The Purple Guide welcomed visitors to the Showman’s Show meetings tent for a morning of interactive discussions about developments to the outdoor events industry’s cornerstone guidance publication, 23rd October, 2025.
The Purple Guide is curated by the Event Industry Forum (EIF), whose Chair, Steve Heap, introduced proceedings. He explained: “Having grown from12 to 45 chapters since it was taken over by EIF from the HSE, the Purple Guide is undergoing a reformat and design update to make it a more consistent, user-friendly for subscribers to use.”
“This year, we launched The Purple Guide Lite, which gives condensed guidance with an event management plan for the thousands of (often voluntary) organisers putting on events up to 500 capacity, who don’t need 45 chapters of guidance,” Heap added.
He then introduced the panel comprising Jim Winship (Director of EIF and editor of the Purple Guide), Ian Baird (EIF Director and member of the Local Authority Event Organisers Group (LAEOG), and John Gallery (research lead at UK Events). Winship said: “With around 5,000 event professionals subscribing to The Purple Guide, we are responding to user feedback to make it easier to reference the vast amounts of guidance, pointing to legislation and best practice in outdoor events. We are also developing an international version which will be launched in the New YearThis will focus on best practice guidance, leaving aside the legislation, which can vary greatly from country to country.”
This led on to one of the most significant discussions of the morning session, where the panellists described their hope for the imminent agreement of the Secretary of State for Business & Trade agreeing to the launch of a Primary Authority scheme in relation to the Purple Guide. This would give the Purple Guide quasi legal status with one local authority acting as advisors to the Forum and subscribers. Winship explained: “Primary Authority” is a national scheme allowing businesses to form a statutory partnership with a single local authority to receive assured, consistent regulatory advice on compliance matters,” He added. “This single point of contact for interpretation of legislation and guidance would be a major step towards achieving a consistent approach for organising outdoor events across the country. This would enable businesses working across different areas of the country to operate with greater confidence and help to minimise the risk of conflicting advice or enforcement actions from different local authorities. The development of a Primary Authority around The Purple Guide would be the first time the scheme has been applied to a guidance document.”
Ian Biard and John Gallery then spoke, and there was an informative Q&A session with the delegates.
Claire Drakely, Senior Lecturer at the University of Northampton, The Power of Events Project Strategic Lead for Research, Insights and Policy, then took to the stage to launch the Outdoor Events Impact Survey. She commented: “The survey will provide valuable information to support the outdoor event industry’s leading trade bodies’ engagement with the government, armed with accurate up-to-date statistics. It will also provide invaluable data for event organisers.
“This groundbreaking survey has been a year in the making, supported by funding from the Purple Guide Grants scheme. We encourage everyone involved in the outdoor sector to download and register on the Events Industry Insights App (free) now and provide their information to build a comprehensive overview of the socio-economic impacts of this vast sector,” Drakely said.
The Outdoor Events Survey is open for eight weeks and will:
– Robustly articulate the economic value and impact of the outdoor events industry and its supply chain across the UK, including employment and visitor statistics, and event and attendee spend
– Identify the number of people attending outdoor events with consideration of urban and rural differentiation and associated economic impact
– Collate an overview of the social and cultural impact of the outdoor events industry, specifically in relation to local communities and local authorities
“We are relying on industry-wide participation, so we have designed an easy-to-access survey on the Power of Events App to make this as time-effective as possible, recognising that everyone is under time pressure,” Drakely said.
Rick Stanton, Power Of Events CEO, concluded: “I urge all outdoor event professionals to participate in the survey to create a significant piece of information so that we can properly represent the industry to government, local authorities, and commercial stakeholders.”
You can complete the survey here: https://www.thepowerofevents.org/eif-value-of-outdoor-events-study/
