hi everyone I'm Amelia and I work with F calm and welcome to our third and final Skillshare or Wednesday's program we are finishing with a live interview with the wonderful Kevin Harvey at hozier from GCN talent and he's going to be shedding some light on the skills gaps and recruitment challenges that have emerged as a result of the impact of quavered 19 and so very excited to have him here I'm just gonna add him to the video now there we go and so just the bit about Kevin he's been involved with the conference and exhibition sector since 1994 by working in content production and management with a variety of companies and hi Kevin how are you hi Amelia very well how are you yeah good thank you good I'm just giving you your intro business serving the industry in 2001 and then co-founded GCN talent and with the global conference web network and and he's been co-director of GCN talent for over five years working alongside fellow director Catherine Mann to the liver senior level talent to the b2b live events and industries and so yeah very excited to have him here to be talking to us today about recruitment challenges and skills gaps particularly given the current situation so yeah welcome like most beer I so I've got some questions ready and so to start off with let's talk a bit about the impact of climate 19 on the sector so I just wanted wanted to ask you and they've been doing a lot of research into this and how severe has the impact of Craven 19 been for employees in the b2b event sector well yeah unfortunately it's been it's been pretty devastating for the b2b event sector with cancellations obviously from quite early on in the year we think certainly from our client base most of our clients have furloughed at least 25% of their staff some up to 40% and unfortunately the people who remain of course are doing the jobs of two or three people often and we've heard we haven't heard a huge amount but we've certainly had reports of people being under pressure and sort of mental health and well-being I think he's probably suffering as a result we've seen we've seen a wave of redundancies already from some of the bigger companies the exhibition led companies in particular being very vulnerable in this respect and unfortunately I think we're going to see a bit of a second wave as the as the photo scheme winds down completely yeah so difficult of course situation warning at the moment and it is it is unfortunately completely and in terms of these sort of b2b event companies how are they reacting to the crisis well I mean yeah nobody will be surprised to hear that there's been a desperate scramble to to move everything online and this is really in order to shore up revenues and and try and keep hold of the existing of the cash that you've got there's coming from customers you've already committed to you some companies are seeing this or some people are seeing this as a knee-jerk reaction the means of just the means of survival really into a live events can actually return in certain sectors I think it's very hard to convince spenders and sponsors of value in anything other than live events but others equally would would say that the shift to digital events is here to stay it's a permanent thing and we're likely to see some sort of virtual offering in in b2b events going forward but at the moment as far as we can tell there's a good deal of frustration and confusion around the technology that's available and the business model as well really because I think for a lot of companies especially the conference companies it's tempting to simply take a an existing physical event and plunk it online and that's proving to not be sufficient really in most markets and certainly amongst the people that we've spoken to nobody's got a really good handle on how or how to commercialize the whole thing kind of making frankly yeah it's a whole whole new learning curve isn't it for everyone yeah the indeed is possible at all maybe some people would say what it's just not possible there's no margin in these events and we can't do it yes we shall we shall see what the next six months hold those those won't we and so what do you think the implications are for those that are you know continuing to work in the sector and hope to continue working in the sector and despite all there the impact of co19 yeah well it's a good question I think we've been speaking to clients quite a lot recently because sadly there's there's not much business around for us at the moment so we're spending our time talking to our clients trying to understand what it is that they're going through and I think I think that the function that seems to have been hit hardest in terms of adapt a adapting is the sales function and whilst most companies have probably been successful in holding on to existing all the books as they as they pivot to digital which is the the phrase we're all using at the moment I think everybody's really struggling to drive new business in this scenario from from new sponsors new clients and I think that's because often the virtual event offering is really completely untested and untried for a lot of companies so it's got few certainties there are very few guarantees that people can offer their clients and I think articulating the value of a virtual event to your customer base is actually pretty hard and I think the salespeople who want to be successful in this environment they're gonna have to learn quickly how to how to do that really and they're also going to need to develop a pretty quick understanding of the technical platforms that are available what they can offer and what it's possible to to deliver for a client through those technical platforms for example there are definite advantages in the online model around data capture around analytics and if sales staff can really understand the positives in those and how they can be converted into value for clients then I think you know you're starting starting to win the battle there we think the probably staff who or sales staff that are used to a more transactional approach to sales will struggle really needs to be properly properly consultative and unfortunately we've seen a already a reasonably significant wave of redundancies and in the delegate sales function so that's the that's the ticket sales function basically and b2b events because a lot of our clients slightly in panic mode are moving towards the free to attend model so it's sponsor led delegates aren't paying for the most part so that delegate sales function becomes redundant and we're not certain at this stage whether whether it will cover really but having having said that it's it's it's not all doom and gloom I don't think and there's definitely the opinion out there that some event companies have cut far too fast they've cut far too deep and we've seen this before the event industry tends to be quite cyclical in that respect and it responds very quickly to economic downturns and that companies cut hard when they cut fast and they may remember actually we when things pick up again you know we've got to actually put on some events and then a hiring process start starts again so you know what whilst we would never face anything on quite this scale ever before we do know that live events have a propensity to endure it's just that the bounce back might take a little bit longer this time completely let's hope that I feel I feel like there's hope there's always hope and so looking at kind of the functions beyond sales are you seeing any specific skills gaps and and what can any advice and what candidates can do to prepare for the new normal in event delivery as they're going for jobs in the future yes because you know if we assume that some there's going to be a permanent shift towards sort of hybrid sort of a hybrid live stroke online events and there's always going to be a some sort of virtual offering company's gonna need to decide who's going to own that technology piece internally and that's for the larger companies who've got significant technical departments that's possibly not so much of an issue but certainly a lot of our clients are SMEs you know they wouldn't have big IT or technical support functions and in that instance the responsibility for the technology piece seems to be falling to the operations professionals of course these are generally was they certainly won't be tech the Luddites they'll they'll generally be more used to dealing with technology when it comes to putting on live events than on virtual events so I think for for the operations professional looking to to endure in the in the industry getting up to speed with the tech platforms out there you know understanding how they work that would probably pay dividends for the for the content production function so these are the people who actually create research and create content for b2b events we think the challenge is probably less in the development of compelling online content because the research of content and what is compelling is the same really whether you're delivering it live or delivering it online but what is important for content people to get their heads around is is experimentation in format and audience engagement because that is a lot harder in the online space than it is in the live space and as I said a lot of companies are finding it difficult to move beyond the webinar at the moment or just sort of the replication almost of the live event in the online environment and there's not as far as we know we're not seeing a huge amount of innovation in audience engagement and participation and that sort of thing an interaction so we think that the responsibility for a foot for that will probably fall to the content at the content people who are creating the format for the events so again it's about understanding what the technology can do for you you know how you can harness that to best enhance the audience experience really we've spoken to our appliances as well about the marketing function and again it comes back to the technical piece marketers going to do well to develop their data tools knowledge and their technical knowledge because we think that analytics is going to play a major part in demonstrating successive events or acceptance sales function important they can demonstrate success and value for their customers and it can be really challenging unless you're using one sort of discrete platform I think a lot of companies are using a lot of third-party technology in their live event delivery and it's really hard in that scenario to [Music] to analyze everything across the whole event basically and come out with a complete picture you might know what's going on you're part of the event but not the whole thing so the better marketers can get it delivering a complete picture of what the event is delivering the easier it will be to sell value in the future basically and I think also given the fact that there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff out there a moment a lot of events a lot of noise it's very crowded market is going to have to think carefully about data segmentation something we all I think people are lip service to in the industry but the better we get a data segmentation and not saturating our databases the better is going to be for everybody and the more successful will beat me yeah fantastic some really really useful tips there thank you I'm sure anyone anyone on the journey looking for new jobs that might already appreciate that and so to finish let's look to the future and and what did what do you think you know all the way you're doing what do you think the future holds the b2b sector sure well I suppose you know there's my opinion and there's the research we've done with our clients and I think I think there's a range of opinion out there really I think it's clear that certain parts of the industry have been hit really hard and will probably continue to be hit really hard then we're going to see increasing redundancies as I said as furlough the furlough schemes wind down I think the exhibition companies in particular are going to struggle to commercialize any new virtual offering even if the technology does I mean the technology exists to move exhibitions online but whether that is really going to be something people will pay for I think remains to be seen I think the general feeling amongst our client base seems to be that there won't be any physical events this year I think well we've had a couple who are active in Eastern Europe and Asia more than the UK or Western Western Europe who've said that they are hoping to get events out in in those geographies but I think in general most of predicting some sort of return of live events in q1 next year some even as late as next summer so there's it's a bit of a range there but I would say in general we think probably 2021 for live events companies that are offering content led events who managed to solve the online interaction and networking challenge that I was talking about they'll probably fare better so those are the sort of conference and content that companies more than the expert companies and within those within that sort of subset of company those that can come off the one-to-one or the round table style forums where they're bringing buyers and sellers together either one to one or one to one settle I suppose in the round table format we think they'll probably best of all because a that's commercialize commercializable if that's a word in sizeable this is a better word and then commercializable and it's also it's an easier model to bring online basically than pure content delivering which which has its challenges for sure and we've also heard from clients who are having good success with online training so that seems to be an area that the people are being having success with at the moment so i think i'd say that in general the majority of our clients think that that hybrid model is here to stay that live stroke online event model is here to stay but there's a pretty vocal minority who would say that as soon as this is all over you know that's if that's possible and things returned to normal whatever that is that will just revert straight back to the live event as well as we know it really so in trying to sort of pull all that together I was thinking that some assuming that restrictions are lifted completely at some point in the future I think the future shape of the industry is probably going to be determined in some ways by industry sector so it's going to depend for the organizers which industry sector they serve at what the client demand in that industry sector is because I know because I've spoken to clients in certain sectors that you know the but the emotional event model just isn't going to watch foot before them so you'd expect in that sector as soon as it's possible to go back to live events then people will straightaway but in other sectors where there's been a good response to the virtual you know the virtual event model then we'll see probably you know that hybrid model will will evolve further I had one client say to me that some that he's anticipating revenge participation in a live events which mirrors the he was the revenge shopping in week when restrictions were lifted everybody went out shox I think I think they posted their biggest ever day of offline sales in that day so this particular client was saying he's absolutely convinced that this is going to happen in live events and he wants to make sure that his company's there to take advantage when it happens if he's setting himself up and he's one of these he's actually one of the clients who predicted a return to live events this year as well so I'll be checking in to see how it's on but I think overall you know my personal opinion is that it'll be a mixed picture in terms of the way that the industry shape with the industry based on the sectors that our clients serve but I think cam if there is one more I want to end on a positive note you know there is one more positive to take out of this I think the whole sector the whole live event certainly the b2b events sector we've been put into a position where we where we have to innovate you know we can't you can't you can't just take a live event and block it online and expect to be successful so there's gotta be innovation in format and there's a definite although has been for some time a definite opinion that the the beat of be event industry has been stuck in a bit of a rut really because there hasn't been innovation with with with formats or interaction or any of that technology has helped but you know somebody said to me you know really has it changed since 1974 what we do whoooaa that's a bit no yes I think it probably has you know a managing director of a large of a large organization so you know her opinion was worth but worth listening to um I think if we can hold on to that innovation learn from it and continue to innovate having been forced to then we could end up in a better place actually I think you're absolutely right I think where we're seeing so much creativity and innovation at the moment and we're lucky to be in in an industry full of creative people creative thinkers and so hopefully very very promising for um for the future yeah it's an industry that attracts smart creative people so it's time for them to step up and exactly well thank you so so much that was a really really interesting session and yes I certainly learned a lot and I'm sure everyone who joined us today and and that would be available on our website soon as well and on our youtube and also on our GTV and we've got a couple more sessions tomorrow so please do tune and then but yeah thank you so much Kevin and thank you Linden and have a lovely evening