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three seconds before someone says, " the gambling industry?" with a slightly raised eyebrow. Before that, when I was at Clarion, I ' d say I ran a global trade exhibition. Different eyebrow. Same problem.
I ' ve almost never led with“ I work in events”. Not because I ' m embarrassed by it, quite the opposite. It’ s because events are the mechanism, not the outcome. What I actually did for 30 years was build communities, create the infrastructure where industries could do business, make connections, launch companies and launch careers. That’ s harder to say to a stranger at the bar. So I simplify. But probably in the wrong direction.
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EW: Why not tell them,“ I work in events?” Because it lands one of two ways. Either the person nods politely and imagines a wedding planner with a clipboard. Or they say,“ Oh, like parties?” and you spend the next ten minutes explaining that, No, you ran an 88,000sqm exhibition that brought 36,000 people from over a hundred countries into one building and generated tens of millions in revenue for an industry.
The problem is that what we do is enormous and almost entirely invisible to anyone outside it. We create the places where other industries do their business. We’ re the infrastructure. But we ' ve never been great at
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Above: Despite perception issues, trade shows are a serious contributor to global trade.
“ I’ d love for‘ I work in events’ to carry the same weight as‘ I work in media’”
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explaining that to people who aren ' t already in the tent.
EW: You ran Clarion Gaming as MD for over a decade. Surely if anyone should be proud to say they work in events, it’ s you? You’ re absolutely right, and I am proud of it, now. But I think for much of my career I was guilty of the same thing I’ m describing. I led with the outcomes rather than the industry. ICE grew from a struggling show of around 12,000sqm to one of the world’ s great trade events. I was proud of that work.
I just didn ' t think of myself as an‘ events person’; I thought of myself as someone who built brands, communities, and commercial
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www. exhibitionworld. co. uk |
Issue 2 2026 17 |