JMIC campaign
who led one of the regional webiars,
added: “Businesses and governments
realise that the most effective way to
communicate is through live events.
That’s why we were in a high in
January 2020. We must remember
and convey that in our messaging.”
Some urgency was injected by
Lesley Williams, MD BestCities, who
said it was “tragic” that our industry
has had to practically crumble
before government realised how
valuable it is.
Along with the strong comments
underlining the value of meetings,
Lyn Lewis-Smith, CEO of Business
Events Sydney noted that “the
world had changed and turned
upside down and stopped in its
tracks in terms of us acquiring
international events”.
Fellow Aussie Geoff Donaghy, CEO
of ICC Sydney added that industry
revenues had dried up in Australia:
“The A$35bn that industry creates
is no longer happening and that
money is not flowing through to
local businesses.”
It was a chain of thought echoed
by Maurits van der Sluis, COO of RAI
Amsterdam, who noted: “A lot of
people are without work and a lot of
companies are going bankrupt.”
Alessandro Cortese, CEO,
European Society for Radiotherapy
and Oncology, made the point
that the losses were by no means
just financial. “There is now less
interaction at scientific level and
fewer transfers between the
business world and science and the
development world,” he said, while
Tommy Goodwin, International
Association Advocacy Practitioner,
said universities were missing
collaborations and local government
was not leveraging knowledge
because of the lack of conferencing.
It was a point IAPCO CEO Martin
Boyle, attempted to answer:
“Governments that are serious
about their economic and social
recovery should be looking for
drivers to facilitate this. I believe
the business events industry will do
“Business
events are
a strategic
tool in
innovation
ecosystems”
just that.”
James Rees, ICCA president, added
that introducing a destination to such
knowledge-rich communities was
indeed a driver for transformation
and a perfect platform which, in turn,
could secure the investment and
knowledge transfer they require.
Kai Hattendorf reminded that it
was exactly exhibitions and business
events that were the meeting places
and market places that everyone
needs to recover after Covid-19.
Professor Clark concentrated on
the relationship between meetings
and business events and cities, noting
that business events contributed to
diversification and projected the
soft power of a city. Meetings also
provided strategic connections and
long-term legacy in terms of breadth
of supply chains.
Meetings could also help form a
new normal, noted professor Clark
and he identified several themes
for the future, including nations
becoming more self-sufficient in
critical goods, a massive uptick in
digitisation, new implications for
human health and the environment
and better connectivity. Meetings
should be aligning with these themes,
he thought, and added there would
also be new spatial patterns and
ways of organising our lives, which
all provided critical challenges but
opportunities, too. Business events, he
said, are a strategic tool in innovation
ecosystems.
Professor Clark also saw
associations as great “accelerators”
for destinations, providing unique
opportunities for storytelling and
branding.
He did warn, however, that
the coming likely recession and
restrictions on travel would have a
“dulling effect” on the market.
He saw a more blended meetings
model between digital and real
physical meetings emerging and
forecast more clusterisation and
combined events.
In another of the video clips,
Arnaldo Nardone, director FIEXPO
group, Uruguay, drew the distinction
between organised business events
and uncontrolled gatherings. “We
can control events and meetings; we
know the people who are coming; we
know we have excellent protocols.”
Singexpo Singapore’s CEO and
president of venue association AIPC,
Aloysius Arlando weighed in with
some wise words. “Events need not
be just a physical event but ongoing
web engagement,” he noted. And he
urged us all “not to waste a crisis.
Necessity is the mother of invention”.
IBTM World director Shane
Hamann warned that events in
future would look very different and
the GCB’s Matthias Schultze advised
working “on innovative concepts and
to think future events on different
levels; F2F, hybrid and purely digital”.
BE Sydney CEO Lyn Lewis-Smith
thought immediate future meetings
would likely be local, and the
problem would be how we beam
them to the world.
Tommy Goodwin believed that
destinations that were better at
embedding their event in the
community would have a competitive
advantage. “Destinations that get it
right will have a huge leg up,” he said.
After the Manifesto is published,
what is to be done with it?
David Peckinpaugh, president
Maritz Global Events urged the
industry to focus on economics when
dealing with politicians.
Lewis-Smith said the narrative
needed to be around innovation and
knowledge. “This is our opportunity
to be heard and become a strategic
partner.”
Caroline Teugels added that
we should be seen as not being in
the long queue for handouts from
governments but in the short queue
for helping drive forward economies.
We leave the last word with
professor Clark: “We should position
business events for the agenda that
emerges out of Covid-19. Not just
critical to recovery, meetings are
powerhouses for the future shape of
economy we wish to have.”
www.exhibitionworld.co.uk Issue 4 2020 25