Working in Europe is proving to be one of the biggest challenges for UK event agencies right now, according to the agency heads who joined our last nineteen agency leaders call.

The topic has come up several times during our leaders meetings in the last few months, with heads of agencies including OrangeDoor, DRPG and Audience among those sharing the new challenges that now have to be overcome when delivering events in Europe post-Brexit.

With each country having separate rules around visas, work permits, travel documentation, carnets and more, delivering events in Europe is an increasingly complex minefield to navigate. As a result, agencies are having to invest extra time, resources, and in many cases money, to gather the necessary information.

While agencies are finding solutions to the challenges and still successfully delivering events across Europe, leaders said it is impacting their businesses in several ways and could potentially result in them losing business to agencies based in Europe.

“It’s a nightmare understanding who can and can’t work in the different European destinations and how long they can be there. It’s another big piece of administrative work we could do without,” said one agency leader.

Another added: “With short lead times, arranging transport is becoming even harder. We currently have something stuck in France in customs and it will not make it in time for the event.”

He continued: “It’s a real concern especially as some clients are beginning to choose agencies based in Europe rather than working with us, so we could potentially lose out on a lot of business if we don’t find a better solution.”

Another agency MD said: “We organised a massive European roadshow for a retail client, and every single touchpoint was a nightmare. Just getting some goody bags out there took forever, the price of trucking is crazy, and we ended up having to use people on the ground instead of our own team, who don’t work the same way as us or take it as seriously as we do, which is frustrating. It was fine in the end, and we overcame the challenges, but it was a real headache.”

micebook is looking into how we could collaborate with event agencies and potential partners to try and help or facilitate with providing a solution or resource to help with all the information required by event agencies working in Europe. If you would like to share your challenges or get involved, email [email protected]