COLUMN: JULIAN AGOSTINI
Corporate jamborees
The Mash Media MD says the world doesn’t know enough about our industry.
We’re a force to be reckoned with and it’s time to show our muscle
‘C
heer up, it may never happen’…
urgh!
Do you struggle with
crass, vacuous remarks of this nature?
Obviously, it’s only ever said in a light-
hearted way but it’s a chronically
misguided attempt at humour which rarely
improves the mood.
‘It’s only a game!’ is another phrase
(often used by a well-meaning aunt) that
still manages to raise my hackles in a
disproportionate manner, especially if
West Ham have manged to ruin another
perfectly good week.
In a social context, it’s not a crime to
minimise something of which you have no
knowledge. Indeed, not being blessed with
the sensitive gene, I’m probably guilty of
this more often than most as I’m constantly
reminded by Mash and family. But, despite
my glass abode, I’m going to toss a few
stones; the difference being that my targets
are in the business sector where we should
all know better, shouldn’t we?
I may be making a rod for my editors’
backs, but in journalism, perhaps
more than in any other field, there is a
serious obligation to the reader and the
community as a whole to deliver balanced,
informed views…the truth and opinions
from all sides. At Mash Towers, we are
proud to have that opportunity and take
it very seriously; the printed word, after
all, far from being dead, is arguably more
powerful than any other communication.
If it’s in print, it’s true and you
can’t play with that
responsibility.
So, imagine my
displeasure, and
surely all of yours,
to read Simon Duke’s
account in The Times,
the BBC of print, about the
sale of Mack Brooks. This
exhibition business, which
was started from scratch
one generation ago by Ken
Brooks and Brian Mack,
was recently sold for
£200m; phenomenal
and another great
“Our industry is full
of colour and life and
excitingly competitive
but, for this quest, we
are all in it together”
success story for our wonderful industry.
Duke described the business’ activities
as – wait for it – arrangers of corporate
jamborees. I’m not kidding. Please read
for yourself, page three of The Times,
Wednesday 16 January…incredible. We
don’t even organise these merry shindigs,
apparently, just arrange them. It’s truly
astonishing.
I emailed Mack Brooks chairman
Stephen (Brooks) immediately; I was
seething on his behalf and of course feeling
very defensive about our industry. How
dare Duke write this? How ignorant. Lazy,
poor journalism writing off an entire
industry that he clearly knows nothing
about.
I replied to Duke saying that his
description was akin to describing the
World Cup Final as a kick around in the
park or indeed The Times, as a comic.
A stupid, flippant remark casting our
industry into oblivion; this is a refence to
an empire that has been built worldwide.
What a disgrace (and breathe).
Once I recovered from my rant, a
different and rather uncomfortable
thought process began.
Is that really how we are perceived?
After all this progress, could it be that we
are such a latent force than no-one outside
the fascio actually understands?
Painful as it is, maybe we have to take
that on the chin.
You will have been at family gatherings
and tried to explain what you do to a
disinterested in-law before giving up after
three attempts something like this:
“Oh, so you own the NEC?”
“No, it’s more-”
“Oh, you build all the stands?”
“No, not quite, it’s-”
“Oh, you exhibit at all the events?”
“Never mind, how is the property
market?”
This is still reality, unfortunately,
despite the enormous growth and success
of exhibitions over the last three decades.
No-one takes us seriously, and that’s
becoming too frustrating to ignore.
Our industry is full of colour and life
and excitingly competitive but, for this
quest, we are all in it together. All the while
we stay under the radar, we attract less
talent, financing is harder to achieve, there
are less buyers in the know, the government
local and national give us obstacles rather
support, the national media ignores us or
worse, demesnes what we do etc.
It’s our job as a collective to raise the
profile of everything that we are so that the
whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
The exhibition industry landscape is
competitive, but we learn so much from
each other hence thee amazing growth in
the last 20 years in particular. We are a
club but a clique. Stronger together and it is
time to let the world in and raise our heads
above the parapet.
The exhibition industry is a force to be
reckoned with and it’s time to show our
muscle.
But how?
Should that be our job as your media?
Maybe, but we need your help.
Here’s my suggestion. I’m starting a
group on LinkedIn – entitled ‘Value of
Exhibitions’ – as part of what must be
a renewed drive to get the exhibition
industry’s profile recognised in an
appropriate fashion and established once
and for all. That’s our target, so please join
in and add your weight and knowledge.
When the last recession hit a presidential
decree wrote off incentive business as
corporate jollies, but the meetings industry
rallied with the Meetings Means Business
campaign which has had huge success; we
can mirror that in the exhibitions industry.
Corporate jamborees, jollies? Dear me,
it’s time to show that these kind of labels
are way behind the ‘times’…as it were!
exhibitionnews.co.uk | February 2019
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