A Challenging Summer for the Event Industry Worldwide
It was a wonderful summer. One when social distancing was completely forgotten, masks were not compulsory anywhere, and travelling returned to normal. We were all too eager to get together again, travel long distances, attend meetings and events and remember that we are all social animals, after all!
Following two pandemic years when “six was a crowd”, the summer of 2022 burst with events worldwide, creating an increased demand which led to significant challenges:
- Last-minute requests were the norm and added to the already dense schedule which included previously postponed events.
- Understaffing was severe and very much evident in the hospitality, traveling, and event industries. Our vendors had made their staff redundant during the pandemic years. This human capital had moved to other industries and was not willing to return.
- Costs increased significantly, mostly due to the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis but also due to the increased human capital expenditure.
- Certain luxury or even consumer goods were in great shortage since no one could foresee the size of the demand. Such goods included certain labels of champagne, alcoholic drinks and wine, but also tableware, furniture and other rentals – even certain services were scarce.
The event industry is an entire ecosystem that includes venues, travel, entertainment, creative production and design, catering, merchandising, decorations, and many many more. When one or more of these verticals face challenges, as was the case this first post-pandemic summer, the whole industry is at stake.
On the other hand, requests sky-rocketed and we were obliged to turn down quite a number of requests, as we just couldn’t accommodate all, at least not with the service level we want and our clients deserve.
Still, RSVP Events undertook a dozen of events, most of which included major multi-day productions that engaged hundreds of people in their making. We are truly grateful to our outstanding team-members, whether employees or contractors, as well as our trusted vendors who exceeded themselves and delivered even on the craziest of our demands, even at the most adverse circumstances!
Here’s just a small token of what we pulled through this demanding but also totally satisfying Summer of 2022.
Leave a Reply