Tag: ABPCO

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CHS Leeds 2024, EventWell® Buddy service, The Power of Events Careers Hub, & more

Leeds map

This news round-up brings you some of the industry and association news and views from February 2024, including CHS Leeds 2024, EventWell®’s Buddy service, ABPCO’s 2024 Festival of Learning, IMEX Frankfurt’s Sustainable Event Report, and more.

Headlines

CHS Leeds 2024 has announced speakers and content for its educational seminars which will take place at The Royal Armouries, 23rd April.

It claims the programme will be one of the most comprehensive guides to organising modern events, with an A-Z, available to delegates, produced by the speakers live at the event. 

Beginning with ‘Event Organising 101’, presented by Neil Thompson, The Delegate Wranglers, Louisa O’Connor, SEEN Presents and Justine Bruce, QHotels Collection, and finishing with a challenging session on Accessibility from Orla Pearson, MyClearText Ltd and Acessloop, the sessions will summarise key take away points and add them to a working compendium that will be shared with all delegates at the end of the day. 

Julie Phillips, Operations Director, CHS Leeds, said: “In essence, they [visitors] want to go back to basic event organising, but through the lens of a massively evolving event world here in 2024. I really think we’re going to deliver, and what’s more, we’re giving them something to take away with them. So, if they do miss a session, they can still have the key take outs in our A-Z.”

CHS Leeds will also continue to follow its values of looking after event organiser’s personal and professional growth with each speaker asked to ensure their sessions are as empathetic and practical as possible. The team will write the A-Z throughout the day and make it available to download via QR code. 

Find out more, here.

Julie Shorrock, the newly-appointed chair of trade association beam, has spoken to M&IT about her plans for 2024, the state of the sector, and more. 

Julie told the magazine, “I’d like to see more collaborations between associations. I think we work better together. When another association’s doing something good, I think we could do a lot more sharing and collaborative work. We’ve already started with IACC, with BTA, and I look forward to developing those relationships this year.”

Read the full interview, here.

Ahead of IMEX Frankfurt in May, the team has published a Sustainable Event Report revealing the successes, experiments and learnings from last year’s show.

The report lifts the lid on sustainability planning in the run-up to and execution of IMEX Frankfurt 2023, sharing notable achievements in waste diversion and energy use, as well as highlighting opportunities for improvement as Carina Bauer CEO of the IMEX Group explains:

“This is the second report we’ve produced, working with our sustainability consultants MeetGreen®, meaning we can now benchmark our progress against 2022. It’s an opportunity to share our successes and our challenges with the wider industry so that they can take what we’ve learned and weave these into their own events.”

Read more here.

ABPCO has announced its 2024 Festival of Learning “Fit for the Future” content. 

The Association of British Professional Conference Organisers (ABPCO) has finalised the programme for the 2024 ABPCO Festival of Learning, taking place at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow on the 29th and 30th of April. This year’s theme, “Fit for the Future,” reflects ABPCO’s commitment to preparing the event industry for the challenges and opportunities of the future.

Monday, 29th April kicks off with an exclusive networking session for new members and first-time attendees at the Crowne Plaza, followed by an evening at the Glasgow Science Centre with food, drinks and a fireside session titled “Cultivating Success: The Transformative Impact of Mentoring” featuring Cally Willoughby-Ward of Chatty Penguin, Sammy Connell of NASUWT, Sarah Vaughan of CITMA, and Rebecca Towell of Full Circle.

Monday afternoon attendees will also have an opportunity to take part in an Invisible Cities Walking Tour of Glasgow.

Tuesday, 30th April includes: Event Power – A Force for Good, The Winning Combination, Tips and Hack, Adapting to the Future with Limited Resources – The BEST Example, Accessibility – The Next Frontier in Event Management, Avoid the Pitfalls and Dodge the Disasters – Stay Future Fit by Minimising Risk, and Closing Keynote – Unlocking a future of heightened productivity and reduced stress.

Heather Lishman, ABPCO’s association director says: “Our carefully curated sessions and workshops are designed to empower attendees with the knowledge, tools, and insights needed to thrive in an ever-evolving landscape. This is a unique opportunity to explore future trends, network with peers, and drive positive change in our industry.”

Read more, here.

EventWell is expanding its support services.

The charitable social enterprise will launch its EventWell® Buddy service at International Confex 2024 in February.

Helen Moon, EventWell founder and chief executive, explains, “It is currently estimated that 15 – 20% of the population are neurodivergent, with approximately 8 out of 10 of those individuals choosing not to attend events due to anxiety, uncertainty around accommodations, communication challenges and more.

We created the EventWell® Buddy service to help reduce potential barriers for neurodivergent attendees by having trained professionals on-site to provide information, comfort and a friendly face to those needing extra support at events.”

EventWell® Buddy Meeting Points provide a designated space at exhibition and conference entrances, Quiet Room or other key locations where attendees can seek assistance from EventWell representatives.

Read more, here.

EVCOM, the event and visual communication association, has launched EVCOMference 2024.

The EVCOMference is the association’s annual conference, which gathers industry leaders, experts and next-generation talent together for a programme of keynotes, panels and discussions. It will take place on 22nd April at RD Studios, London.

This year, the programme is underpinned by facilitated discussions across three core areas: Harnessing Tech, Business Solutions and Building a Better Industry. Within these streams it will be touching on topics such as virtual production and AI, preparing for growth and maintaining a hybrid workforce, neurodiversity and apprenticeships. 

Find out more about the event, here.

The Power of Events has launched a new Careers Hub. 

The not-for-profit company – which aims to showcase the UK events industry – has designed the hub to showcase the depth and range of career opportunities available across the seven sectors that make up the UK events industry.

The hub states: For people looking to change roles, those looking to start their careers and those interested in events currently working in other industries, the hub is packed with information and links to advice, insight, and support. This includes the five main routes into the industry and a glossary that reveals the breadth of job roles across all the different sectors. It also includes links to some of the key support organisations that have helped curate the content and can provide more support and information.

Check it out, here.

Meeting Needs has rebranded as a charity foundation.

Chris Parnham, Meeting Needs chair, said that the refocus is “to better clarify what we are and what we do.” The brand’s new strapline reads: Meeting Needs is a foundation that awards life-changing grants to small charities, with funds raised from within the meetings and events industry.

Read more on M&IT

View from the EDGE

EDGE Venues’ Commercial Director, Scott Ford, summed up this February’s monthly Insights:

Image of Scott Ford, with his comment: "“beam’s new focus on collaboration is something the whole world of M&E could benefit from so we look forward to what comes next from the industry association. And it’s great to see industry events like IMEX Frankfurt keeping an eye on sustainability with its event report – it isn’t going away, rightly so, but how meaningful are many of the new ‘developments’ we often hear about in our space?”
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A return to events – be flexible, creative & find new ways to facilitate networking

A delegate confidence survey conducted by Bramcote International and the Association of British Professional Conference Organisers (ABPCO) amongst 350 association conference attendees has highlighted their confidence and attitudes towards attending future events.

Key findings include:

  • An overwhelming 93% of respondents miss the networking, social interaction, and meeting people.
  • 47% of respondents are happy to attend ‘in person’ events, this rises to 75% if the individual is fully vaccinated.
  • 34% of respondents want to see additional measures in place at their conference.
  • 71% of respondents want flexible cancellation terms for registration fees if unable to attend due to Covid.
  • 70% of respondents will be attending their next event before March 2022 (note – this is likely to be driven by timing of their specialist conference). 32% of respondents will travel to the next conference by car, 43% by train, 20% by plane.

Heather Lishman, ABPCO’s association director comments: “This survey is, on the whole, great news for our industry, highlighting not just what delegates have missed but what we can do to entice them back to our events. The results clearly show that conference attendees miss the personal elements of a conference – although they recognise that digital platforms offer highly capable opportunities to share knowledge and learn, it is the human interaction they miss the most – with only 15% saying they do not wish to attend an in-person event for the foreseeable future. This presents a real opportunity for future events to find creative ways to bring people together to learn and increase interaction.”

“Flexibility was also a key response if we are to successfully bring people back to live events. The requirements for additional measures to be put in place at events were far overshadowed by a need for more flexible cancellation terms, giving them the confidence to book in the first place. Unfortunately, despite the largely positive elements of the results, sustainability appears to be taking a back seat as delegates express a greater desire to travel in their own cars, avoiding mass transit options.”

The survey was conducted by Catherine Newhall-Caiger of Bramcote International, who said: “As the events industry, we have always known that networking, social interaction and meeting people is a key driver for attending events. This Survey reinforces this well-versed mantra by clearly showing that face-to-face interactions and social connections with colleagues is top of the agenda for 93% of the Survey respondents. Our role as PCOs, Venues and Suppliers is to create meaningful networking opportunities where people are engaged, and conversations happen that can often lead to new business connections, learning opportunities, collaboration and friendships. The key to our success is understanding and listening to our audiences and using this to create the right event, at the right time for the right audience.”

The 350 delegates surveyed were from a balanced demographic of age, gender, location and sector. Full details of which are available in the methodology and results.

The full survey is available by emailing heatherlishman@abpco.org

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ABPCO launches sustainability report and roadmap

Timed to coincide with the opening of the COP24 climate talks in Katowice, Poland, ABPCO has released a report and Roadmap for the creation of a more sustainable events industry.

Following attendance at a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) workshop in Paris in October titled: “Leveraging Sustainable Procurement Practices to Transform Tourism Value Chains”, ABPCO and its members gathered to consider the areas where the industry can have the most significant impact on the creation of a sustainable future.

Using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, ABPCO identified a desire for the industry to do more in areas of:

  • Responsible production and consumption
  • Quality education and partnerships
  • Reducing inequalities

The UNEP workshop in Paris also highlighted an opportunity for the event industry to collaborate closely with the wider hospitality sector in the following key areas:

  • Phasing out single-use plastics
  • Sustainable food procurement
  • Circularity in the supply chain

ABPCO’s report and Sustainability Roadmap were launched at IBTM last week alongside attendees from UNEP, Positive Impact and other industry leaders focused on sustainability.

“COP24 will ensure the world is focused on sustainability over the coming days so there was no better time to launch both our report and Sustainability Roadmap,” comments Heather Lishman, ABPCO’s Association Director, who has been leading the project on behalf of the association.  “We have worked with members from both the supply and demand side of the industry to identify where we can have the greatest impact, whilst ensuring the whole sector continues to deliver maximum value for those looking to use events as a means of education, communication and business development.”

Positive Impacts Fiona Pelham comments: “ABPCO has shown significant leadership by attending, contributing to and communicating about a UN environment event on behalf of the global event industry.  ABPCO members should be extremely proud that their association is taking leading action to protect our future and the future of the Events industry.”

The Sustainability Roadmap and Report are both available via  https://www.abpco.org/news/