A Safe Space to Collaborate, Believe and Belong: Lessons Learned from PCMA EMEA 2023

Last month, our Conference Sales team were in Copenhagen for PCMA EMEA, a vital coming together of event industry professionals. Jennifer Roddie from the team was kind enough to share the insights she gained, learnings she took away, and the state of play in the conference industry.

Firstly, it was important to understand why PCMA EMEA was selected as a key event for our team to attend. Jennifer was keen to highlight what she and the Scottish Event Campus gain by attending, and how collaboration at conferences like this benefits the team in the long run.

For me, attending events like PCMA EMEA is all about your network. In the welcome session, PCMA EMEA was referred to as a ‘a safe space to collaborate, believe & belong’. It’s so true! Being part of the PCMA Community is such a privilege as it allows me to strengthen my network. People attending for the first time, or for the 5th, at the start, middle or end of their career come together to listen, learn, and exchange ideas. During busy periods, we can find ourselves working insular, and so to be able to take a breath, look-up, and explore together, is so energising. ?

These events always have a fun social program, so you get to see everyone with their business hat on throughout the day, but at night-time there’s an opportunity to get to know more of the person. You spend your life on email to colleagues and clients, and it’s nice to break that down and have a bit of face-to-face interaction because post-COVID we’ve missed that.

I use this as an opportunity, especially with other venues, to try and understand what their challenges are. Obviously, successes are great, and as an industry we’re very good at sharing successes, but we know that with success comes challenge as well. Face to face, people are more likely to talk about what’s been troubling them.

PCMA EMEA covered a huge range of topics in 2023, but there were a few which gave Jennifer real food for thought to bring back to the rest of the team in Scotland.

Well, rising costs are a huge thing just now so it’s good to hear what our peers are doing to overcome this. In particular, the association point of view was very interesting – they acknowledge that costs are an issue and want to know where they get added value. I thought that was quite reassuring as we offer activations regarding sustainability and Healthy Venue which don’t necessarily cost the client money but add value to the contract.

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PCMA EMEA has given our team lots to reflect on – both on how we as a company are growing and where the industry can improve and support each other.

One session that has stuck with me was From Risk to Resilience. We went through a pandemic which was brutal, but rather than just thinking of COVID times as a hangover, you were encouraged to look at what the takeaways and opportunities there are from that time. A big thing for us was recognising the importance of communication and really understanding your client’s needs and requirements. COVID allowed us to look at our offering, so for example streaming was an answer to the COVID hangover which has now presented itself as an opportunity to extend the reach of the conference.

There was also a big focus on sustainability of course and we have a clear Net Zero 2030 ambition, and how we plan to get there. It gave me confidence that we are on the right track. Everybody is talking about net zero, but I don’t think a lot of organisations have quite got there yet in terms of how they’re going to reach that goal. It was highlighted that this is a journey we should all be on together.

And finally, taking risks into the unknown will move you forward. That was from the session about risk and resilience. They spoke about identifying what the potential disaster could be, framing that, and thinking what then is the opportunity? Re-evaluate your strategy and frame your moment, I liked that.