Opinion
Why I don ' t tell people I work in events
Kate Chambers tells EW why she rarely says she“ works in events” – and why that fact actually matters for the industry’ s future.
aving to do verbal
H gymnastics when describing“ what we do” is not a problem unique to events professionals. A close friend of mine works in data management, and whenever he’ s asked at dinner parties what line of work he’ s in, he inevitably launches into a tirade about how he’ s not a data scientist, how data management and data science are actually completely separate disciplines. After a few minutes of
“ What we do is enormous and almost entirely invisible”
Left: Kate Chambers, founder of The Gaming Boardroom, former MD of Clarion Gaming. this the person asking has almost always completely lost interest.
Similarly, if we started on about the global economic impact of trade shows being grossly underestimated( which it is), we would run a serious risk of alienating the person opposite. It might not seem like a major issue, but for Kate Chambers, founder of The Gaming Boardroom and former MD of Clarion Gaming, it’ s actually part of a deeper problem within the industry. The same perception gap that causes us to be hesitant to say the phrase,“ I work in events” is also responsible for our struggle to attract talent and get favourable outcomes from governments.
EW spoke to Kate about why she doesn’ t tell people she works in events, what she does tell them instead, and what all of this means for our industry.
EW: So, you’ re in the pub. You ' re introduced to a friend of a friend. They ask what you do. What do you say? KC: Honestly? I say I run a business that helps senior executives in the gambling industry make better decisions. That usually buys me about
Many event professionals, like Kate Chambers, struggle to explain what they do to the uninitiated.
16 Issue 2 2026 www. exhibitionworld. co. uk