Joe GallopEvent Relief, an 11-hour virtual event created and hosted by event director and podcaster Dan Assor, has raised £5,730 in aid of event professionals’ mental health.
The event, held on 29 November as part of the global Giving Tuesday movement, saw a live stream of sessions held every hour to raise awareness and donations to three event industry charities: EventWell, MAKEITBLUE, and Meeting Needs.
The event was streamed from 8am-7pm GMT on JustGiving, as well as live across Assor’s YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn pages. The Sessions included industry quizzes and conversations, yoga, pilates and mindfulness.
Assor said, “We know that mental health-related illness affects one in three event professionals every year. I launched Event Relief in 2021 to enable our industry to pull together and support colleagues who are struggling. For people already experiencing stress and anxiety the current economic climate is piling on financial worries, fuelling further distress. Every donation we have received will go towards helping those in need.”
Participating companies and individuals included Australian mental health advocate Lizzie Williamson, Tarsus Group CEO Doug Emslie, Event Mender, Business Design Centre, FFAIR, Gleanin, Lineup Ninja, Clear Path Analysis, Karen Perea of Shocklogic, Gordon Glenister – influencer marketing consultant, University of East London, Expo Stars and Nineteen Group.
Speaking for beneficiary charity Meeting Needs, Kate Conway said, “We’re so delighted with Dan’s initiative. We support a number of charities with grants for the work they do and this will be most welcome.”
EventWell’s Helen Moon said, “Huge, huge thanks to all the generous donors from everyone at EventWell and the beneficiaries that the funds will go to help. It really does make a difference.”
Sarah Webster from MAKEITBLUE said, “We couldn’t be more grateful to Dan and all the donors for making this happen. Event Relief was a triumph and has become a fixture on the events industry calendar”.
Assor added, “On top of the monies raised for these three organisations, I’m confident that the mental health and wellbeing cause itself will have benefitted from the raised awareness the campaign was able to drive on social media.”
Highlights of the sessions can be seen on LinkedIn and donations are still being received on the Event Relief Just Giving page.