Four Swedish trade bodies have formed an alliance in a bid to strengthen knowledge about the country’s live events’ industry and how it can be developed.

Swedish promoters’ association Svensk Live is collaborating with Swedish Performing Arts, the Swedish Sports Confederation and hospitality organisation Visita on the project, which is being overseen by the Visiting Industry Research and Development Fund (BFUF).

The groups plan to gather “relevant and reliable” statistics on an annual basis to measure the sector’s financial contribution to Sweden, including the contribution to the hospitality industry and the number of jobs, with the first set of findings to be presented at the start of next summer.

“We have collaborated with each other on a number of previous issues such as climate change, security and safety, as well as all cooperation during the pandemic,” says Joppe Pihlgren, operations manager for Svensk Live. “That our organisations now also collaborate on statistics feels very natural.”

FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE WILL GET RELIABLE STATISTICS

The work will be based on a feasibility study delivered at the beginning of the summer of 2021, and the coalition says the results will provide a better basis for development and political decisions regarding the industry.

“So far, similar surveys have been conducted in different ways in different parts of the country,” adds Mikael Brännvall, CEO of Swedish Performing Arts. “What we will now get is a common way of measuring and, for the first time, we will get reliable statistics.”

The work is financed by the participating organisations with the support of the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, which is contributing SEK 1.5 million (€151,297) of the total budget of SEK 2.4m (€242,071).