news

Eventia Update BT Investigation

In February 2010, Eventia started an investigation into the issues surrounding the alleged fast track appointment of the Waterford House Partnership to the BT events agency roster.

The Waterford House Partnership was not on the BT roster and was in fact a start-up agency owned by Kevin Ingram, previously the largest shareholder in the THA group which folded with debts of more than £6 million, including around £100K of BT shareholders’ money.

Eventia was keen to discuss this with BT and point out that they did not adhere to their own event agency roster guidelines by recruiting the services of The Waterford House Partnership for an event. Several Eventia members are currently either members of the BT roster or applied to be members of the BT roster and Eventia was keen to protect their interest. 

Eventia CEO Izania Downie met with BT senior management in February and made it clear that the events industry – which includes a lot of BT shareholders – was less than impressed by BT’s idea of good practice. 

Downie said: “The response I have received was that BT Global services was halfway through its BT Masters Club 2010 with the event in Istanbul and it would have been too complicated to bring in another agency. I pointed out that a lot of our member agencies that were on the roster and satisfied BT’s procurement policy would have been glad to have handled the work and were concerned that the project had been handed to an agency with no track record and no proven trading history instead. I also pointed out that a lot of creditors were angry that BT had operated in this way, including previous THA staff.

"BT said that the project wasn't considered an ‘event’ at the time which is how they justified the appointment of the Waterford House Partnership to continue the work started by THA. They argued that technically they weren't obliged to put it out to the agencies on the roster.

“They were keen to explain their side of the story and didn't understand the ramifications across the industry until I explained the fact that many agencies who were on the roster could have fulfilled the work and therefore couldn't understand BT's actions which was why agencies complained to Eventia and asked us to take action. 

“Since my meeting they have agreed to put that programme within the official events roster so everyone on the roster can tender for it, making it an even playing field. 

“The fact that they have listened to us on behalf of the industry and made this change demonstrates why it’s so important for us to have a dedicated voice for the industry.” 

Eventia has an official CIPS guide to procuring event services that was developed as a standard best practice document.  Many of Eventia’s members collaborated to create this document and it forms a good starting point for discussions between agencies, their clients and procurement departments. 

The CIPS Guide is available free of charge to Eventia members via the Eventia website (www.eventia.org.uk). The introduction to the guide follows this statement. 

Eventia is also planning to hold seminars that members and their clients can attend in order to fully understand the guide and best practice in procurement.