INSIGHTS
PEOPLE, PURPOSE & PLANET IN OUR EVENTS. HOW PREPARED ARE YOU?
Do you know what I love about the events industry? We are hundreds of thousands of creative, flexible and adaptive individuals that travel the globe. We make people happy, we bring people experiences and we give charities, brands and not-for-profits a voice through our projects.
We work in high stress environments daily and have to think on our feet and make rapid decisions which will have a flow on effect in our daily work lives. WE as an industry are incredible and we won’t be broken because we have been told to shut the doors for a month (or so).
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the implications of jobs for subcontractors diminishing, I understand businesses are going to lose thousands/millions of dollars and this will result in jobs within our industry being made redundant. Right now, because of the uncertainty there is an undertone of hysteria in the events world but in my opinion, WE, the events industry were made for situations like this.
We are an adaptive, creative industry, so let’s adapt and create for positive change.
What if the events world would have changed anyway? The world as a whole is already looking for more purpose driven experiences. This way could just be a fast track to seeing that change. I’m not just talking about technology (although I think that’s an incredible part of our industry that is still to be explored to its full potential) I’m talking about the purpose behind events. Most businesses look for an increased profit margin as key performance indicators of a successful business and that will need to change, because the economy may not be able to sustain profit driven events for the next 12 months. What if we were about uncovering individual or brand purpose, inspiring people and pushing boundaries in sports or creativity and promoting the planet? Profit will come eventually, let’s just make it sustainable for now and look out for each other. In the meantime we can encourage a positive shift in our industry towards the next era.
So what am I really saying? Keep calm fellow eventers. Our participation numbers and the way that people sign up to events is going to change, maybe for the next few months we are not going to see the same trends, people may be less impulsive and more planned (they may not). Events planned for the end of Q2, Q3 & 4 of this year can still go ahead so keep planning, keep promoting, keep working (if you are in a company or position to do so). Get your creative heads on and think about the possibilities of creating new exciting purpose driven events.
I know times are going to be tough for a lot of us, and our business will feel the effects too, it already has. However, we are not going to put profit first. We will monitor cashflow and ensure we can sustain the business through this time.
We are going to put our people first; our staff, our subcontractors, our clients our suppliers and our industry. We are going to get through this together because that’s the only way. We come together as a community and just ride this wave together – no undercutting, no knee jerk reactions, help wherever possible. If we can keep the industry afloat and in a sustainable state over the next few months, then eventually in the next few years, we will all come out of it richer in more ways than one. We are committed to this incredibly creative and agile industry and it can flourish into the next era in a positive way. Come join us.
