The Exhibition Think Tank Club has produced its ETT VaPOr group White paper: With great talents come great responsibilities, turning the exhibition industry into a talent magnet.
Claiming ‘talent’ as the next big challenge for our industry, the members of the VaPOr Group (Value Proposition for Organisers) embarked on a journey to identify some of the keys to unlock the talent problem and, following months of research, they have produced White Paper now available to all on ETT website.
The group said it reached out to the most interesting experts in its networks to interview them and collect their expertise and views on specific questions and topics with the purpose of discovering the best, most original, and sometimes controversial ideas and suggestions and present them in the White Paper. Interviewees were not only from the HR area: there are consultants, teachers, CEOs, event makers and student, and not all are even all from the exhibition industry as the group said it wanted to “broaden the horizon” and see how things are done elsewhere.
The paper represents a synthesis of the findings. All interviewees were asked six focused questions
- 1. With the current changes in the exhibition industry and everyone going ‘hybrid’, how much do you feel we are missing key skills in our organisations to satisfy the new needs of our customers?
- 2. What completely new skills does the exhibition industry require post-pandemic?
- 3. What specific sectors should we be ‘fishing from’ for those talents? (e.g., Tech, Finance, Retail, Real estate, Banking/insurance, Other), What are the pros and cons of each sector?
- 4. What tactics and approaches should the industry be using to attract talent from other sectors?
- 5&6. Do you agree or disagree that exhibition organisations need to revamp their retention strategies? What are the best-in-class retention strategies you have seen?
One COO’s response to the survey was: “It’s not only about salary, it’s about great culture based on trust, empowerment, fun and care, it’s about getting learning opportunities, it’s about offering hybrid/flexible working model, it’s about another style of management based on objectives where we measure the outputs (outcome) instead of the inputs (hours worked)…”
The VaPOr group noted in conclusion: “We work in an industry where we want people who work very hard, under a lot of stress, are facing (at best) a slow career evolution and are not paid that much. That is why we need to be creative and use our best assets.”
VaPOr group leaders were Mark Parsons, MD Events Intelligence; Mike Frost, co-founder, Expocast; Stephan Forseilles, head of technology and digital transformation.
To read and download the White Paper, please click here.
To join the ETT Club panel discussion hosted by the VaPOr group and listen to a panel of speakers discuss talents in the exhibition industry (27 Sept, 14:30 UK Time), please click here
