Events - Responding to a Changing Environment Part 3

FIGURE 1.3 Key players in the events industry Client s Event Organise rs Supplier s Event s EVENT SUPPLIERS AND SUPPORT SERVICES The checklist in Table 1.3 contains a list of event suppliers and support services that may be needed to make your event a success. This list can be amended as the equip- ment, facilities and services required will vary according to the type of event and the activities you have planned. Case study 1.2 tells the story of the development of a successful international networking group, The Delegate Wranglers, which has provided valuable support to events professionals through the pandemic and beyond. TABLE 1.3 Checklist of event suppliers and support services Organizers  Professional event organizers  Event management agencies  Full-service agencies  Event management companies  Event production companies  Party and event planners Venue  Venue hire  Room hire  Equipment hire  Outside catering  Toilets and public facilities  Car parking  Security Content  Theming companies  Guest speakers  Workshop facilitators  Artists and performers Staff  Security  Stewards  Volunteers  Agency staff  Bar staff  Uniform providers (continued) TABLE 1.3 (Continued) Temporary structures/site  Staging company  Portable accommodation supplier  Roadway/walkway supplier  Fencing/barrier supplier  Site vehicle supplier  Toilets and public facilities  Waste management  Traffic management  Crowd management  Health and Safety  CCTV  Telecomms  WiFi  RFID / cashless services Travel & accommodation  Travel agencies  Transport companies  Hotel booking agencies  Destination marketing organizations (DMOs)  Local tourism bodies  Venue search agencies Food & beverage  Bars  Food concessions  Specialist hospitality  Mobile catering Entertainment  Local attractions  Tour guides  Ticketing agencies  Photographers and video makers  Music and entertainment  Costume hire services  Florists Audio visual  Lighting companies  Sound companies  Multimedia companies  Live streaming companies  Pyrotechnics operators  Video companies  Live-streaming services companies CASE STUDY 1.2 The Delegate Wranglers – international networking Neil Thompson and Diane Thompson, Founders, The Delegate Wranglers The Delegate Wranglers (DW) is the daily go-to check-in to positively connect, inspire, educate and provide opportunities for the global events community. Launched in 2014, the community has gone from strength to strength throughout the UK, Europe and overseas. Additional communities have now been launched for the USA and Canada, and for Asia Pacific. In 2020 we became official managed community partners with Facebook and in 2021 we were selected to participate in the Facebook Community Accelerator Programme, which focused on helping leaders harness the power of their community to turn ideas into action. Only 131 participant groups across nine global regions were selected by Facebook from over 500 million groups worldwide. The group is widely known and respected, offering events professionals the opportunity to connect, gain business, seek opportunities, find jobs, meet up for networking events and ultimately help them to develop their businesses and increase their business network. It is a community that thrives on positivity. The DW has become the pulse of the industry, bringing together buyers and suppliers in a real-time community which has never been available before. It is the largest network of its kind in the UK and has achieved what no other organization has managed: creating a unique community of events professionals – buyers and suppliers – who collaborate and drive millions of pounds of business for the industry every month. This amazing community, for events professionals worldwide, brings all sectors of the industry together under one roof: a safe place they can turn to for business leads, support, advice, guidance and expert knowledge. DWs are connectors – connecting buyers with a problem to suppliers with a solution. DW is always striving to ensure a community spirit where members work together and support each other. We encourage collaboration, with members working together rather than competing against one another. We have broken down the barriers to make everyone feel part of a special family and not competitors. We have developed strong relationships with members across all sectors: from freelancers to suppliers; from large hotel chains to small independents; large agencies to start-ups; destinations to associations – there is truly something for everyone. All features on the group are developed organically, from identifying a requirement for them by the members online to providing solutions for them. There are lots of free promotional opportunities on the group, such as #supplierhour, #eventhour and #AOBhour plus a Superstar membership which unlocks an additional promotional hour, #superstarhour, and the ability to collect testimonials to prove that the members are genuine, authentic and trusted. Our aim is to maintain a positive community with like-minded events industry professionals, where business relationships are built upon trust and recommendation. No overtly negative opinions of others are allowed – we would always ask to discuss anything offline. As a rule, there is certainly no room for sarcasm or hostility, rants, nor comments of an aggressive nature on the group, ensuring a community where respect is key and every member is a valued member. The Delegate Wranglers adapted throughout the pandemic to continue bringing live business leads to the industry, which has seen some sectors booming, while supporting others less fortunate to recover and be there ready for when the restart button was pressed. Covid-19 sharpened our focus on the need to help the DW members and the wider industry, creating new features such as ‘DW Live’ to help upskill members and DW online socials to enable members to engage with each other during lockdown. We developed a live series of shows every week to bring the community free opportunities to train, upskill and connect with other events professionals, free online socials to bring some fun and let off steam among fellow events professionals, free opportunities for agents to promote themselves through a special agent feature, the same for freelancers, and a free showtime slot for event performers, good news alerts, regular Covid-19 newsletters bringing not only the most up-to-date industry news but also support and opportunities for all. The Delegate Wranglers has grown to become the industry's most engaged and positive community of events professionals over the past few years (and even more so during the pandemic), guiding, motivating, connecting, supporting, and upskilling over 23,000 events professionals worldwide with the most extraordinary good vibes! Join us and be a part of the events industry’s most engaged and positive community today! Website: https://thedelegatewranglers.com/join-dw (archived at https://perma.cc/Y3AZ-42GT) Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/TheDelegateWranglers (archived at https://perma.cc/ H677-MQ3H) Relationships with other industry sectors There are many individuals and organizations that would not consider themselves to be part of the events industry but who do in fact spend a significant amount of time planning, organizing, hosting and running events (you may be one of them!). This is because there is significant overlap between the events industry and other closely related sectors such as the tourism, hospitality, marketing, PR and sport industries. There were over 4 million people employed in the events, tourism, hospitality and leisure sectors in the UK in 2019. Unfortunately, these tourism-related industries were among the worst-affected by the pandemic. More than £25 billion of govern- ment funding was provided to the UK’s tourism, hospitality and leisure industries over the first 18 months of the pandemic. Part of the UK Government’s response to the pandemic included making 2022 a year of celebration, with events marking Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee (70th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II), Unboxed (a sixmonth celebration of creativity), and hosting the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Tourism In 2019 the UK tourism industry saw 41 million inbound visits, in addition to almost 100 million domestic overnight visits. Travel was the UK’s thirdlargest service export, and the UK was in the top five countries in the world for inbound visitor spending. But by mid-2021 inbound flight arrivals were down by 90% on 2019 as the sector had completely closed for about eight months in the first year of the pandemic, affecting air, maritime and rail travel, travel agents and related suppliers, accommodation providers, entertainment and visitor attractions. In the UK some 1.7 million people were directly employed in the UK’s tourism industry, with tourism directly contributing £75 billion a year to the UK economy, up to 2019. Tourism is important to the events industry – and vice versa – because large events can attract visitors (e.g. spectators, participants, suppliers and media) from outside a region or country, and often in large numbers. Through the visitors they attract, events can have significant economic benefits for a region, for example more spend from visitors on accommodation, travel, eating and shopping. In recognition of the economic impact of events, more and more tourism organi- zations (both local and national) have developed destination-based event tourism strategies to increase the economic benefits of events. The City of Edinburgh, for example, promotes itself as the world’s leading festival city, with 12 major annual festivals taking place all year round. Festivals such as the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo have become a permanent part of the city’s identity and help to attract 4.2 million attendees from 70 countries (Edinburgh Festival City Official Website, nd). Hosting an event also plays an important role in enhancing the image of a particular destination, which in turn will help to attract visitors to the region even after the event has finished. Hospitality Hospitality is often described as the business of looking after guests and making them feel welcome. A great event organizer understands the importance of being hospitable to those attending the event (e.g. providing a warm and friendly welcome on arrival, or a meal or refreshments in a pleasant environment), and takes pride in the delivery of excellent hospitality. While the concept of hospitality may appear simple, it isn’t easy to get right, and can be a common cause for complaints by event participants. It is vital to consider the increasingly diverse needs of event partici- pants, especially in food and drink, with changing dietary preferences (for example, more people are vegetarian or vegan) and the need to recognize and fulfil diverse religious, cultural and health requirements in hospitality settings. The hospitality sector includes all businesses that provide food, beverages and/or accommodation services. The sector includes restaurants and hotels which often provide the spaces that event organizers need to put on an event. Many private events, such as birthday parties, are held in restaurants, while business conferences often take place in hotels. Hotels also provide accommodation for conference dele- gates staying overnight. VIP hospitality is a feature at many large spectator events (in particular, sporting events) and is very attractive to companies looking to entertain clients or potential prospects. At larger events you will find a wide range of hospitality packages to suit a range of budgets and preferences. Typically, VIP treatment at an event involves good-quality food and drink and some of the best seats in the house, as well as being entertained, often with the aim of building or strengthening business relationships. Like tourism, the hospitality sector was very badly affected by the pandemic restrictions, and uncertainty continued in 2022. In December 2021 economic activ- ity in the food and beverage sector of hospitality fell by 8.1% due to the emergence of the Omicron variant, which led to a wave of cancellations for Christmas festivities and parties. By January 2022, activity in the sector rose by 6.8%, but the Russian invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022 risked further uncertainty, with higher energy prices impacting inflation across Europe. Marketing Marketing is all about building relationships with customers. Focusing on building relationships, rather than simply trying to make a quick sale, helps to create long- term relationships with customers – relationships in which the customer keeps buying the product or service and recommending it to others. Events offer a unique opportunity to connect with both current and potential customers, in order to build and nurture relationships and to provide a first-hand sense of a company’s brand personality and values. There are numerous types of events that an organization can host, sponsor or participate in as part of an overall marketing strategy. We give some examples below. TRADE SHOWS Trade shows can offer an opportunity to develop relationships between businesses (Business to Business) or to the general public (Business to Consumer). At their most effective, trade shows can be a key part of a company’s marketing strategy when it comes to generating quality sales leads. Trade shows and exhibitions tend to be one of the most expensive forms of marketing. In order to ensure the best possible return on investment, an important aspect of trade show marketing is making lead genera- tion more engaging by running contests, competitions and games. Technology has become a major part of trade show displays for innovative exhibitors, helping to attract more attendees to exhibition stands. CLIENT NETWORKING EVENTS Engaging clients face-to-face, in a non-sales situation, humanizes your business (ie connecting with people on a personal level). By humanizing your business, you build authentic relationships where clients can be open and honest about any problems they encounter, and you can be honest and realistic about any products you can offer them. Hair and beauty salons regularly host evening events where clients are invited to come along to try free treatments on the night and afterwards offer feedback and suggestions. CHARITY FUNDRAISING EVENTS Events can play an important role in how people perceive an organization. A small business owner, for example, who helps a local charity by organizing a fundraising event will establish goodwill by showing people in the community that they are willing to support a cause that’s important to them. EXPERIENTIAL EVENTS Experiential marketing events, where brands use experiences to connect with consumers, are increasingly popular. Experiential marketing campaigns use live events to engage with customers by giving them an experience they will remember and, importantly, will tell others about. The alcoholic beverages industry was one of the early adopters of experiential marketing, with many big brands creating unique and engaging experiences to connect with customers. The restrictions of the pandemic meant that all events moved online, especially during the periods of lockdown. Now we are emerging from that time, even conferences and meetings are attempting to become more experiential, as people yearn to reconnect. SPORT Sport by its very nature involves events and competitions to determine the winners. The very biggest sporting spectacles usually attract spectators and television audi- ences from around the world, but the world’s largest annual participation sports event is the Gothia Cup – The World Youth Cup. This is a week-long youth football tournament held annually in Gothenburg, Sweden, for both boys and girls aged 11–18, with over 1,700 teams from more than 80 nations participating in almost 4,400 matches on 110 pitches. While the Gothia Cup may not attract the same level of attention as other sporting spectacles, it requires careful planning, organizing and running for an event of this size and scale (Gothia Cup Official website, nd). Since 2016, there has been a sister tournament held in China, known as the Gothia Cup China, which has 250 teams participating from 20 nations. Sporting stadiums are among the largest venues in the world – the largest sporting venue in the world, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has a permanent seating capacity for more than 257,000, with additional temporary seating to bring it to a total capacity of 400,000 (World Stadium’s Official Website, nd) – and as such, they host some of the world’s largest events. Wembley Stadium, the ‘home of football’ and the second-largest football stadium in Europe, each year hosts major events such as the finals of the football FA Cup and League Cup, as well as international fixtures for the England team, and in 2015 hosted the Rugby World Cup. The stadium also hosts the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final and American football NFL International Series matches. However, there are even more events hosted at the stadium each year that are not related to sport, from major concerts to private events such as weddings and conferences. As with many venues with a specific primary function (such as sports), it is an economic necessity for modern sporting stadia to host non-sporting events, given the costs of building and maintaining the stadium facilities. Case study 1.3 illustrates the critical decisions that now face event clients and events managers regarding the mode of delivery, considering the options for online and hybrid delivery as well as events taking place in a physical space. CASE STUDY 1.3 Hybrid events: A reflection on the pandemic and its impact on the long-term event landscape Dr Tim Brown, Programme Leader Events Management, University of Chester Nolan (2018, p. 136) prophetically posited that ‘the general consensus is that live events cannot be replaced by virtual ones and many of us would only choose to attend a virtual event if a live event were not available’. In early 2020 this is exactly what happened to the events industry when the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented closures of numerous industries, including tourism, hospitality, sport and events. The introduction of national ‘lockdowns’ and a requirement to work from home resulted in business, educational and social activities pivoting online, practically overnight. Despite the significant negative impact across the events industry, many events professionals identified opportunities for recovery via a pivot from in-person events to online virtual events, particularly in the business events sector, as there was an unprecedented demand for events to continue. As a result, events professionals focused on enhancing the techniques and calibre of virtual events and the supporting platforms, to enhance the consumer experience, and evolve the commercial opportunities of virtual and hybrid events. Pre-pandemic there was a perceived lack of confidence and skills from both events professionals and consumers in using technology for events, creating barriers for virtual and hybrid event delivery (Sox et al, 2017). It should also be noted that there have been significant technological advancements over the past 20 years benefiting the events industry, but despite this the use of virtual and hybrid events has been slower than predicted. This is due to several key factors. First, the atmosphere, ambience and emotive response of a live event are difficult to replicate online (Getz and Page, 2020). Second, while technology is embedded within our normal lives, there is still a reluctance to use this in place of tried and tested live event experiences. Third, the perceived high costs associated with developing and delivering virtual and hybrid events. Finally, the socialization and networking that live events offer are hard to construct artificially online (Nolan, 2018). The Covid-19 crisis, however, has resulted in a unique development in people’s technological capabilities and confidence, as people have become far more adept at working virtually and utilizing new technologies and platforms in order to work effectively as well as to stay connected socially (Ritcher, 2020). The events industry also capitalized on this crisis and rapidly developed and experimented with new innovations, including: enhancing the calibre of the virtual event platforms, enabling these to integrate with other applications (such as social media, networking apps, and so on); developing practitioner guidance on enhancing the delivery styles and content for virtual events (such as using interview formats for conferences and presentations); and more interactivity for the audience (through live polling, chat functions, and voting). This has resulted in an exceptional growth in virtual events and an appreciation of the benefits that both virtual and hybrid events can provide. As a result of the pandemic the global value of virtual events has increased from an estimated $18.6 billion in 2015 (Raj et al., 2017) to $94 billion in 2020, and is anticipated to grow to over $500 billion by 2028 (Grand View Research, 2022). The new event landscape Covid-19 has seen a repositioning within the events world, with the value and potential for virtual and hybrid events being appreciated by numerous event sectors and, more importantly, by consumers, along with the benefits these events offer. For example, virtual and hybrid events: can reach a global audience; are becoming significantly cheaper to develop and deliver than in-person events; virtual events are faster to develop and get to market; they can be interactive and engaging; they can archive and access content post-event; automated functions within the online platforms provide data insights and real-time analytics for events professionals to use; they can be more inclusive and accessible for participants, with subtitling, transcripts, live descriptions, translation and captioning into multiple languages; and finally they are far more sustainable as travel and waste will be reduced by both formats, resulting in a reduction in CO2 impacts. Virtual and hybrid events are not without their challenges, however, due to the technical capabilities and initial financial outlay required. And while consumers have increased familiarity with virtual technology, tools and applications, not all events professionals are fully versed in designing and delivering these technically demanding events. With the exception of the business events sector, where more events professionals and venues are proficient in the technical requirements of events, many other event sectors are requiring retraining and upskilling of event staff to ensure they are technically proficient for this future direction of the events industry. The greatest challenge for virtual, and especially hybrid, events is to ensure that the event experience is not impinged. The technology must therefore be used to support and enhance the experience for those attending in person as well as for those online, to add value to the experience, rather than just for financial gain. Events professionals must design the overall event experience for both virtual and in-person audiences and build in interactivity via appropriate technological platforms and applications to enable the intended event outcome, experience and impact to be realized. The events industry has come a long way in the past few years, but there is still a long way ahead before hybrid events in particular become the standard benchmark for the industry.