Bring
it
on

While this challenge isn’t new, it’s been amplified further this year, and I anticipate it will continue throughout 2024 and into 2025. 

There are many factors contributing to this, including uncertainties impacting clients’ own sectors and organisations, global unrest, the rise of new technologies such as AI and its applications, an increased focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters, and rising inflation levels. 

Ultimately, this highlights the need for event professionals to evolve continuously, too, by remaining tapped into client and wider global happenings.   

If clients are laying employees off, for example, they may require additional support from their agency partners, or we could anticipate shorter lead times. An ongoing awareness of these changes enables us to plan ahead, and it also represents an opportunity to be proactive and provide solutions before a client even approaches us.  

Events such as CES, the World Economic Forum and SXSW have shown us that AI is very much a focus for brands, meanwhile many are on the lookout for the latest tech to incorporate into their experiences – often without a clear ‘why’ behind it.  

It’s important we not only remain abreast of the latest technology developments, we also curate the right combination of tools by project and objectives. This eliminates the need for clients to do the research, demonstrates our expertise in this area, and it also ensures the tech is backed by a well crafted strategy. 

With doing good a key focus, now is the time to consider how agencies can add ESG related services to their offering too, with the joint benefit being both partner and brand reduce their organisational and event-related impact. 

We’ve all been impacted by rising inflation levels, in terms of increased event production and operational costs. On the client side, we’ve seen budgets being reduced accordingly, and yet their vision and goals remain the same. Lead times are also shortening, as getting sign off on said budget is taking longer.  

With costs continuing to rise, we need to highlight our value, adopt the mentality that a reduced budget can in fact foster greater creativity, and adapt to changing situations. 

This could involve hosting smaller events, yet amplifying them via a content-focused campaign that spans many months. This ensures not only the event lives on, but the clients’ core messages do too. 

From a planning perspective, consider forging ongoing contractual relationships with particular suppliers so that they are guaranteed work, and you receive a discount of sorts in return, looking beyond traditional event spaces and to the great outdoors (especially as the summer approaches), and reusing and repurposing materials – which of course, has environmental benefits, too.