CRYSTAL BALL – PROACTIVELY PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE

By Ira L. Rosen, MA, CFEE

The theme of the recently completed 65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo and Retreat, presented by Haas & Wilkerson Insurance was Metamorphosis. To paraphrase from IFEA President & CEO, Steve Schmader’s letter in the Convention program, “we have a unique opportunity to re-energize, to reimagine our events, reconnect with our communities and expand our reach and influence.” The general session entitled “Inspire the Industry – Crystal Ball … Proactively Preparing for the Future” certainly gave us the opportunity to capitalize on the theme of metamorphosis.

The premise behind this session was relatively simple: We all know what we have been through over the past few years. What key elements will our industry need to address as we emerge from what has happened and what will drive us forward into the future? The panel consisted of long-term industry experts reflecting a diverse group of constituencies, large and small markets, low budget to high budget events, global diversity, etc. I was asked to moderate the panel, which consisted of the following people:

• Ted Baroody, CEO – Norfolk FestEvents, Norfolk, VA, USA

• Jasmine Freeman, CFEE, Senior Management Analyst – City of Las Vegas, NV, USA

• Matt Gibson, President & CEO – Kentucky Derby Festival, Louisville, KY, USA

• Jazelle Jones, Deputy Managing Director – City of Philadelphia Office of Special Events, PA, USA

• Keli O’Neill-Wenzel, CFEE, President & CEO – O’Neill Events, Kansas City, MO, USA Johan Moerman, Consultant from

Rotterdam, The Netherlands also participated in the planning process but was unable to be in attendance.

In initial meetings, the panel took a long list of challenges and consolidated them into 5 key themes. The themes were:

1. Health safety/security

2. Over Saturation/ Governmental partnerships

3. Economics

4. Human resource issues

5. Environmental sustainability

The first part of the session consisted of a moderated discussion of the topics, while the second part consisted of small groups discussing the themes and developing potential paths forward.

This article is a summary of the conversations that took place during the sessions and an action list of what we should consider as actionable items for the future.

TOPIC 1: Health safety/security, including future potential pandemics, gun, and other weapon violence.

Prior to the pandemic, festivals and events were always concerned about the safety and security of their customers. This concern has only grown in the post pandemic era and in addition to all our past challenges, we now must add the concern over the literal physical health of our staff, our volunteers, our vendors and our customers. Clearly there is a renewed focus on the health, safety and security of our customers. Everyone agreed with the fact that if people do not feel relatively safe, they will not come to our events. None of us are first responders and where does our responsibility lie in terms of providing safe environments. What are some of the things that we can do to help deal with these issues?

1. Control the space – consult with appropriate legal entities to determine what rights we must exercise in order to limit completely open access. Can we prohibit people from entering with weapons, for example. This issue is extremely contentious and subject to local, state and federal regulations. Recognize that most of us are not lawyers, but this is certainly a topic that we need to address with the appropriate legal authorities.

2. Be honest in your communications – Recognize that there are no 100% safe spaces in this day and age, but honestly communicate what your event is doing to mitigate risks to your customers. Most customers expect a level of security, so we need to promote our efforts through public relations methods. Secondly, we actually have to implement these measures, not just talk about them. One workshop participant used the phrase “security theater,” where we just put in “band-aid” measures without really addressing the issues. The consensus was that we need to avoid this at all costs.

3. Stay informed about legal issues – Laws and legal precedents are constantly changing. It is our obligation to stay current on relevant topics.

4. “You can’t get ready – you have to be ready.” This was a key comment from one of the panelists which really summarized the whole safety and risk conversation.

TOPIC 2: Over Saturation/ Governmental partnerships, including how to work with governmental agencies in the current world of reduced staffing, lack of police, lack of staffing, etc. Additionally, are there too many events for communities to handle, from customers, to residents, to service providers?

There was a consensus that partnerships between event producers and governmental entities were essential prior to the pandemic, and that they have become even more important as we move forward. There were several comments about the topic of oversaturation – the belief that in some areas there are just too many events. Clearly, every participant in this discussion loves putting on events. However, with shrinking governmental resources, and ever tightening corporate sponsorship budgets, this is a potential concern for the future. Although there is no concrete solution for this, there was some consensus that festivals should begin to emphasize quality over quantity and maybe instead of doing 45 events over the course of a two-week festival, perhaps we should reduce that number and emphasize the quality of what remains.

TOPIC 3: Economics, including expense increases, revenue challenges, supply chain issues and other challenges to the bottom line.

There was a great deal of conversation, both among the panelists and the audience about the challenges that we have faced over the past two years regarding economics. Clearly, without governmental programs, many festivals and events would not have survived at all. But now that these governmental programs have gone away, how do we move forward in the future? There was general agreement that this is not a short-term issue, and that the industry will be confronting financial challenges for the foreseeable future. Expenses have increased, and in some cases have doubled. These challenges have come from supply chain issues, labor shortages and increasing demand for limited resources, both in terms of equipment and people. At the same time, audiences in some cases are still hesitant to fully embrace the return to live events. Some festivals have seen crowds increase, but many others are experiencing significant shortfalls in terms of revenue.

As with all our challenges, there are no simple solutions to the economic issues that we are facing, but several key themes arose from the conversations.

1. We need to develop new partnerships with vendors, sponsors, governmental agencies, other events, etc. The need to “think outside the box” and develop creative solutions to expense issues is critical. The concept of equipment sharing was discussed where a group of smaller events collaborates to share resources.

2. Reach outside your own market for suppliers

3. Conduct a line-by-line expense budget review

4. Analyze your revenue sources.

TOPIC 4: Human Resource Issues, including “the great resignation,” “quiet quitting,” mental health and time/life balance issues. Also, diversity, equity and inclusion and the challenges we face in getting younger people interested in and engaged in the industry.

All our topics generated significant conversations, but the discussion of human resources produced several strong challenges, as well as some great opportunities. The recurring themes included the challenges of work/life balance, the issues and opportunities posed by diversity, equity and inclusion, the importance of emotional well-being and the generational differences between aging leaders and young staff/volunteers. One of the other challenges that presented itself was the dwindling volunteer base, as well as the fact that fewer young people want to commit to the intensity of the festival and event world, with its long hours and relatively low pay. Some of the potential solutions included the following:

1. Keep an eye on your team. Look for the signs of emotional and or physical burn out and recognize that the intensity of the event world can take a toll on both staff and volunteers.

2. Compensate for the long hours. Although the group recognized that the intensity of the weeks leading up to your event can lead to a 24/7 work mode, recognize these long hours by giving staff additional personal time off, or look at 4-day work weeks in down times.

3. Take care of yourself. Self-care was a recurring discussion both from the moderators and from the workshop participants. Recognize that if the leaders of an organization are unwell, chances are pretty good that the rest of the team will recognize this and react accordingly. Take the time off, drink the wine, eat the donut!

4. Set mutual expectations. If you expect staff, interns and/or volunteers to work seven days a week, let them know. These conversations need to begin during the first discussions you have with a potential employee or intern, not after that person has been hired. No one likes surprises and conflict arises in the workplace when people do not understand the expectations of the job.

5. Fully commit to diversity, equity and inclusion. Almost everyone in our industry recognizes the importance of DEI, but there are still surprisingly few organizations that have written DEI policies and procedures. This is a critical topic for the future and saying you are inclusive does not magically make you so. Develop a policy, develop procedures and truly commit to DEI.

6. Commit to professional development. So many of the conversations around human resources recognized the fact that the more resources we have, the more effective we can be. Many talked about the value of the IFEA Affinity groups and other IFEA resources that were made available during the pandemic and continue to be available today. This is an industry that requires lifelong learning and if organizational leadership commits to this concept and makes it important for their teams, we will be stronger festivals, events and human beings. As one participant said, “You never lose when you continue to educate the team”.

TOPIC 5: Environmental Sustainability, including the fact that festivals and events need to own a sense of responsibility to the planet.

The fifth and final topic also generated some interesting conversations. While everyone agreed that this is an issue which we need to address, there was a lot of discussion about the potential negative financial impact of our sustainability efforts. As an example, one of the panelists talked about the revenue loss when the decision was made to give away water at their festival vs selling it. This was certainly the right decision for sustainability efforts, but not necessarily an easy one, especially in the challenging economic times that we are facing. Some of the key takeaways from this conversation including the need to be creative in how we look at sustainability, take the opportunity to look at potential sustainability-related sponsorships and partnerships, and getting your team involved in the conversation. Also, recognize that sustainability cannot be an afterthought. If we truly want to improve our efforts, we need to think about this early in the planning stages. Some great ideas surfaced including repurposing programs where carpet used for the NFL draft was donated after the event to local recreation centers.

CONCLUSIONS:

When the planning team began discussing this session, there was no expectation that we would develop earth shattering recommendations for the future, as the title refers to a crystal ball, and none of us had a working model! Rather it was envisioned as a beginning, not an end – an opportunity to tap into the collective knowledge of the participants and to begin the journey towards developing mutual solutions as we continue to guide our industry through challenging times. Although not groundbreaking, there were certainly several key recommendations and opportunities for growth which were discussed. These over-arching themes included the following key elements.

1. Recognize the ongoing importance of partnerships and relationships. These have always been critical to our industry success and the need for stronger, more creative and more varied partnerships was a recurring theme in most of our conversations.

2. Build quality over quantity. The festival model from ten years ago might just not work today. As many of us built our organizations, we believed that we needed to do more and more to satisfy our various stakeholders. This is not the case anymore and we really need to examine the model which attempts to be everything to everybody. Find your core successes and build on them.

3. Continue to educate yourself, your team and everyone around you. Professional development used to be an option for some. It is now a necessity for all. No one will ever know everything there is to know about this industry, so if we are not constantly learning, we are doing a disservice to ourselves and our communities. Utilize every resource available to you.

4. Promote value over price. Price sensitivity is an ongoing challenge, but if we are concentrating on quality and value, we can overcome these objections. One panelist made the comment that people will pay $15 for one piece of sushi but complain about spending $20 for a full day of festival entertainment!

5. Balance your work and life and pay attention to emotional wellbeing. This has always been a stressful industry. If doing events were easy, everyone would be doing them! However, we can no longer ignore the emotional challenges our teams are facing. There are real mental health, emotional wellbeing and work/life balances in our industry and ignoring them is not an option. There are also serious diversity, equity and inclusion issues and we need to be better at really addressing these challenges.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it is time to continue the conversation. This session, this convention, this opportunity for metamorphosis is not the end point. In order to thrive, our industry must recognize that going back to what we did prior to the pandemic is not acceptable. We need to grow, to change and to undergo a true metamorphosis. Change is not always easy, but it is necessary. To quote author William Arthur Ward, “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”

Be a realist!

Ira Rosen, MA, CFEE is the Associate Professor of Event Management/ Program Director Event Certificate Program at Temple University’s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management in Philadelphia, PA. He teaches several event management courses and is the Program Director for the School’s award-winning Event Leadership Executive Certificate Program. Additionally, for over thirty years he owned and operated Entertainment On Location, Inc. (EOL), a full-service event production and consulting company based in New Jersey. Ira has done extensive work for major events and clients throughout the world. Prior to opening EOL, Ira worked for over seven years with Radio City Music Hall Productions. His production background includes the Super Bowl, multi-million-dollar parades, major corporate events around the world and tourism development projects for many different organizations. Ira has spoken at conferences and conventions and has done training programs around the world. He has written and spoken extensively on key industry topics ranging from risk management to sponsorship to the financial and operational management of events. Ira holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Montclair State University in New Jersey and is a Certified Festival & Event Executive (CFEE). In 2005, he was inducted into the International Festivals & Events Association Hall of Fame, becoming one of only 70 people in the world to hold this honor. He has also received numerous awards and recognitions from Temple University, the International Live Events Association and many others.

www.kaliff.com