COVID hits International Convention Centre as events languish

Australia’s events sector – from weddings to corporate affairs to galas – is barely surviving under crippling COVID restrictions.

Event planner Anine Leakey, centre, with Rosario Autore, left, and Matthew Ely in Sydney. Picture: John Feder

Sydney’s International Convention Centre has stood down two-thirds of its staff amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has crippled the events industry.

The ICC on Darling Harbour usually hosts up to 700 events annually — including concerts, balls, galas, exhibitions, inter­national and national conferences and business summits — but will run only up to 100 in the second half of 2020.

Chief executive Geoff Donaghy said closed borders and NSW group-gathering caps of 150 had “heavily impacted” on the venue. “As a result, we have had to stand down about two-thirds of our workforce,” he said.

“The majority of our team members that have been stood down are receiving JobKeeper and as restrictions ease, we look forward to bringing them back to the venue.”

The ICC employs 400 full-time employees and a pool of 1200 casual staff.

Casual employees were stood down in March when events stopped and full-time employees were stood down in two waves in early May and August.

Last week, the federal government announced a $50m grant scheme aimed at “restarting the business events sector”.

Businesses will be encouraged to attend events, trade shows and conferences within Australia through grants to help cover the costs associated with exhibiting, such as the hire of exhibition spaces, design and manufacture of displays, travel and accommodation.

Scott Morrison said Australia’s “lucrative $36bn business events sector had virtually ground to a halt during the COVID-19 crisis”.

However, the grant scheme does not apply to thousands working in private, corporate, and brand events or the $4bn wedding industry.

Keith Clarkson, the managing director of EventSound, the Sydney-based audiovisual production company that collaborates on large-scale events, estimated its income dropped by 90 per cent since March and said the company was facing the real possibility of collapse.

He said the government’s scheme was good news for the industry but wouldn’t be of benefit to his company until large-scale events were back up and running. “Our clients … will be able to apply for grants toward (hosting) conferences and exhibitions, which will flow on to us eventually, but this doesn’t help right now given current restrictions on scale and the time it takes to put them together,” he said. “It’ll be the middle of next year before we see any of these newly funded events taking place and the engagement of our services,” he said.