Operating Onsite
Practice makes
perfect
Paul Slaney, managing director of
Showlite, on the positive challenge of
trying to do more with less
I
“Fundamentally,
the practical
challenges
of creating
successful
events need to
be met with
partnership”
58 — April
f there’s one thing an event and exhibition
supplier knows, it’s what constitutes an ideal
world. Our ideal world would have 21-day build-up
and breakdown slots, floor plans agreed and fixed
months in advance, and an international response
team to prevent volcanoes from erupting, rivers
from flooding and drones from causing chaos to
international travel plans.
Of course, the world is far from perfect, and
we recognise that our ideals are going to be quite
different from other peoples’. In the absence
of this utopia, supplying events, whether that’s
space-only builds for exhibitors or shell scheme
for an entire exhibition, requires a portfolio of
skills, techniques and practices to be able to
cope with rapid and radical changes, unforeseen
circumstances, and the most likely event ‘niggles’.
These skills and techniques are what define
the well-established, successful, event suppliers.
They’ve been hard won through years of
experience of delivering exhibitor satisfaction.
That experience confers flexibility and agility,
and the kind of background knowledge and
understanding that is required when, there are
last minute floor plan changes, an airport closes
or there’s a power cut.
Timing is all important, so sequencing and
logistics need to be very carefully worked out. The
slightest hiccup can cause a pile-up further down
the schedule, so it’s essential to keep an ever-
present eye on timings. When things do go awry,
and they often do simply because of issues like
traffic, you need to have alternatives and options
ready to go.
In common with the rest of the business world,
there’s the constant pressure to ‘do more with
less’. It might sound like a contradiction, but it is
actually a positive challenge. We recognise that
the more customer satisfaction we can deliver
per pound spent, the better position we are in to
win more business. The difficulty is that we can’t
simply carve chunks off our margins – we need to
innovate, and we need to innovate all the time.
From new shell scheme systems to the
wholesale adoption of low wattage LED
lighting, it’s crucial for event suppliers to
follow innovations closely, and pinpoint any
technologies, products or systems that can
help us deliver more for less cost. Innovation in
sustainability is going to become a large part of
this in the future, as more and more businesses
discover the cost of waste.
On a crude level, sustainability means reducing
waste, recycling and reusing, which make
excellent economical as well as environmental
sense. At Showlite we recycle 100 per cent of the
carpet we deploy, and much of the shell scheme
too. Where metalwork is damaged, we recycle
it into smaller functional pieces, cutting out
only damaged sections. The more costs we can
ameliorate through our sustainable practices,
the more resources we can deploy on behalf of
exhibitors and organisers.
The show floor presents its own set of
challenges. A lot of these problems can be easily
avoided or solved in-situ by being ready for
them, building in agile thinking and thorough
contingency planning.
We understand the problems, especially during
build-up and breakdown times. Too much access
control can result in delays and time overruns,
while not enough access control can put an event
at risk.
Fundamentally, the practical challenges of
creating successful events need to be met with
partnership, teamwork and trust. Resolving many
of the practical challenges presented by events
will always need to be a collaborative effort.