Dear Partner,
I hope that you and your families continue to stay safe and well. Firstly, I would like to apologise for the delay in communication about MIPIM compensation.
As many of you will be aware, Marketing Manchester has been operating with a significantly reduced number of staff under the UK government’s job retention scheme; whilst at the same time, our supplier network, including various suppliers in both Greater Manchester and Cannes have also had reduced workforces.
The combination of these issues has considerably slowed the compensation process; however, we have been working as quickly as we possibly can on your behalf.
To give you an update, I can confirm that our compensation agreement has now been reached with Reed Midem; however, as you know, cancellation came very late and there are still other suppliers in our network that provided paid for services in advance of the event.
With many of these companies now also having limited staff available, their own cashflow problems, and a backlog of refund requests to action, we are still awaiting several payments before we can finalise your compensation package.
During this process, we have explored and maximised all refund avenues available. However, in wishing to be absolutely transparent, I am letting you know that many suppliers cannot offer us a full refund for services due to factors outside of our control. The final compensation package that we will be able to offer you – after reasonable costs, disbursements and expenses have been apportioned and deducted – will, unfortunately, not constitute a full refund.
We realise this may come as difficult, if somewhat expected news to process, but COVID-19 has hit many of our suppliers hard and we hope you can understand the situation they, and us at Marketing Manchester, are currently in. I would like to say that we have worked tirelessly to recoup funds, and to try and ensure the maximum amount of compensation can be made.
Kind regards
Sheona Southern
Managing Director