The business world is evolving faster than ever. If you are a person who is slow to adapt, you may be at risk of being left behind by your customers, competitors, colleagues, and employees.
But if you are looking to grow and discover new opportunities to take advantage of all your experience, knowledge, and support networks that you have built throughout your career, then you will probably have the privilege of being part of the most important transformation of this sector in the past centuries.
The purpose of this column is to contribute with some reflections, to provoke new thoughts and to share some of the experiences, even if coming from other markets or from other sectors, to try together to answer some of the doubts about the future of our industry.
Thus, we will understand how to take advantage of this historic opportunity and help our communities to recover, with responsibility, the true value of fairs and events.
The B.C. Fair Market (Before COVID-19)
We were taught that the traditional business model of fairs and events, the face-to-face model, has a lot of value in the history of mankind. Since antiquity, merchants arrived from the most remote regions to trade their products in villages and small towns, the human being carries out exchanges of knowledge and information face to face.
We are proud to say that this business model, especially when it comes to fairs and events, has conquered the most diverse civilizations over the past two thousand years. This model was what made it possible to spread knowledge and innovations that reached beyond the walls of our domains.
With face-to-face events and fairs, ideas were forged that conquered empires, fomented revolutions, propitiated great industrial inventions, developed international ventures, consolidated the globalization of commerce and, also, the formation of new business models.
However, all this success of the face-to-face model, which enshrined business fairs, caused us a professional dilemma. During the past few decades, many have found us making a great effort to preserve what has always worked.
And, as we followed the development of the global economy, we were less interested in the arrival of the internet, e-commerce, remote connectivity tools, the adoption of social networks, data engineering and virtual event models.
In March last year, when we were challenged by a global pandemic, an unprecedented situation in our lives, which, without a doubt, will leave a mark in history, was when we were able to see, in a more evident way, that fairs and events still need to evolve in all these aspects and, above all, following the speed with which our customers have adapted to these new technologies.
The Market of Fairs in 2020
The devastating arrival of the virus has stopped the world economy and provoked a very common reaction in our industry. Once again, we project the future based on the success of our past. Thus, we reluctantly deny that all of this would affect us, convincing us that soon everything would be back to normal.
After a few months, already aware of the seriousness of the situation, we began to observe, in a more interested way, the virtual spaces, we even participated in online events and conferences via streaming. But always arguing that when the number of people infected with the virus decreases, when the vaccine arrives or when the situation eases, we would be back to the good old normal.
Some, the most curious, quickly discovered something that this pandemic has come to teach everyone: the importance of adapting.
While observing the inefficiency of governments, the lack of collaboration between nations and the generalized inability of governments to control the health crisis, we were able to understand the true value of professionals in science, medicine, information and technology.
Looking at the scientific community, we were puzzled by the speed with which they published the first academic article on Covid-19, already in January 2020. And we were even more surprised when they commented that the process of genetic decoding of the virus had happened in that same month, just a few weeks after the announcement from the Chinese authorities. Many of us cannot understand why they decided that all of these discoveries would be published for free on the internet, shared with all their competitors in the community around the planet.
A few weeks later, we also had multiple medical protocols among us to prevent and treat the impacts of the virus. A few months later, vaccines arrived that are helping us to protect those at risk and minimize the consequences caused by Covid-19.
Meanwhile, in the fair and event market, even after a year of pandemic, with all the evidence favoring the adoption of an exponential and collaborative business model, we continue to make a herculean effort to try to preserve the past. In 2021, some of us still argue that we must return to the business model of a world that no longer exists.
In that time, our clients have already invested in new technologies and are designing competitive scenarios in the digital world, in virtual reality, supported with artificial intelligence, machine learning and the new data economy.
The A.C. Fair Market (After COVID-19)
Undoubtedly, this process is offering us great learning. Today, we are much more aware of the importance of investments in education, science, medicine, and technology. And the inability of governments to respond quickly to the needs that the future demands.
Also, in the fair and event industry, the success we have seen, of collaborative and exponential processes, should help us to reflect on our individual and corporate attitudes.
The answers for a better future in our market can be very close, probably spread in the community of colleagues who accompany us every day. We need to have a new attitude, opening our minds and making ourselves available to collaborate more. We will have to break down the walls of our reigns, learn how other industries, other markets and other colleagues are adapting, and update our business models, making room for new responses and solutions, reflecting the new habits of our customers.
Take advantage of the time until the next column is published to reflect on the size of the opportunity that the trade fair and event industry faces. Undoubtedly, it will be a unique moment, which will begin to shape our future, more now looking ahead and not more to the past.
In the meantime, if you have the will and the courage, start cultivating new habits. I suggest inviting your tech colleagues to a coffee. Most likely, they will have some of the answers to problems that you are unable to see today. And with this new knowledge, combined with historical experience, and the already established success of the fairs, we can guarantee together that what started two thousand years ago will last for another two thousand.
Juan Pablo de Vera
Industry professional with more than 26 years of experience in the events sector in six different countries. He was President of UBRAFE three times; two São Paulo Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Vice Chairman for Latin America at UFI - International Association of the Trade Fair Industry. Business Administrator, he is the only representative of the events sector in Brazil accepted in the Executive Program of Singularity University in Silicon Valley. Today he contributes as a Professor in Events and International Certification Courses. He is the founder and CEO of XPLATINA, which offers Exponential Solutions to create Unforgettable Experiences.
Source: Luis Orsolon – Journalist graduated from PUC-SO, Editor of Portal Radar and Radar Magazine
