meet christian
With the events and exhibition industries officially back in business, there's no better time to welcome on board our new Head of Client Partnerships, Christian Aird. We sit down with Christian to discuss all things events - the past, the present and the all-important opportunities that lie ahead.
1. Welcome to AFI and IVE! Tell us a bit about what you’ve been up to before joining our team:
Well my wife is originally from Melbourne and we decided new year, new adventure! We emigrated here with the family on 1st Jan this year. Before the big move, I spent the last 11 years working for MEMS International, who are a well-established London based exhibition stand contractor. I joined MEMS in 2011 as Sales Director and moved into the Managing Director role in 2015.
2. It’s been a challenging ride in the global events and exhibition industries. How do you see the next 12 months unfolding?
It’s really exciting to see that live events are well and truly back. The flip side of that is that it’s going to take a little while for the supply chain to readjust after being pretty much dormant during the pandemic. A lot of skilled resource left the industry and I imagine it’ll take time to get back to full capacity. There will also be continued challenges with freight and raw material availability and costs. The great thing is that there’s a renewed energy, so whilst there are challenges, there’s a real sense of camaraderie between suppliers to come up with solutions. The best thing events and exhibition stand organisers can do to ensure the strongest outcome is to provide suppliers with maximum time to deliver results – everything is taking a little longer!
I also believe that the downtime has made us all look at how we could improve on how we do things – and sustainability has never been more important to clients. There’s an opportunity to do things differently and it’s been positive to see clients really wanting to explore that and not just picking up where they left off.
3. What do you think we can learn or should do differently now events and exhibitions are back on the agenda?
The pandemic really forced the events supply chain to work more collaboratively to deliver projects across national and international borders. I really hope to see this continue and the silo mindset to be left in a pre-pandemic world!
We also saw events move online during the endless lockdowns and whilst they are no substitute for face-to-face interactions, it’s important the online audiences don’t get forgotten as we move forward. Event and exhibition organisers should look at how they can still accommodate online delegates – think live streaming, digital interaction and capturing content for future distribution. It increases the reach of the events, delivering a stronger ROI for all involved.
The very nature of events is that they’re labour intensive and fast-paced with immovable deadlines…and that can be a stressful environment to work in. The break in the last few years has allowed us to look at how we work differently, not harder but smarter. I hope to see the industry move forward with more of a focus on staff mental health, work/life balance and a greater sense of perspective.
As mentioned before, we should not be adopting old practices because it’s convenient and what we know. There’s a huge opportunity to introduce more sustainable products and processes as the industry revitalises. The good news is that we’re seeing uptake on this across the board!
4. It’s early days but what differences do you see between the UK and Australian events and exhibition industries?
Firstly, I haven’t heard the word Brexit mentioned yet – and that’s refreshing! That said, with continental Europe on the doorstep, the UK events industry has always had a strong international component. The sheer size of all the European events industries combined mean lots of international trade shows are hosted there. Germany is a real global trade show hub where many new ideas and concepts are born. It's great to be part of a company like AFI who approach Australian events with a global outlook. We get some incredible international events come to Australia and with that comes the opportunity to lead the world with first-class signage programs and innovative new ideas. It feels like there’s a real appetite for it!
5. What are you most excited about in starting at AFI?
It's an opportune time to come on board with lots of activity in the industries. I’m very excited to have joined a market leader in AFI – not only to broaden my experience of the retail industry but to utilise my events experience to help grow our offering. With AFI now being part of IVE Group, we can offer our clients even more under the same roof, which is a pretty compelling prospect and feels good to be a part of.
Connect with Christian here.