M&IT Editor Paul Harvey takes a look back at the last 12 months and a look ahead to 2023 in his annual State
of the Industry Report...
As 2022 draws to a close, a fellow eventprof quipped to me that the state of the industry can be neatly
summed up as “the industry is a state”.
Harsh, maybe. But there are many ways in which that
is true – it’s been a messy old year out there. Obviously that’s no reflection
on the people in our sector, who have been working harder than ever to feel
their way through the twists and turns of an increasingly unpredictable and
changeable 2022.
If we go back to last December, you may remember that our prime minister Boris Johnson
announced that Winter plan B measures, including mask mandates and Covid
Passes, would be implemented in England and Wales due to the threat of the
newly-emerging Omicron variant. Just looking back and hearing some of those
terms again shows you how much has changed in the last year – we no longer have
to think about the winter Plan B, Covid Passes, mask mandates, prime minister
Boris Johnson, all consigned to the clinical waste bin of history.
Unfortunately, Omicron also ripped
up any plans our sector had for the first two months of the year, as the new
variant tore its way around the world. But by the spring, as cases and
hospitalisations fell, we were back on track. The government’s withdrawal of
free lateral flow tests gave a clear signal that the UK would now be adopting a
living with Covid strategy, and that’s where we’ve been ever since.
New kind of threat
With Covid-19 on the wane, the
scene was set for a return to some kind of normality – until on February 24,
Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Here was a new kind of threat – war in Europe –
that was set to have consequences both immediate and long term for our sector,
not least in the soaring inflation and cost of living crisis that has ensued.
It was against this backdrop that
2022 spluttered into life for our sector, as we emerged blinking into the new
normal to discover that everything was the same, only different. We could hold
events again, we could attend events again, and we did, getting together at The
Meetings Show and IMEX in Frankfurt, with major UK events such as Glastonbury
making triumphant returns, and with national celebrations such as the platinum
jubilee - or 'platty joobs', if you like - lifting the spirits and showcasing the sector. However with supply
chain issues, the great resignation, recruitment and staffing issues, the list
goes on – it was an extremely changed events landscape.
Year of extremes
It’s been a year of extremes in so
many ways, not least the extreme temperatures that hit the UK in the summer.
The 40 degree heatwave in July was right in the middle of the M&IT Agency
Challenge at Celtic Manor Resort, and temperature-wise, we could have passed
for continental Europe as we sat out on the terrace, short-sleeved at 10pm, enjoying a
refreshing drink among fellow eventprofs. For me, the most striking thing about
that heatwave was its sheer oddness - no one had ever before experienced those
temperatures in this country, and the dangerous heat really focused the mind on
the climate change challenges ahead.
It was from one extreme to another
in the world of politics as well, with Boris Johnson finally caving to pressure
to resign for, essentially, being Boris Johnson. A tortuous leadership election
took up most of the summer, resulting in Liz Truss claiming the keys to Number
10, only for her to lay out a budget - sorry, fiscal event - so madcap and
breakneck that she was immediately chucked straight back out again, becoming the
UK’s shortest serving prime minister ever.
Just two days into Truss’s
calamitous premiership, a slightly more glorious reign came to an end with the
death of the Queen. Many of you will remember that the Queen’s death was
announced the day before the M&IT Awards, throwing us a bit of a curveball,
to put it lightly. Some running order wrangling ensued to include a
hastily-assembled tribute, and we trusted to our instincts that our audience of
eventprofs would still want to come out and celebrate the sector, which
thankfully, they did.
The funeral that took place the
following weekend was yet more proof that the United Kingdom is in a class of
its own when it comes to pomp and circumstance, bells and whistles and
organising major events.
Sense of pride
Now of course, we have Rishi Sunak
in Number 10 and King Charles III on the throne and we’re trying to get back to
some kind of stability and sense of pride as a nation. We might have had trouble remembering the new words to the national anthem before the games, but
England’s form in the World Cup in Qatar briefly helped with that, before the French brought us back down to earth with a bump.
Speaking of bumps, the start of
2023 looks set to be a bumpy one for eventprofs, to say the least. Planning
events is a nightmare, with short lead times and last minute requests the norm,
and good luck predicting how much resource you’re going to need. Tight
schedules make supplier fees higher, who then want upfront payment. Agencies
are covering supplier costs before they’ve been paid by their clients. Things
can’t go on like this, so I predict a closer relationship between agencies,
suppliers and clients, borne of necessity. We all need each other!
Corporates, finding that their
budgets no longer go as far as they did previously, are consolidating events,
focusing their efforts on the ones with the greatest ROI. Bigger events and
less of them could be a real trend in 2023.
Rising enquiries
However, it’s not all doom and
gloom. The value proposition for face-to-face has never been higher, because
two years away from face-to-face events has made everyone realise just how
valuable they are. Enquiries are not an issue – conversion is the challenge.
Conversely, we’re also seeing a bit
of a throwback to the last recession, with companies getting cold feet over the
PR implications of being seen to hold events in the midst of an economic
crisis. They’ve got the funds to run an event, but have they got the nerve? No
one wants to be seen as a spendthrift in a cost of living crisis.
Incentives are another area that
could be hit in this way, but at the same time businesses are critically aware
of the need to motivate, recognise and reward team members. So what to do? One
way through could be smaller, closer to home incentives, short haul rather than
long haul, especially with delegates preferring to be away from home less, a
recognised after effect of Covid lockdowns.
Diary planning
Those lockdowns and the resulting
move to working from home have had a huge effect on events in so many ways, not
least diary planning. When we were in the office five days a week, we’d be up
for events pretty much most evenings. Nowadays we’re only going to bother coming
into the office at all if we’ve got an event to go to that night. It’s flipped
on its head. And even then, we’re still probably not going to want to come into
the office if it’s a Monday or a Friday, we like those long weekends.
Truly we
have turned into a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday society. That means increased demand for
venues on those three middle days of the week, which means even more price
increases.
The great virtual/hybrid/in-person
conversation rumbles on, I’ve had people at various points of the year declare
to me that virtual and hybrid events are dead. However, those cost savings
associated with virtual and hybrid aren’t to be sniffed at, and you’re likely
to see virtual thrive again in 2023, especially for internal employee-focused
events. My own view is that smart organisations will be retaining an in-person
event budget.
Sustainability and DEI
Sustainability will continue to be
a huge part of the conversation, no longer just an afterthought, we’re going to
see it built into the entire life cycle of events, from pitch to planning to
post-event feedback, not just a “nice to have” or an afterthought.
The other big talking point in the
sector is DEI, diversity equality and inclusivity, and I see DEI in 2023 taking
a similar route to sustainability. Neither of them are tick-box exercises,
they’re big commitments that are at the heart of 21st century
business. So just like sustainability training and goals are now the norm,
expect DEI training and pledges and boards and goals to become ever more common
across the sector.
Forward planning
One thing I would like to see in
the sector is a greater sense of forward planning. At the moment, I see a lot
of firefighting, plate spinning, people doing more with less and lurching from
one event to another. Yes, lead times are non-existent, budgets are a farce and
the next year is a total mystery, but all this short-termism is not good in the
long-run. Where do we want the events sector to be in five years, ten years
time? That’s what we need to be talking about in 2023 – and then we can start
making it happen.
One of the ways we can do this is
by using data – who is coming to our events, what are they doing there and why
did they do it? Demographics, engagement, sentiment – all of us running events
have the opportunity to collect this data from attendees, if we’re not already,
and then we can use that data to create metric-driven aims and goals, and show
more clearly than ever before the value of our meetings and events programmes.
What’s clear to me is that if we
are going to look beyond the uncertainty of the current business climate, we
have to evidence the value and impact of our events, so that we can create a
strong base from which we can grow for the rest of the decade and beyond. As I
said before, the desire to get together at events has never been stronger. The
challenge for us now, as it always has been, is to make those events happen.
See you in 2023!
M&IT editor Paul Harvey is a journalist with more than 15 years of experience. He began his career in the local press, working for various titles across the north. Since joining M&IT in 2013, he has become a trusted and respected voice in the sector, championing event professionals and reporting on all aspects of the events industry for the brand.
