Avantgarde experiences
CMW SPEAKS WITH DR LESLEY ANNE BLEANKNEY , THE NEWLY APPOINTED CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER AT THE GLOBAL BRAND EXPERIENCE AGENCY , AVANTGARDE , ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY , RECRUITMENT AND THE ISSUES FACING THE EVENTS INDUSTRY
A s the new chief people officer , what does the events industry need to do differently to address its current recruitment and employee retention issues ? The Covid-19 crisis proved how people longed for physical interaction and exchange . It ’ s important to focus on this existential human need to be amongst others . Organisations as a whole need to shift their perspective around cultural factors if they want to generate commitment , loyalty and effectiveness from their staff . It is time for companies to look inward and critically check their level of cultural integrity . Avantgarde has taken these steps and is aware of the market dynamics to proactively strengthening their cultural DNA .
To what extent will diversity and inclusion be important to Avantgarde ’ s internal recruitment and people management ; how will clients benefit from this ? Diversity and inclusion are at the core of Avantgarde ’ s history and DNA . Embracing and empowering people of all walks of life makes us a better service partner to our customers , it sparks our internal level of creativity and innovation as well as boosting multi-perspectives , enabling us to deliver the best products and services . We proactively sponsor DE & I activities in our company culture , enabling and allowing all voices to surface and help Avantgarde be a place of belonging and zeitgeist .
How can the events industry position itself as a leader in the global movement towards a sustainable future ? We know events cause a considerable level of carbon emissions , but this doesn ’ t mean things to improve this can ’ t be done . That ’ s why we ’ ve created the Avantgarde Carbon Scorecard to track emissions across the entire value chain of a project . The tool delivers deep and fine-grained insights into what the biggest contributors to the carbon footprint are and enables you to adjust project-related emissions . This allows our clients to really monitor the emissions of events , enabling them to reach their own sustainability goals .
Moreover , we also founded Green
Below : Dr Lesley Anne Bleankney
Game , a sustainability first consultancy with a focus on sport sponsorship . Made up of a team of sustainability experts and sponsorship professionals , Green Game develops new approaches to sponsoring .
What do you think will be the biggest issues for event organisers over the next 12 months ; what is your strategy to approach it ? One of the biggest issues remains the uncertainty regarding the Covid-19 developments and implications on social restrictions that could still appear across the globe . This shakes up business plans as well as being able to plan for the foreseeable future .
Another very practical issue is the difficulty of recruiting committed service staff due to large layoffs / pauses during the pandemic . At Avantgarde we were able to hold most employees during the crisis , helping increase loyalty amongst our employees .
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