By popular demand (i.e. a phone call from Ian saying, “where’s the blog?”), here is a summertime collection of random thoughts from 3 Whitehall Place. Or, to be more accurate, the edge of the New Forest.
Firstly, I fervently hope that you are all safe and well. Rozmin and I are hugely conscious that our sector has been one of the most badly affected by COVID-19 and are frustrated that there is very little we can do to help the situation. We are, by and large, an information and event driven organisation and, with the sector pretty much at a global standstill, there is very little of either in which we can get usefully involved. In the last couple of months, to keep the flag flying, we have prepared and distributed brochures extolling the virtues of the UK’s museum supply companies, and a catalogue of COVID-19 products and services aimed at the attractions industry. These have been well received around the world.
The emergence of virtual events has led us to look at ways in which we can try to support those UK companies wishing to attend them. We are in discussions with HM Treasury about using TAP funds to support attendance at virtual events (we were unable to resolve this in time for IAAPA Asia) and Rozmin and I have been able to use our own, modest, business development budget to help companies get involved with Connecting Culture and are planning a similar arrangement for VBlooloop.
Members will have their own views about the plethora of online events in our space. In my experience, they have ranged from very good and extremely useful events to those set up seemingly to fill a vacuum. IAAPA Asia was not quite what I imagined (though, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what I imagined) and I suppose we are all learning a new way of doing business and will get much better at it. I am sure that Connecting Culture in September and VBlooloop in October will be exemplars, and I am greatly looking forward to both.
In the world of physical events, we have, sadly, withdrawn from IAAPA Orlando – usually a highlight of our year. The risks – both health and business – just seemed too great. As I write, we are still planning a presence at MAPIC/LeisurUp. As you will all know, EXPO2020 in Dubai has been postponed for a year, which will make it, oddly, still EXPO2020. Readers may recall that we were planning a large presence at Business of Design Week (BODW) in Hong Kong last year, but political events caused the event to be cancelled. BODW is planning a hybrid physical/virtual event for this December, and we are in discussions with the HK Design Centre on how the UK can best be involved, given that travel restrictions will make it impossible to visit Hong Kong.
On a more positive note, we are planning to create two new posts in Europe with a creative industries brief. A consequence of our policy of concentrating most resources in a small number of markets (China, Hong Kong, the Gulf, North America) has been that we have lost a great deal of tribal knowledge amongst our European network. No DIT person based in Europe has the creative industries as a priority (although several colleagues have been extremely helpful in fielding enquiries – a benefit of dealing with such an interesting sector). Hopefully, these new people will be able to give tangible support to our companies doing business in Europe – as many of you will know, we have commissioned research which suggests that the museum market (COVID-19 notwithstanding) in northern Europe offers potentially promising business.
And whilst on Europe, you may have noticed that the EU Transition Period ends on 31 December. It is not yet clear what the trading environment will be at that point, but companies might find the gov.uk/transition site helpful.
I mentioned BODW in Hong Kong. As some of you know, I lived there in the early 1990s and we still have family (English and Chinese) in the city. Hong Kong has had more than its fair share of problems in the last year, but here are two traveller’s tales which illustrate the city’s entrepreneurial DNA – something that I hope will see it through tough times.
For the second half of our time in Hong Kong, we moved from Causeway Bay to Sha Tin – where we got several extra square inches of accommodation for our government allowance. From time to time, if travelling from Central back to Sha Tin, we would stop off at Tai Wai. Tai Wai is something of an anonymous place, but it was home to The Railway Tavern and the Golden Bangkok restaurant. The former is, sadly, no more. It was a working man’s boozer, its clientele a mix of expats and locals. The atmosphere was very special – 99% cigarette smoke, 1% spilled beer fumes. After a couple of pints, we would wander around to the Golden Bangkok, which served excellent Thai food. One evening, we encountered a longish queue outside. We took our place in the line, but then a grinning Chinese chap bounded up to us.
“Good evening Madam, good evening Sir. How are you? Welcome back! No queue – you are VIP. Come with me”
He led us past the queue, past the main entrance and through a side door. Up some stairs and along a corridor. We then emerged into the restaurant. We were sat at a lovely window table. This was the way to do it! But after a few moments, we realised that something was amiss. Where were the other diners? And why wasn’t there any Thai food on the menu? Yes, we had been hijacked by a rival restaurant. We left, dignity in shreds.
A few weeks earlier, I spent a lunchbreak looking for some perfume for Cathy – she was running out of New West EDC. I looked high and low in Causeway Bay before venturing into a perfume store in Wan Chai. I asked the assistant if they sold New West. She called her colleagues around. None of them had ever heard of it. I was about to leave when one grabbed my arm and said, “but we have one that smells just like it”.
Hopefully, some of you will manage a summer break. If so, have as good a time as you can manage. Let’s hope that the autumn sees the start of better times.
