Boris Johnson reckons conferences will resume from October — a pronouncement that did not come a moment too soon for event organisers. Remember the cancellation of the annual Mipim shindig for movers and shakers in the property world in February? A feature on the French Riviera since 1990, it was scrapped just two weeks before 27,000 delegates were due to descend on Cannes.
Countless other fixtures in the business calendar also fell victim to the Covid-19 lockdown. Mipim’s organiser is owned by a subsidiary of FTSE 100 giant Relx, known as Reed Elsevier until five years ago. On Thursday, the group will reveal the impact of the pandemic.
Its events arm — which runs about 500 shows around the globe — usually accounts for about