Recruitment
Twenty years of talent evolution in our industry
With chaiman Trevor Foley handing over the day-to-day reins of his international recruitment agency, tfconnect Talent to MD Miranda Martin, we asked him to give a valedictory view on the last 20 years of talent development in the industry.
t feels like our industry has
I been operating globally forever. However, when I set up tfconnect in 2008, talk of global plays in our industry was very much in its infancy. At the same time as being asked to help with talent searches( while still at the UK’ s AEO association) I was, having launched the AEO Conference about a decade earlier, being asked to come up with a global rather than national conference. Of course, UFI had a global conference at the time but it didn’ t tick the necessary boxes. Also at the time, the SISO Conference was 98 % national … how times have changed!
So, the Global Event Summit( GES) was born in 2009, to get into the nitty gritty of creating an environment for M & A discussions, global partnerships, for geo-cloning / adapting AND for addressing new global talent needs. Confidential meetings and actual interviews were taking place at the GES in hotel rooms during the events.
The encouragement for me to set up the Summit came initially from those at the forefront of the global push from the UK. Stephen Brooks at Mack Brooks, Simon Kimble at Clarion, Doug Emslie, Tarsus and Simon Foster, UBM at the time. German Messes were quick to join in and then the PE world started to come along too.
The talent needs have certainly evolved over the last 20 years. At that time, it was more straightforward – CEO, MD, Portfolio, Event, Sales and Marketing Directors. Then national and regional managers / directors were sought. Next, as global plays became more significant, roles became more specific and functional such as Business Development, M & A and Launch
Left: Trevor Foley and, Top right, with his A-team
“ As event businesses have become necessarily more sophisticated, success is increasingly down to the sum of the parts rather than generalists”
Directors. Digitisation and data plays added a whole new level of complexity to the industry and the roles required in a business such as Chief Information Officers and Chief Digital Officers.
More recently, as if to come fullcircle, with organisers focused on community serving, the word‘ media’ has crept back into the conversation. Back in the days of publishers being exhibition organisers, they very much saw themselves as media owners. Those media companies gradually re-invented themselves as pure play exhibition and conference organisers. Now, with digital, data and content being essential to community serving, organisers want to hire broader-based media-savvy talent.
As event businesses have become necessarily more sophisticated, success is increasingly down to the sum of the parts rather than generalists. Matrix reporting systems are seeing brand experts working alongside marketers, commercial animals, data specialists and, of course, digital players.
Job titles are more and more varied, descriptions are more detailed and more specialist.
Finally, the growth of new event formats gives rise to opportunities for people with more creative mindsets in festivalisation, 1-2-1 meeting models, confex style events and more besides.
There is every reason to believe that the industry will continue to grow, to evolve and to diversify further as digital environments become harder to trust. The live experience economy is exciting and filling client needs with exactly the right talent is more important and more sophisticated than ever. EW
50 Issue 2 2026 www. exhibitionworld. co. uk