Connecting connectors
Exhibitions industry veteran recruiter Trevor Foley tells Emily Wallin we desperately need to make the industry more enticing to draw in the Gen Z lower ranks and offer them the progression to become the event directors of the future
Trevor Foley , MD of tfconnect , fell into recruitment because of his vast wealth of knowledge in the exhibitions industry – and all the people in it . With more than 30 years in the exhibitions industry there is no one Foley doesn ’ t know and he regularly has double the number of excellent candidates he can put forward for the top jobs .
After giving up his first career in accountancy “ because it was so boring ” to focus on events , his successful exhibitions career and position as chief executive of the Association of Event Organisers ( AEO ) led to becoming an accidental recruiter .
Simon Kimble at Clarion asked him to find him a new managing director and it snowballed with the great and the good of the industry asking him to find their senior people across the world . He left the AEO to focus on recruitment with specialists at different levels .
Even in the current climate , he says , placing people in C-level roles is easy – but it ’ s the lower levels that are struggling .
But he believes researching the cause of the problem is pointless .
“ We don ’ t need to spend money on research into whether there ’ s a problem ,” he says . “ We know .”
What is needed he says is positive
20 — November