2023 was a brutal year for many teams, especially if you work within the tech, media, finance or retail industry. Redundancies, re-structures and ‘streamlining’ were making headlines the world over. Were you affected?
Doing more with less became one of our most common conversations and a driver for our clients’ decision making within marketing, brand and event teams; we’d be surprised to hear if it wasn’t for you, too.
And if 2023 was the year of impact, 2024 is the year of its aftermath. Nearly all of our project kick-off conversations have us looking at
“How can we leverage resource?” and “What cost efficiencies are possible here?”
So it’s easy to see why centralising for scale remains such a hot topic in 2024.
But we have seen that the pillars that sit underneath ‘centralisation’ are changing. What you need to consider is evolving. Which begs the question: “What does centralising for scale look like in 2024?” We think there is a new set of themes to consider, and a good opportunity to question what is appropriate to manage centrally vs locally.
We’re all about no-nonsense, so we’ll keep it simple. Here are our 5 pillars for centralising your event planning for scale in 2024. These go beyond methodology: they help you consider best practice for your business and how you want to lead your team in the wider context of a changing world.
How you cater to different abilities through your events should be considered at company-level so that delegates globally can enjoy the same access to your experiences and content. This could be a policy around suitable venue types, tech that enables subtitles or supports learning needs.
The rise of the B-Corp (did you know that >60% of the 6,500+ B Corp companies are B2B?). Ethics playing an ever-increasing role in decision making. Increased legality. Whilst each country may have different laws around, for example, the disposal of waste from exhibitions, best practices can be determined centrally and from an ESG perspective.
Increasing policy and regulation around compliance and risk management are designed to protect (people and our environments). But, as they are ever-changing, they can seem overwhelming to navigate. A central policy will reassure your teams. And whilst we all hope we won’t see the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 again, they have triggered central policy making for event safety in many organisations.
You’ll be no stranger to the AI integrations, data analytics and centralised tech solutions such as event management platforms, mobile apps and data capture systems. Combining tech can create a universal quality of experience when it comes to engagement, immersion and personalisation at your events. Centralising this can only lead to a richer experience overall.
A shared sense of purpose and direction comes from a shared set of primary KPIs. And opening the conversation and feeding back on this globally allows teams to learn from each other’s experiences and cultures.
Of course, these pillars are layered on top of the fundamentals of centralising for scale: your brand’s core values; shared objectives, logistical considerations, toolkits, feedback loops, etc. Those will always remain.
By adapting and enhancing your central blueprint, you can ensure that your centralised framework has the integrity to represent your brand consistently, the robustness to last and the flexibility to adapt across regions and scales. Created centrally, applied universally and executed with local flair and nuance.
Including these pillars in your event blueprint will not only help drive best practice and efficiency into your Marketing team but will help you future proof your events and drive your business forward in a way that sets an example, makes a statement about who you are as a team and makes you proud.
If this all sounds too big to be achieved, let us show you. Here’s an example of what we made possible for TJX across 5 countries and ING across internal, retail and trade events.
If you would like to achieve this for your team, get in touch via our Contact page here, on Instagram, email [email protected] or just call us on 07932 661 950.
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