Opinion
August was a nail-biting month for
event professionals who eagerly
awaited news from the government’s
event pilot schemes for the final
approval for the restart date of 1
October 2020.
While the whole sector is impatient
and excited to get back to what they love
(albeit with new protective measures
in place), there needs to be insightful
processes, collaboration, and most of
all communication to make sure event
operations run smoothly going forward
into the ‘next’ normal.
Back in February, before the world
came to a standstill, Lou Kiwanuka, vice
chair of ESSA and The Shaper Group
managing director, launched The Ops
Nest – a training and peer-to-peer
mentorship programme for operational
professionals in the industry. Its mantra
“enabling brilliance not managing
competence” highlights what Kiwanuka
calls “a vital need for specific training
Ops review
to restart
EN speaks to ESSA vice
chair Lou Kiwanuka about
supporting industry
operations professionals
and the return to work
and support for operations professionals
in the exhibition industry”.
With face-to-face training no longer
possible and Ops professionals facing
an uncertain future, Kiwanuka set to
work in using The Ops Nest platform
to create ‘Ops in Lockdown’, weekly
training sessions over four months of
the UK’s lockdown period. Sessions saw
attendees come together to learn from
event experts discussing critical issues
facing professionals and their team
during COVID-19 and beyond.
Now, with the restart button just one
month away, the events industry must
ensure it is fully ready and up-to-speed
understanding of the new regulations
it faces.
The pressure is on to ensure no event
becomes a “super-spreader” causing
further lockdown and the potential
chaos for the events industry.
In her role at ESSA, Kiwanuka has
been an integral part of the Event
Industry Alliance and its curation
of the guidance, which has formed
the conditions for restart pending
government approval, working with
fellow ESSA, AEO and AEV board
members. The EIA has also set to work
on building essential collaborations
within the event supply chain to ensure
success for organisers, suppliers and
venues going forward into 2021.
46 — September