On May 4th last week, IELA launched the IELA RELOAD Programme aimed at its Members getting prepared for the NEW NOW in the Exhibition Industry.
In early May, the IELA association began a diversified programme of activities named IELA RELOAD which supports its members in implementing successful and effective business measures with the goal of navigating through the shutdown and rebound periods which have been imposed on us all.
The concept behind IELA RELOAD is not only to overcome this global health and economic crisis as a unified association, but also to emerge from the experience even stronger than before and with greater solidarity.
Two main elements of the association’s recovery programme are the IELA TALKs & RECOVERY TALKs which address how to get prepared for the NEW NOW in the Event & Exhibition Industry. The focus is on 3 constructive pillars:
- BRAINSTORMINGs
- ACCESS TO KEY INFORMATION
- PERSONAL HOMEWORK (the association has the duty to deliver insights and inputs, but every single member is responsible for its own destiny)
The outcome of the first two online sessions clearly showed the high level of interest among members for feedback and exchange in what is an unprecedented situation in our economy. Over 100 participants joined the first IELA WORKING GROUPS BRAINSTORMING & the first RECOVERY TALK.
During the IELA WORKING GROUPS BRAINSTORMING session, three TASK FORCES were created to deal with selected topics of importance as follows:
- TK#1: Digitalization: Development of an internal IELA Exhibition Logistics Interface (IT-system for IELA members).
- TK#2: Communication: Raising both the perception and the importance of IELA’s role on a national and regional level via the AMBASSADOR PROGRAMME & the development of internal communication projects to enhance staff awareness among IELA Members.
- TK#3: Working Group Summer Summit:
During the months of May and June, all topics that are under discussion in the individual Working Groups will be bundled and discussed on the network as a whole to incorporate the perspectives and ideas of all working groups. The initial outcomes are planned to be presented at the end of June 2020.
As for the first IELA RECOVERY TALK, the topic was ANTICIPATION. The moderator of the session, Mariane Ewbank and Sandi Trotter, Global Brainstorming Captain, navigated the members through how to cope with new scenarios and implementing damage limitation matters. 84% of the attendees shared the view that they are already looking for new solutions in the industry. A clear statement from this session is that ANTICIPATION and COOPERATION has become the new force of the NEW NOW age.
Mariane Ewbank summed up the session by saying “We don’t have a ready-to-go-recipe to survive this crisis post COVID-19, but we can find ways together that can help us as a network. It was great feeling that we all want to share ideas, experiences and insights with the same goal in mind – to survive! The RECOVERY TALK gave me extra fuel and energy to keep going!”
Sandi Trotter added “This session truly reflects the spirit and strength of our association: competence, collaboration and cooperation. It demonstrates that we are all committed to fighting this together and emerging stronger.”
We want to thank all participants who joined these first sessions and invite all IELA Members to join the next talks coming up soon.
The May 2020 Programme is available for consultation (link). If there is any topic you would like to add to the programme in June, please let us know!
Stay Safe; Strong & Unified!
#togetherSTRONG
More information about the IELA RELOAD May 2020 programme on bit.ly/IELAreloadMay2020
Author: Adam Parry
Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.
