ANALYSIS
Event marketing agency
TEMBO , in collaboration with EN , hosted an insightful webinar on recruitment in the events industry in January . The panellists shared their experiences of the challenges of recruiting in 2023 , the evolving patterns , predictions for 2024 , the balance between permanent and freelance resources , the influence of budget constraints , plus innovative strategies employed by organisers to retain valuable staff . Moderated by EN reporter Joe Gallop , the panelists included TEMBO REFRESH director Humaira Pilkington , TEMBO CONTENT director Claire Tulloch , tfconnect managing director Trevor Foley and dmg events senior HR business partner , Eve Page . The group consensus was that increased show launch activity would lead to further demand for freelancers . Pilkington says : “ A lot of organisers are rethinking their recruitment strategies . To handle peak flow periods , they ’ re looking at freelance resources more to help fill in those gaps .” From her experience at dmg , Page agrees : “ We ’ re launching and scaling in some locations where we perhaps don ’ t have staff at the moment , but using that freelance resource means we can tap into that highly skilled experienced market , especially if we ’ ve still got those mid-level managers as well .” Tulloch adds : “ Clients have been saying to me that they ’ re not recruiting back
Talking recruitment trends
Four experts on resourcing the exhibitions industry shared their insights during a TEMBO webinar in January , staged in partnership with EN
to pre-pandemic levels , we ’ re recruiting back to 80-90 % of perm levels and then planning to freelance the remainder out . I ’ m expecting to see organisers approaching me with planned freelance requests further ahead , rather than searching for resources in an emergency .” The panellists discussed the Middle East and notably Saudi Arabia as one of the key growth markets in the events industry . Foley says : “ I ’ ve got two clients looking for more than double figure number of senior roles . That ’ s all about growth and confidence because we ’ ve got more launches and disruptive activity going on .” The group also discussed how the loss of the graduate pipeline during the pandemic has impacted mid-level positions . Page says : “ For junior staff coming in , it ’ s about making sure they have those development and career plans to make it into that mid-manager level . We need to make sure we look after our staff , not only at junior level but all the way across .” Candidates being put off by lengthy approval processes also came up in the discussion . Pilkington says : “ I see it improving . It came from some companies using the same recruitment process for hiring permanent and freelance staff . They ’ re starting to recognise that they had to simplify that because good candidates will get multiple offers on the table .”
She adds : “ Freelancers are starting to vet the companies that they want to freelance for in the same way they would for a permanent role . They ’ re expecting to know more about the company ’ s ethical practices and how they treat their workforce .” Foley suggested the growth of the ‘ confex ’ model is generating a lot of activity which will benefit the entire industry . Looking forward to this year , he says : “ With so many companies shaping up to sell , it ’ s shaped their hiring activity at a senior level from early last year . Many are looking to strengthen or renew management teams . It ’ s so positive in terms of where the market is this year - it ’ s going to be a stellar year for the industry .” EN
Spring — 23