Organiser insight
Tales of robbing Peter to pay Paul, and are organisers‘ mis-spending’ the trust
Kate Chambers, former Clarion MD Gaming and founder of The Gaming Boardroom, shares her insights on an issue many moan about for years until you are the one making the ask
hen we were taking ICE
W
[ international gaming exhibition – ed ] into new markets, one region at a time, we did it organically. People who already had a show to run picked up another one, because that is by some distance the cheapest way to launch and it works. What it also means is that a launch which is not tracking to its numbers is never a self-contained problem. It is terrifying, and it belongs to everybody.
The portfolio has a number and the number does not care which show delivers it. If one show is short, the shortfall gets found somewhere else, and somewhere else is whichever show looks most able to carry it.
So if you are running a show that is performing and you get asked for more, there is a decent chance it has very little
“ If one show is short, the shortfall gets found somewhere else, and somewhere else is whichever show looks most able to carry it”
Kate Chambers
to do with your show. You are covering for something that is not yours. In most businesses, nobody will tell you that.
I spent the first years of my career on the receiving end of it, moaning about it to the same two or three people after work. I assumed the people above me were being unrealistic, or lazy, or both. It never once occurred to me that the number arriving on my show was somebody else’ s problem, because nobody ever said so.
I understand why they didn’ t. Telling a manager why they are being asked for more means telling them another show is struggling, and that feels like a confidence you have no business breaking. Sometimes, it’ s the right call to keep it hushed. But, I believe it is the wrong call nearly every time. You are spending the trust of the person who is delivering in order to protect the dignity of the show that is not.
Waiting is the expensive choice The other half of it is timing. When a show is not tracking, the instinct is to wait until you are certain before saying anything, partly out of hope and partly because you do not want to cause alarm about something that might still come good. Waiting is the expensive choice. A shortfall flagged early can be covered in small pieces across several shows – a bit more revenue here, a cost line held there, none of it painful on its own. The same shortfall flagged in the final quarter comes out of one or two shows in a single lump, and that is where you do real damage to a team
16 Issue 5 2026 www. exhibitionworld. co. uk