Moment in time
‘ Time is an illusion ’, said the great Albert Einstein . I was pondering this question when watching the excellent German Netflix series Dark , during lockdown . For those that haven ’ t caught it , it is a drama about time travel and the key question of whether we ’ re doomed to repeat past mistakes .
Our wonderful events industry has certainly appeared to be stuck in suspended animation for parts of this Covid crisis . It is clear now , however , it will not remain in stasis but is evolving fast .
Our recruitment specialist Trevor Foley writes in this issue about the future need for event professionals with new skillsets and warns of a brain drain to other sectors and the future challenge for companies in meeting service level agreements due to staffing issues .
Our two big interviews - with new Freeman president & COO Janet Dell , and new Informa Markets executive VP commercial , development Michael Duck , both talk about the fundamental importance of their people and the necessity of retaining that ‘ intelligent staffing core ’ and honing it tight to deliver on what is required in future . Dell sees us moving away from ‘ Live ’ as a moment in time or space . Live events , she believes , will become multi-platform conversations designed
to deliver greater ongoing value and even deeper connections .
And Steve Monnington and David Woodbridge , in their respective contributions to this issue , illustrate the opportunities – and some would say ‘ challenge ’ – brought by data companies entering our traditional event market space .
Hyve Group ’ s £ 18.8m recent acquisition of Retail Meetup is showing that at-scale digital networking and lead generation with custom-built software can bring the ecommerce ecosystem together online . Four high-quality digital events with the Groceryshop and Shoptalk brands have been created and are expected to be enhance earnings .
The move is significant in that it flips the traditional organiser definition : now an organiser of in-person events can be transformed into a digital business that also has live events and , at last , start to deliver longawaited digital returns on investment .
Paul Colston Managing Editor Twitter : @ ExhibitionWorld @ paulcolston
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www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 1 2021 5