Cover Story
are without work and a lot of companies
are going bankrupt.”
Alessandro Cortese, CEO, European
Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology,
made the point that the losses were by no
means just financial. “There is now less
interaction at scientific level and fewer
transfers between the business world and
science and the development world,” he
noted, while Tommy Goodwin,
International Association Advocacy
Practitioner said universities were missing
collaborations and local government was
not leveraging knowledge because of the
lack of conferencing.
It was a point IAPCO CEO Martin
Boyle, attempted to answer:
“Governments that are serious about their
economic and social recovery should be
looking for drivers to facilitate this. I
believe the business events industry will
do just that.”
James Rees, ICCA president, added
that introducing a destination to such
knowledge-rich communities was
indeed a driver for transformation and a
perfect platform which, in turn, could
secure the investment and knowledge
transfer they require.
Kai Hattendorf reminded that it was
exactly exhibitions and business events
that were the meeting places and
market places that everyone needs to
recover after Covid-19.
Professor Clark concentrated on the
relationship between meetings and
business events and cities, noting that
business events contributed to
diversification and projected the soft
power of a city. Meetings also
provided strategic connections and
long-term legacy in terms of breadth
of supply chains.
Meetings could also help form a new
normal, noted professor Clark and he
identified several themes for the future,
including nations becoming more
self-sufficient in critical goods, a massive
uptick in digitisation, new implications for
human health and the environment and
better connectivity. Meetings should be
aligning with these themes, he thought,
and added there would also be new spatial
patterns and ways of organising our lives,
which all provided critical challenges but
opportunities, too. Business events, he
said, are a strategic tool in innovation
ecosystems.
Professor Clark also saw associations as
great “accelerators” for destinations,
providing unique opportunities for
storytelling and branding.
He did warn, however, that the coming
likely recession and restrictions on travel
would have a dulling effect on the market.
He saw a more blended meetings model
between digital and real physical meetings
emerging and he forecast more
clusterisation and combined events.
In another of the video clips, Arnaldo
Nardone, Director FIEXPO group,
Uruguay, drew the distinction between
organised business events and
uncontrolled gatherings. “We can control
events and meetings; we know the people
who are coming; we know we have
excellent protocols.
Singexpo Singapore’s CEO and
president of venue association AIPC,
Aloysius Arlando weighed in with some
wise words. “Events need not be just a
physical event but ongoing web
engagement,” he noted. And he urged us
all “not to waste a crisis. Necessity is the
mother of invention,” he said.
IBTM World director Shane Hamann
warned that events in future would look
very different and the GCB’s Matthias
Above:
Advocates for
change: Professor
Greg Clark
(left) and JMIC
Manifesto curator
Robert Coren
“Not just
critical to
recovery,
meetings are
powerhouses
for future
shape of
economy
we wish to
have.”
Schultze advised working “on innovative
concepts and think future events on
different levels; F2F, hybrid and purely
digital”.
BE Sydney CEO Lyn Lewis-Smith said
immediate future meetings would likely be
local, and the problem would be how we
beam them to the world.
Tommy Goodwin thought that
destinations that were better at
embedding their event in the community
would have a competitive advantage.
“Destinations that get it right will have a
huge leg up,” he said.
After the Manifesto is published, what
is to be done with it?
David Peckinpaugh, president
Maritz Global Events urged the
industry to focus on economics when
dealing with politicians.
Lewis-Smith said the narrative needed
to be around innovation and knowledge.
“This is our opportunity to be heard and
become a strategic partner.”
Caroline Teugels added that we
were not in the long queue for
handouts from governments but in the
short queue for helping.
We leave the last word with
professor Clark and eagerly await the
full draft Manifesto.
“We should position business events for
the agenda that emerges out of Covid-19.
Not just critical to recovery, meetings are
powerhouses for the future shape of
economy we wish to have.”
ISSUE 107 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 33