By 
By Paul Moore
I write this from Stockholm where I am with a colleague. We are privileged to have been asked to make a presentation at a European conference on creativity and disability.
The conference is being held in a large music institution and I would imagine there are in the region of four-to-five hundred people here. The fees and costs for the conference are being paid for by local government and a couple of interested state government bodies. As I sit and listen to the levels of expertise being exhibited, it is clear that it is the proper thing for government agencies to be involved in.
But I am constantly wondering why they would be so eager to support what is, I would suggest, an extremely costly venture.
When the sessions for the day are completed we, as delegates, go our respective ways, back into hotels and later out to find food in various parts of the city, guided by Mr Google, local knowledge from local delegates, and sometimes just wandering until a venue appears which seems inviting and interesting.
During these wanderings it is inevitable that we will stumble on interesting shops and it is always the case in these trips that we arrive home laden with much more that we arrived with.
Stockholm is not an inexpensive city. Coffees, wine, beer, food are all at a price we would consider outrageous if charged in the home place, but we are only here for a few days and, since we may never be in Stockholm again, we put prudence to one side and enjoy what this place has to offer whatever the cost, recognising the privilege it is to be able to do so.
Recognising also that there are up to 500 other people across the city attending the conference and doing exactly the same things begins to make me realise why city and state officials are anxious to ensure that it happens and, of course, there may be dozens of such conferences happening each year. These events are a source of massive income for the city; what is sometimes referred to as ‘spillover’ from one part of the economy into another. In this case the spillover is in the form of hotel beds, restaurant earnings, retail revenue and tourism income from museum and exhibition visits.
As an example of the levels of income large events can have on a region, it is interesting to look at the American football game which took place a couple of weeks ago in Dublin.
Over the course of three days total spending in the Dublin 1, 2, 3 and 4 areas ahead of the Croke Park clash rose by 12 per-cent compared to the same period in 2024, while social spending spiked by 17 per-cent and retail spending rose by six per-cent.
Bank of Ireland said on game day itself the real economic boost could be felt, as pubs across the city centre posted a spending hike of 57 per-cent. Spending in restaurants jumped by 20 per-cent, while health and beauty spas recorded a spending surge of of 72 per-cent. Spending on sports gear rose by 35 per-cent, but the most staggering figure is that transport spending across the city centre rose by a whopping 256 per-cent as buses, rail and tram services were all in demand, and Dublin taxi drivers took in an additional seven per-cent.
Add to this the impact of what is called ‘soft power’, the building of a city’s reputation in the global setting, both politically and economically, and then it becomes not merely a matter of choice but almost an imperative that cities seek to organise large gatherings.
The sad part of this, however, is that these events always gravitate towards the same places and those of us living in peripheral regions do not necessarily see much direct benefit from the spillover happening, often, just up the road.
