The founder of an events production and AV installation company based in the UK has said that the domestic events industry is “well and truly back on its feet”, after his company, Spotlight Sound, reported a 98 per cent increase in revenue for the month of May.
Sam Dimond said that the company is seeing “unprecedented growth” with increased demand having already seen his team grow in the last six months, with plans to add further positions to cater for what is scheduled to be a busy summer events season.
“We’re seeing enormous demand for our services which is great and I think this says a lot for the industry as a whole and how it has picked up,” Dimond said. “It feels great to be building our team to support our clients. Jim Cairns joined me as technical and logistics manager during covid in January 2021. What we found during covid was that despite the in-person events side of the business tailing off, the need for audio support and installation for online events took off and Jim was a big part of us being able to offer those services.
“This year we had an idea things would be busy after so many enquiries coming through the door. We hired Harry Marshall in February as warehouse and events assistant and Phil Wright as hire manager at the beginning of April to look after hire enquiries. Finally last month Fiona Annetts joined our team as administrator she brings a wealth of experience with her.”
One of the growing company’s main clients is Osea Island, a private island off the Essex coast near Malden. The island hosts weddings, festivals, club nights and corporate retreats, with Spotlight Sound acting as its main contractor. Dimond suggested that the company’s current trajectory painted a positive picture for the UK industry as a whole, after a period in which the events industry across the world was decimated by the pandemic, and matters closer to home started to take their anticipated negative effects.
“For the events industry just like others, covid stopped us in it tracks,” he continued. “Then just as we were trying to get back on our feet Brexit took away our industry seasonal workers and that remains an issue for the events sector as a whole. Not having the seasonal workers has put a massive strain on event companies going into the 2023 season. This is because we are playing catch up from the last few years and many of the events cancelled over the last few years have been re-confirmed for this summer.”
A recent report from events, hospitality and meetings technology provider Cvent suggested that in-person events are a top priority for planners across the UK and Europe, with 90 per cent of respondents saying they are currently sourcing in-person events, and 83 per cent expecting to host more in-person events in 2023 when compared to 2019.
