Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Keep Britain Talking campaign?

The campaign is an initiative run by the meetings and events industry, for the meetings and events industry.  Its core objectives are to raise awareness of the value of meetings and events to wider business, and as a lobbying tool to garner more governmental support for the industry.
The campaigns key messages this year are all focused on promoting UK meetings so will focus on:

• Buying meetings and events
• Buying British
• Britain means value

What is the connection with the Keep American Meeting campaign?

There is no official partnership with the US campaign; however Keep Britain Talking is a show of solidarity for our friends within the US meetings industry, which has suffered greatly due to government restrictions and negative media perceptions.
Our own campaign is designed as a pre-emptive initiative to ensure against similarly detrimental legislation, but also to actively lobby government for more support for the campaign.

How is this campaign different from National Meetings Week?

Keep Britain Talking is the campaign identity of this year’s National Meetings Week. The activity retains the main core objectives of National Meetings Week, but presents a harder content in keeping with the urgent needs of the UK meetings industry.

What is the involvement of VisitBritain?

National Meetings Week enters its 9th year and VisitBritain will be coordinating the campaign for the second year. This is part of VisitBritain’s remit to attract business visits and events to the UK and to stimulate this vital visitor market.

What are the key campaign activities of Keep Britain Talking?

The campaign will focus on three key elements

• Government Lobbying: using the connections of VisitBritain to raise awareness of the UK meetings industry and its economic contribution to UK government
• National PR: a nationally targeted PR campaign, aimed at wider business audiences to raise awareness of the efficacy of meetings and events
• Industry PR: an industry focused initiative to encourage wider support for the campaign and to present a united industry

Why has use the wording ‘Talking’ instead of ‘Meeting’?

National Meetings Week has long embraced a wider section of the UK meetings and events market than straight forward ‘meetings’. In front of wider business audiences, the word ‘meeting’ is limited to straightforward internal meetings rather than the full spectrum of event communication.
The word ‘Talking’ better encompasses face to face communication and opens the campaign to every sort of meeting and event. This is vital given the current economic environment and the negative affect it is having across the industry.

Why change the campaign identity now?

The dual impact of both the current economic environment, and the masses of negative media coverage, has combined to create one of the most hostile operating environments ever faced by the UK meetings industry.
The role of National Meetings Week is to support and represent the meetings industry and so activity support the industry through these difficult times. For this reason the campaign has changed its strategy and now its identity to better achieve its core campaign objectives.