Speaking at EVENTIT, Glasgow, 2017

“In everyday life being different is difficult, but in the world of events being different is exceptionally challenging. It is not enough to have innovative and creative ideas, event organisers must have an understanding and appreciation of behavioural change.” – William Thomson, Gallus Events

This will be the underlying message of my presentation at EVENTIT 2017 in Glasgow next week. This central message will come as no surprise to regular readers of the Gallus Events blog. However, it is likely to be challenging message for the event attendees.

Being creative is not commonly how an eventprof would describe themselves

The main reason this idea of a “creative” event organiser sits uncomfortably is that others in our organisations do not view us as the “creative” or the “innovative types”, however, if you want something done…..then speak to the events person. There is a common internal organisational view that we are all about admin, delivery and logistics. Times have changed. And event organisers must change too.

More worrying than how others view us, is how we view ourselves. Honestly, would you describe yourself as “creative and innovative”? Or do you echo the “get’s the job done” mantra?

To be creative we have to understand how we as individual event planners have to change (and the difficulty of that change). We also have to consider how our organisations and our supervisory support need to change. And finally we have to understand and appreciate how we take our stakeholders; our attendees, exhibitors, guests and sponsors along for the exciting and ultimately worthwhile ride!

Taking events to unusual spaces and building events around the space.

Identifying and breaking down barriers to change

Over the past several years we have identified the main internal and external barriers which stymie innovation, creativity and change. My hope during my short session is that we can help attendees to identify and prepare to overcome their most challenging barriers.

Once we have helped attendees identify their barriers, the fun really starts, as we will look at the seven things that creative events do and how easy it is to be event creative. We hope to stimulate creative ideas. We hope that attendees arrive as logistical wizards and leave as creative geniuses.