From a warning that the global economic concerns are far from over to the kinds of specific strategies and actions that centres should be taking in response, this year’s AIPC Annual Conference in San Diego USA addressed both the challenges facing the industry and the opportunities that are available to those who respond appropriately.
“There are a lot of questions about where we are in global recovery, what kind of industry is now emerging from the crisis and what we should be doing about it” said AIPC President Edgar Hirt. “Our Annual Conference in San Diego was intended to use the very latest industry intelligence and insights to answer these questions and due to the extraordinary efforts by both the global experts and AIPC colleagues who contributed to our program it succeeded far beyond our expectations.”
The tone was set for the Conference theme “It’s All About Change” by opening keynote speaker David Blanchflower, a former member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, and Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College named ‘Business Person of the Year’ by the Daily Telegraph. As the first policy-maker from the Bank, Treasury or Financial Services Authority to warn that the UK faced recession, he outlined his concerns for the current state of global economics and advised delegates that a return to robust growth should not be taken for granted and that a long period of slow recovery punctuated by periodic setbacks was much more likely. During this period, governments will be looking desperately for economic stimulus tactics and centres need to keep that in mind as they plan both their business prospects and the ways in which they interact with government owners.
Blanchflower’s strategic advice was followed by a series of reports on both major geographic areas and key sectors including association business, the exhibition industry and event planners interacting with both corporate and association clients. The common themes were modest growth combined with an ongoing need for flexibility and caution.
Presenters also identified the need for a greater effort to look for new services that can generate value for both suppliers and clients and new ways of organizing business relationships that can again benefit both parties in times that are financially challenging for everyone.
The third major component of the program addressed the ways in which member centres are already addressing the challenges they face with a range of new planning, programming and community interaction programs. These elements included new approaches to revenue generation, facility design and refurbishment, the rise of premium food and beverage and managing change in a centre environment. Also addressed were the ways in which centres in various parts of the world are adjusting their arguments around the role they play in economic development in order to attract new attention and investment from governments and communities.
Driving much of the program were the results of a comprehensive member survey carried out in the months immediately prior to the Conference that covered business confidence,
performance results, key economic and business factors and new response tactics. The survey was completed in a way that enabled the wide variety of topics it contained to be
broken out by region in order to enable a comparison of how various factors are playing out in different parts of the world.
“What we learned didn’t necessarily make those of us hoping for a speedy recovery entirely happy, but there was general agreement that a realistic assessment of business conditions combined with a spirited discussion of tactics for response provided members with the best possible value for their participation”, said Hirt. “I think we all consider ourselves to be better prepared for the challenges of the future as a result of what was conveyed in the course of the Conference and this is the best outcome we could have achieved.”
