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.