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  • Charlie McCurdy Discusses the Future of Events

Charlie McCurdy Discusses the Future of Events

Informa Markets CEO Charlie McCurdy was interviewed by CICE Magazine Agency as part of a feature on the return to in-person events, and expectations for a hybrid future. In the article, Charlie talks about the speed at which Informa Markets was able to transition virtually, the launch of
Informa’s approach to health and hygiene as events return to the show floor, and optimistic results from recent exhibitions in Mainland China.  

CICE: Obviously COVID-19 has had a significant global impact across many industries. How did Informa Markets have to adjust your operations to meet the needs of customers during this time? Have you started to prepare for your first in-person show?

As a leadership team, the outbreak of COVID-19 caught our attention early, in the main thanks to the 1,000 colleagues we have based in Mainland China. They responded very quickly and kept us informed as the situation developed. This enabled us to launch our Postponement Programme, which focused on rescheduling our events to later in the year, localizing them, virtualizing them – or rephasing them.
The show hiatus led our teams in every vertical market and every part of the world to quickly and effectively connect our customers with their communities through the digital channel. And while I would never have wished for this experience – the pause in delivering exhibitions as usual has helped us to accelerate the large-scale delivery of high-value digital products and services. We also took this time to develop Informa AllSecure, our approach to enhanced health and safety standards, which includes commitments in areas such as cleaning, health screening, personal hygiene, reduced physical contact, physical distancing and the availability of first aid at our events.

In June, we were very pleased to open the doors once again at our first post-COVID-19 live event: Chengdu China Beauty Expo, closely followed by China Beauty Expo in Shanghai in July. Both events were run in accordance with Informa AllSecure and were a strong success, surpassing expectations in terms of visitor numbers.

China Beauty Expo

CICE: Do you have existing virtual solutions? And do you think hybrid is the way of the future for events?

Our teams were quick to respond to customers’ needs as the exhibition channel was suspended with virtual alternatives, and since March we’ve hosted hundreds of virtual events, webinars and online networking opportunities worldwide. Our CPhI & P-MEC China team, for example, started working on a seven-day virtual expo back in February, which combined online matchmaking, virtual buyer meetings, webinars, virtual factory tours, digital showrooms and conferences via webcast. It took place at the end of June, attracting over 2.3 million views from 50 countries and connected over 40,000 buyers with leads through online meetings.
 
CICE: What future trends do you think will appear in our industry, and how can we better prepare for that?

Certainly, events are going to look very different in a post-COVID-19 world. We are working with our venue partners to put world-class bio-safety measures in place and all our events will be run in accordance with Informa AllSecure. Importantly, we’ll be taking what we’ve learnt in developing our digital products and services and fusing them with our live events to create greater value for our customers, all year round.


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