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The rollercoaster of the last two years has taught us all to expect the unexpected, roll up our sleeves and reinvent ways to create live experiences for our clients and their customers.  It’s been very challenging, but it has also been reinvigorating to create blended experiences (both in the virtual and in-person space) that are more targeted and wide-reaching, data-rich, measurable, and have a longer legacy. 

Along with our industry peers, we have thrown out the traditional manual and delivered a wide range of new experiences for our corporate and healthcare clients – from product launches and medical congresses to educational programmes, in-person return to work programmes and hybrid training events.  A hybrid training meeting that we recently produced for our client offered more localised content and those working in other regions could join relevant parts of the programme which offered a time- and energy-efficient solution.

False starts have happened due to the emergence of the new Omicron variant, with late switches from in-person to virtual or yet more postponements – a difficult situation for all stakeholders in the event, including our ever-resilient clients and partners in our supply chain. But as an agency with a reputation for agility and responsiveness, we have been able to navigate this situation efficiently, underpinned by our strong client relationships and the trust they have in us to understand their needs and get the job done effectively

So what’s next?

We’re all gazing into our crystal balls for 2022, but our general feeling as an agency is that this year will truly be the year for “getting back together” for our customers, our people, and our industry.  This will be very often in new ways compared with before and it certainly won’t be without its challenges, but we have learned and adapted over the past two years and are confident our practice, our ethos and our energy are all primed and ready to embrace what’s in store.

The march of digital

We event professionals love our work because of the thrill and opportunity presented by the event lifecycle. From strategic objective setting and creative development through to event design and delivery in a vast array of formats and locations – no two projects are ever the same.

Digitisation of the event lifecycle is ongoing and not really news, but for 2022 I see this advancing at a rapid rate to increase efficiency, promote best practice, facilitate collaboration, and generate data.   Innovations in our internal operations are driving new ways to deliver projects and the ground is fertile to integrate new skills, techniques and efficiencies across many areas of our external and internal practice. Technological expectation has made global management of projects so much more effective with collaboration and file-sharing, both with our supply chains and clients overseas.

The pandemic has prompted us all to scrutinise the lifecycle in great depth and find ways to automate relevant areas to drive efficiency, but also to help adapt more effectively when things change. There is a greater expectation of real-time updates onsite and less reliance on human input for some tasks such as registration at events and management of programme changes.  This year, digitisation will continue to benefit how we work with our clients and also address wider priorities such as sustainability…. more about that in part two of this blog.

Addressing the talent gap

It is no secret that as the industry has propelled more into the digital sphere, a skills gap has emerged from the traditional event management model to post-pandemic requirements.   Addressing these needs and attracting talent from outside of the industry has both been an opportunity and a challenge across the board for clients, agencies and our partners.

Whilst there is still some unpredictability in how our projects will be unfolding, we are all in a stronger position to anticipate professional requirements and TTA is planning, training and recruiting to continuously improve our skill base and replace the loss of talent the industry has suffered. 

As a company, we pride ourselves on our open, honest and genuinely supportive team culture. We focus strongly on this by encouraging opportunity and celebrating success, actively promoting well-being, and valuing personal development within the team environment. This helps us attract like-minded professionals to build success and fulfilment together.

Collaboration and learning

Collaboration within the events industry has never been stronger and we will continue to support each other during 2022 through knowledge-sharing and skills development, and harnessing our collective power to create wider change. 

On an industry level, strong bonds have already reaped benefits in the form of articulating the importance of our industry and the welfare of its people to government through the “One Industry, One Voice” coalition. We are also identifying many areas of close cooperation that are helping us to look beyond the obvious to create change for the benefit of our clients and society. Sustainable practice is one area where the benefits of collaboration are very evident in helping us swim in the same direction to minimise the impact of our craft on the planet. 

As the industry continues its steep learning curve, we expect combined learning through industry leadership and supplier events to be important in 2022 for sharing knowledge. Areas include digital and participant content, how to operate effectively in an uncertain market, changing national regulations, delivering within short timescales and the evolving nature of risk assessment.

Supplier relationships and partnerships

While our industry and our clients continue to tackle the new meaning and ways of getting back together in 2022, it will also be a year of addressing emerging supply chain challenges and working practices prompted by the pandemic. Across the supply chain – from venues to DMCs, technical contractors and other third-party suppliers – higher level consideration of contracts and relationships will be needed to understand and mitigate risk in an unpredictable event landscape.  At TTA, we have been working with our specialists to research, recommend and tackle these challenges in close collaboration with our clients who are trusting us to work with them strategically across the whole event lifecycle. 

2022 looks set to bring us increased hybrid adoption and localised meeting delivery.  We are working with our network of suppliers and partners to constantly innovate, offer new concepts to engage audiences and exceed the expectations of our valued client base.

Part two of this blog will look at how our clients are doing things differently following a period of transformation and the positive changes the events industry is making in response to the juggernaut of climate change.