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Australian Event Industry celebrates halving of square metre rule and lifting of attendee cap

Dec 2, 2020

business_events_sydney — Photo Credit: BESydney

Business events are back in NSW

BESydney welcomes today’s announcement from the NSW Government which will see social distancing requirements eased across the state to allow one person per two square metres for corporate events, with no caps on attendees.

Previously, the maximum number of people who could attend a corporate indoor event could not exceed 300 people or one person per four square metres, whichever was the lesser, which was not economically viable for the majority of businesses.

Lyn Lewis-Smith

BESydney CEO

BESydney CEO Lyn Lewis-Smith said: “This is a fantastic outcome for business events in NSW and is what the whole industry has been working so hard towards. This change is a major milestone in building business confidence to commit to restarting business events again.”

Ms. Lewis-Smith applauded the NSW Government and in particular, Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres’ work to achieve this outcome. “In their drive to kickstart the state’s economy, Minister Ayres and his team have worked incredibly hard to get to this point where we can now get thousands of people back into work facilitating business meetings, networking, knowledge exchange and deal-making.”

“This year has been one of the most challenging for our industry to date. I’m thrilled to see this huge step being taken as we look forward to once again welcoming business visitors back to Sydney and NSW in the months ahead, to connect people, ideas and knowledge, and drive economic, social and educational benefit. We look forward to moving forward with confidence and building on the pipeline of events that we have already secured for our city and state, supported by our recently launched campaign, It’s got to be Sydney,” said Ms. Lewis-Smith.

lyn_lewis_smith — Photo Credit: BESydney

Despite the immediate and significant impacts of COVID-19 to the industry, working with partners, BESydney has rescheduled 70% of meetings from this year into future years and has 85 meetings and incentives confirmed for Sydney from CY 2021 to 2026 as at December 2020.

NSW is Australia’s leading destination for hosting meetings, conferences, exhibitions and incentives. Sydney’s world-class event facilities, quality accommodation, unique experiences for visitors and proven track record in delivering events, make the State a perfect fit to host business events.
Business Events Council of Australia estimated a loss of $35.7 billion during 2020 as a result of COVID-19, with approximately a third of this from NSW.