LiveCom European Industry Survey reveals growth

The first pan-European survey of the live communication industry, using data from seven countries, has revealed positive growth trends with an average of 83% of respondents expecting budgets to grow or stay the same across six key markets. The LiveCom European Industry Survey 2016 captured existing data from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK. More respondents expect budgets to increase than decrease in all markets except Belgium, where 4% more expect a decrease. The Netherlands (56%) and Italy (49%) had the highest number of respondents expecting budget increases. Using data gathered after the Brexit referendum result, the UK market was broadly cautious with as many as 74% expecting budgets to remain the same while it also had the lowest expectations of falling budgets – just 6%. The rate of expected budget growth was higher in the UK (6.3%) than in Italy (4.3%), Spain and Sweden (both 3.7%). Steve Garvey, CEO of EVCOM, said: “The first LiveCom Alliance European Industry Survey shows how strongly the UK’s events professionals are performing in an industry that is broadly confident of growth. We strongly support this first step towards a comprehensive pan-European survey of our industry.” Maarten Schram, founder and chairman of the LiveCom Alliance, added: “We want to build on the simple foundations we have now established and produce a bigger survey in 2017. We are exploring our own market research, focused on specified numbers working towards our ultimate goal of creating a value of what our pan-European industry is worth and how many people it employs. We believe this will demonstrate the contribution live communication makes to the European economy and support its continued development.”