After the pandemic, associations have become key players to update and train their members in order to stablish and understand the new ways to do business, to be aware of the new roles and of course, to realize the new needs of the markets.
The International Association of Professional Congress Organisers, better known as IAPCO, knows the relevance to go on with their education programs and to spread knowledge in “post-pandemic times”, not only for their associates, but for the rest of the PCO’s community worldwide.
In that matter, recently Martin Boyle, IAPCO’s CEO, came to Mexico to participate in the last edition of IBTM Americas, in order to support this event, but also to promote IAPCO, as well as its educational programs.
Latin America and the rest of the continent are very significant niches for this nonprofit association, which has always been concerned in creating high standards and sharing the best practices to organize congresses.
Factor Meetings had the great opportunity to have an interview with Martin Boyle about his mission in Mexico. But he also shared with us, as head of one of the most important congress associations, a forecast of what lies ahead in the near future for the sector, as well as the trends and challenges we are facing after the pandemic.
Q: What means to you and your association to be in Latin America/ IBTM Americas?
It’s very important for a number of reasons. Two and a half years ago we developed our four-year strategic plan and, part of it was to support the meetings industry and its development in Latin America.
We also have a couple of members in Latin America and there’s been a lot of interest from the region for our educational programs to come in and teach about professionalism in the industry, to teach PCOs how to deliver in a very high level and high standard.
Plus, there are some opportunities for us as a partner with some of the bureaus and some of the DMOs and some of the PCOs in the region to develop more, to grow more, and to win more business for the region. It’s quite strategic, is a long-term plan that we have, but it’s an opportune sector of the global market place for us to be involved.
We have been to IBTM Americas previously, so we have had a stand previously, but as a CEO it’s my first time […] To be here and personally meet the stakeholders, the DMOs and the events companies in Latin America region is important to me, so I was committed to be here.
Q: What’s new about IAPCO and what’s the association doing in order to contribute with the global meetings industry right now?
We continue to develop our educational program called «Edge Seminar Series» and we deliver three every year, one in Europe, one in Asia Pacific and one in Latin America. And this is an invitation for stakeholders in the industry from DMOs, CVBs, convention centers, hoteliers, event planners to come together for three and a half days to learn the new trends, the new technologies that are available, to learn from peers around the world in one setting and best practices, case studies, learn from failures, but also successes. We are delivering and Edge Seminar in Latin America towards to the end of the year as well, so we will be announcing that shortly.
We also have an online educational platform: “WebEDGE”. WebEDGE is for the entire industry globally, not only for our members, and it’s a congress project management course that allows people to learn from peers and experts at their own base, on the mobile phone, interact on a video platform with them, and earn CMP’s points at the same time they are doing it. So, it’s about building their professionalism, their credentials, but also learning to develop personally and professionally at the same time. So, there’s a lot of activity, we are very busy.
Challenges and Trends «after pandemic»
Since education and knowledge are key elements to boost the recovery of the events sector, it’s necessary to learn more about the trends and the challenges the industry is currently facing. Then, Martin Boyle explained us how the world is moving towards resilience.
Q: From your perspective, what are the main challenges the meetings industry is facing in «post-pandemic times»?
One of the biggest challenges for the international travel is the number of seats on planes and the capacity of which airlines are running […] airlines are currently running at less than 25% of their capacity which they were running at pre-pandemic. So it’’ more challenging to get airlines to travel, most costly for get people to travel, the accommodation is more costly, so the prices of attending a congress are inflated.
We have done an incredibly good job during COVID, delivering the events virtually, so a lot of the clients are seeing they are having tremendous success, but we might not be getting together in a short term in the same numbers that we had in pre-pandemic.
So, all of these things are having an impact and if you look at different regions of the world, you’ll see that there are different times when things are happening. So, Europe is opening up now, people are traveling from Europe with no problem; Asia Pacific is starting to open, some countries are still reduced in capacity; in Latin America, we are seeing that it’s quite slow, but still working on that. So I think in different regions the trend area is a little bit different.
The talent acquisition and retention in the industry is a major issue. At IAPCO, we have 138 members (they are companies, not individuals) and they represent a run of 10.5 thousand employees and deliver 13.5 billion of Euros in economic impact of the events they are delivering on the road. Our members went from 10.5 thousand employees to 7.2 thousand, so we had a drop of 30% – 35% of this talent.
Now the events are starting again and we are working with them, trying to help them to build their capacity, to build their talent and to build their resource.
Q: From your point of view, what are the main trends the meetings industry is facing currently?
Is very exciting what is happening, and even though the hybrid event model is a challenge, the hybrid event model provides a lot of really interesting engagement and interaction opportunities […] you are having people engaging with those international associations from regions where they maybe couldn’t afford to travel to the event, maybe they couldn’t afford to participate, but now they are having engagement from those parts of the world.
Also, we are seeing a thirst and a hunger for other destinations and organizations within the meetings industry to partner with associations like IAPCO, and they are seeing value of working with organizations like us and to many others, to make sure that we are building that capacity and educational knowledge, so that the opportunities for business development can grow and prosper.
And other trend that is really quite interesting that we have to watch is digital currencies. Some organizations are starting to experiment with the use of digital currencies, either as a currency or as an option for a currency for their congress. We are not sure where it is going to take us, there’s a lot of test, examples that are happening in the industry with our members, but that’s a really exciting opportunity as well.
So, there’s quite a few things happening, a lot of it being driven by technology, but engagement is still forcement for most of it from the association perspective.
What’s coming «after the pandemic»
IAPCO’s CEO has a clear perspective about what we will be seeing in the months and years to come. Martin Boyle shared with us the opportunities and the guidelines that will conduct not only the association he represents, but the events industry as a whole.
Q: What have we learned about the Pandemic experience, do you think that now we are better prepared for another unexpected situation?
I think we were very ill prepared, I think there are still a lot of organizations that are hoping we go back to the way the things were, so maybe they are not prepared as they should be. However, there are great examples of organizations that have completely changed to be more agile, to be more flexible, but with processes in place to circumvent some tragedies happening.
So, IAPCO for example, we were a very traditional association in 2019, we have a solid members base, we produce content, publications, we interact with our members, they come to our annual conference, very traditional the model. The pandemic, allowed me as the new CEO of IAPCO to come into 2019, and say: “why we are doing this?”, “why we are doing that?”, “let’s try this”, “let’s try that”. We had to change our whole organization to be more agile, and to be more flexible and to have the ability for us to be safe, but also to take some quantified risks at the same time.
I think that in short and medium term there are some struggles ahead, no question, there is an excitement and passion of renewed enthusiasm for our industry […] I think in long term, as long as we can articulate clearly enough, with the value proposition of our industry, and not just the economic value, but for the whole long tale value is our industry, I think is looking very, very bright.
And you know through challenges, comes creativity and innovation, and so, yes, no question, we still have some struggles and challenges ahead, but with a united group, a united effort, I think it’s looking very positive for us.
También lee: IAPCO designa su consejo directivo 2022-2023
