riting this piece early in Lockdown 3.0 in the UK , it ’ s easy to feel down about the events industry , those businesses that are suffering badly and the thousands of people who have lost their roles in the eye of the storm . However , the end really is in sight . There are various dynamics that will make room for talented people around the world to pick up new roles in the near future .

The key to this is that event business leaders around the world remain in no doubt that the turnaround will be big and fast . Business communities want their events as soon as possible ! The nightmare will , I believe , be almost exactly a year-long and , from the ( European ) spring , those positive dynamics will be playing out .

As I write this , the news of a rapid vaccination programme in Israel , which is seeing an almost instant drop in pressure on its health service , is the best news .

So , here are the upsides . The main positive for me is speaking to hundreds of very talented people who will be an asset to any industry

business . At the same time , I ’ m speaking to companies who are concerned at how they will be ready to run their events with their current level of resources . Also , exhibition contractors and other suppliers are worried about being able to meet their Service Level Agreements . The marriage of these client and candidate groups will be rewarding for all after our dark year .

For those having to wait to get back into an industry role , there are the other positives . I ’ m aware of many industry players at the latter stages of their careers who have decided to head for the exit , including early retirement . The industry has also lost a great number of sales professionals who have seen their commissions disappear . Many have gone off to other business sectors . This leaves space , even in a contracted market , for those determined to remain in our industry .

There are , of course , global variations to be aware of . Recruitment activity has already kicked-off in Asia and the Middle East for the obvious reasons that there is already a greater control of the virus . For the Americas and Europe , it ’ s a

Above : Trevor Foley

less clear picture . In the US certain destinations are already open for business at reduced capacities . Even with those reduced capacities , there is already a lot of scope for events to be built and run .

In Europe , there is a variable picture . In many countries , redundancies have come much later following months of negotiations with trade unions within public sector businesses . I suspect that much of that capacity will not be replaced in public sector organisations . There are two reasons for this . Firstly , that international shows are likely to be smaller for a while and , secondly , that there is likely to have been over-employment in many of those organisations because of union protected labour .

During the pandemic , one of my personal survival techniques has been to stop watching the major news channels , which are full of negative news . The good news story in Israel , for example , was never going to get airtime . So , let us keep sharing our own good news stories among ourselves at least !

Financial markets , with a forwardlooking lens , are already responding positively on industry stocks . And , to demonstrate my earlier point on the big and fast recovery , Neil Felton , the CEO of the trade association FESPA , tells me that FESPA , which was postponed from March 2020 to October of this year , will be more than 10 % larger in terms of exhibition space . Exhibitors in the screen-printing sector are looking to make a big noise in what will be their first opportunity to get together in 30 months !

Expect more good news as our industry ’ s recovery gets underway and pent up demand is released .