This month’s news round-up brings you industry and association news and views from September 2024, including beam State of the Nation event, CN Agency Leaders Summit, booking offers research, isla new-look membership, and more.
SIC codes and the value of business events were the main discussion topics with MPs at the beam State of the Nation event at Cliveden House.
Senior representatives of beam agency and venue members, as well as Windsor MP Jack Rankin and shadow business minister Mike Wood, were joined at the invitation-only event by multiple guest speakers who showcased the events industry’s contribution to the UK economy.
Julie Shorrock, beam chair and managing director of Hotel and Travel Solutions, said: “We collectively impressed upon them the industry’s benefits and the need for updated SIC codes to accurately reflect its value. Furthermore, we shared the need for an easier visa scheme for all and an event tax credit scheme to attract new events.
“We also shared an industry requirement for increased support in attracting international events, including practical support for competitiveness and increased national and regional convention bureau funding. Finally, we discussed leveraging events to help deliver government policies and create a legacy.”
On 18-19 September, the inaugural CN Agency Leaders Summit successfully brought together event agency directors for two days of insightful expertise-sharing, learning, and valuable networking with key industry professionals.
Amid an ever-evolving agency landscape, the summit gathered senior leaders from across the community to tackle strategy-focused challenges associated with running an events business. With a balanced program of engaging content sessions and networking opportunities, the summit empowered agency leaders to pursue best practices and strengthen the sector as a whole.
EDGE Venues’ CEO, Jacqui Kavanagh, spoke at the event on a panel discussing mergers and acquisitions among agencies.
Jacqui commented: “I had the pleasure of joining Simon Hambley, Rick Stainton and Simon Quarendon on the mergers and acquisitions panel at the CN Agency Leaders Summit. It was great to share our journey honestly with a great group of people who may be considering mergers and acquisitions. I hope that by sharing, we have helped a few people prepare and manage their expectations of the process and the journey ahead so they can achieve a successful result.”
Research by The Delegate Wranglers and CUSTARD has revealed the thoughts of event buyers and venues on the topic of offers and incentives and provides an insight into booking behaviours.
It also reveals buyers are likely to get frustrated by:
isla, the non-profit organisation heading-up the charge towards a sustainable future for events, have unveiled a new membership offering, designed to provide more tailored sustainability solutions for agencies, brands, associations, venues and supply chain businesses.
Anna Abdelnoor, CEO and founder of isla reflects; “with evolving legislation and incoming regulations across the EU and beyond, isla recognises the need to stay at the forefront of these changes, translating these into impacts on the event industry and ensuring the sector is equipped to respond and act on climate and legislative change.
Designed to instil confidence within the events community and support members to make progress and take action in a changing sustainability landscape, the new offering focuses on providing expert guidance, practical tools and building a community of action-taking changemakers.
Read more via the link below.
Event industry charity foundation Meeting Needs raised more than £24,000 during and in the run-up to the M&IT Awards 2024.
Partnering annually with organisers Northstar Meetings Group to raise cash at the event delivers positive results for Meeting Needs as well providing a valuable platform to present details of its projects around the world.
In the online auction, £9,940 was raised while a raffle on the night delivered £14,450.
beam, the association for the business events, accommodation and meetings industry, recently shared thoughts on the crucial role of agents in the realm of venue booking:
Agents and their suppliers have some of the strongest relationships, forged on years of trust, secured volume, agreements and rates that mutually benefit both parties. However, being the industry we are, these relationships can extend out to the travellers and the agents’ bookers – which is great – until the lines get blurred and bookers cut out the agent to book directly. This is when relationships get a bit murky and the issue around booking ethics comes to the fore.
So, what should a venue do when a booker approaches direct for business? At beam, we believe in ethical booking standards that value the agent’s role in the booking process. While we encourage relationships to be positively maintained all-round, suppliers must be transparent with agents, keeping them informed of any ongoing conversations. At the end of the day, both supplier and agent have the same goal: to deliver what the booker wants and generate long-term repeat business.
Skift’s Andrea Doyle has covered a Skift Meetings Forum session which considers DEI in meetings and events. ‘From changing terminology to debates about the effectiveness of Employee Resource Groups, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a hot-button issue.
Skift Meetings Forum featured a conversation between Dr. Brandi Baldwin, an organisational and leadership psychologist and CEO of Millennial Ventures, and social purpose consultant Bea Boccalandro, highlighting the need for more authentic, values-driven inclusion efforts — without tokenism or haste.’
According to a report on Skift Meetings, Seth – American entrepreneur, best-selling author, and speaker – told the audience:
“What people need are the kinds of interactions they had when they would bump into someone in the hall at work. So how do you create that environment?
“What if we imagine that the conference doesn’t last 72 hours? What happens instead is that a month before it starts, you get a dossier of 12 people you need to meet while you are there. What happens is that instead of saying, ‘Please download our app,’ there’s a good reason to stay in it?”
EDGE Venues’ Commercial Director, Scott Ford, summed up this latest monthly Insights:
“It’s great to see MPs and lawmakers engaging with the industry at beam State of the Nation to help promote the huge benefits the sector can bring to the economy.
“With the new government’s focus on growth and the economy, this can only help support the industry as a whole, and with regular engagement like this, beam can make sure that meetings and events stay high on the agenda.
“Our industry is well known for its generosity in supporting worthwhile causes, so it’s wonderful to see the impact of the recent Meetings Needs charity activity in and around the M&IT awards. I was lucky enough to be there on the night to witness first-hand some of the life-changing impacts Meeting Needs has day in and day out to those less fortunate than us.
“‘The Delegate Wranglers and CUSTARD have highlighted an interesting trend on the impact that tailored, targeted and transparent incentive offers can have in leveraging event buyers’ decisions on where to place their events. Although it seems this could be a double-edged sword if the incentive has overly burdensome T&Cs, it could just as easily be seen as negative, so it’s important to be as transparent as possible to have the greatest effect.”
Missed August’s news round-up? Check it out here!
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