple of months – it’s something
we had been working on well before
the pandemic hit, and the sentiment
behind it feels all the more pertinent
now so we’re very much looking
forward to launching that soon.
Has there been any sign of
enquiries or bookings returning,
and to what scale?
Currently Q4 of 2020 is looking quite
strong, although that could easily
change, but 2021 and beyond is
looking incredibly positive.
We have seen approximately 60%
of association business across
Scotland postpone into 2021 or
future years. Where events have had
to cancel, our partners across the
world are showing resolve to return
to Scotland at a later date, thanks to
the relationships that have been
developed over the years and the
strength of the Scottish knowledge
economy which continues to attract
high profile events.
The association market is a
resilient one, which is shown in the
enquires that are still coming in
across the country for 2022, 2023
and beyond, and indeed from the
rise in our ICCA rankings, which have
just been released, showing that
Scotland now accounts for 31% of
the total UK association events
market.
Between 1 March and 27 April, we
issued 65 unique proposals to
www.conference-news.co.uk