Following an update of the Government’s Annex A, the list of industries eligible for a monthly employee wage subsidy of €800, conference and trade-show organisers found themselves to be included.

This class includes the organisation, promotion and/or management of events, such as business and trade shows, conventions, conferences and meetings, whether or not including the management and provision of the staff to operate the facilities in which these events take place.

On the 20th of March, two days after Prime Minister Robert Abela announced the first two packet of aid measures, amounting to €1.8 billion in tax and VAT deferrals, soft loan provisions and funding for quarantined employees, event and expo organisers issued a press release expressing serious concern about the long-term viability of the industry due to lasting impacts.

Malta’s leading event and expo suppliers said in their release:

“Due to the pandemic, the whole Events & Expo industry, which falls under both the Tourism and the Small and Medium Enterprises sectors, is currently at a standstill. The industry has already seen a substantial increase in cancellations and postponements of events for 2020, with some players reporting sales figures plummeting by up to 99 per cent as a result, amounting to at least €30 million in sales for 2020.”

Industry players expressed deep concern for the wellbeing of their employees. “The sector currently employs more than 425 people, including full-timers, part-timers and casual workers, many of whom have specialised skills that are not easy to replace,” it was noted.

In the Government’s third wave of measures, it announced that companies in industries included in Annex A will receive a €800 monthly employee wage subsidy, with the employer expected to match the difference of the employee’s wage.

Mark Vella, Managing Director of Powerhouse Audiovisual (a member of the Synergix Events Group)

Following up on the inclusion of event and trade-show organisers to Annex A, WhosWho.mt spoke with Mark Vella, the Managing Director of Synergix Events Group, composed of Powerhouse Ltd (audiovisuals and events), Outdoor Living (focussing on teambuilding activities), and Synergix Events.

“In our industry, the average wage is around €1,800 for crew and €2,500 for management, so €800 is really a non-starter,” commented Mr Vella.

“We will for sure we will see a lot of layoffs in the coming days,” he added. Mr Vella noted that the event industry was one of the first to be harshly impacted by the global pandemic.

“I mean zero sales from day one,” he said, adding that he no longer has any bookings until November 2020.

Mr Vella lamented that it will be very difficult to pay the National Insurance on the Government’s grant, let alone top-up employee wages.

Minister Carmelo Abela has recently confirmed that should an employer need to make changes to the salary of an employee as it cannot match wages, they must first inform the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations and get clearance.

“The events industry will be the ‘last one’ to start having any business, mainly because, companies must first settle in after this hard hit to the economy.

“Later, probably around a year after things come back to normal, companies will then be in a position to start planning any events. Also, because 90 per cent of our business is the foreign corporate industry, I envisage that we won't get going again before April 2021.”

The economic hit on the events industry does not, of course, just impact event organisers and suppliers directly.

Jo Caruana, Founder and Content Director of WriteMeAnything

WriteMeAnything, a full service content creation company, is “lucky enough to PR some of the island’s biggest cultural events – from plays and concerts, to the COMEDY Knights and Matilda the Musical (initially due to take place in April,” remarks Jo Caruana, the founder and Content Director.

Due to events being cancelled, WriteMeAnything’s PR arm of the company has seen an impact on its business.

“It was shaping up to be a very busy few months events-wise, but they have since all been cancelled, which obviously immediately impacted us and our workload,” Ms Caruana explained.

Showing the importance of diversity in a company’s work portfolio, Ms Caruana added that the company does not work exclusively in this sector.

“So, we are still busy with other projects, but the cultural scene has come to a complete standstill, and we expect it will stay that way until at least the summer,” she said.

Asked about when she expects to see the PR and marketing bounce back, as this is often an expenditure that is the first to be put on hold in times of crisis, Ms Caruana conceded that it’s a tough call to make.

“PR and marketing is usually the first to go when things get tough, but they also tend to come back quickly when things start ramping up. I estimate that it will be a good few months before campaigns for the hardest-hit industries (like events and travel) get going again, if not more.

“In the meantime, our team is using this time to really focus on making sure that we have all the very latest skills needed to support our clients when the market improves, and are also helping them to rework their collateral (like their websites etc, which might have been ignored for a while) and pivot to make the most of any opportunities that are present. Some of our clients have already made in-roads here and it's exciting to be able to go on this journey with them.,” Ms Caruana Said.

Marc Edwards Pace Portanier,  Digital Entrepreneur

To that end, Digital Entrepreneur Marc Edwards Pace Portanier stressed the importance of being robust and agile in order to survive.

Mr Pace Portanier works as a Digital Creative consultant, specialising in professional photography and videography. His skills also cover creative direction, digital content consultation and social media management.

He mainly caters to the corporate and entertainment industries, also covering nightlife, media, live broadcast and private functions.

In a piece shared to LinkedIn, he stressed that:

“Government support, whatever it might be will not be enough to shelter us from what might happen hence the being robust with unforeseen events.

“Many companies already had an infrastructure for remote working, many freelancers have been doing this for a long time now and many companies are starting to understand its benefits.”

“Being robust in how we think and act as business leaders will set the pace for how fast we can come out of this together, and whilst calling for further government support for all industries hit by this event, as this is going to hit a lot of ancillary services such as photographers and other digital creatives, which in turn will make it harder for some sectors to recover quickly, take this time to re-think your strategies, adjust your approach and lay the groundwork for when we can all be fully up and running.”