Event management is a fast-paced, rapidly-growing industry, where passionate professionals are dedicated to pushing themselves to the limit - both to deliver successful events and achieve successful careers. Although that’s still as true for professionals starting out now as it was twenty years ago, the thing that’s very different is the landscape in which it’s all happening.
For example, Event Tourism is now a considered part of the industry, expanding significantly in the years since 2008 (ScienceDirect), whilst EventBrite’s history of fundraising events UK charts the rapid development of community and international sports and fundraising events, particularly over the last 20 years.
One professional who’s been there every step of the way is Lorne Armstrong, Director of Event Academy and events agency FathomXP, who offers up his own insights into his two-decades-and-counting learning curve, which has straddled one millennia into another ...
Big business has of course grown in breadth and scale over the last 20 years, in a way which Lorne’s identified as reciprocal with the growth of the event management industry: because brands recognise events as a way to go-large with their own messages, as he explains:
“Now there are corporate organisations employing event managers to run their own internal events, with more and more companies using a professional event manager rather than perhaps someone in their team to do an event as part of their job in marketing.”
Lorne’s learnt the reason for this is brands recognise that live delivery of customer experiences, including to other organisations, is a crucial element of marketing: “A digital marketing piece is massive,” he observes, “but at some point you need to bring that to life in a live, face-to-face offer way, either for your customers or for your employees. So most companies are now employing someone who gets how to deliver these live experiences in a professional way, rather than just someone in the team who ends up just booking a hotel and stuff.”
Lorne’s also keen to point out that there’s always more to learn when you’re working in events, so you should take every opportunity to get involved - particularly if you’re trying to break into the event industry.
Lorne recommends volunteering as a great way to learn across all event sectors:
“I wouldn’t recommend a particular one [sector] because you never know what you’re going to learn from anything! You could just be standing on a door, registering conference delegates and not believe that’s going to be at all useful for you, but you end up having a conversation with either someone else who’s volunteering or the delegates and that leads to a job. That can happen, that does happen, because you’re there at the right time.”
That makes sense for getting started, but is it really necessary to carry on that learning curve through volunteering at other types of event?
“It’s definitely more important when you’re getting started, to get involved,” Lorne agrees. “And it’s tricky if you’re [working] full time because you probably won’t have that much time, but it’s important to keep current and to see different ways of doing things - because otherwise you can inevitably end up doing things the way you’ve always done them.” Which of course is sound advice, as Lorne has seen for himself how quickly other professionals become outmoded by not keeping up with this fast-changing, exciting industry.
With more than two decades in the fast-evolving events industry, Lorne’s learnt to quickly recognise the essential traits needed for successful events management, and he’s always happy to share what he sees as essential skills for would-be event managers:
Lorne’s long career means he’s well placed to spot those growing trends which anyone trying to get into the industry currently would be wise to take note of.
One rising trend which Lorne recognises as something he’s learned, that would-be event managers should learn, is the demand for digital, social and tech talents.
“It’s something we’re pushing on the course,” he explains. “They [new event managers] need to understand how an event can come to life on the day or be marketed pre- and post- through digital and social.”
Lorne laughs at the all-encompassing phrase ‘digital’, recognising the vast number of ways technology is now part of the infrastructure of events, with examples such as:
“For the sake of arguing, all those pieces that are digital, which connect someone’s experience together, either prior to or during an event, are really important,” Lorne clarifies. “So, it’s kind of digital / social because that dimension’s a really important piece and the industry needs people who understand that and how it connects to ‘live’.”
So this presents a change in event management roles, from what Lorne would have seen five, ten, fifteen or twenty years ago, at the start of his own events career?
Lorne agrees. “The role of an event manager is changing. You still have to have those core skills to put on a live experience, to manage a team, to create the idea and run the production, budget etc - all of those things are never going to go away,” he advises.
“But what’s building is the nature of how you market and amplify that experience through digital and social: that’s the thing that’s changing.
I think trend-wise, event technology’s really important: new apps, new ways of doing things under that digital umbrella [...] there are different things you do to make an event relevant, timely and appropriate to that audience. But these trends” he warns, “they’re not like fashion, they don’t just come and go seasonally, they’re longer term.”
So would-be event managers take note, tech talents are now needed amongst those must-have skills!
20+ years in a hands-on industry have also taught Lorne that it’s not enough to have a toolbox of event management skills when you get started, the industry expects you to be able to use them straight away! So what would he recommend?
“Do some volunteering. Do some training, but accredited training - it’s important because anyone can say they’ve done a diploma in event management but it needs to be properly accredited.”
For instance, Event Academy courses are accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, something which reflects not only this essential professional aspect of events, but also the industry reputation of Event Academy qualifications.
From his own progression from film production into events, an industry he didn’t really know much about all those years ago, Lorne’s learnt that although the industry continues to change apace with demand for experiences, corporate collaboration and technology, the way it’s viewed as a career path hasn’t really changed much in that time, something he’s keen to put right:
“I think a lot of people don’t realise you can make a career out of this. So we [Event Academy] want people to understand event management is an amazing career opportunity, very diverse, exciting, global travel, all of that – no day’s the same. It’s creative but applicable, the industry’s growing, the events industry’s growing globally and professionalising, therefore it needs people who know what they’re doing.”
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