“Night of Light” – A protest of the event industry

An ardent entreaty to politics to save the event industry!

The official regulations due to the Corona crisis have pushed the entire event industry to the abyss. A huge branch of the economy has been deprived of its basis for work practically overnight.

A wave of bankruptcies of enormous proportions is threatening: with serious consequences for the job market and cultural diversity as the supporting pillar of our society.

The “Night of Light” campaign brought together market participants from all sectors of the event industry. They set an impressive example in a concerted action for an industry threatened with extinction. The aim was to call for a dialogue with politicians in order to develop solutions and ways out of the dramatic situation.

In the night from 22.06.2020 to 23.06.2020 almost 9,000 companies from the event industry, illuminated everything in red. The agency nice:-) also implemented a production and illuminated its agency building in red hand in hand with their technology partner TKB Veranstaltungstechnik. Many shining memorials, which arranged themselves to a huge light monument.

Cry for help of an industry

Thus the cry for help of an industry that looks into the abyss was born. More than 30,000 people took part in the implementation during the night on Monday. At the press conference Sandra Beckmann said: “We create emotions and we create experiences that everyone consumes” and this makes clear that not only the employees, the entrepreneurs, the freelancers, etc. who work in the industry, are considered to be affected.

EVERYONE is affected if this branch of the economy is eliminated.

• The colour red, which was jointly used for this action, is intended to express the following:
• The event industry is on the “red list” of dying industries
• Red alert – a market worth billions and hundreds of thousands of jobs are in danger!
• We are a community and have the common goal of an industry dialogue with politicians
• We make a fiery appeal to the public
• The colour red expresses passion for our profession – “We burn for what we do!

 

The purpose of the “Night of Light” campaign

The purpose of the “Night of Light” campaign was to make the industry of events visible in its entirety.

For this purpose, the industry used a medium typical for it: light!

Why light? Because the industry stands for light.

Setting products and people in scene with the right technology, the right light.

 

With approximately 1 million employees in the B2B sector (conferences, incentives, etc.) and with more than 2.5 million employees, if you include the entertainment and cultural sector, the event industry is one of the largest economic sectors in Germany.

Worldwide, this industry is among the top 3 in terms of sales figures, to name just a few facts that illustrate the scale of the industry.
Background – the dramatic situation of the event industry. “We were completely torn apart from one day to the next,” said Jutta Kirberg from Kirberg Catering at the press conference on Monday, speaking from the bottom of the heart of each of the participating companies.

Night of Light

The event industry was the first sector of the economy to be hit by the COVID 19 crisis and it will most likely be the one that has been affected the longest and most profoundly. All companies from the event industry and the cultural sector have lost their entire order books within a few working days. This was a result of the event bans that have taken place since 10 March 2020. They were the first to get into the crisis (first in) and will be the last to get out of it (last out).

 

Since the middle of March, the event industry has been making no turnover. In contrast to the manufacturing industry, lost sales cannot be made up for, nor can anything be produced “in stock”. Most companies in the event industry are service providers.

Even if high demand was to set in after the crisis, the suffered losses can no longer be compensated. “Metaphorically speaking, the event industry is hanging on to a ventilator that is slowly running out of oxygen,” said Tom Koperek at the press conference.
So also an appeal of the agency nice:-) to the politicians, to enter into a dialogue with the industry. And also to reconsider the measures which need to be taken in this sector in order to survive the crisis.