EW reports on the International Exhibition Logistics Association’s recent online Associations Day
The International Exhibition Logistics Association (IELA) recently invited peer associations from the industry to talk about leadership, advocacy and future vision during an Associations Day.
IELA wanted to celebrate the people behind the scenes that keep us connected, and designed a rapid-fire online session format giving the association representatives a minute each to answer IELA questions.
Collaboration
UFI’s CEO Kai Hattendorf was first in the quick-firing question line. What did he think was the key strategic impact of associations over the past 22 months?
“Collaboration and changing the narrative of our sector,” said Hattendorf. “We are not a sub-sector of tourism; we are a strategic tool and asset with our event industry. We build and grow economies and societies and help [them] to prosper on the other side of the pandemic.”
To SISO’s CEO David Audrain the question was: ‘Being a professional for many years, how do you foster a culture of transformation in your team to help you face new challenges?’
“The essential thing,” Audrain replied, “is hiring the right people from the beginning, people who are able to work under their own supervision. We must encourage them to stretch us and themselves and bring forward their ideas.”
Resilience
IELA then explored the question of developing resilience within association teams.
Cathy Breden, CEIR CEO and EIC incoming chair, said we should be “constantly planning, creating different scenarios for budgets, for events. Regarding staff, we remained as transparent as possible: being clear on the financial perspective, with lay-offs, getting staff to become resilient by helping them to understand the situation.”
The question posed to Indian Exhibition Industry Association (IEIA) president Sonia Prashar, was: ‘With mental health issues on the increase, how could associations be a factor of positive change?
“You can be battered and damaged, but what eventually matters is what is inside. This is what makes the difference. As exhibition people, we need to empathise and rally with our members in order to empower them. This is what we did for the past 22 months.”
And Bianca Kennedy, president of the Canadian Association of Exposition Management (CAEM), also on the question of approaches to mental health, added: “We must commit to recognising the symptoms and take steps to avoid serious consequences. Thankfully, conversations about mental health are less taboo in modern working environments.”
Keeping a sense of humour
The question to German association representative Silvia Bauermeister, AUMA’s legal/business development manager, was: ‘Why is humour in the workplace serious business?’ She said: “Humour boosts the team spirit, raises motivation and reduces stress. Humour nips conflicts in the bud.”
Ana Maria Arango, UFI sponsorship and partnership director and director of LATAM, was asked how a sense of belonging helped to navigate the crisis.
“Associations are fundamental,” Arango said, “particularly in the sphere of information”, and she listed the translation into Spanish of various global reopening regulations and requirements. “Think about lobbying,” she added: “Associations persuaded governments to lift restrictions, like ABEOC did in Brazil. Finally, networking and education, [their work helped] members to feel they were not alone.”
Towards COP28
With the United Arab Emirates chosen to host COP28 in 2023, Naji Haddad, UFI’s regional director MENA, was asked about sustainability being an active choice.
“After the launch of the Net Zero Carbon Events Initiative and the pledge presented at COP26, the next step over the next 12 months will be to invite supporters of the initiative to define an industry net zero roadmap for events aligned with the target of the pledge. It will be launched at COP27 in 2022 in Egypt.”
Justin Hawes, president of the International Federation of Exhibition and Event Services (IFES) has been working in sustainability for many years. How did he think we could take every individual with us on the transformation path?
“Everybody is at a different place in the path to sustainability and it is important to start somewhere, like when training for a marathon you start slowly but surely and build it up over a period of time.”
IELA then asked Raphaële Neveux, public affairs director at France’s union of exhibition organisers, UNIMEV about CLEO, an event performance calculator they created to evaluate the impacts of events from a variety of perspectives.
“We designed our performance calculator to measure three issues: the performance of an event, the economic and tourism impact and the environmental impact,” Neveux explained. “In order to improve the environmental impact of events, we need to measure their performance. We are happy to share the CLEO scheme.”
IELA noted the Events Industry Council (EIC) was embracing sustainability and social impact with its message to be a driver of change. CEO Amy Calvert was asked what her message would be to an association leader?
“As leaders, we all have to lead by examples, to take opportunities to participate, to share our knowledge and be part of the solution. We put together the Center for Sustainability and Social Impact and the Equity Acceleration Plan because we believe that sharing our purpose beyond just economic impacts is so important.”
The European Exhibition Industry Alliance (EEIA) has called for a coordinated approach to swiftly adapt the EU Digital Covid Certificate’s validity to focus on a person-based approach for travel/exhibition platforms instead of a country-based approach. Could this tool be a game-changer for our industry? Barbara Weizsäcker – EEIA and EMECA, secretary general, answered: “We are pushing for unified digital solutions to avoid red zones and travel bans. The EU Digital Covid Certificate (QR Code) has been adopted by more than 80 countries.”
Preparing for threats
Aloysius Arlando, immediate past president of the Singapore Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (SACEOS), was asked about possible threats and how could we get better prepared as associations?
“The first threat is to be prepared for evolving Covid variants and the travel restrictions that follow, as Covid moves into endemic mode. We must be prepared for business continuity plans.
“The second threat is the loss of talent to attractive industries like technology and e-commerce. The challenge lies in attracting new and old talents and ensuring that the skills gap is filled by equipping the workforce with capabilities that are needed in this new normal, like design thinking, UX, digital analytics, sustainability practices and cyber security.” He added the industry must build back better by taking a more sustainable approach.
“What we can do as an association is Collaboration. We must work closely with our authorities, with our global bodies and associations, with our local communities, to internalise a safe business event framework, harmonised protocols across countries and regions, develop programmes to equip our workforce with new and hybrid skills.”
Kai Hattendorf concluded nothing would be like before. “We have to live with the stop and go and the new variants.
“Digitisation, climate change, staffing and the new narrative for capturing talent in our industry, are opportunities as much as threats,” he said.
