Roundtable
“You have CEO going
in and screwing the
venue down on rates
and then the sales,
ops and marketing
teams have to go
in when the venue
is already unhappy.
You’ve got a director
who’s so far removed
from the running of
the event and they
don’t understand the
importance of those
relationships.”
visitor. If the venue backs that, it makes life so
much easier.”
Carlo Zoccali, head of sales for Farnborough
International, meanwhile, believes it is all
about the customer journey: “A seamless visitor
experience means many things; smooth entry,
straight-forward wayfinding, great facilities;
but what’s the next step? How do we build on
that? We explored the importance of shared
values and standards, and cascading these to
everyone working on an event. Understanding
each element of the customer journey as early
as possible in the process so that the purpose
of an event is clear to everyone well in advance
of the doors opening; that way those attending
feel the full benefit and organisers get full
value.
“There’s a shoulder period to every event
- when visitors arrive and leave the site - that
goes beyond an organiser’s control. As the host
venue, we have a role in starting and ending
a visitor experience in a way that reflects the
quality of event they’re attending.”
Where do we go from here?
It’s clear that the root of the problem is with
communication, or the lack of it on both sides.
Miller adds: “Organisers and venues need
more commercially creative thinking people.
We did a charity event and the lady at the venue
asked how it all went? We told her that we had
about 400 people there and it went well. She
then said, just to let you know we are doubling
our rates for next year. We told her, we’re not
coming back and she didn’t get it, she didn’t
understand. It’s about getting commercial
people on both sides, who are prepared to
listen, to avoid this happening in the future.”
Seaman adds: “It’s about dialogue. Venues
and organisers need to have an increased
dialogue, especially on a strategic level and
the AEO has a role to play and so does the
AEV. Some steps have been made to move
this forward, there’s a CEO summit later this
year where venues and organisers can talk at a
strategic level, rather than just venue bashing
but also explore opportunities to partnerships.”
Cooke-Priest mirrors the sentiment around
communication adding: “It’s the relationship.
We can talk about all sorts of technology that
improves efficiency but it’s all about working
collaboratively. Working all the way up to the
build-up, it’s all about the relationship but they
are often only held between a small number
of people. Quite often the show team aren’t
the people that do the tenancy deal in the first
place, so that might sit separately from the guys
that are then on the ground and this can hinder
communication.”
Sigler believes change comes from the top
down, she said: “You have CEO going in and
screwing the venue down on rates and then
the sales, ops and marketing teams have to go
in when the venue is already unhappy. You’ve
got a director who’s so far removed from the
running of the event and they don’t understand
the importance of those relationships.”
Cooke-Priest believes more cross-party
collaboration is necessary. He explains that on
his events they used to hold workshops
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