to everybody who has joined us from outside of this meeting room um within the meeting room we have some of our members of the board uh other people are uh joining us externally for the agm and then obviously we are following on with the board meeting thereafter um i'm claire fenelow i'm executive director of evcom this is my second um annual general meeting um and and the second sort of working within the slight confines of the um pandemic situation although improved in the last six months i think we'll all agree um we're delighted to have you with us today it gives us an opportunity to share with you um one of the important factors of agm is our financial situation and then i will also follow up um a report of the events and activities that we've undertaken over the whole of the last year um and and try and give you some insight as to which things uh worked well what was successful which things maybe not so much um and and how that might um impact on on how we're gonna respond going forwards um we the agenda was due to run charlotte gentry our chair to give you a welcome um and also her review of the year unfortunately she's unable to make it she's having to do some filming this afternoon um so has had to cancel she will provide um some of her feedback in the short film and we'll forward that on to everybody who has attended today um so uh having said all that i will pass you over to dale parmenter who is our uh treasurer and and he will run through um the uh highs and flows of um some of the finance the situation of this year and um we will take questions but there's also an opportunity at the end of the meeting to ask further questions if you just uh if you do would prefer to hold on to them so dale i'll pass it over to you and then you go here okay i'll just share my screen with everybody okay um can i presume everybody can hear me all okay great uh so this was the original 2020 um profit and loss uh that we put together uh before the pandemic um so clearly you can see there the big focus around live events and our event program is a big big income stream for the association um once we got to march of course things all changed and we revised that budget knowing that our income stream would be a main income stream would have been dramatically cut uh so airing can be reduced by 200k basically this had an impact on our direct costs and those direct costs are attributed to mainly putting the events on so we knew that would drop but then we also had to look at our running costs as well and how we could dramatically cut our running costs going forward um but still aim to try and make some sort of surplus uh through 2020 um and this is what has actually happened uh so in terms of membership uh we pretty much um hit where we wanted to hit uh and um in terms of other income that's where we've seen the significant drop we haven't been able to run at the events or we weren't able to run last year the events we wanted to run uh albeit there is other income some of that would be sponsorship um and some of it would be uh some of the online events that we did but still a good effort to to bring that 57 58k in uh the government grant was one of the small grants that um that claire applied for we were applying for anything that was going to be honest so total income 158 000 um which not not that far off our budget but then when it comes to our expenditure direct costs were down um which was great uh to about 9k and our running costs were was within where we thought we'd be on the new budget so um total expenditure 146 000 so under our budget that left a surplus of 12k we had some interest charges so overall uh almost 11 000 uh profit so not quite where we are but i think with everything that went on last year i was pleased that we actually made a profit and and stayed afloat uh to be honest so the big focus really to give an idea was around these running costs and that was a huge challenge and if i just share a scan from the um um [Music] from the accounts you can see where we were in 2019 and where we had to be in 2020 and bearing in mind we had already committed because we didn't know as nobody knew that this what impact the pandemic was going to have we'd already committed to rent and rates and and certain running costs and paid for some of those things so we weren't going to get the full value of moving out the office at that time but our main focus was really around these areas here so we saw some big big drops uh in expenditure which was brilliant and to give you an idea of where we have been in 2021 this is the forecast to the end of the year so those um savings have increased uh and we obviously now we've got no premises uh to pay so a lot of zeros there which is brilliant and we've been able to um reduce costs in other areas so a big thank you to to claire and amelia who really worked hard to be able to bring those costs down and we're a very lean machine now at 118 119 run the business or run the association uh in terms of the balance sheet um so this is going over the last three years um so 2018 was the worst ever in in the association's history and we've been working that figure down that uh um minus figure uh in terms of the the net worth um and despite again despite what's gone on in the last 12 months or so being able to knock another 10k off of the balance sheet and we're still working towards getting getting back and being sold and so good good look at that we're going to say we are technically technically uh we are however however there are circumstances um and look we look at those liabilities and what those liabilities are made up of uh they're two long term loans one being the bounce back loan that we got [Music] the risk is mitigated in fact if you take the uh 75 minus 75 000 from the 98 then the balance sheet would be it would be positive taking away those two loans um so the risk is considerably reduced to where we were three years ago um that was considerable risk and obviously a lot of talk of can we even keep going so i think despite everything that's gone on actually to pull it around has been has been amazing um for the team so well done to the team and everybody involved um from um let's just move on to the cash position uh so this is um forecast for versus actual so this was our forecast for cash and we had to keep changing that on a very regular basis uh through 2020 uh and this has actually happened um so we tracked pretty much as we said uh where we saw that big bounce up there is the bounce back loan of 50k that we added into the coffers which really helped us then uh give us security that we can keep going uh with that loan and and my view was we've got that money let's use it and use it effectively even if we're digging into it so going forward into 2021 uh that's where our cash position is as of today uh and that's where the max pack loan obviously we're starting to pay that down now so yes we dipped into it currently we are dipping into the loan but okay i think we should use it i think we should invest it in the association and use it for the membership and only then we can start to realize some of the benefits of using that loan uh going forward and of course it's a long term loan as well it's quite six years yeah yeah i started paying it back in january though oh right okay so we haven't started paying back yet just touch on the 2021 p l just to give you an idea where we are so this is the budget for the current year again we didn't think live events would return and they certainly haven't uh so we we were down on our forecast uh in terms of where we are up to the end of september this is where we are so we've got a deficit there of 13 k um but we've got two big events coming up uh in the autumn um and here they are so the two big events here making up that income uh and hopefully we will see a surplus on the year of around 45k so um that membership is accruing through the year so it gets released every month um the membership although we get most of the membership money in uh in january um so the 122k would add to the what's now hidden behind that box um the 50 odd thousand of the industry awards and fellowship i strongly believe and i'm confident that we will make a surplus on the year which will eat away again at that deficit on the balance sheet um that's pretty much where we are i think yeah i've got no more slides there we are very good there we go right um thank you so much dale um and and yes you know it's it's it's does reflect i think very very um clearly the the journey that we've been on over the last two years anyway and i think um uh certainly the move out of the office has has helped considerably but then just keeping a really really tight eye on what to spend their money on and what we walk away from um but uh i'll walk you through some of the activities that any questions oh any questions um that you might want to put at this point oh it's clear as much dale saying as clear as mud i think anything to do with finance you always need to sort of look over and uh look at the numbers in your own time because otherwise it's all just a bit ah to do many events so that the two things offset one another um right what i'll do now is i'll just walk you through uh a presentation which which shares with you some of the things that we've managed to do this year and and we i like to think we got an awful lot done and we were able to engage with members on lots of different levels so i will just share my screen with you now and go through this presentation i'm just trying to find right so start from the beginning okay so um i've divided it into quarters and then i've sort of talked sort of separately about some of the other initiatives we're involved with um so quarter one uh we get a lot of our membership money in um but it is also really really important that we we continue to try and find new members um and and work throughout the year to encourage people to join but the way the system is currently set up is that a good i'd say 70 percent of our members uh uh come in uh in that first quarter and we've done really really well at maintaining our membership rate um which i'm delighted by i have to say uh so uh about 80 to 82 we've managed to maintain and then we've also gathered a few new members over the years uh over the year and then even one or two members who dropped out last year have rejoined this year which is really really gratifying and um i think just goes to show that you know it was a sincere um problem for people is they they dropped out of membership purely on financial terms rather than anything else and then rejoined as soon as they could so that's been wonderful um in terms of events delivered obviously quarter one we were still very very much um tucked away indoors so we continued with our strategy of trying to provide uh webinars covering a range of of issues um so we did the television of events the state of webinars uh we did an event uh around brexit um from which there were no conclusions drawn and i think everyone is still as confused as they were in the first quarter however we're trying to do another one later this year so maybe things will have moved on and then we did it we did a big um sort of activity month around international women's day uh which we stretched to a month um because it's uh it was amelia and i's decision and we decided as women uh just every month so got a month and we put on some fantastic events it was really really great we did a um collaboration with hbaa on some of them but we did some fantastic sessions around women in film aspirational women in film and events uh supporting um projects out there that are generally run by women and we also did one around uh next generation so that was a really full-on month of stuff um but they were really really well received and then another item that just fell into that quarter was uh attending a mental health first aiders session um mainly because we learned so much out of the supporting women in events that it seemed important to um make sure that we were fully equipped to to move forward with that issue as well so i i hope you agree we've got a lot done one two quarter two um clearing awards so once again um these were held virtually and i do think generally speaking um the clarions work very well as a virtual uh ceremony um so we did very well with entries once again 75 entries uh around the same level as um previous year so thrilled revenue was sort of on par so delighted with that and uh we ran the ceremony um at the drpg studios and because it was a beautiful sunny afternoon it was sort of done like festival style was on the roof and and it was a magazine style program so we had lots of uh presenters lots of people being interviewed so in a way it was it was um delivering a lot of content as well as recognizing and rewarding the entries that deliver in that field so um you know i think it works very very well to be able to talk in and around the content uh for that award we started to take our foot off the pedal a little bit with webinars because we discovered really that i think everybody uh business was was starting to pick up and i think people were time poor and we just realized that not as many sign ups and i think slightly overwhelmed with webinars and at this point we started to just try and do less of them um but uh try and make them significant um also important in this quarter was we launched our shadow board which was a um i think a real uh labor of love and i know particularly uh close to amelia's heart so this is uh has been a great project to work on and i know the board were really supportive of this this is um a group of young people between 18 and 24 years old all in the events and film world that act as a board to guide and advise evcom on how we should be supporting that next generation of professionals um it became very clear to us that uh we wanted to do things for young people but um you know i'm not one of them as you can see so it was really important to hear directly from them what they uh wanted uh from an association and how we could work with them and the idea is that we um activate uh their ideas where we can obviously we can't do all of them where we activate where we can um and ultimately we will try and move one or two of those chatter board members direct to be represented on the senior board and that will create a really um symbiotic relationship so that we're sort of working up and then we're working down as well so that everyone is feeding their information both ways so we've already held one or two meetings the board have met them they appeared at our conference and they're really really engaging um a bunch of people so we've got a lot of um uh faith and hope in what we get out of that uh project um we also ran our first supporting women in film meeting um we're hoping to run another one in this final quarter and um as part of a role that i'm trying to do more of i uh i presented it to bournemouth university's first year full studies course and we're trying to do a lot more of that as part of our engaging with the next generation um that's big though trying to go into the colleges and schools and universities because it's it's a mammoth um task but one has to start and we're sort of slowly building up in that area um q3 so um after plea delays and uh dates moving and should we shouldn't we how's it gonna run what should it look like we held our f conference 21 at the hilton bank side in london um we took the decision to make it really a live event putting everybody together it was going to be the first event um that we were wholly as epcom um and we we filmed the plenaries and have been able to share them so we did we did take the conscious decision not to go hybrid in that um the cost and the uh strain and resource i feel would have been would have been prohibited so um we ran it as a live event and encouraged people uh to intend and engage in real life so um not as many attendees as we would have liked however about 93 in the room um and i think everybody was thrilled to be there those people that came i think it was this kind of coming out and sort of seeing people and that sort of hesitancy of oh we're hugging no we're not we're shaking hands we are doing it after it was great it was a really good one fabulous speakers um we uh produced a conference act for the first time a great number of speakers we used uh events 101 to provide support staff and we were able to provide takeaways in the form of uh filmed sessions and uh key points from the speakers and we haven't got a conference film that um we have just signed off today in fact so we'll be able to share that with um with the membership and uh our community at large um website very soon um i would point out at this point this did put a little bit of a hole in our finances um but as damn had said the money from the bounce back loan uh was there to support making sure that efcom remains relevant and that we were putting these kind of events out there um because we can't just disappear so we have to keep keeping on um so i think you know looking back it was the right thing to do um but it was quite a scary thing to do but it's i'm very pleased it was out there and we also ran a brief webinar on on what judges are looking for in terms of our awards um and that got a good take-up actually so it seems that even after all these years people still need to know what the judges are looking for um and we held our review sessions around the live and film awards um i did a presentation to westminster school and a presentation to the association executive summit about our virtual ceremonies which um uh i've got an award for um so keep all which is where we are now and the last few months heading to uh end of december this is what we have coming up um the london live and film awards ceremony at the bay fair on the 25th of november so um we're really excited about this we haven't had a live award ceremony since november 2019 and this is um it's a wonderful venue for an award ceremony we've got it's got a fabulous auditorium and a really beautiful uh ballroom so we're hoping uh to fill that ticket sales are already going um gangbusters so if you haven't got yours already two tweets we uh we're following that up a week later with a screening of winning work and um a few speakers uh made up of some of the judges who will give some of the winning work context they'll talk about why one what the judges uh talked about and we're holding that at the view in piccadilly um it's only a 50-seater uh screening room but we just think that's a really nice way of being able to talk about and look at the winning work in a context um for those people who would like to see it on a big screen um can use it more as as you know as a learning experience and just to see see what the standard looks like across the whole um our fellowship awards are coming up after that in december which is another annual favorite um again didn't manage to do last year so we have our three fellowship awards to give out there and again very limited numbers of that so for those of you who are interested please let us know the tickets are on sale now and we've managed to just before the end of the year squeezing a live talking pictures event of pfi um and this is looking around it's 75 years of the coi um and its output and we have speakers representing film companies who produce work during the coi years people who are a commissioner from the cri and we have the bfi talking about the work in context of an archive so it's a lovely event and that's the um stephen street uh cinema unfortunately no um our facilities in there because it's closed but we shall return to a pub to talk about the films obviously but they're always really really enjoyable evenings um we will be once again last last year for the first time we did a we did um some communication pieces around membership we did a review of the year and we we reproduced a membership uh package which was just showed what you've got for your membership they're really useful and they work very very well so we should be releasing those again this year um and it just gives us an opportunity to share with all the members in photos and lots of detail everything that's gone for and and to outline to current members and future members what it is that they're engaging with in terms of offering so that will be ready to go out um around december time um i've got another presentation to the academy that's tomorrow um i've also done another uh presentation to bournemouth but this time to their events students oh and he did that with me as well and i'm attending richmond communication directors forum um next month which i'm very excited about because there's some really interesting people attending and we also launched our wise award this year this is the partnership award last year we launched focus which was for young diverse filmmakers and this is sort of a partner award to recognize and try and assist young people entering the event industry and that was our activity uh through the air and then just to with these are sort of the ongoing um areas that we are always looking at um either contributing to writing about pulling in information from our members and sharing so diversity inclusion we've followed up with we offered free membership for black owned businesses throughout this last year we launched michelle aboard in support of our next generation uh campaign we offered freelance members uh membership throughout the year and we can maintain our alliances with federal alliance and stress matters and our partnerships uh consist of um life alliance dvp heritage toward the british film institute and the event roi institute um they vary in terms of how much engagement there is a particular times a year but um it's important to maintain those partnerships i feel [Music] um just looking at uh ahead and and and how we want to go forward you know membership membership continues to be something that i think uh epcon needs to really really focus on so that we we don't we don't miss out on the new the new world out there and the new the new businesses that are forming and that have fallen out of the situation we've had in the last 18 months because i do think the landscape is changing dramatically um and the way we describe certain businesses and what they do and how they do it has changed so um i'm continuing to try and reach out to organizations that that maybe don't look like they necessarily would have fitted to however much to describe itself but we all still work in that comms environment so still looking at reaching out to that broader um those broader businesses and looking at expelling our business and um business partners and networking with them i introduced our business portfolio last year they were heavily involved with our conference and they provide a lot of content for us and i'm constantly trying to engage with my membership um we do work we emilia works tirelessly at getting membership engagement in terms of asking you for your stories and your um activities and the great projects that you've been working in fit round various themes that we're running all the time so please continue to support those where you can because that all creates great content and it's really important to share great work so that people can see what that is and recognize it and it's important for us to share those success stories our members success stories of the winery community and we of course pledge to continue to channel champion diversity and inclusion across everything we do um the the conference um i think uh the the plan for next year is to give it a rest year but the idea is to run a program of activities across may as some will be small like this and and others will be virtual content so there will be a conference deconstructed across and i think in terms of um uh financial uh care i think we need to just um be cautious for next year we will run it again in 2023. uh we will continue with the carrying awards in uh 2022 as a virtual event um but obviously the uh the live film awards 2022 will remain live and we will bring in our next gen stuff around focus and realize awards as well and hopefully next year we will be able to carry on with our campfires talking pictures and our freelance forums and senior leader events because they those kind of events really are the kind of blues that hold ever come together we will of course continue to uh host um virtual events because we have also heard from members that it really does help for those people who are not in london or don't have time to leave the office for that elected period and and then allows great engagement so diversity inclusion sustainability and mental health and well-being all the free may uh pillars that we concentrate uh our efforts around and i think that might be it okay so that was it's a gallop i realized there was a lot to get through um but i think from my perspective it's kind of intentional to do that because it's really important and i think because we're not meeting people in the flesh it's really important that you um you see how much activity is still going on um although you might personally not necessarily have engaged with all of it so it's like putting it all out there and sharing it with you so that you can um see what we've been up to and on that note i'm happy to take um a question before we go on to the next item nothing coming through in the chat so i think you're good to keep going and as i said uh always happy to take those as emails or calls after the fact just keep doing okay stop sharing bear with me andrew smith has a question andrew okay um firstly claire really well done um can you give me a question can you hear me so his audio is going to come through whoever's mic is live okay so okay so you turn your volume up on your computer hang on a minute sorry andrew technology no worries okay you know andrew um really well done claire thank you very very much for doing that um claire um uh you you were just addressing the point and it's a really interesting point of how we are looking to target new members because obviously lots and lots of things have happened in the past 18 months of um you know companies merging or um uh you know going under and reforming in different ways what's the actual kind of strategy around that that you're thinking of of how we kind of go about finding those new companies um at the moment a lot of it is through i'm looking at publications websites newsletters and i make i make long lists i've got spreadsheets of people who i then uh try and find a contact in and uh email or call them i you know i'm just looking to see um articles that are being written about people who's advertising who's spending money on advertising so it really is just that and any suggestions you know if anybody um yeah you know i mean off the board as well who who i think i think that's brilliant and i was i was just going to say you know i mean i think that we need to kind of use the ball the board on that as well um you know and then and then obviously we're going to find people through linkedin as well um but some you know um through the board that's probably kind of like a really good way of doing it because people all people know of people won't they yeah yeah yeah and i think using some of that loan to invest into pr or you know limited amount of marketing but is is is more than acceptable yeah to invest back into the association yeah yeah yeah i i think specifically though we we do need to have a very targeted approach to membership i mean you know it had been my intention to focus quite solidly on it this year as well but i you know the main focus was just on retaining the ones we have um so you know i i i'll say again that next year my intention is to get get new people on board we i think we got about 10 or 12 uh new members this year but i'd say maybe only a couple of them were new new to evcom you know a lot of them have been members in years gone past or they knew a lot about us but had just never joined i think there was only maybe three or four who were kind of totally new um and and hadn't really been aware of this before so i think there is a lot of scope out there but it is just yeah it's putting the leg work in um to finding them and finding the right person to speak to i mean that's half the problem you know it's um you know i've spent i've spent a couple of days once just ringing receptionists and they don't like it they don't like giving out names are you like well yeah but if you just tell me his name i'll just make up the email address because you know i can figure it out but yeah people can be a bit odd but take the pressure off you would it be um something we could set up a small working group that can own this with you yeah to help to do that i mean we've done that in the past haven't we i mean it it makes it makes a key process doesn't it i mean we've also done things where individual board members have almost been um you know set a list of of relationships they either um want to uh keep sweet or or or nurture in the first place yeah so so kind of either of those things that you know could really work well don't yeah i did um the board did come through with some some names last year and uh they were all approached and but i think the beginning of last year was um a bad time to be approaching anybody it was like armageddon wasn't it so um i think this next year will be better because i think particularly those in the film community might be wanting to engage a bit more yes [Music] and i know i was going to have a conversation with dean about appropriate pr company won't we because the one we're using is not great for film so yes we've got some ideas uh but yes absolutely i i really think um we're gonna have to go out with all guns blazing with that um kind of related questions yeah can can people out there hear anna yeah yeah and so if we're going to target other sectors to join or other different types of companies do you think that the awards the categories maybe need to change slightly because i'm just thinking about it from their point of view yeah they need to feel relevant you know the categories already started to change this year to reflect the the changing nature of the world that we've been in and i think that they'll definitely change again next year because it's it's still moving isn't it it's constantly um evolving so absolutely you know if we do get more you know broadcast style events companies then yes we absolutely have to um make the awards reflect that it's a balance because you've got to keep you know you've got to keep your core evcom the people have been loyal and you know you've got to keep those people engaged and happy and it's still to feel like their association but we've got to accept that it's it's a changing landscape and if we don't find a home for those people somebody else will yeah and then you know there's trouble you mentioned the shadow board had ideas and things yeah yes yeah especially some of the shadow board who are already working the ones that have maybe been working for a couple of years you know they start to get quite savvy um and understand what you're looking for um but yes it's it's a really big and then alongside that of course andrew was the whole thing of trying to get more people involved again as were many years ago i believe on the commissioning side um and that again is another job of work of finding appropriate people there but we have you know a separate conversation around that too um but you know the whole notion of membership is a is an interesting one because associations over the last decade have changed um and and that whole idea of membership becomes something that is not harder but it's a different cell um into people what you're offering organizations more community based yeah like like nice book like ice and those where they don't deliberately don't cause associations yeah communities yeah or networks or yeah so it's it's it's interesting um and important to keep hearing what people are saying and and and people's views on how this um is going to move forward yeah but yes we shall i shall um put it to the board that we we we get a working group together fantastic okay thanks andrew um anybody else okay um i'll just we move on i just wanted to a quick update um with regards to our board members um just to let you know um who are who the board members are who are standing down um so toby lowe from merchant cantos and anjali uh raythel have i said that right rather from seven events um and paul stoddart from cwt um are standing down this this this year so um on behalf of evcom and the rest of the board um we would just like to thank them um heartily for their um input and their time and their efforts and their energy uh it's always really really important i can't express enough how essential um an engaged and active board is um when you're a small association it's really really vital that you have people to guide and advise and help and suggest and put you on the right path and be the finance treasurer guy so uh really um really enormous thanks uh to to those three members we will be um looking at uh the the nominations for um the incoming group at the board meeting after this and we will share that uh have been made um i would also like to thank charlotte gentry who has been our chair for the last two years um again you know a little dynamo um puts a lot of effort in and has been lovely and really supportive and always on hand with advice so thank you very much to charlotte and an enormous thanks uh to to dale who is our treasurer um who keeps um a firm eye on the finances and tells me to spend the bar because i would just put it in my panic um so yes uh thanks very much to dale who is our treasurer and thank you to the the board who are staying with us into into the next year um thank you all so much um it's an absolute pleasure to work with you and uh we've started to creep together uh in real life so hopefully next year we'll be able to do a bit more of this um so thank you all very very much um your help and advice is um always appreciated um i would just ask if there are any other matters arising were there are there any um people who are here attending the agm do you have any points you wish to raise about um management of evcom what we've been doing over the last year uh where you would like to see it going in the future um now is the time or you can of course as i said drop me a line later on but i will pause for a minute just in case i think well people are thinking about that we should formally thank claire emilia as well for your hard work well said what used to be done by what used to be done by kind of six people is being done by two it's amazing yeah i have to say you know it it has been an amazing year we've it's it's um we've had uh moments of panic and moments of ah what did we say we'd do that but generally it's been great with the projects we've managed to get underway have been really really um important i think and i just think even in talking about other events where we've been and we've been asked to speak i think the shadowboard and some of the work we've done around diversity and inclusion has been really well received and i think um it's great for evcom moving forward because i think we've been slightly ahead of the game on some of the stuff um and uh from our little amelia working from her bedroom and me from my office at home we get a lot done we get less done when we come into london at work because i've talked to her but no it's been brilliant had a really really good year now it just would like some money to do good things with um no questions okay right with that um i'm going to close the uh agm and thank those of you um for attending uh thank you for attending rather um and those of you who are on who are staying on for the board meeting um can we ask you to hang about for five minutes because that's due to start in about five minutes time um and well done us for sticking to time look at that thank you all very very much okay hope to see you in the flesh sometime soon bye