"Definitely collaborate with other event professionals"

Venue West works with local, national, and international clients to manage conferences and associations. Monica is responsible for managing the day-to-day administrative tasks including compliancy and financial regulations, membership development, strategic planning, and association awards. In a recent conversation with Matthias Schultze, the GCB's Managing Director, Monica shared a brief insight in what she thinks is necessary in our changing event world.

Matthias Schultze: Which tools would you like to have in the future, which formats would you like to implement?

Monica Sayers: Audio-visual specific RFPs are needed because you have to find out which technical availabilities a provider has to assist in the production of hybrid meetings, especially at venues where it is necessary to use the inhouse provider. Maybe the provider can work with the virtual platform that the client has already been using.

In our "New Now", new tasks require new skills. In your opinion, what skills and competences will be in demand for event professionals in the future? Are you looking to, or are you already furthering your education on any specific topics/skills?

It will be important that event professionals understand the difference between a virtual meeting and a hybrid meeting. What are "hub and spoke meetings", for example - all new meeting terminology that has come out of the virtual event planning. I believe in life-long learning and am constantly asking the hard questions and looking for the complete answers. By participating in industry webinars and panels I have been self-educating myself since the start of the pandemic when we had to become experts on virtual meetings overnight.

To keep up with the speed of change driven by the digital transformation and global events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the business events sector needs to drive innovation. How do you come up with new ideas? Would you be/ Are you open to collaborate with other event professionals to discuss new solutions and the future of business events?

I always keep an eye on new and upcoming platforms and join webinars from tried-and-true platform providers. I suggest definitely collaborating with other event professionals by seeking out their experiences with the numerous platforms available to us.