COLUMN: JULIAN AGOSTINI
Removing the thorn
The MD of Mash Media challenges the industry to be
brave and push boundaries in the New Year
W
elcome back to work. I always
had mixed feelings about
January, in the sense that it
meant it was a whole year before the
Yuletide festivities could begin again,
but on the flip side it was new beginnings
and those are always exciting.
Of course, we all go through the
standard list of resolutions, either
publicly or in our own minds, at this
time of year, but how many will we stick
to?
Much of that depends on whether our
expectations of ourselves are realistic.
We don’t have to change the world with
a resolution, but it would surely make
sense to choose a handful of items that, if
we got them done, would make our lives
easier.
For example, I feel it would be a safe
bet to suggest that we all have a number
of things in our house or daily lives that
have been wrong for years, but we put
up with them. Over a year ago, I sheared
a key in the driver’s door lock of one of
our ‘old banger’ cars (our only type of
vehicle). The end of the key remains in
the lock therefore making it redundant
and so I have to open and lock the car
from the passenger side. It’s a royal pain
in the butt, but…I’ve kind of gotten
used to it and fixing the problem has just
dropped so far down my to-do list that it
may never be resolved.
New Year to the rescue! I’m
invigorated and definitely going to get it
sorted and this will obviously feel like a
thorn has been removed from my foot,
but how extraordinary that, once we get
used to the pain, life moves on and we
just suffer the problem in silence.
There will be similar list that is
somewhere on our desks as we return
to work. You know the one: it’s a set
of problems that we know so well that
we don’t do anything about them – the
reverse in fact – we just manage to
operate around the issues.
Here’s a few that that will be familiar
to most:
• Recruitment
“Who are the pioneers,
the risk takers, who
could show us new
directions and help us
learn and improve?”
• Venue contracts
• And my particular favourite, pre-reg
conversion – How about we really
try and tackle this one in 2019? A
challenge to the industry perhaps?
We put enormous effort into generating
registrations for all our events and yet
we simply accept that half of these mean
nothing. Amazing really, that we’re too
busy to address this issue, because if we
did our lives would be so much simpler
and efficient.
Are we too intoxicated by acquisition
rather than functionality, perhaps a
little bit like Christmas? It’s so easy to
buy people stuff, but the New Year also
brings about the pile of unwanted gifts
and, as the Grinch tells us, half of the
presents end up in the garbage. We know
this before we start the process of buying
and wrapping and giving but we carry on
regardless.
How can we bring about radical
change? We have to be brave and push
boundaries. ‘FOMO’ is apparently a
key motivator in getting people to
events, so is it time to start
saying no to registrations?
How about three strikes
and you’re out? I’m often
too busy (sorry, lazy) to
vote, but if I was told
that either I turn up at
the polling station or
I’d lose the right, I’d be
there.
Are we brave enough to
tell potential visitors that
if you don’t come, the invite
is not renewed? It’s scary but I wish
someone would try it.
Perhaps exhibition marketing is too
formulaic, but then again, it’s difficult
for us to really move on from the current
processes as they sort of work, despite
all their hindrances, just nowhere near
as well as they should.
From whom should we learn? Who are
the pioneers, the risk takers, who could
show us new directions and help us learn
and improve?
Exhibition marketing and visitor
promotion are fundamental to our
industry and its continued growth.
There are so many great brains in these
departments in our industry that we
could surely benefit from combined
thinking, sharing what works in different
marketplaces…a mini conference, The
Exhibition Marketing Awards perhaps?
(I’m talking myself into launching
something here, I’d certainly want to
attend even if I was on my own!)
Perhaps our focus should be about
retaining the visitor once we finally get
them there, but that’s another article for
later in the year.
Right now, the New Year brings a
hunger to learn and improve. Let’s seize
the moment and change for the better,
that’s what will make it a happy one!
exhibitionnews.co.uk | January 2019
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