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commercialising a venue . It ’ s about providing solutions that can bring your event to a different level ”.
He is targeting a very high level for events in which Constellar hopes further to develop its own IP . “ If you look at Singapore , I think it ’ s a place where you can really reinforce our positioning in organising C-level events ,” says Quentin . He recognises that different rules apply for events of this type to be successful and believes “ we need to bring in some strong people from the content industry ”, adding : “ we need to build up high level skills in this sector ”.
As an example of what can be achieved with both hybrid technology and targeting very highlevel participation , Quentin cites the Singapore FinTech Festival . This “ is one of our key brands and an event we have developed for five years now with the Monetary Authority in Singapore ,” he says . He is impressed that the Constellar team was able last year to develop an event which ran
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virtually round the world with some 2,000 speakers and 1,500 ‘ exhibitors ’ in 160 countries , attracting an audience of 60,000 people . This presents a dilemma today , he says . “ Obviously it will come to normal , and people want to meet . But you can ’ t just say we are going to have a physical event . You need to take into account the fact that you have been able to bring some people from 160 countries , as an audience to a seminar or roundtable . Somehow , I think this will stay ,” Quentin believes .
The sorts of investment required to fulfil some of the digital goals the industry is setting itself have the potential to dampen what have traditionally been very strong margins from face-to-face events . Quentin has an interesting view on this issue . “ I think our industry has been juicy for many years , and I think we need now to think differently ,” he says .
He believes that “ we have a long
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Above left : Constellar reaching for the skies Above , right : Man of the moment : Jean- François Quentin |
term view on things and then you need to do the right things for your business and for your markets . And , therefore we have to make investment . And if we want to have a different value proposition , you need to make investment ”. He believes that the company is particularly well set up to pursue those long-term objectives .
Even in the short term , Quentin has interesting ambitions for Constellar ’ s digital activity . He points out that last year the company was able to preserve around 35 % of its pre-pandemic revenues with mainly digital offerings . He thinks that the physical events will come back relatively quickly to 100 % of where they were before . So , he believes that a well-managed physical / digital business should be able to achieve 120 % of its pre-pandemic scale .
That ’ s a pretty optimistic view . But , when the sky ’ s the limit , you can afford a little optimism . We shall be hearing more of Constellar .
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