From the Chair: 10 November 2021

In this week's #MEAExpress, Nigel Collin made his final address as the MEA Chair.

This is my last post as chair of MEA and so I wanted to look at what's ahead, at what's possible, and more importantly how we can leverage it. Canadian researcher and business commentator Leonard Brody talks about global reset moments, those moments in history when something happens and as a result, everything changes. These have happened throughout history, the Black Plague, the end of WWI, the GFC, and of course COVID. Looking back over several hundred years Leonard Brody, along with Forbes, saw patterns. Following these global reset moments, the world economy takes a hit, then bounces around for a while, followed by an extended period of economic boom.

What does that mean for the events sector? Well…what if Leonard Brody is right and we are heading for a period of extended growth? We know momentum is building and so the question in my mind is how do we leverage any upturn? How do we work smarter and innovate better not just with products and offerings but in the way we do things and the way we think? What is MEA's role in all of this and how can we help our members and the sector?

MEA’s core purpose is to enhance the prospect of business success by our corporate members, to support progress in the careers of our individual members and advance the greater events industry. We do that by helping create opportunities, providing the right education and training and in connecting with each other.

The last 18 months have been extremely difficult for everyone in our sector. About a year ago the MEA board sat down and revisited our strategy and came up with what we termed a recovery framework, which led to a new value proposition. Now we didn't publicise this, but it incorporated several key areas. Advocacy, Education, Communication.

MEA continues to advocate to government in areas of ongoing support and clarity in several areas, which we did on a national scale through BECA, (an alliance of events industry associations), and where possible on a state level, with our fellow industry associations, bodies and individuals. However, advocacy also is about promoting the value of events to the market. It's also about upholding how adaptive and innovative event professionals are.

Professional development and training will also be incredibly important moving ahead. MEA is the only association in our industry which is an RTO (registered training organisation), meaning we have a Diploma of Event Management (SIT50316) designed by the industry, for the industry. It also means we can offer short courses and bespoke professional development and training to our members, targeted at specific areas needed. All vital, not just to retain our workforce through upskilling and cross skilling, but to attract new talent as we recover and grow.

In the area of communication, MEA has consciously been proactive and constructive in our messaging. Which is why we ran stories and case studies of successful events taking place despite the challenges thrown at us. It's also why we proceeded with holding the MEA Awards for 2020 events as late as September this year to demonstrate the sheer tenacity, effort and excellence of our industry.

Of course, a major benefit of MEA for members is connecting with each other. If in NSW and you haven't already registered for the upcoming Christmas party, make sure you do so. We're looking at similar Christmas events in other states and territories as well so watch this space. Evolve will be happening next year and we'll be announcing the date of that soon.

If we take the Leonard Brody stance that we are in for economic boom in the years ahead, then we need to think about how we best tap into that. Remember, we built this industry. No one gave it to us. No one woke up one morning and said "hey, here's an industry for you". No, we built it and it's up to us to rebuild it. MEA has continued to support our members, and industry since the 1970’s, that’s a huge legacy, and will continue to do so as we head into recovery.