Tasmania Funds Events Supply Chain – Encourage Your State To Do The Same

A week ago, Tasmanian Liberal MP and Minister for Small Business, Hospitality and Events Sarah Courtney announced $2.5 million in grants SPECIFICALLY for businesses that provide AV and technical equipment, professional event organisation services, and everything else in the events sector.  She said, “the grants are not for funding individual events, or for those who attend or participate in events; it is about supporting the providers of critical infrastructure and services that, without which, we would not be able to run major events at all.”

Yesterday, Save Victorian Events shared the following video from Harry the hirer graphically illustrating the scale of the devastation facing the Victorian events supply industry:

From Save Victorian Events: “The simple message is that if there isn’t action today, events will not be able to happen again – as we will lose the people and businesses that are essential to making them happen.

While there have been many discussions with government over many months, as at today there is still no road map and no plan for getting even the smallest events up and running again. 

Events have lead times. So unless there is action now, many types of events won’t happen this year and some types of events will not happen this summer. 

This will mean we will lose many of the people and businesses that are essential to making events happen.

Please use this link https://savevictorianevents.good.do/acttoday/ to share this video with your local members of parliament and with the Minister for Tourism and Major Events. To tell them how serious and urgent the situation is, and that we need action now.

We would also encourage you to pick up the phone and call your local members of parliament.

It needs all of us doing what we can. This just takes 20 seconds to do.”

I have taken the time to contact my local MP, yet again, to plea for support for the live events supply chain. With Tasmania leading the charge in providing relief, this is the perfect time to point this out to governments in every state and urge them to do the same. Here’s my letter to my local MP. Feel free to adapt to your local area and use in your correspondence:

Dear Minister, 

Jason Allen here, part of your electorate and publisher of a trade magazine for the events industry, CX Magazine. You may recall me contacting you back in June about how my business and many others in events had been shut out of crisis support. Well, we’re now at breaking point. If the sector is not immediately supported by the state government, Victoria will lose the ability to host all major events including The Melbourne Cup, The AFL Grand Final, and The F1 Grand Prix.

Please watch this video from the CEO of  leading events supply company Harry the hirer that explains the size and depth of the crisis. Kindly take note of the section at 1:22 where you see how large their warehouse in Brooklyn is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIeWg7N52FI&autoplay=1

See how big that business is? Now, think of Port Melbourne, Dandenong, Croydon, and every other industrial estate in Melbourne – they are full of companies and warehouses like that, all filled with millions and millions of dollars of equipment that has sat idle since March. As estimated by peak body ACETA (Australian Commercial Entertainment Technology Association), the economic activity of supplying equipment to these companies alone is worth $7 billion in Australia annually. ALL of these businesses are in imminent danger of ceasing to exist. Their income has not been reduced by 30, 60, or 80 percent, it is by 100. When they go, so does Victoria’s ability to host any kind of event, from a medical conference at the MCEC to a music festival at Flemington Showgrounds. The other states will take them all.

A week ago, Tasmanian Liberal MP and Minister for Small Business, Hospitality and Events Sarah Courtney announced $2.5 million in grants SPECIFICALLY for businesses that provide AV and technical equipment, professional event organisation services, and everything else in the events sector.  She said, “the grants are not for funding individual events, or for those who attend or participate in events; it is about supporting the providers of critical infrastructure and services that, without which, we would not be able to run major events at all.”

Tasmania. They’ve done it, and they’re not The Events Capital of Australia.