EXSA NEWS

Shifting our focus to growth and recovery

Our industry’s recovery and growth is going to need more than EXSA just our grit, passion, drive, desire and dedication.

By Gill Gibbs, chairperson of EXSA.

To take control of our recovery and growth and to make it actually happen, we also need a single, simple, unwavering and structured growth strategy that is able to ride uncertainty and change.

One that may move around the obstacles to our growth, through decisive leadership, through a shift in focus and through growth cycles, to support our Industry value and marketability.

While we await government talks to be finally concluded regarding the placement of a temporary waiver on certain intellectual property of Covid-19 medical tools and technology, until herd immunity is reached, which will serve to enable countries to produce Covid-19 vaccines on a large scale, at lower prices and to increase accessibility to the vaccine, what could we do in the interim?

Time is our most precious currency and waiting two to three years for vaccines to be distributed globally, is not feasible, nor is it acceptable.

As we eagerly look for opportunities to rebuild our industry business in this Covid-19 era, knowing that exhibitions and business events will drive economic recovery, invigorate and ignite our individual businesses and the entire Industry, let’s look to domestic markets and lead with the value we bring to the table.

We are all responsible for rebuilding our Industry and while we await the outcomes of each and every initiative that we have undertaken, what is required of us now as a collective, is a shift in our business model.

Whilst travel restrictions are in place, and in that they may be for a while yet, and in that we face challenges posed with the re-emergence of the virus in varying degrees and waves, let’s shift our focus to domestic and get the ball rolling. As a fraternity of creators, ideators, designers, organisers, suppliers, venues, planners and implementers, this is a call to action for all of us to rebuild and recover – locally.

Offering contactless interaction and engagement and keeping up with technology developments continue to be critical components for our drive to grow business domestically in this new normal era.

So too will be pricing systems that encourage local business interaction.