“Our research says”

Yesterday morning I was listening to the radio (my media of choice) and getting a fix on where things are at with Covid and the hospitality industry.
Firstly (and this is not the point of my blog), it appears that events are no longer in hospitality. Is that official?
The reason I ask is that every time the hospitality industry is spoken about and referred to on the news (well….BBC) they only ever talk about bars and restaurants. No mention of exhibition or events venues or suppliers. More of that another time but I suspect, therein lies a major if not THE problem our sector has.
Anyway, on came the hardworking and ever-present Kate Nicholls, CEO of UK Hospitality. She was actually on her way to meet with the government before an announcement (no doubt to be consulted) and she spoke very eloquently about the state of the industry. But one thing she said struck me as weak. Along with many other industry bodies, what Kate said was “our research said”.
I’ve always thought ‘research’ is a bit weak. If you ask me a question about what I think, feel, might do etc I will happily give you an answer but its not necessarily what I WILL do.
Until very recently, our events and hospitality industry has been using numbers based on ‘research’ data that is over 2 years old. Maybe even 3.
How on earth can we expect a government to take us seriously if we only have those ‘research’ numbers to waft in their faces. They will (and quite frankly have) laughed at us and not taken us seriously. “our research says”. So weak.
FULL DISCLOSURE
I have a platform that counts and measures actual, hardcore, commercial numbers……every month, for the events venues industry. I’ve been doing it for the last 3 years and it can even see into the future. Yes really. I promise. If we all use that platform, then no more ‘research’ is needed because we have the exact data immediately at our finger tips.
Don’t take my word for it – check out a recent article by the brilliant Martin Fullard (or watch the video below)

So, calling all events venues: Please come and use/contribute to the data:
www.venueperformance.com