Save Victorian Events calls for Industry Taskforce

Save Victorian Events has today called for the creation of an Event Industry Taskforce to bring together key people and resources from across the event industry - including from the traditional associations - to quickly put together a strategy and actions to counter what it calls a “dreadful situation” where it faces widespread job losses.

Citing that the sector has been “one of the very hardest hit” during the Coronavirus crisis and of the “urgent need” for action, Save Victorian Events referred to its February survey that showed that 40% of companies were likely to have to close when JobKeeper ends, and a further 43% would need to let their staff go.

In addition, the survey found that 69% of the freelancers that the industry relies so heavily on would need to leave the industry.

Save Victorian Events spokesperson, Simon Thewlis commented “JobKeeper has now ended without any real Federal Government support for our industry or any real state government support either in most states.

“It is a dire state of affairs.”

Save Victorian Events was started in July 2020 as a campaign to give a real voice to the businesses and people who are actually working in Victoria’s Event Industry. More than two thousand members of the event industry have actively participated in our campaign to date.

Thewlis added “we remain very happy to contribute the knowledge, and resources, we have gained from running a grass roots campaign in Victoria over the last eight months.

Our industry is about bringing people together and working together. This is exactly what we need to be doing.

“Our industry has so many great people and businesses. We cannot give up on them now.”