PAGEPERSPECTIVE PCO STRAP
Our future depends on our ability to adjust the fundamentals Business events are all about people, bringing people together for purposeful engagements and meaningful meetings and about those who design and facilitate these encounters. We have been in a rut for so many years. This placed event management in a linear innovation trajectory that adjusted to developing influences such as technology and environmental impact awareness sentiments, among others, that allowed us to effect change at a comfortable pace and as a result, we got good at it. Concepts of decentralised meetings were seen as experimental and too far into the future. That future was, however, dropped onto our laps with Covid-19. By Pieter Swart, CMP, CMM, managing director & business events strategist, Conference Consultancy South Africa (Pty) Ltd
W
e are dealing with major distractions, continuously shifting between those within and outside of our control. This affects our emotions and our emotions have an impact on our decisions. It is a natural or human response to emotion that now calls for exceptional emotional maturity and emotional intelligence to get us to a space and place
12 Business Events Africa July 2021
of clarity and objectivity. Whilst frustration is mounting about irrational decisions that affect our lives and livelihoods it is upon us to figure out how we will surface. The narrative of how we got here, our response to change and what we decide for the future is only one book in the library of resources within this industry we chose to serve. Our stories are different. No template fits
Pieter Swart.
www.businesseventsafrica.com
