Andreas Gruchow, UFI president 2017, talks networking, digital and ‘glocalisation’
Congratulations Andreas. How does it feel to chair the world’s leading association for our industry?
Thank you. I remember I felt very humbled when I was approached, several times, by former UFI presidents including by Andrés López-Valderrama almost two years back. Shortly afterwards, I visited the UFI office in Paris, and walked down the main corridor with the portraits of all the presidents UFI has had in its 90+ year history. There are many industry legends. I will do my very best to serve for the benefit of all members and the organisation as well as our industry as a whole.
After López-Valderrama brought UFI’s Global Congress to Latin America, and this year Sergey Alexeev oversaw the creation of Global Exhibitions Day, what will your focus be?
UFI is offering so much, but I feel that not all members are really aware of this. Often, when I share what I have learned at UFI events I’m asked: “Where did you find out about this?” I tell them about UFI events, research, and news.
I benefit greatly from networking all over the world at industry events, exchanging information. I want to work with the UFI team to broaden our global base of active members, to make more people within our member companies aware of UFI, and to encourage them to become more active.
How do you intend to get this done?
By showing the value. Within UFI, we are tackling what is driving and changing our industry – from the pace of globalisation to the impact of digital. From the quest to hire and keep the best staff, to changes in customer needs.
A few months back, after an UFI Focus Meeting venue digitisation, I heard a colleague say that they went back to the drawing board’ for an on-going project to implement what they had learned.
I always share with colleagues at Deutsche Messe what I learnt at UFI events: new trends, benchmarks, experiences, ideas to improve quality, quantity, or new services, techniques, and so forth. How better to show the value these meetings and exchanges can have.
Word of mouth is a powerful tool, you say you want to make sure more people connect with UFI, and encourage more people and members to become active - will that be enough?
You are right, we cannot rely on anecdotal evidence. We have to reach out, share information beyond our events. This is why, within the industry, our global network of media partners is so important – where, by the way, our partnership with Exhibition World was the first such collaboration many years ago.
Today, UFI has a global network of media partners, reporting in all major languages. We do a lot to support them with content and access, and on top of that, there is the increasing importance of social media, especially for the younger generations among us. I know that UFI’s reach there has more than doubled this year, and I support further growth.
This is an element of UFI’s mid-term strategy. A few months ago, after Kai Hattendorf came in, we reviewed our association’s strategy, to focus on member value. I have just discussed the priorities for the upcoming 12-18 months. We’re heading in the right direction.
What can we expect in your year ahead?
There are various core projects that allow people from the industry to be involved more in this unique association. A huge part is about what we call ‘glocalisation’: breaking down our industry’s global issues into regional debates and dialogues through UFI’s events and committees. We especially want to make UFI more accessible for young professionals and aspiring middle management through initiatives like the Next Generation Leaders Grant.
Also, we will add more value regarding education and research: In Shanghai, at the Global Congress, we will publish a new education programme for venue operators. So stay tuned for more in Shanghai, and then surely on your Exhibition World website.
The UFI presidency not a full time job – how will you manage these huge ambitions?
As you might know people say Germans are well organised (laughs). I try to do my best. No, seriously, one of the amazing things about UFI is the commitment from many global leaders of our industry. I have gained great knowledge and experience with the contribution of so many active members in the UFI Executive Committee or Think Tank sessions or Special Interest Groups, just to name a few of our network opportunities. We are also fortunate to have a great team in the UFI Paris headquarters, and elsewhere around the world. Their passion and motivation is outstanding and that helps and motivates me tremendously. So while I personally will take as much time for UFI as needed, it is first of all a big team effort to serve our industry.
I want to invite everybody to support this task – 2017 is a very good year to do so, as we will have elections in the UFI chapters. Let me challenge my peers to get active and put their names forward to join in. After my many years of active work for UFI I can really say: “The more you give, the more you gain“ – and, to get started, you have to give very little to gain a lot. EW
