Association Event Network September 2019 | Page 10

The Big Interview
ALL IN A DAY’S SIRK
Written by Stuart Wood
Former ICCA president Martin Sirk speaks to AEN
about his new advisory role at Global Association
Hubs (GAH), and mentorship programmes for
young people in the association sector
How has your work with Global
Association Hubs (GAH) differed
from your previous role at ICCA?
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It’s important to note that I’m not working
with Global Association Hubs in a full-time
role in the same way that I previously was
at ICCA. I’m still consulting under my own
name as Sirk Serendipity, but GAH is one of
my main clients.
The GAH partnership is very much an
advisory role. Most of the work is being
done by the four cities that comprise the
organisation: Brussels, Dubai, Singapore
and Washington. They’ve got their own
programmes, and they’ve each got very
different strategies. Part of my job is to help
bring all those strategies into alignment,
and communicate to the outside world the
difference of philosophy that sets the GAH
cities apart from their major competitors.
“Each of the GAH
cities – Brussels,
Dubai, Singapore,
and Washington – is
positioning itself as
a partnership hub for
associations.”
What do you hope to
achieve with GAH?
My first few weeks working with GAH
have been a learning opportunity. I know
the cities pretty well from a meetings
perspective, and a traditional destination
marketing perspective. But each of
these cities is also positioning itself as a
partnership hub for associations, so that
meetings are only one part of the equation.
The GAH partnership is about trying to
encourage associations to locate, to run
programmes, to identify partners who can
support their development objectives. I’m
trying to get my head around the support
infrastructures that exist in each of these
cities – the companies that can provide
the organisational, financial, legal and
advocational support that associations
need.
What specific advantages do the four
GAH cities offer for associations?
In each of their regions, they are the major
players. They’ve built up ecosystems over
time that make it more and more sensible
for other associations to follow their lead.
Washington DC is where associations
have based themselves since time began,
and the same thing goes for Brussels.
Associations base themselves here because
www.aenetwork.co.uk
How can
associations
maximise
revenue in
the digital
age?
Most of the revenue in the
digital ecosystem accrues to the
Facebooks and the Googles, not to
the players who are using those
platforms. A lot of the revenue
in the future will be coming from
live events, I’m sure. People will
still pay to attend really great live
events, even if they are reluctant
to pay for the same online
content. But associations are going
to have to get much smarter
at how they engage with people,
and foster deeper,
more intelligent conversations
between their members.