By Charlotte Gentry (Pure Communications)
Can the supply chain in the events industry recover quickly or do we still have a challenging path ahead as the hangover of Covid continues, asks EVCOM Board Member Charlotte Gentry (Pure Communications).
What do we feel about the state of the industry this year? Are you having a bumper year on last year or are you finding this year as challenging or even more so than last year?
One of the key challenges which continues to exist is the damage that Covid has done to our supply chain and the resourcing issues around this. The divide between what clients expect in terms of service and what the industry at large can actually deliver is still a major problem and this is largely because the demand for live events is greater than ever, and, in some cases, venues and suppliers can’t keep up.
Service levels are absolutely not back to what they were in 2019 pre Covid and we are all still running at a crazy speed to do everything we can to deliver well under the circumstances. So how do we try to educate our clients around these challenges without seeming to be patronizing or to be blaming something else for our challenges? We still certainly struggle to get information back from international hotels and suppliers in a timely manner. In some cases it has taken weeks to get a sensible response.
We build partnerships with our clients so that they trust us and the information that we are delivering to them. The key is to have an open and trusted relationship with clients so that they are fully understanding of what we are trying to achieve.
Brexit has just added that extra layer of difficulty, as moving equipment in and out of Europe is harder and the paperwork extensive.
We expect to move back into a more stable environment as the year progresses but it may take until 2024 for us to really see this stability crystalise. We would be interested to hear other people’s perspectives on this, but at Pure we have an outstanding team and continue to do whatever we can to deliver well without letting our clients know some of the dramas we are experiencing across the board.