Ireland is developing a new national enterprise strategy for the decade ahead, and the Event Industry Association of Ireland has made a detailed submission setting out why the businesses, professionals and supply chains responsible for delivering Ireland’s events need to be recognised more clearly within that enterprise system. The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment is currently preparing Enterprise 2035, which is intended to set a long-term direction for enterprise growth and job creation while responding to issues including digitalisation, artificial intelligence, decarbonisation, changing global trade patterns, supply-chain disruption, productivity, skills and regional development. The consultation asks stakeholders to consider not simply how existing enterprise policy should continue, but what Ireland’s enterprise economy should look like by 2035.
For EIAI, this creates an important opportunity to address a long-standing structural issue affecting the event industry. Events are highly visible in Irish public life, but the enterprise ecosystem responsible for delivering them is much less visible within public policy. Event activity can appear under tourism, culture, sport, business events, hospitality, licensing, local government, public safety or the night-time economy depending on the particular issue being considered, while the businesses that actually plan, produce and supply those events frequently operate across several of these areas.
A production company may provide services to an international conference, a public festival and a sporting event within the same month. An AV supplier may work across exhibitions, corporate events, concerts and cultural programmes, while event managers, security providers, transport companies, temporary infrastructure businesses and specialist contractors routinely operate across different event types. From an enterprise perspective, the important point is that the underlying business, skills, investment and productive capability remain the same even though the policy classification of the event may change. That distinction is at the centre of EIAI’s submission to Enterprise 2035.
The Department has already recognised events as an enterprise ecosystem
One of the most important precedents comes from the Department’s own work. Business Events 2030, published in 2025, establishes a strategic framework for the development of Ireland’s business-events sector and reports that business travel contributes more than €1 billion annually to the economy, contributes €290 million to the Exchequer and supports approximately 22,000 jobs. The strategy is explicitly intended to benefit the wider tourism ecosystem, SMEs and local economies throughout Ireland. For EIAI, however, the significance of Business Events 2030 goes beyond the economic figures. The strategy recognises that business events depend on an ecosystem of businesses and specialist suppliers and builds around that ecosystem structures for collaboration, workforce development, measurement, regional growth, innovation, sustainability and international development.
This provides a valuable starting point for considering the wider event industry because many of the enterprises required to deliver business events do not operate solely within that market. The same technical, production, logistical, creative and professional capability is used across festivals, exhibitions, sporting events, cultural events, public gatherings, corporate events and many other forms of event activity. EIAI is not proposing that Business Events 2030 should simply be expanded until it becomes a strategy for every event in Ireland, because business events have their own economic, tourism and international-development objectives. What the strategy does demonstrate, however, is that the Department already recognises that an event sector can be understood as an enterprise ecosystem and can be supported through structured policy, measurement, collaboration and workforce development.
The question raised by EIAI’s submission is therefore what happens to that enterprise capability when those same businesses are working outside the business-events category.
Learning from the way other industries are developed
The submission also considers the different structures already used within Irish enterprise policy. Retail, tourism, semiconductors, life sciences and business events are not comparable industries in every respect, nor should their structures simply be copied for events. What they demonstrate is that Government has a range of mechanisms available when it needs to understand and develop an enterprise ecosystem more strategically. Those mechanisms can include sector mapping, national strategies, permanent forums for Government-industry engagement, advisory structures, skills analysis, implementation responsibilities, data development and coordinated approaches to innovation or internationalisation. EIAI’s position is not that the event industry should automatically receive another agency or a new set of programmes, but that Ireland should first understand the wider event-industry enterprise base well enough to determine what structures and supports are actually required.
That approach is particularly relevant because many event businesses already have access to elements of Ireland’s broader enterprise-support infrastructure. The issue is not simply whether supports exist, but whether businesses operating in a project-based, cross-sector and frequently locally traded industry can identify those supports, qualify for them and use them effectively. The existing White Paper on Enterprise 2022–2030 already recognises the importance of locally traded sectors including arts, leisure and entertainment, noting their contribution to employment, regional economies and the economic and social fabric of towns and villages. It also recognises the importance of helping these businesses respond to digitalisation, climate action and productivity challenges. EIAI believes Enterprise 2035 provides an opportunity to take that thinking further.
Recognition needs to be supported by evidence
A central recommendation in the EIAI submission is that Ireland should undertake a formal mapping of the event-industry enterprise ecosystem. At present, event activity is distributed across numerous economic classifications, meaning that the businesses involved cannot simply be identified through one statistical category. An event-management company, security provider, technical supplier, transport operator, caterer, performer, software provider or temporary infrastructure business may all form part of an event supply chain while appearing elsewhere in official economic data. This makes apparently straightforward questions difficult to answer with confidence. Ireland should be able to understand how many businesses participate in the event industry, where they are located, the scale and type of employment they support, the skills upon which they depend, their regional distribution, their use of existing enterprise supports and the extent to which individual parts of the industry have international potential.
EIAI is therefore proposing that recognition should be followed by mapping and evidence gathering before significant new institutional structures are designed. That evidence can then be used to determine where existing enterprise supports are sufficient, where they are poorly aligned with the realities of event businesses and where genuine gaps remain. On that basis, EIAI believes a National Event Industry Strategy could provide a coherent long-term framework for the enterprise issues shared across the wider industry without replacing the distinct policies that properly exist for tourism, culture, sport, business events or the night-time economy.
Regulation is also part of the enterprise environment
The environment in which businesses operate is shaped not only by taxation, access to finance or labour costs, but also by regulation and administration. Events necessarily interact with planning, fire safety, roads, public spaces, workplace safety, policing and other public responsibilities, and EIAI is not advocating that appropriate safeguards should be weakened or that statutory responsibilities should be transferred away from the bodies that currently hold them. However, the way regulatory systems operate can have significant consequences for businesses, particularly SMEs working across several local-authority areas. Differences in processes, terminology, documentation requirements and lead times can create additional administrative work and uncertainty, while nationally published event Codes date from the 1990s even though legislation, technology and event-delivery practice have continued to change.
The submission therefore argues for clearer and more consistently maintained national guidance, improved digital processes, proportionate requirements and greater use of reusable national principles and templates where this can be achieved without removing legitimate local decision-making. The objective is not less regulation for its own sake, but a regulatory environment that is clearer, more predictable and easier for both businesses and public authorities to navigate.
Innovation needs to reach businesses of every size
Technology will play an increasingly important role in event delivery over the period covered by Enterprise 2035. Ticketing, accreditation, mapping, event-management platforms, accessibility technology, communications, transport planning, temporary power, energy monitoring, audience-flow tools and data systems are already changing the way events are planned and delivered, while artificial intelligence is likely to create further opportunities across administration, logistics, scheduling, customer service, document management and operational planning. For smaller businesses, however, innovation does not necessarily mean undertaking formal research and development or creating entirely new technologies. Much of the productivity gain will come from businesses being able to understand, test and adopt existing technologies effectively.
EIAI is therefore proposing an assessment of how Ireland’s existing innovation, digitalisation, AI, sustainability and commercialisation supports fit the realities of event SMEs. Rather than assuming that another stand-alone support programme is required, the first task should be to identify whether appropriate supports already exist, whether businesses know about them, whether eligibility rules work for locally traded and project-based enterprises, and where evidence demonstrates that additional intervention would be useful. Events themselves may also provide opportunities for testing technology in real operating environments, including areas such as temporary energy, accessibility, mobility, digital accreditation, site mapping and audience movement, provided that normal safety, privacy and regulatory requirements are maintained.
Building the skills and capability needed for 2035
The event industry also depends on a wide mixture of technical, operational, creative, management and specialist expertise, much of which is developed through experience as well as formal education. Career pathways can nevertheless be difficult to identify in an industry characterised by SMEs, freelance work, specialist suppliers, seasonal activity and project-based employment. EIAI’s submission therefore proposes the development of a national event-industry skills and competency framework that connects industry more effectively with further and higher education, professional development, Regional Skills structures and other relevant training systems. Recent Irish research has already identified demand for clearer competency frameworks, more flexible sector-specific development opportunities and stronger coordination between event practitioners and public bodies.
The submission also suggests that the functions previously proposed by EIAI for a National Events Centre of Excellence should be considered within that work, particularly in areas such as professional development, shared guidance, applied research, knowledge transfer and learning between industry and the public sector.
Events as part of regional enterprise development
Events are also inherently connected to place, and their economic effects extend considerably beyond the businesses directly responsible for producing them. Accommodation providers, transport companies, food and beverage businesses, retailers, attractions, venues, technical suppliers, security companies and other local enterprises can all form part of the economic activity generated by events. That makes event capability relevant to regional enterprise development as well as tourism or cultural policy. EIAI believes that Regional Enterprise Plans and local economic strategies should be capable of considering the infrastructure that allows event activity to develop, including venues and public spaces, specialist suppliers, technical skills, transport, accommodation, temporary infrastructure and local administrative capability.
This is consistent with the wider direction of Irish enterprise policy, which already recognises that locally traded sectors have an important role in employment, placemaking and regional economic resilience.
What EIAI is asking Enterprise 2035 to consider
EIAI’s detailed submission sets out a connected programme rather than a single request. It asks that the development of Enterprise 2035 consider:
- formal recognition of the event industry within national enterprise policy; mapping of the event-industry enterprise ecosystem and the supports already available to it; development of a National Event Industry Strategy based on that evidence; a permanent mechanism for structured engagement between industry, Government, enterprise agencies and relevant public bodies; modernisation and greater consistency of event administration and national guidance; assessment of how existing productivity, innovation, digitalisation, AI and sustainability supports fit event SMEs; development of a national skills and competency framework; recognition of event capability within regional enterprise development; identification of international opportunities for Irish event businesses, technology and professional expertise; inclusion of the industry within enterprise-resilience planning; and development of a sustainable national evidence base through which the industry and future policy interventions can be properly measured.
EIAI represents a membership base of more than 850 members, collectively representing over 56,000 people working across the event industry, including businesses and professionals as well as member organisations representing distinct parts of the sector. The submission reflects EIAI’s wider objective of ensuring that national policy recognises the event industry not only through the events people attend, but through the enterprises, skills, investment and professional capability required to make those events possible.
Looking towards 2035
The argument EIAI has put forward does not require the event industry to be separated from tourism, culture, sport, hospitality, business events or the other policy areas with which it naturally interacts. The industry is interconnected precisely because events draw together businesses and expertise from many different parts of the economy. What is currently less developed is the enterprise-policy lens through which those businesses can be considered collectively.
By 2035, EIAI’s submission argues that Ireland should be able to identify and understand that enterprise ecosystem, measure its contribution and needs more reliably, connect its businesses effectively with innovation and productivity supports, plan for its future skills requirements, improve the administrative environment in which it operates and recognise the role event capability can play in regional development, resilience and international opportunity.
Enterprise 2035 provides an opportunity to establish that foundation as part of Ireland’s wider enterprise strategy for the decade ahead. The Department’s consultation is currently open until 5pm on Friday, 2 October 2026. Please click here if you would like to make a submission.
