In my decade at UFI, I struggle to remember another month that has been as packed with UFI activities around the world as this past September. Within a few weeks, we had the regular late summer leadership meeting in Paris. We ran a successful pilot for a new education programme for colleagues who are new in our industry, the “UFI Exhibition Essentials”, in Riyadh, working with Tahaluf.
Here we are – our next peak exhibition season is underway. I don’t know about you, but September looks more than just packed in my diary – including a trip to Paris this week for our regular September UFI Executive Committee meeting.
August saw two special delegation activities for UFI members: We had the opportunity to take a group behind the scenes at the “Deutsches Haus” at the Paris Olympics, thanks to our colleagues from Messe Düsseldorf. The Games really managed to transform Paris into an even more special place, and quite a few UFI members were involved in that – Viparis, GL Events and others.
What a week we had in Zurich in June – welcoming 300 members and colleagues from more than 40 countries and regions for the many kinds of meetings, including the European Conference. It was surely memorable for all of us who were there (thanks in large part to our hosts, Messe Zürich) – and as the data from our social media analytics show, the events generated an extremely good number of posts and pictures shared online.
With June wrapping up, the first half of 2024 already lies behind us. On my way back from the European Conference a few days back, I scribbled down some notes, remembering some of the things I have experienced as your UFI President. The list got surprisingly long very fast – a testament to our association's intense work, always encouraging us to be a part of it.
We are a few days out from our European Conference in Zurich. The content looks promising, and I personally am especially looking forward to meeting face to face with this year’s group of our Next Generation Leaders, having chaired the selection jury.
In recent weeks, at various industry events, I have had many conversations with UFI members from around the world and colleagues from other event industry segments. In many cases, we ended up discussing expectations towards UFI and other industry associations. Specifically around the question of what members - be they businesses or individuals - expect to receive in return for their membership fees. What is the “deal,” what are the expectations, and how can associations deliver against these?
The sun is shining in Dubai today as I write this. You may wonder why I seem to be pointing out the obvious, but indeed, that was different just a short while back, as we faced unprecedented rainfall here.
April saw a breakthrough in the ongoing advocacy work for our sector. In Brussels, we could hold a one-day “EU Dialogue” event between the events industry and European policymakers. Backed by Belgium, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union, this was an official event within their Presidency. Praised by everyone in attendance, I hope this event will only be the starting point for more of this coordinated dialogue with European leaders.
Four years ago, in March and April, Europe went into lockdown as COVID shut down public life – and our industry. In the past few days, I have been following a number of media reports and expert reviews on what we all have learned from the pandemic: how countries and societies managed to get through the waves of infections, how industries dealt with it and recovered, what we have learned from it, and what changes it has brought.
