Growing Pains - Exhibition World October/November 2023
A tfconnect article written by Trevor Foley - first published in the October/November 2023 issue of Exhibition World
As I write this piece, we are exactly two-thirds of the way through the year. And, what a good year it is proving to be for the vast majority of industry players. Many a CEO is sharing spectacular numbers for the year and the results, plus strong forward bookings, will make for an interesting couple of years ahead in terms of growth and also M&A activity.
Back to the present day, and the growth being experienced by exhibition and conference companies of all sizes is creating a talent challenge. Without doubt, it’s a case of ‘growing pains’. The usual issue is that a company has become of a size, or is targeting a growth, that is beyond the experience of the incumbent team. The issue might be one of team structure, knowledge sets for a business developing in a new direction, pay scale, a need for culture change or a variety of other concerns.
It is my view that all of these issues can be seen as a challenge, rather than a problem. This is because the industry has the necessary talent to allow companies to organically develop their teams, to meet the growth challenges. I’m regularly finding that, rather than companies try to work out a specific need or write a job description for a particular role, talent growth is best viewed as a project. If companies, instead, meet a variety of talented industry players, the solutions to the growing pains can present themselves via conversations with a range of individuals at different levels and with different experience/skillsets.
Doug Emslie, when spectacularly growing Tarsus, always asked me to put interesting talent under his nose. He called it, in football parlance, building a bench of players, ready to bring on to the field of play when needed.
At the beginning of this year, another organiser CEO asked me to introduce him to “interesting people” as the business works towards a future sale. Meetings with a number of such people during the course of this year, is leading to talented individuals being hired in a variety of roles ranging from general management, digital projects to launch projects.
Another example sees us working with an organiser in a business where a number of people have been with the company for many years, since it was very small. Growth is being hampered by an absence of knowledge as to how to take the events and the business to the next level. Fresh blood is needed and a new team structure in order to help the business and its people grow, whilst also removing bottlenecks.
These examples demonstrate that the talent pool exists in order to put the building blocks for growth in place.
And, what is common to all of these businesses is growth, an exciting strategy and a target. The best talent is always interested in such challenges. The opportunity for equity or ‘skin in the game’ remains hugely attractive to the best industry players, who will always be interested to meet with companies that have an ambitious plan.
If you are experiencing growing pains, think ‘Project Talent’!
As I write this piece, we are exactly two-thirds of the way through the year. And, what a good year it is proving to be for the vast majority of industry players. Many a CEO is sharing spectacular numbers for the year and the results, plus strong forward bookings, will make for an interesting couple of years ahead in terms of growth and also M&A activity.
Back to the present day, and the growth being experienced by exhibition and conference companies of all sizes is creating a talent challenge. Without doubt, it’s a case of ‘growing pains’. The usual issue is that a company has become of a size, or is targeting a growth, that is beyond the experience of the incumbent team. The issue might be one of team structure, knowledge sets for a business developing in a new direction, pay scale, a need for culture change or a variety of other concerns.
It is my view that all of these issues can be seen as a challenge, rather than a problem. This is because the industry has the necessary talent to allow companies to organically develop their teams, to meet the growth challenges. I’m regularly finding that, rather than companies try to work out a specific need or write a job description for a particular role, talent growth is best viewed as a project. If companies, instead, meet a variety of talented industry players, the solutions to the growing pains can present themselves via conversations with a range of individuals at different levels and with different experience/skillsets.
Doug Emslie, when spectacularly growing Tarsus, always asked me to put interesting talent under his nose. He called it, in football parlance, building a bench of players, ready to bring on to the field of play when needed.
At the beginning of this year, another organiser CEO asked me to introduce him to “interesting people” as the business works towards a future sale. Meetings with a number of such people during the course of this year, is leading to talented individuals being hired in a variety of roles ranging from general management, digital projects to launch projects.
Another example sees us working with an organiser in a business where a number of people have been with the company for many years, since it was very small. Growth is being hampered by an absence of knowledge as to how to take the events and the business to the next level. Fresh blood is needed and a new team structure in order to help the business and its people grow, whilst also removing bottlenecks.
These examples demonstrate that the talent pool exists in order to put the building blocks for growth in place.
And, what is common to all of these businesses is growth, an exciting strategy and a target. The best talent is always interested in such challenges. The opportunity for equity or ‘skin in the game’ remains hugely attractive to the best industry players, who will always be interested to meet with companies that have an ambitious plan.
If you are experiencing growing pains, think ‘Project Talent’!
