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ABTT ISG Members' Update:
March 2020

Dear ISG Member,

We are sure you are still very involved in planning for the effects of the current pandemic. This ISG Update therefore concentrates on three items which we hope will be immediately relevant and useful to some if not all.

We are very sorry to have had to cancel the first ISG Forum for 2020 which was to be held on Wednesday 25^th March. As it seems we are all still very busy setting up arrangements and provisions for the new circumstances we find ourselves in, we shall not attempt to arrange a ‘virtual’ gathering until later in the year.

In the meantime, the ABTT continues, for the moment, as normal and stands ready to offer any support it can so please do keep in contact.

Kind regards,
The ABTT Team

URGENT COVID-19:

Sending the message of what we must do…

The potential of the Covid-19 pandemic to cause a catastrophe must be recognised. It is of great concern that many have not yet appreciated how serious the situation is and are still not acting effectively on government advice.

In the UK, we are not familiar with the need to act on statements made by politicians with immediate and absolute effect.

The theatre and entertainments industry is in a unique position to communicate and influence peoples’ behaviour in a way that politicians can’t.

All of us in the technical and production sector are connected to many who enjoy huge recognition by the public and who have significant power to influence their behaviour. Please consider how you could use your connections to guide peoples’ behaviour and help save lives around the world. Encouraging effective messaging and ensuring a swift compliance with government advice will also make a huge difference to our economies, businesses and the lives we lead.

It is highly likely that a message from someone like ‘Dame Judy Dench’ will gain more action than another announcement by the Prime Minister.

As an industry, let us harness the profile and relationship our performers and creatives have with so many in our society in order to ensure we all take this crisis seriously and that everyone does all that they need to do.

Please recruit and support all the artists, directors, actors, singers and writers who you know and who have a public profile to advocate on their social media and other communications that we need to take this pandemic very seriously and to heed and implement all the advice comprehensively.

Take an hour of your working day, and ask your staff to do the same, to phone/message/text/Facetime, etc. Make sure you contact all the leaders in you networks and in particular all those with a voice the public will hear, as well as friends and family, to remind them this is serious; that they must be responsible; that they must act on the government guidance and that they must encourage others to do the same.

Thank you.

Lending a hand…

For those from our industry who might have time available, in addition to the help you may like to offer by volunteering to support the sick and vulnerable in your communities, there may be specific skills you could make available to help the NHS. Please consider the following or similar initiatives:

Please declare the skills and help you could offer by completing the form.

Complete the form here

Planning for continued business…

For those of you who feel it appropriate to your commercial activities, you may wish to collaborate with the following industry coalition who have written to The Right Honourable Rishi Sunak MP,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, on behalf of all UK equipment rental companies in the entertainment and events industry asking for safeguards against the economic effects of COVID-19. Please see a draft copy of the full letter here.

As a result of the urgent and essential measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the ABTT Sailing Regatta planned for 10th July 2020 has been postponed until further notice. We look forward to re-arranging this event when circumstances permit.