Honorable ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to offer a speech that I feel will influence the course of your profession. First, I'd like to thank the institution for organizing this event, as well as the superb organization of the discussion and the hope they have for you. I hope you are enjoying your time at the university, despite the hectic work schedules that I suppose you are all juggling at this time of year. As requested by the facilitators, I will talk about the future of venue management and your position in it. I am certain that some of you have gotten to a point in life where you have asked yourself, where will this career lead me to in the next five or ten years? Is it a feasible venture considering all the years I have spent in school factoring the changing market dynamics? Are there associated risks in my profession that I ought to be aware of that could be a huge challenge toward the realization of my long-term career goal of excelling in venue management? In case you happened to get yourself thinking within these lines, then this speech will be beneficial to you and it will transform how you perceive the future of your profession. Today I will talk about three crucial issues to will ensure that you are the next generation of venue managers who will enable the realization of the anticipated trend. I will discuss about the expected patterns in five years within the field of venue management. Secondly, I will describe the major challenges that one would not want to be associated with as they geared into the future Lastly, I will recommend the best strategies that have been proven to yield success because I believe that when you build on the stepping foundation with an innovative mindset, you are likely to surpass your goals.
Considering the subject of the future trend, I would like to remind you that innovation is taking place at a rapid pace and you better be prepared to get into thinking within the lines of interactive signage. I like comparing the future of venue management to the imminent trends in mobile phones as they are what everyone of you relate better. If you look at the features within your phone, you will realize that Apple, Samsung, Lenovo and all those companies you are aware of are trying to capitalize on time and money and ensuring that the phone not only serves the basic role of communication but has even more advanced features. The same case applied to venue management in the future. It is no longer just about the booking of traditional events and making good use of space as we have been made to think. The future is headed into a scenario in which event websites, digital menus, interactive signage, mobile apps, in-seat ordering, and streamlined ticketing will be advanced with the goal of attracting new clients while impressing the patrons, I believe that if you were pessimistic about the future prospects you have started being that there are yet better things to come.
A good example of an institution that I believe is on the right track in providing the lead as we head into the future anticipated trends is Ungerboeck Software International that has for a long time focused on addressing clientele challenges. I think that others ought to emulate from this company because it has managed to listen to industry professional from wide backgrounds presenting with varying issues. The institution has made it apparent that the best way of maximizing on the audience-facing technology would be through ensuring that there is a solid behind the scenes system that is operative in the best possible way and not limited to the booking of an event. For example, recently, the firm managed to preconfigure the software as a service (SaaS) that they have intended for the mid-size venues. While a keen observer would argue that it is the same product that has been use in the past, you will have to appreciate that there have been massive improvement, The SaaS is now suited to meet the needs of the mid-size venues because it is entirely Web-based and relieves from the need to incur the high training costs while improving on implementation. With such a trend already in action, it is challenge to young minds as yours to think of how best you can apply your innovative mindset towards improving the process of venue management rather than opting to follow the routine, or worse, quitting the profession.
The second issue that I want to share with you is the creation of awareness about the challenges that have since become a chronic problem that are affecting entrepreneurs within this field. As many of you have learned over the years, it is inherent to face challenges as one engages in any professional activity. One major challenge that I have to emphasize that you need to be aware of is the problem of operating under shrinking budgets especially with the rising cost in the market economic trends. I believe that a majority of you are lovers of football and you may be following the major leagues of football around the world. You should have noticed that it is becoming a huge challenge for some clubs to survive under these tough economic conditions as you have also seen that the price that clubs pay to acquire new players is exorbitant. In fact, the challenge now cuts across the board with our profession not being exempted. It is a huge issue when you are in the future and you are operating on an unsustainable budget. Chances are that you will quit because unless you have the ability to balance the equation of the costs and expenses well, you may find yourself unable to acquire the resources to run a basic event leave alone an exemplary one.
Another related concern that is likely to pose a challenge in the future that we have to be conversant with is the uncertainty of technology and the apparent environmental issues. Today, we are experiencing a world where the technology is so fast-paced and unless one is up to the challenge, they may be left lagging and the customers will definitely quit. There are new developments, products, and services in the process of organizing an event and it is even expected to become more complicated. I have to admit that personally, I am unable to keep up with the advances because it is just last year that I upgraded from my Sagem mobile phone. In fact, the other day I was the odd one out when I realized that every member of my professional network has advanced to smart curved television. These cases just illustrate how one can lag behind while the world is advancing and before they catch up, there are chances there are better trends in the market. Extrapolating the same to the case of venue management creates a scenario where one is left with the challenge of trying to meet extra costs in an effort to enhance brand awareness.
The issues thus bring me to the third and final segment of the speech where I describe the measures that will place you at an advantage over the rest in the effort to remain relevant in the changing world. One key measure that I emphasize is the need to embrace perfect timing skill that will enable you to strategize the organization in advance. In an ideal world, and especially in the future, you should set the goal of planning your event at least one year earlier. Many failing professionals undermine the details of the event they are planning to host and it has always ended in poor outcomes. The key questions that I suggest you write down and memorize are “what venues am I considering? Is the event convenient for the audience? What other events are likely to be included that could make the main event am hosting? With these background questions set a year early, you will be better placed to understand the state of the event as pertains the market trends and you will thus manage the resources better. I cannot emphasize the issue of planning because while different people have varied ways of accomplishing a task, the general rule is that you have to keep it in mind for a long time before you can pursue it to succeed in it.
The other related issue that I want to focus on to inspire you to be better managers and event organizers in the next five years is the need to embrace the team at your disposal. Since we were young, we were told to form groups that we would use to tackle common academic problems. Don’t get it wrong, the idea has been proven to work not only at tender age in school but also in the professional stage with the most accomplished managers in any field aware of the benefits that a team brings. I would like to break this idea into several steps so that as a young manager, you do not falter and fail in your years of growth. The initial phase is to select the team-members whose skills and talent have been tested and are in line with the organizational goals. For example, to find the appropriate member to address client grievances, it is imperative to consider the candidate with a track record of being both social and empathetic. The second step is to set the ground rules so that no member deviates from the agreed objectives because as most of you have noticed, some member of your team may be less motivated. Third, brief all the members of the event you are planning to host ad keep them informed at every stage. The, the step I consider to be the most important involves setting the task and goals that one anticipates to meet by avoiding ambiguity while ensuring that they are achievable. The last step is the need to hire a freelance staff member for the event. They will be responsible for the RSVPs, the lick stamps and in getting any other resource that is critical but likely to be forgotten. I always recommend Event Sidekicks as my preferred organization but when you will be managers there is a change there will be even better firms. It is thus critical to ensure flexibility.
I should, however, have to emphasize that the focus of the talk was not to scribble notes as I have noticed many of you engaging in because I only wanted to cover the basic requirements of being a successful event organizer in the future. The key to standing out of the pack is to focus on innovative strategies that are creative but still relevant because will be pointless to devise a technique that is repelled. It is, however, worth taking the risk because almost any successful entrepreneur I know never gets satisfied with the status quo. With a team of professional and a transformation leader who engages the team in decision-making, there are high chances that you will excel in the event management process. I have a special message to those who are despaired and thinking that they have wasted their time for the last three years that they need to change their mindset because there are better advances in the future.
Thank you for your attention and I hope that you will put extra effort in you studies as you prepare to be the next generation of venue managers.
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