Susan Tanner, CEO of the National Outdoor Events Association (NOEA), highlights the importance of conversations in-person.
It’s so simplistic to say. If we just sit down and talk it through, everything can be worked out.
We’re in the world of events, and event situations aren’t calming moments with time and focus baked in; they are often intense, instant, and crucial. That isn’t just on-site at an event either, it’s in the run up as the heat slowly rises towards event days.
That’s why, outside of the event, this art of conversation should be so prized, and none more so than now, as we see the end of the summer season and start looking at planning for the next activity to come. Now is a time for review, for reflection, but for us at NOEA, for relationship as well.
The one thing we have noticed among our members over the last three years, is the fundamental breakdown in some crucial relationships. These anxieties and antagonisms have been there a long time; the squeezing of suppliers, the constant rate rises from suppliers, the unfair contracts, the need for more notice, the need for more detail, we know what they are.
Post pandemic debt repayments, the cost-of-living crisis and high inflation all exacerbated these issues by adding a fiscal component to them. One we really didn‘t need, and these often strained relationships have broken. Now they need to be fixed.
Our events community is good at coming together, not least to network, to learn and to have these conversations in a more relaxed setting. It’s one of the reasons our own annual convention has become so popular. This year, more than ever, we’re turning it into one big conversation, the chance to have the tough chats, as a group, with empathy and care.
Our awards ceremony later in the evening celebrates the joint success that events inevitably are. Between organiser, producer, authority, supplier and venues, the best events are the best, because they hold these relationships together.
This is the essence of the art of conversation. The ability to have the chat, to do so in an empathetic way, and then to celebrate the successes. It’s not always easy, far from it, but that’s why, more than ever, it’s so very important.