Accept the past. What's the next step?

Accept the past. What's the next step?

Last November I was the lucky recipient of an invite from Danny Pecorelli at Exclusive Collection to attend one of their Flock Leadership events, at Pennyhill Park. The majority of the event took place inside the England Rugby Union team’s incredible indoor training facility, with the team building course delivered to around 30 guests by Jonny Wilkinson.

Throughout a fascinating afternoon, Jonny used some hugely enjoyable rugby training drills to demonstrate how decision making on the rugby pitch was not dissimilar to many of the decisions that CEOs have to make at work, with the main mantra being “accept what has happened; what’s the next step?”.

AOK Events is a very different company from the one that went in to lockdown four months ago but we have all accepted this and we are solely thinking about the future and not hankering after the past. We are no longer scared about COVID19. We are excited at what future opportunities lie ahead.

In the last month or so it seems the “green shoots” that I have previously mentioned, have grown a little bit. We have had our first face to face meetings with clients (socially distanced of course). How lovely that was! Earlier this week we confirmed our first new corporate hospitality booking for four months. This combined with the Government’s announcement that sporting events can have spectators from October makes us optimistic that AOK Cavendish will bounce back a bit quicker than expected. Everyone is itching to watch some live sport or music.

Our venue finding team are working on a number of offsites that are scheduled to take place in the next couple of months. Everyone seems bored with video calls and webinars and can’t wait to meet up, brainstorm and feed off the energy in the room. Human beings are very sociable creatures.

More and more venues are opening. We continue to organise a wide variety of virtual events and more and more companies are investing budget into ensuring that internal teams (also bored by video calls) remain engaged, on brand, focused and motivated. We are talking more than we have ever talked and the more we chat, the clearer we are as to what that next step should be.

I would love to hear from any clients or other agencies to see if you agree or disagree with my thinking? If many of you agree, I might just believe that these green shoots are here to stay… 

Kevin Spencer

Director at The TM Group

4 年

Hope you showed him how to tackle

Andy Fieldhouse

Helping organisations build cohesive and successful teams

4 年

There's a talented sportsman. And Johnny Wilkinson.

Danny Pecorelli

Managing Director at Exclusive Collection

4 年

Great words - thank you Alex. The analogy to "accept what has happened; what’s the next step?” is one for everyone in the business of #events and #hospitality. Great to hear clients are engaging again and you too are seeing heightened confidence. The event industry is at last off the bench and looking match fit.

Peter Heath

Founder - Venue Performance | M&E benchmarking platform for hotels & events venues

4 年

our data shows that enquiries are on the up and clients are booking Alex Hewitt, the market is moving.

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