Exhibition News November 2019 | Page 59

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 November — 59