Breaking point
In a stark warning to the exhibitions industry , Ops Nest founder Lou Kiwanuka tells EN Editor Emily Wallin that a lack of qualified competent supervisors , decimated lower ranks and a vast loss of experience in the supply chain combined with condensed calendars and increasing cost pressures could push health and safety considerations to breaking point
What are the biggest health and safety issues at the moment ? Build up and breakdown times are increasingly an issue and even more so post pandemic , where tenancies have been squeezed into time spaces they wouldn ’ t normally have sat , and that has heightened the issue . In addition to that , we ’ ve lost huge experience in the supply chain and in the operational community from the most experienced to the least experienced – it means the people in mid management have a lot more to do without support from above or from their teams . The lack of experience and deep understanding of things like show scheduling , plus the lateness of decision making has impacted our shows considerably .
Are the issues all down to staffing ? We ’ ve lost some big ops operators in our industry – Mirabelle Chatterjee , Janice Edmunds are the two that spring to mind most readily but there are many more who have slipped away from the industry . The bottom of the ranks were desolated through furlough and redundancies . So staffing is a huge issue but in addition , regardless of Covid-19 , over the years , tenancy times have reduced and it is affecting the breakdowns more than anything .
10 — October