All over the world business leaders and their teams are innovating to take COVID-19 into account, dreaming up new and creative ways to stay afloat, fulfil their clients’ needs, and thrive in the new landscape we’re all operating in. The London event planning sector is no different. In fact, their entrepreneurial spirit is giving them a considerable advantage. Here’s what event planners in London are doing to adapt to the coronavirus crisis.

London – Home to a particularly lively and vibrant events industry
As one of the world’s most vibrant cities and most important financial hubs, London has always been a top destination for corporate and other events, large and small. The capital is packed with superb venues of every kind, from indoor to outdoor, intimate to enormous, unusual to eccentric and everything in between. 

London is the number one city in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region for events and meetings. The UK, as a whole, offers more than a thousand venues and welcomes more than 85 million event attendees in total. The UK events scene was worth £42.3 Billion in 2016, and the top ten UK events agencies turned over more than £3.5 Billion that year. An impressive 1.3 million business events are held in the UK every year, many of which take place in London.  In 2018 alone, 38 million international visits were made to the UK for events, a vast number of visitors that delivers a useful boost to visitor numbers off-season. 

With great transport links outwards to the wider UK and beyond plus one of the world’s greenest cities, with more trees and green spaces than most, as well as top-class accommodation of every type, make the capital one of the very best places to hold an event. 

What event planners in London have done to keep the sector alive
The city’s event planners have been pulling out the stops over the past couple of months to adapt to the coronavirus crisis; they have sought to find alternative ways to run events and maintain London’s popular events industry.

So far we’ve seen a steady pivot to outdoor events in London, where it’s a lot easier to keep people at safe distances from one another and where infection rates plummet because guests are out in the fresh air. Social distancing has been made possible by the sheer number of outstanding outdoor venues in London. The city has everything from beautiful rooftop gardens with spectacular views to outdoor entertainment onboard boats on the Thames, leisure decks, lost gardens, sky bars and terraces with river views. 

At Good Look Events we’ve been inundated with enquiries for outdoor venues in London. We’ve also focussed on providing events in marquees, effectively a huge outdoor tent. These types of events are becoming ever so popular, especially as we approach the peak of the summer weather. 

Whether you are planning a mini-festival style birthday celebration, a bespoke nightclub marquee for a 21st Birthday, or a decadent soiree for a 50th, our experienced and dedicated team can help deliver the perfect outdoor event. 

The sector is also seeing a pivot to smaller, more intimate events with thirty people or less. These types of events are deemed to be safer, lowering the chance of infection and allowing guests to feel more comfortable. 

Virtual events, of course, are the new rock and roll, with tools like Zoom climbing to the top of the video conferencing list in record time. London’s event planners have been busy on a virtual basis too, using all their legendary creativity and flexibility to create virtual events packed with excitement and interest, delivering just as good an experience as pre-virus face-to-face events. It just takes imagination, dedication, and inspiration, and there’s plenty of that in our sector.  

When will things officially get back to normal for London corporate events?
The British government has confirmed that as long as levels of infection remain at current rates, business events and conferences can resume from 1st October 2020, a date we’re looking forward to. You can rest assured the events sector is well prepared as far as health and safety are concerned. They’ll be taking the virus into account at every stage of event planning until the risk of catching COVID-19 have either disappeared or become a lot more manageable.

If you’re considering an event in the coming months or want to plan for 2021 we’d be delighted to discuss how our event planners in London can help. Contact us using the live chat function on our website or call us on 0207 148 1665.