Exhibition Think Tank – one year on
The Exhibition Think Tank Club ( ETT-Club ) has celebrated its first anniversary . Founder Matthias Tesi Baur , who is also CEO of MBB-Consulting Group , looks back on what has been achieved and what the plans are for the months to come
hat started as a ‘ one off think tank ’ to discuss challenges the industry was facing due to Covid , is now a club uniting more than 800 industry peers . More than 15 subgroups have been formed and are managed by exhibition professionals around the world , following the spirit of the Think Tank : “ We have no hierarchy – we only have ideas ”.
The ETT-Club takes pride in its unique start-up atmosphere , designed to make industry peers feel welcome right from the beginning . All voices are equal , whether it be from a student , middle management , senior management or a friend from an adjacent or supporting industry . This has created a can-do atmosphere in all ETT-Club events , including panel discussions , think tanks and town hall meetings .
In October 2020 , we were pleased to welcome UFI as an official partner . They have agreed to sponsor up to
300 UFI-Gold ETT Memberships . A year on , the ETT-Club has hosted over 40 events with most being initiated by members , and we are proud to have created a platform for the event industry to collaborate and discuss innovations .
One of the ETT-Club ’ s current projects is a series of events under the theme of the ‘ Journey to reopen the exhibition industry ’. Through this series , industry peers in regions who have begun hosting in-person exhibitions are sharing their knowledge with those in regions who are gearing up to kickstart inperson events . The club has received immense support for this series with over 120 exhibition professionals from across the world joining as ambassadors . Thanks to the support of industry members worldwide , 12 online events have been held under this theme including : panel discussions to discuss findings from peers in the Middle East on
Above : Matthias Tesi Baur
To find out more and engage with the ETT-Club , visit : www . exhibition thinktank . com how their journey to reopen the industry has panned out , launch event opportunities , and learnings and insights from the reopening of exhibitions . The ‘ Journey to reopen the exhibition industry ’ series will continue to run until mid-July .
A permanent online session from the ETT Club is the Monthly Innovation Talk which covers a range of topics . Talks under the themes ‘ Value Proposition ’ and ‘ Digital & AI ’ have already launched with the subject of ‘ People & Skills ’ to follow after the summer break . The ‘ Value Proposition ’ talks , which are chaired by Simon Foster , bring more than 100 industry peers together to discuss how our target groups are fulfilling their objectives during the pandemic and how the industry ’ s digital / hybrid products have been perceived . The group conducted a survey which produced some eye-opening results . While the findings strongly indicate that the objective of ‘ education and content ’ is served well through digital events , all other customer objectives such as ‘ sales ’, ‘ lead generation ’, ‘ brand building ’ and so on , have been underserved through digital formats . This has meant customers have started to shift budgets to other B2B solution providers . The survey also showed that these other providers were able to generate good customer satisfaction with their alternative B2B channels . In other words , we were able to identify where money is leaving the industry and if this money is likely to be shifted back to our products once in-person exhibitions are running again .
These sessions are just some examples of how the ETT-Club is a platform for learning , developing and enhancing our knowledge of the exhibition industry . Following the crisis , the ETT-Club continues to welcome everybody , from middle to senior management , to discuss and innovate together on how our industry can come back stronger . www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 3 2021 19