Last week, CSE Live – EventFest by Canadian Special Events took place in Toronto. The live experience was designed to reignite passion, creativity, and innovation in the industry and equip event professionals with the tools, resources, and contacts to succeed in the ever-changing industry.
As part of the conference agenda, Redstone’s CEO, Carly Silberstein spoke on the Power Panel – Navigating the New Landscape of Events. The panelists explored the challenges facing the industry as we recover and adapt to the “new normal.” It was a lively discussion with a lot of great content. If you missed it, not to worry! Below, we share the most important takeaways.
1. Talent: Recruitment & Retention
Throughout the pandemic, a lot of great talent decided or were forced to seek employment outside the industry. At Redstone, we are working to reengage event professionals and show them that you can have a flourishing career and a work-life blend while being in the events industry. Everything we do is with a collaborative team approach, allowing us to support one another in work and in life. While the times have certainly been challenging, we have continued to grow because of our strong core values which puts people first.
2. Education
Since the pandemic, everything has drastically changed. Event formats have evolved, timelines have shifted, and event priorities have changed since 2019. We’re not in the same place as a society or as an industry. Turnaround times have lengthened due to a rise in event standards. Venues, services, food and beverage costs, etc. have risen with recent inflation trends, which has led to an increase in pricing. In addition, event design has evolved, and new safety protocols need to be considered. With so much having changed in the past three years, it has become a large focus now to educate clients and event hosts about the differences in our industry compared to before.
3. Relationships
The lifeline of our industry are the people within it, and the glue that holds everything together are the strong relationships that have been forged. It’s unlikely that this will ever change. Now more than ever, on the road to recovery, we need to lean on our partners to deliver quality products, services and innovative solutions. With rising costs, talent shortages, lack of venue/equipment availability, tighter timelines, etc. we need our ecosystem of professionals to bring events to life.
4. Sustainability
Finally, the panelists spoke about the importance of sustainability and how event professionals need to focus on making our events more environmentally and socially conscious. There was talk of digital versus print, onsite recycling programs, options for offsetting carbon footprints, finding ways to donate excess food (to eliminate waste), and adding a charitable component to every event.
Despite the industry challenges endured over the past two years, there was agreement amongst all panelists that the value of events has not diminished. In fact, we believe that the value of events is more widely accepted and understood by those outside the industry because of the role events played in families, organizations, and all aspects of life, throughout the pandemic. While things have certainly changed, and continue to change rapidly, we have proved that we can navigate through it, and beyond it.