Today saw the final report of the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into the impact of COVID-19 on Victoria’s tourism and events sectors tabled in parliament.

Save Victorian Events worked really hard to get this Inquiry to happen, provided a huge amount of detailed information about our industry, and encouraged many event people to put in submissions and to testify at the hearings.  We understand this is the first government inquiry into the Event Industry.

You can watch some excerpts from the Inquiry’s hearings here

The reports is very comprehensive, covers our industry in great detail and make some good recommendations – though we don’t agree with everything (especially with regard to financial support, or the lack of it).  

You can download the report here

Our hope is that governments will now have a better understanding of our industry and what we need to survive and rebuild.  And, that the event Industry is absolutely an industry in its own right and not just something that generates hotel room nights and side trips to the penguins for the tourism industry.

While this Inquiry was focussed on the event industry in Victoria, the issues and challenges we face are the same as those faced by the rest of the event industry around Australia.  So, hopefully other groups and states will be able to build on this.

We all work right around Australia.  There is just one Australian Event Industry and we want our whole industry to get through this crisis together.  We hope this helps.

We also hope the Inquiry’s report will finally enable the Victorian government to understand the people and businesses that are Victoria’s Event Industry.  And, to finally act and to provide the real practical and financial support our industry needs to survive and to be able to rebuild.

We should be doing far more than just surviving.  Events and the Event Industry should be playing a key role in Victoria’s recovery, and Australia’s recovery.  An event led recovery!

There has never been a time when events have been more needed than now – coming through a pandemic:

• To help bring communities back together again and help people reconnect and be supported.
• To help organisations re-engage with their teams and work through the biggest changes they have faced in their histories.
• To help whole industries adapt to this new environment and to innovate so they can benefit from it.
• To rebuild the confidence in our state and rebuild its profile.

This is what events are great at.  This is what the Event Industry does so well.

But we need these amazing people and businesses who are the Event Industry to still be here to be able to do this.