Host James Dickson attended the AEV (Association of Event Venues) Conference at the Business Design Centre (BDC) last month, a fertile ground for podcast content. In these four rapid-fire Q&A sets, James talks to management from some key locations, north and south. We kick off with Kate Simpson, marketing and comms director at the BDC, together with Paddy Lynn, head of events management at P&J Live, a conference and events venue in Scotland. Both venues have served as vaccination centres and the focus here is, post ‘freedom day’’/pre-Omicron, on getting the event needle back on the record - dealing with diaries, delays and postponements, managing turnarounds, the sanitising everything process, concessions from organisers, branding and beyond. Max Ball, executive director at the Business Design Centre, is in the second podcast with Sean Hinds, Manchester Central ‘s chief exec, and Simon Mill, chief commercial officer at Excel. Beyond the AEV 2021 success story, they discuss their lockdown learnings, the benefits of what has turned out to be a short return to live events and the pressure venues had to put on government to reopen beforehand. Up next, Alden Arnold, project manager for the Association of Event Venues, has a quick look at shorter lead times, the hunger for the original live return, collaborations and compromise, asset sharing, interaction and attentivity. This edition of the EIN podcast wraps with Lauren Hudson, health, safety and sustainability advisor at Manchester Central, and Siân Richards, who’s in a similar role at Olympia London, talking sustainability and the pandemic impact on objectives and execution. They touch on the net zero roadmap, COP26, conscientious thinking, fielding questions from organisers and energy usage on the show floor.

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