Agency recruitment
HOW AGENCIES ARE GEARING UP
Martin Fullard talks to a variety of agencies on how business has changed , upsklling , and recruitment plans
There is no escaping the fact that the events industry has been decimated over the last year , with venues and suppliers facing an appalling crisis . In many cases , they have simply not been able to pivot . However , things have not been so bleak for the nation ’ s agencies , and the last 12 months have indeed yielded positive stories .
Sure , business models have adapted and offerings reviewed . Indeed , many clients didn ’ t even know what to do themselves . The mark of a good agency , however , is to be able to drill down deep to establish its clients needs , and one way or another , deliver a content experience to meet a business objective .
While revenues are a shadow of what they were , agencies are now looking ahead to 2021 with greater cause for optimism , and as such many are even recruiting to handle a welcome increase in workload .
I spoke to several agencies of varying sizes to understand more about their recruitment plans for the months ahead .
Jemma Peers , managing director ,
Top Banana
Describe how Top Banana has changed since the pandemic took hold , and how will you broadly approach the return to live business ? While the method in which we communicate has changed over the past 10 months , how we communicate and engage audiences has very much stayed the same . As a result , we were able to quickly adapt the way we do things and within a matter of weeks had our onsite studio ‘ event ready ’. We were fortunate enough to have experience in virtual [ online ] events , having been running them for several years with a few of our global clients , so it was a transition we knew was well within our capabilities .
While the whole team have adapted to the virtual world , it ’ s safe to say we are all very excited to get back to live events . For us , nothing beats face-to-face interaction and feeling the buzz of a live audience .
Has the pandemic shifted the skillset you require from your events personnel ; are you placing a greater emphasis on the need for digital skills ? There are definitely new skills our team had to learn quickly in order to successfully understand and deliver a virtual [ online ] event , there ’ s no denying that . However , we always make sure we have the right people in the right places and have a great team that work together while we upskill .
Tell us about your recruitment plans for 2021 , including full / part time staff and the use of freelancers .
We have made sure throughout the pandemic that we have continued to develop our employees in their career goals and encourage them to be the best they can be .
As a result of the team ’ s hard work , we were excited to announce seven promotions in January . As we continue to win new clients and grow our service offering , we do have plans further down the line in 2021 to recruit new talent when the time is right while continuing to recognise the hard work of our current team .
At the moment we are utilising our freelance connections regularly , it ’ s a great way of upscaling and downscaling resource through the peaks and troughs of client work , but knowing that we are using people that completely understand who Top Banana are and the way we do things .
Karen Kadin , managing partner ,
Brands at Work
Describe how Brands at Work has changed since the pandemic took hold , and how will you broadly approach the return to live business ? Our agency turned 10 in 2020 , and it was set to be a record-breaker . The pandemic wiped out our pipeline projected through to June 2021 , but a strong first quarter meant we were well positioned to weather the storm .
In the pivot to virtual [ online ], we remained tech and platform agnostic , instead focusing our creative energies on doing what we do best : unleashing the power of experience through theatrical , imaginative and deliberately human engagement .
We are cautiously optimistic about the return to live . We are starting to see confidence returning www . conference-news . co . uk