Business events: applicant guidance and funding criteria

This guidance note contains advice for event owners and organisers wishing to apply for Welsh Government Event Wales funding for Business Events and must be read in full before making an application. There is a similar, but separate application process for culture and sport events, for which guidance can be accessed here: Sport and culture events: application guidance and funding criteria

Before making an application, you must speak to a member of the Event Wales team to determine if your event and proposal aligns with our National Events Strategy for Wales 2022 to 2030 and budget availability for the year in which you wish to apply. Please contact us with a brief outline of your event/proposal at eventwales@gov.wales and an appropriate member of the team will contact you to arrange a discussion. Lead in times for consideration of any award of funding is usually a minimum of 12 months so this will need to be factored into your submission for funding and timing of your event. 

As part of that discussion, we will also consider with you, and any other potential funders (such as Arts Council of Wales or local regional authority), how your proposal aligns with their strategic priorities and the range of impacts and strategic outputs which we would expect to be delivered as a result of our investment in your event and to ensure there is no potential for duplication of funding awarded by other bodies.

Welsh Government has a duty to protect public funds, ensuring they are well-managed and used only for their intended purposes. Please ensure you familiarise yourself with what we expect of grant-funded bodies, and third parties who manage grant schemes on our behalf: Welsh Government expectations of grant recipients | GOV.WALES.

Event Wales is not a recurring grant giving body or sponsor. We operate as a time-limited strategic investor to support the development and growth of events, or to attract major international events to Wales. The purpose of Event Wales funding is not simply to relieve budget pressures and will therefore not be provided towards existing core event delivery costs, or any capital costs, but instead to bring added value to an event, through support for new or enhanced event related activities, which deliver positive economic and social impacts to Wales and/or raise Wales’ international profile (or to prevent the discontinuation of such activities which would have a detrimental effect on existing impacts), such as:

• Marketing and promotion activity to attract additional or new audiences to the awareness of Wales as a business events destination, and to leverage the Cymru Wales brand in international tourism and business markets
• Attracting business events that support the Wellbeing for Future Generations, International Strategy for Wales and The National Event Strategy for Wales 2022 to 2030
• Maximise the contribution of business events to Wales and develop Wales’ reputation for delivering safe, sustainable and high-quality business events, that create an excellent experience for attendees, delegates and visitors.

Stage 1

Following the initial discussion with one of our team, if we determine your event and proposal potentially aligns with our Strategy, you will be asked to complete an application questionnaire to provide further, detailed, information about your event, organisation, purpose of funding request and what ‘added value’ this will deliver to enable us to fully assess whether your event meets the strategic priorities of Event Wales. 

Completion of the application questionnaire is not a guarantee of funding. 

Only once an assessment of the information provided has been satisfactorily completed, and due diligence checks undertaken, will your application be put forward for consideration by the Director of Culture, Tourism and Sport or Ministers, depending on the level of funding being sought. You should therefore not commit yourself to any additional or avoidable expenditure related to your application until this process is completed and where a funding award letter is issued by us, signed and returned by you and receipted by Event Wales.

Your proposals will be assessed against the published criteria at Annex 1, appropriate to the nature, and scale of your event and meets our eligibility criteria at Annex 2. 

When completing the assessment, it is important that you include firm evidence of how your event meets the criteria. For existing events, you must provide data (delegate/visitor numbers etc) from the most recent event. For new events, please reference any research into events of a similar nature and scale. In addition, you will need to evidence and include confirmation of Local Regional Authority and any other relevant body support (financial or in-kind) confirmed or sought for your event.

When completing the economic impact section of the questionnaire, please note that for the purposes of the calculation the host economy should be defined as Wales, not the town or region where your event is held. Further guidance on using the calculator is available on the eventImpacts website.

The assessment form should be returned by email to the appraisal officer who undertook the initial discussion and with the eventwales@gov.wales mailbox address copied into the email.

Should your application be approved, the information provided will be used as the basis of targets for inclusion in your Award of Funding (e.g. delegate numbers, social media engagement etc). Funding is conditional upon achievement of these targets so you must provide as accurate information as possible as failure to meet targets in the absence of any mitigating circumstances may lead to a corresponding reduction of the grant awarded.

Stage 2

Subject to satisfactory assessment of your application and level of funding applied for, you may be asked to provide: 

• a projected income/expenditure account for the proposed amount of funding applied for against actual spend allocated to the business event 
• aims, objectives and targets of the proposed event
• further clarification of governance and management arrangements, highlighting experience of business events management 
• budget forecasts (income and expenditure projections for each year of funding applied for)
• risk management plans
• marketing plans
• impact and legacy plans

You must also submit the following where these are in place or, otherwise, information regarding your plans to develop and implement such policies during the funding period. The Event Wales team can provide advice and guidance on these and further information and resource links are at Annex 3.

• Welsh language policy (which aligns with the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011)
• Sustainable event management policy (which aligns with the BS ISO 20121 Standard on Sustainable Event Management or other suitable and relevant standards in place)
• Equality, Diversity, Inclusion policy (which aligns with the Equality Act 2010)
• Your event alignment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and or Well-being Future Generations Act pillars 

The Event Wales team can provide advice and guidance on these and further information and resource links are available on our website e.g. the “Helo Blod” Welsh language advice service. 

We will use your business/management plan to assess your experience of successfully delivering events and the overall viability of your proposals both financially and in terms of delivering a long-term positive impact for Wales. At this stage due diligence checks will also be undertaken and you may be asked for further information, such as up to date management accounts to assist this. 

We may also share your proposal with relevant colleagues in other Welsh Government departments for additional views on how your proposal aligns with their strategies or provides opportunities to leverage associated benefits. This could include, but not limited to: Visit Wales, Creative Wales, International Relations, Transport, Health and Education. Where relevant we will also seek the views of, or confirmation of funding from, external bodies such as the Arts Council of Wales, Sport Wales or appropriate Local Authority.

Our Strategy highlights the importance of strong partnerships and where relevant, there should be a proposal in place for delivering your event that explores opportunities to forge new strategic alliances and develop new forms of collaboration with public and private partners across geographic, organisational, and sectoral boundaries. 

Timetable

There are no ‘bidding rounds’. Applications may be submitted at any time, and for any year, subject to eligibility and available budget. By its very nature, the international events industry is highly competitive and built on long term planning with lead-in times of several years for some events. As a result, significant proportions of the Event Wales budget can be committed several years in advance and our lead-in time for consideration of funding support is normally 12-18 months. You should therefore speak to us at the earliest possible opportunity. We are happy to discuss proposals in draft and revisit these when they are further developed.

We will not consider any applications for an event due to take place within 6 months of first contact, other than in exceptional circumstances and subject to available budget and other competing priorities at that time.

Once all requested documentation has been received and we have completed our assessment and due diligence checks, advice will be submitted to either the Deputy Director of Event Wales, Director of Culture, Tourism and Sport or Ministers for consideration (based on value of application). The timescale for assessment and decision making can be subject to a number of factors so whilst we will endeavour to provide this to you as soon as we can. We recommend that you allow a minimum of 8-12 weeks for this process to be completed. 

If the decision is taken not to support your event, we will provide you with a detailed explanation of the reasons why. 

If your application is approved, a formal Award of Funding will be discussed with you and must be agreed, signed and returned to us by you, before the funding is made available to you. Further guidance on next steps is at Annex 2.

Awards of funding will be made under one of the schemes below depending on the nature and value of the application. You should therefore declare, in your assessment form at section D question 3, any other awards made under any of these schemes in the preceding 3 financial years including the current one. 

SC11002 – Event Wales, Business Events Scheme 

SC10185 - Welsh Government Culture and Heritage Conservation Scheme 

SC10591 – Major sporting events 2022 to 2030 

All information submitted to us in pursuance of Event Wales funding, including any personal data we collect will be managed in accordance with the advice in this guidance and the Welsh Government’s Privacy Notice for Grants and the Meet In Wales Business Clients Privacy Notice.

If you actively opt-in to our client database to receive Meet In Wales updates and e-newsletters, any personal data we collect will be managed in accordance with the Meet In Wales Marketing Newsletter Privacy Notice.

Grant documentation held by the Welsh Government, will be retained for at least 10 years, in accordance with the Welsh Government Retention and Disposal Schedule and the Welsh Government Grant Privacy Notice.

All successful awards of funding, including their value, will be published in a Decision Report on gov.wales.

Awards in excess of £100,000 will also be published on the UK Subsidy Register in line with UK Government requirements.

Place

• Number of (unique) visitors/ delegates from outside Wales 
  • National Well-being goal: prosperous
• Net additional contribution to Welsh economy (using EventIMPACTS)  
  • National Well-being goal: prosperous
• Value of contracts to local suppliers 
  • National Well-being goal: prosperous
• Other private or public sector investment leveraged 
  • National Well-being goal: prosperous

Planet

• Sustainability/Waste management plan in place 
  • National Well-being goal: resilient; globally responsible
• Public commitment to environmental practices/circular economy approach e.g  strategy in place to encourage attendees to use sustainable transport 
  • National Well-being goal: globally responsible

People

• Plan in place to promote Wales as destination for repeat visits, events, business, study and leisure 
  • National Well-being goal: healthier; vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language
• Promotion  of wellbeing to targeted audiences (delegate experiences/ out of conference activities / additional B2B meetings/new partnerships) 
  • National Well-being goal: more equal
• Equality, Diversity, Inclusion policy in place (aligning with the Equality Act 2010) 
  • National Well-being goal: more equal
• Commitment to the Code of Practice on Ethical Employment in Supply Chain 
  • National Well-being goal: more equal
• Targeted local community engagement plan in place 
  • National Well-being goal: cohesive communities
• Number and nature of outreach programmes 
  • National Well-being goal: cohesive communities
• Number and nature of volunteer opportunities created 
  • National Well-being goal: cohesive communities
• Welsh Language policy in place or implemented (bilingual venue and event welcome signage etc) 
  • National Well-being goal: vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language

International Profile and visitor economy

• Number of planned territories for media engagement (or with other relevance such as base location of visiting artists, athletes, or delegates)
• Number of Social media followers/engagements/impressions for the event
• Plan to integrate Cymru Wales brand values into event marketing

The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales. There are 7 connected well-being goals for Wales. The ‘Essentials Guide’ to the Act can be viewed here: Well-being of future generations act: the essentials

To be eligible for support, the following criteria applies:

1. The business event should attract a minimum of 100 out-of-Wales event attendees/delegates to the destination for a minimum of one night. Out of state attendees are visitors who are not from Wales. Day visitors and virtual attendees are not included in the funding criteria, however these figures count towards outputs for showcasing Wales as a destination for business and leisure visits, so must be included in your response.   
2. The business event must be held in Wales and include use of overnight accommodation in Wales
3. The business event must demonstrate that it would not come to Wales or be able to add significant added value to Wales unless support is provided 
4. The subject areas of the business event should support Wales’ economic, event, tourism, social and cultural priorities 
5. If your application is successful, you may, where requested, need to provide further information such as breakdown of demographic attendee data and financial project management in the form of a detailed projected income/expenditure account for the proposed Wales business event. 
6. Applications will be assessed against the Scheme criteria and only conferences deemed to match the objectives of the Scheme most closely will be considered for support. Applications should include all supporting documentation as detailed in the application form.
7. Financial support of £5,000 to £25,000 is available based on the number of eligible delegates in attendance. Proposals backed by a strong business case requiring more than £25,000 per application, may be considered on a case-by-case basis and subject to available funds and eligibility. 

In applying to the scheme, applicants must also agree to the following conditions:

• As part of the agreement in accepting Conference Support, the venue/host may request that researchers will be allowed to interview a sample of delegates on the day(s) of the business event to allow them to assess economic value and contribution to tourism in Wales and also provide feedback on tourism event products and services. Researchers may also undertake random sampling on conferences delegate lists to confirm attendance of delegates 
• If the business event does not deliver the stated number of delegates, the funding may be reconciled post event and the post event claim (+/- 25%) may be amended to reflect the actual number of attendees if less than the award
• In the event of the organiser having claimed pre-event funding for more delegates than actually attended, funders reserve the right to claw back part of the funding. Funders will take into consideration all circumstances including those deemed outside of the control of the business event organisers 
• The organiser must commit to promotion of business extenders/partner programmes or demonstrate how they will encourage repeat leisure visits to include other regions of Wales away from the business event taking place
• The application is criteria based and will be evaluated as such
• Welsh Government staff can support the bidding process where appropriate with letters of support from Ministers/ Directors where relevant, necessary, and suitable to the process need 

Eligible Costs 

The following costs will be deemed eligible for consideration for assistance:

• Secondary Venue costs, including AV, technical/hybrid support costs but excluding any food and beverage costs unless the sense of place is being enhanced through the promotion of Welsh Food and Drink, bilingual menus and Welsh entertainment as part of the event offer etc 
• Event marketing where Wales is promoted
• Pre-event marketing costs such as social for delegate registrations
• Delegate transfer costs outside of standard transport fees and where suitable and required for event need and to add value to the delegate experience in Wales 
• Speaker costs (e.g. to support international speakers travel costs)
• Enhancement experiences i.e curated tours/ visits to attractions linked to the business event to further promote the product offer and culture of Wales 
• Any other item of expenditure deemed essential to help deliver the conference in Wales will be considered on a case-by-case basis

Non-Eligible Costs

The following areas will not be considered eligible for assistance.

• Event Management Fees to organise and host the business event 
• Actual Food, beverage, venue hire and bedroom accommodation or transport from venue to accommodation costs 
• Loose fittings and fixtures i.e. items which can be used at future business events taking place outside of Wales 
• Retrospective support cannot be given for activity undertaken before application is approved and Letter of Offer received

Types of event support

Welsh Government is offering grant-funding of: 

• From £5,000 to £25,000 per business event application. 
• Proposals backed by a strong business case, requiring more than £25,000 per application, may be considered on a case-by-case basis (subject to available funds). 
• Applications from various types of organisations, including but not limited to; business event owners, event planners and destination management organisations, convention bureaus supporting bids, PCOs (Professional Conference Organisers) or associations will be welcomed. 
• Proposals backed by a strong business case, may be considered on a case-by-case basis. Applications for business events that are already confirmed for Wales will only be considered where a strong business case is submitted and supported by the venue that additional subvention could add significant added value to Wales and will be considered on a case-by-case basis subject to available funds.

If an offer of funding is approved you will receive an interim notification of this decision and subsequently issued with a formal Funding Award Letter. It is only once this Award Letter is signed and returned that the funding will be made available. You should therefore not commit yourself to any additional or avoidable expenditure related to your application until this process is completed. Any such expenditure is at your own risk and may jeopardise your application if it is considered that funding is not therefore needed to support that activity.

In addition to the standard Welsh Government terms and conditions, specific conditions and targets will be set based on the information provided in your application. The agreement will place legally binding obligations on you, and you should be confident that you will be able to comply with the terms of the agreement and meet the targets set out in the agreement before signing it. 

Once the funding letter has been agreed and signed you should make note of the key dates and associated grant conditions. 

Where the application has been approved for payments by instalment, cumulative instalments may be withheld if there are outstanding conditions to be met on prior instalments. As Welsh Government is not able to carry funds between financial years any outstanding grant not claimed, may therefore become unavailable.

Publicity and use of Welsh Government/Cymru Wales logos

Event marketing and PR is the sole responsibility of the event owner and, whilst we will endeavour to make appropriate links to current Visit Wales, or other Welsh Government promotional campaigns, it is not the role of Welsh Government to promote or market the event directly.

All uses of Welsh Government owned logos and brands must be cleared in advance by Event Wales. Similarly, any Ministerial quotes for press releases or event programme welcomes must be agreed in advance. These agreements involve other departments, and you should therefore allow appropriate time to obtain these clearances. We recommend a minimum of 10 working days.

Payment of funding and pre-event monitoring conditions

Funding for Business Events subvention tend to be made in one payment post event, however where there is a requirement for instalments these are usually paid in equal instalments of the total award value. Changes to this profile may be considered, on an exceptional basis, subject to business need. 

Grant conditions are applicable to all instalments, and you should familiarise yourself with these in advance, in order to meet the agreed timescales as noted above.

For applications that are agreed for instalments, the instalments are based on need, and evidence of expenditure is therefore required in support of each. This may take the form of copy invoices, purchase orders, contracts, or similar totalling the value of the instalment claimed. Where these are too numerous to practically supply, a breakdown of costs accompanied by a sample of these documents across the range of price points can be considered instead. 

A pre-event progress report is required for all funded events. This should be submitted not later than 3 months prior to the event. This progress report should be submitted on the template which will be provided to you. This information need not be extensive but must be sufficiently detailed as to allow us to consider that appropriate progress, or efforts towards progress, is being achieved

Failure to provide this report, by the due date, or at all, may result in the withdrawal of the grant award.

Post-event monitoring

Following the event you are required to submit a post-event report detailing how far the grant conditions and targets were met. This should be submitted on the template provided, not later than 3 months after the event has taken place (again this will be specified in your Award letter). If an external report has been completed for other recipients (e.g. sponsors or other funders) you may submit this instead, provided it covers all information requested in the template. Where this is not the case any additional information should be provided on the template alongside the external report.

You will also be required to provide a detailed expenditure and income breakdown for the event and, for Awards in excess of £30,000 (annually) this should be accompanied by an Independent Audit Letter (this will be notified in your Award Letter along with the appropriate template for completion).

The following is not an exhaustive list but includes a number of resources which may be of assistance to you in completing your application or pre and post monitoring reports for supported events.

Welsh Government policies and guidance

The Welsh Government does not accept any responsibility for any content supplied by third parties. Where our website contains third party content and/or links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these are provided for your information only. The inclusion of third party content or links to the same should not be interpreted as endorsement or approval by us of that content or information you may obtain from those links.

Equality

Tackling poverty and inequality is central to the Welsh Governments' Programme for Government.  All events in receipt of funding from Event Wales/Welsh Government are required to have in place and apply equality policies covering employment, use of volunteers and provision of services, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010. Guidance on protected characteristics can be accessed from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is part of Welsh Law through the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011.  A full list of the protected rights (known as Articles), and further information, is available. 

Welsh Language

The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gives the Welsh language official status in Wales, and establishes the principle that the Welsh language should be treated no less favourably than the English language. 

The Welsh Government is committed to supporting the Welsh language and culture and the Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers Welsh language strategy provides a vision for the growth and further development of the Welsh language. An important focus of the strategy is ensuring that there are opportunities for people, especially young people and new speakers, to use the Welsh language socially

You are encouraged to take a creative and inclusive approach to use of the Welsh language. This includes actively promoting and facilitating the Welsh language at your Event, and ensuring that there are opportunities for visitors to use the Welsh language at the Event.

For general advice on providing services bilingually and for information on which organisations are able to support you, please contact the Welsh language advice service “Helo Blod” on 03000 258888 or e-mail heloblod@gov.wales with your query. 

The Welsh Government’s Guidelines on Communications and Marketing and the Welsh Language Standards also provides helpful guidance.

Well-being of Future Generations

The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales. This will help us to create a Wales that we all want to live in, now and in the future. To make sure we are all working towards the same vision, the act puts in place 7 well-being goals:

• A prosperous Wales
• A resilient Wales
• A healthier Wales
• A more equal Wales
• A Wales of cohesive communities
• A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language
• A globally responsible Wales

Sustainable Event Management

Your use of the Funding must  align with the ambitions and actions set out in Beyond Recycling (e.g. removing unnecessary single-use items; supporting behavioural change through behaviours at events; minimising food-waste; keeping materials in use for as long as possible; supporting circular business models) and commitment to a Net Zero Wales.

BSI Standard on Sustainable Event Management: ISO20121:2012

BSI Standard on Sustainable event management: ISO 20121:2012 is based on the earlier British Standard called ‘BS 8901 Specification for a Sustainability Management System for Events’ which was first developed in 2007. Due to the high level interest in BS 8901, it was decided to create an international version of the standard to coincide with the London 2012 Olympics. 

Please note there may be costs associated with subscriptions on the following website.

In simple terms, ISO 20121 describes the building blocks of a management system that will help any event related organisation to: 

• continue to be financially successful
• become more socially responsible
• reduce its environmental footprint

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): Global Events Toolkit

The OECD defines global events as ‘events of a limited duration that have a global reach, require significant public investment and have an impact on the population and built environment’.  

The Global Events Toolkit turns the OECD Recommendation on Global Events and Local Development into practice. It provides concrete guidance to local and national governments, event organisers and hosts. It proposes concrete actions to take into account throughout the life-cycle of global events, including the pre-bidding, bidding, operational and delivery, and evaluation phases. For more information please visit The OECD Recommendation on Global Events and Local Development.

International Association of Event Hosts (IAEH)

The IAEH exists for representatives of international destinations to collaborate together to generate the best possible value from hosting major sporting and cultural events, and provide a voice for not-for-profit hosts of events.

IAEH provides a platform for members to learn from the successes and challenges of major events, share knowledge and generate greater long term social and economic benefits from hosting events.

Whilst most documents are available to members only there are a number of publicly accessible resources available at Resources Archive - International Association of Event Hosts.

eventIMPACTS

The eventIMPACTS toolkit is intended to provide organisers and supporters of public events with some key guidance and good practice principles for evaluating the Economic, Social, Environmental and Media related impacts associated with their event.

Protect UK

The Protect Duty, also known as ‘Martyn’s Law, is part of the UK government’s response to the Manchester Arena Inquiry Volume 1 which recommended the introduction of legislation to improve the safety and security of public venues. It will place a requirement on those responsible for certain venues to consider the threat from terrorism and implement appropriate and proportionate mitigation measures. Launched in 2022, ProtectUK is a new central hub for counter terrorism and security advice.

WRAP 

WRAP Cymru works with governments, businesses, and communities to deliver practical solutions to improve resource efficiency around the world.

Vision 2025

Founded in 2015, Vision 2025 are a not-for-profit group driven by a steering group of outdoor events industry associations and leaders in the field of sustainability in live events and the arts. Vision:2025 grew from their sister project Powerful Thinking and is hosted by Julie’s Bicycle.

Hynt Cymru

Hynt is a new national access scheme that works with theatres and arts centres in Wales to make sure there is a consistent offer available for visitors with an impairment or specific access requirement, and their Carers or Personal Assistants. Hynt is an Arts Council of Wales initiative managed by Creu Cymru in partnership with Diverse Cymru.

Attitude is Everything

Their vision is to see music and live event industries valuing disabled people as audience members, performers, professionals and volunteers: Attitude is Everything - Improving access together