Working on the Edge
CMW INTERVIEWS SPECIALIST CONSULTANCY GAINING EDGE EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN GARY GRIMMER
T ell us how you came to set up GainingEdge – and about some highlights of your time at Melbourne CVB before that . How big is the GainingEdge network now and where do you see your USP ? Melbourne was my fourth bureau , third as CEO . I ’ m originally from the US and my first three bureaus were there . I wanted to work internationally and Melbourne came looking .
The bureaus in Australia are well resourced and sophisticated . I always say that they ‘ punch above their weight ’ even though Australia isn ’ t on the way to anywhere else .
We had to convince people to hold meetings in a place that was harder to get to for a lot of delegates . In Melbourne , we were doing things that were pretty world-leading in those days , like running the AIME annual trade show , co-founding the BestCities Global Alliance and devising our own CRM system when those were not so common . We moved Melbourne close to top-30 in the world in the ICCA rankings .
After eight years there , it seemed like time to move on but my family and I didn ’ t want to leave Melbourne . I decided to consult other cities and countries and to work on projects that would benefit the industry . So , GainingEdge was born on 7 January , 2004 . My wife had difficulty understanding why I would leave such a good job to take on a speculative venture , so I was pretty motivated to prove I wasn ’ t crazy . The first couple of years were pretty lean , but business was gradually growing .
Early successes were helping to establish the Serbia , South Africa and Malaysia national bureaus and conducting a total re-think for Vancouver after its hosting of the 2010 Winter Games . We moved into the convention centre consulting
Gary Grimmer , executive chairman of GainingEdge space to the point where we are typically working on 6-8 buildings in different parts of the world at any given time .
We ’ ve broadened our scope to include in-market sales representation , association management consulting and added a tourism practice because some of our clients , such as Panama , needed both convention and tourism consulting support . We ’ ve also been managing BestCities for the past 13 years .
We currently have 30 team members deployed all over the world . We call them ‘ The Edgers ’. We ’ re global , while most companies in this space operate regionally .
We also see our role as not just serving clients but also serving the industry . During the pandemic , we established our GEAR unit ( GainingEdge Analysis & Research ) which is now publishing two annual industry indices , the Global Destination Competitive Index and the Leveraging Intellectual Capital Report . This is providing benchmarking capabilities . Another example is one of our pro bono projects where we have supported the African Society of Association Executives . We ’ re also the lead consultants on the new ICCASkills global professional certification programme .
How did GainingEdge weather the Covid-19 crisis ? Early on we decided that keeping our team whole and making improvements to the company was a lot more important than profits . We also went into communications mode sending out regular advisories to the industry , doing our best to give insights into what to expect and how to approach the situation strategically . We also organised online knowledge exchange sessions and ‘ recovery clinics ’ for clients and contacts .
On the destination side we ’ re
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