I’ve recently read the article by Claire Repass, CMP on the ways one can support the events industry today. There are several great points there. First, the industry is not any more a supporting one, it is a full-function, independent and powerful sector which is again proved by impressive numbers provided in the article. It is still amazing that many people can not see its value, or at least do not take it seriously. And this is why the author calls for meeting professionals to be their own advocates and help the industry in three ways: by making noise, educating, and innovating.
This so much resonates with why I started this project and what I am doing here at Matey Events. I, too, have come to a conclusion that just doing the job well is not enough. It might be an effective event for a particular group of people, and they might well come back next time, and thank you for your job, and enjoy the event you’ve done. But on a bigger scale the power of the event might well be not recognized still.
This is partially due to the way we, event professionals, express ourselves. Sometimes I think we are so too worried about our attendees and their experience (and we of course should be, but..) that we forget to do something that would send a clear message about the value we create by organising the event, and about what it takes to create a meaningful and impressive event experience.
I can’t agree more that we need to go out there and tell people about our job. I bet there are many people that would be amazed to know more about event management (even those that are not going to become event managers). And this is not just a guess of mine. When I started my project, I was surprised to learn from some of our readers who work in completely different sectors, that they are really interested to get into events backstage through what they read, and learn about my experience and tips. That made me think some kind of backstage tours for the attendees in between the sessions could be a good idea for an event, and an element of fun anyway.
We clearly need to share our experience and knowledge with students-eventprofs-to-be, junior colleagues, beginners. Guest lectures from practitioners is simply a great way to do it, and really should be done at all Universities. And I should say there is a great deal of information in English for anyone wishing to self-educate, but what about other countries? In Russia, for instance, there is no formal education in events management at present, although the market is huge and growing. Nor there that much information one could use to start in events management from scratch.
Innovation is, too, necessary indeed. But here is a challenge, as to stay at the cutting edge, an eventprof would have to educate themselves in many aspects. For that, in turn, they would need some more extra time which is some of the most precious resources in our occupation. Thus, it would be a good practice for a company doing event management to adopt a policy which would recongise such needs. Eventprofs do need some time for a) structured continuous learning, b) relax and some sort of self-feedback. Won’t you agree?
Despite ups and downs in politics and economies, our industry is thriving, but as Claire rightly noticed, we can’t rest on our laurels. It seems like a good time to be our own industry advocate and use its best achievements to showcase the world the power of meetings and events.
