President of the Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia (EEAA) Spiro Anemogiannis has released a statement following the Federal Government’s $50 million funding for the business events industry. While Mr Anemogiannis acknowledged that the funding was a “positive step in the right direction”, he said that it is “still not enough.”
“State borders need to re-open ASAP to allow national events to be scheduled with confidence along with the easing of event space restrictions,” he said.
“Only when the workforce in the corporate world starts to return to their office in greater numbers will our clients and customers be confident enough to attend our events.”
Mr Anemogiannis implored industry members to return to working from their offices in order to demonstrate both that we can work together under the new COVID rules, and that we are putting into practice the safety protocols we plan on bringing to events.
“I returned to my office in the Sydney CBD on July 1 when the city was probably at 10 to 15 per cent of usual activity and increasing five per cent each week,” he said.
“The Melbourne flare-up caused the numbers to grind to a halt. In the last two weeks however, it feels close to 40 per cent.
“I think we need to get to 60 per cent plus which is achievable for Sydney this coming quarter, but is obviously a while off for Melbourne.”