NDML and Katy Porter At The Nighttime Economy Summit 2024
The NDML team attended the NTE Summit Trade Show in Greater Manchester. Set in the Warehouse Project’s Freight Island; the event saw nightlife leaders come together for a series of talks.
NDML exhibited at the event, and we also managed to talk to influential speakers and business owners. Katy Porter, Chief Executive Officer of The Loop and speaker at the NTE Summit, discusses with us her reasons for attending the event and what she hopes to learn. We wanted to gauge her unfiltered thoughts on the visitor economy sector as part of our Nightlife Unscripted Series.
Watch the video here:
NDML Talks To Katy Porter from The Loop
“I’m Katie Porter, I’m Chief Executive of The Loop, the drug checking service.”
What was the last Nightlife venue that you visited and how was your experience?
“I recently was at the Warehouse Project, that was the end of November, and we came up to do some work with them. We were doing a harm reduction audit, so it was little bit of a different than coming along to be part of the audience – But it was a great night and we worked really well with all of the services there. It’s a really friendly team and a brilliant team, it’s a great place to be.”
Why have you come to the summit today, what have you come to learn about and what have you come to talk about?
“So the Loop has been invited to speak about the services that we provide. As a harm reduction organisation our focus is always on the safety of the audience; understanding how drug related issues have an impact for the night time industry and making sure that people understand how we can create safer environments, safer spaces, for all involved.
We’re talking about drug checking and drug testing. We have a panel today – looking at an international perspective. Tomorrow [we’ll be looking at] how drug checking operates in the UK.
I’m really excited to share the stage with the panel members we have. We’ve had excellent panel members over the last couple of days. I’m really enjoying going around the stalls, meeting different people, hearing different perspectives as well on all of the aspects around the night time industry.
There’s so many different things that need to be thought about to have a vibrant night time economy. It’s a great reason to be here.”
If you were made Prime Minister is there something that you would change about the nightlife industry?
“So I would like to make it far easier for drug checking and drug testing services to be introduced into all different environments.
We often, at The Loop, talk about people being able to access our support. I always want to make it the case that people can access support without necessarily having to buy a fairly expensive ticket to a festival or a club. It’s great that we encourage people to go along to those environments but make sure that people have the advice for their own safety before they even walk into those spaces.
And then those become great spaces, great places for everyone there – for both the workforce and customers. We must make it easier for us to deliver the services that are so important.”
More From Nightlife Unscripted
Much needs to be done across the whole scope of the nightlife economy. Learn more about the other opinions and motivations from night time industry leaders here