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How The Power of Events Is Shaping Careers: From Schools to Work Experience · Event Industry News Podcast

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Hello everybody, welcome along to the Event Industry News Podcast with me,
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James Dixon, wishing you all a very good morning, afternoon, or evening,
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whenever or wherever you tune into today's podcast
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from. And on today's show, we're going to be talking,
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I guess, education, training,
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development within the industry. All those things
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I suspect are going to be covered as we get into the conversation with my
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guest today, who is the CEO of The Power of Events. I'm delighted to
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say joining the Event Industry News Podcast on today's episode is Rick
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Stainton. Rick, a very good afternoon, as it is on this Monday afternoon, to you.
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Thanks for joining the podcast. No, thanks, James. It's a real pleasure to be
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here. Appreciate it. And yeah, all sorts of— it's really important
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that we work chronologically today because there's a story to tell.
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There's an important announcement about further developments in
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the world of the power of events and indeed in the programs that you are
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striving to bring to the industry. But before we get to sort of where we
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want to end up today, let's, for those people listening to the podcast who might
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not be aware of The Power of Events and who and what you are,
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let's give some context to everybody. So let's tell us a bit first about
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yourself, but particularly about what The Power of Events actually is.
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Yeah, thanks, James. Yeah, I mean, I co-founded Smile,
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the leading agency that was is
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now Identity. Exited that 2 years ago, bought by Identity,
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and Michael and Dom and the team now run that. I'm sure it's going
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great guns. And that was a good 20, 25 years of my life where we
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had a pretty successful run. And then obviously COVID hit and
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there was a lot of campaigns, hashtag campaigns during COVID
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from a very difficult place. All the associations, save nightlife, save music.
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We make events, save exhibitions, and then we're really trying to
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sort of heighten the profile of events for when COVID
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hopefully finished, that the events would still be live, the industry was still there,
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but they weren't quite— they didn't know each other, they weren't collaborating cross-sector.
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So we did a sort of One Industry, One Voice banner where all the different
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sort of association leaders of industry from the different sectors could learn about
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each other's work campaigns, you know, to media or government, and maybe have help each
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other and not bump into each other. And from the back of that,
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post-COVID, a lot of people sort of turned around to us and sort of suggested
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that that was fine. But big challenge is that no one really knows what the
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events industry is. It's not clearly defined anywhere in one place.
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So hundreds of businesses sort of got together over 2022
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and created a framework for what the story,
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the breadth, the map of the UK events industry was.
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So we set up Power Events, a not-for-profit organization
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purely for the benefit of the industry, supported by the industry, funded by the industry,
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and designed and all the content delivery by the industry. So yeah,
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first of all, the 7 sectors were defined from business
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and brand experiences to exhibitions and congress, bespoke sport events,
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music and live performances, outdoor and festivals, public celebrations,
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weddings, and private parties. Those 7 sectors were defined by hundreds of
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different inputs from many different businesses across the sector,
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and it was really clear that we had to be completely impartial across those sectors
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because there's a huge amount of shared supply chain and freelancers
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that get involved in all those different sectors. And then we made it very
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clear that we were across 4 nations as well, so that everybody
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from all different areas of the industry regionally would feel they could get
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involved in this at any level, in any size of business, or indeed individual freelancers.
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So That was formed, that map of the industry was
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put on the platform, the website with 7 sectors defined on one side
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and then the sort of industry infrastructure on the other. So we've got 21
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media partners like yourself, brilliantly, which is the first time they've all collaborated together on
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anything from all different areas of the industry. Again, about 36 trade
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associations all are now collaborating, supporting us, profiled on the
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platform. Again, about 50 support organizations that promote best practice
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in like welfare, DEI, skills, accessibility, and then some university
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partners. And that platform has suggestions of all the
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events in the industry that you can go to, you know, confex, meeting show,
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tech show, event tech, and whatever it might be, and industry events by associations
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or media. There's suggestions of podcasts like yours.
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There's suggestions of LinkedIn and Facebook groups people can join. There's a big
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careers hub on there where people who want to get into the industry can see
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the breadth of the roles and the 5 routes into the industry. So There's a
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huge amount of tools, whether you've been in the industry a long time, you're just
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joining, want to get into the industry at any level,
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and, you know, it's about your personal understanding
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and progression in the industry as well as perhaps as a business. So yeah,
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it's a really useful one place now, impartially,
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that the industry has backed for the first time collectively, that gives that map and
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then signposts you to lots of organizations to pursue your own journey. And not
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to dwell on it too much, but going back to the, you know, how and
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when the organisation sort of came about and it's sort
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of, you know, its birth, if you will, it's strange
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that it took a sort of a catastrophic event for the whole industry
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to actually make us wake up and realise that actually when it came
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to representation, it came to telling people outside of our industry what the industry contributes
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now, networks that we really needed, you know,
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a, a body, an organization, call it what you will, to actually
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represent the entirety of that community. Because I've said it many, many times
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on, on this podcast that when you say I work in the events industry,
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that, that the spectrum that that one
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word encompasses, events, is, is vast. You could be a wedding planner,
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you could be a production manager for the live touring industry.
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You both work in the events industry, but those roles are wildly,
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wildly different. And it's, you know, it's so important that, that an organization
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like this came along in order to create that joined-up thinking for people who are
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external to the industry, I think. Yeah, I mean, you're 100% right.
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I mean, you know, COVID was a horrible experience for everybody in the events
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industry, but if there's one positive that came out of it was that realizing that
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we all deliver, whatever our role is,
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whatever sector, wherever in the country, whatever level of supply
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chain, we're all delivering content and create great experiences
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in a live environment. For the benefit of society,
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business, networking, change of behavior,
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social or physical welfare, fundraising for charities.
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I mean, weddings are obviously the most— should be the one experience in
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your life you probably most remember. But a lot of people aspire to that one
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sporting event that they've always wanted to go to, that one act, that concert they've
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always wanted to go to. Those tribal gatherings are hugely important for us to look
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forward to something in life. And then from a sort of business side, A lot
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of people always aspire to go into that one place where they learn about that
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new product, network with peers, develop and
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understand their own sort of involvement in their own businesses' strategy. Events are
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hugely part of people's diaries they look forward to in the year that makes their
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life more enriched. And frankly,
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sharing experiences is probably the most amazing thing in this day and age when
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the world ain't great out there, to have that sort of something to look forward
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to, whether it's whichever sector it is. And you're right,
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from an event professional perspective, we're a $70
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billion contribution to the economy across the 7 sectors, employing hundreds and hundreds of thousands
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of people. But we've grown up very quickly and organically in 40, 50 years,
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and we're not an association. We don't have members. We're not trying to do any
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of their work. They're all supporting us because they do great work representing their sectors
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and members for whether it's development of their own networking,
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government lobbying, and so on. But to have that one impartial,
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simple map, that showcase that everyone backs for the first time
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credibly was a lot of hard work. There was obviously a little bit of unwinding
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of institutionalized behavior, as you referenced, for the last number of decades.
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But I think people recognize that everyone trying to do the same thing
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slightly differently is a massive waste of effort and resources when we could
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maybe just take 1, 2, 3 things that everyone moved together,
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the dial together, in one sort of thing that wasn't conflicting
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with anyone else's work could make a massive difference and benefit everyone. And I think
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we found that sort of hole, that gap,
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which I think a lot of people were screaming out to be filled, but no
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one was stupid enough to take it on. Well, I wouldn't say stupid enough
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to take it on, but having taken it on and having developed to
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where it is now and where it sits today, that's now also
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put you in a position to talk about, you know, why you're, you know,
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on the podcast today. Um, the, the, the, um,
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Experience of Work program is something that is an evolution of
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other stages of, you know, that, that, that the Power Events have been involved in.
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Tell me a bit about the, the schools program, because I think that's where we
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really need to start on this journey to bring us up to speed where we
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are today. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Um, you know, so once we set up the,
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the platform and we, we obviously go to about 40, 50 industry events every year
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and, and remind people and meet our partners and supporters and and listen and learn
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for them, it's like, well, what are you going to do with this quite unique
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collaboration across the sectors, across the 4 regions?
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And we have an advisory board of about 40, 50,
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mostly association heads from all the different areas and some industry leaders from different areas
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of the industry and supply chain. And they just sort of suggested that perhaps
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one thing we could uniquely do for the benefit of the whole industry was
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go into schools and inform of those 11 to 16-year-olds particularly,
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that there is an events industry, it is huge,
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we welcome everybody from every background and any educational
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sort of setup, and there's probably a job for them that they're not aware of,
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could be of interest to them. And lots of other industries have done this for
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many, many years, some well, some probably not so well. And if
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we really want to evolve our industry to represent society
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for the diverse and development of it from an audience perspective, we need to have
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a a talent pool coming through that reflects a lot of the new skills
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and understanding of what society and the world out
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there is actually responding to, and we need to have a variety of diverse backgrounds
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because the audiences we're presenting to all our different events are
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a diverse society. So yeah,
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we developed a schools programme. The EIF Purple Guide gave us a grant to trial
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it in the East of England, and it involves a piece of content deck,
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which is really easy. Anyone could present it, have any experience. That was a lot
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of it's representative of the platform that the industry with schools developed
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so that they really engage the kids in 20, 30 minutes. Involves like a video
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and a bit of interaction and a quiz.
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And we have a portal set up that basically schools register
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when they want someone to come in from an industry ambassador in some regions.
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And then ambassadors, individual event professionals, go on,
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register, and then see that list in their region of the school saying, can you
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come in on this day to present to Year 9, Year 10s, an assembly,
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or a classroom? So the deck is basically briefed, we brief all the ambassadors,
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they get sent to the schools for them, we give them the logistics taken care
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of that, so it's really easy for an ambassador not to have to do a
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lot of the background work. Every child gets a lanyard because you
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can't have an event without a lanyard, so there are 5 groups of industry on
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the front. They love these, they think they're getting into festivals for free, but they
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don't. Of course, yeah. 5 groups from the front and there's Most important is calls
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to action on the back for them to go and look at the platform afterwards
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with their parents, key influencers, or teachers. Go and explore the 7
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sectors, look at the careers hub, explore apprenticeships or placements or
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direct recruiters or university courses. So they get a really good
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overview, really inspiring by an event professional from their region with
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a bit of a call to action follow-up and a little fun mechanism. It's completely
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consistent. So that was the first program we've done. What we
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just come into the 2 years now, 2 academic years, we're in 9 regions after
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the trial that we did with the East of England from the Purple Pride grant.
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We did about 8,000 kids in that, and now we're in Edinburgh
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and Liverpool, Manchester, Bath, Bristol,
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Birmingham, London, Leeds, the South Coast,
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Hertfordshire, and we've delivered 142,000
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kids across over about 650 school
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engagements. Wow. And yeah, it's growing
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all the time and we're looking at a couple of new regions, maybe launching for
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them this year as well. And the ambassadors, there's hundreds of them
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around the country from all different backgrounds that are loving the
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personal development and the feel of giving back and the actual impact.
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You can see the change of the kids' understanding
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and impression of what the industry is. We have this stat where we ask a
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question, do you know what the events industry is? Never considered a career in it
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at the beginning of the deck. And like no one puts their hand up.
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We ask the same question after the presentation, that rises to 72%.
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And kids, if you've got them, they don't do anything they don't want to do.
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And then you get pummeled with a whole load of inspirational questions.
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So, you know, you've achieved a real cut-through. And then we know that
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they obviously then go on to go look at the platform and the school's feedback
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to us, how engaged it was. So that was a great first leverage
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of the collaboration of the industry doing something for the first time completely
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together and making an impact to benefit the industry. I mean, this is— that
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whole schools program is, is absolutely critical
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because one thing I've often considered is that as
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education continues to reshape itself slowly, but it is reshaping
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itself, you know, we have traditional academic pathways and
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then more and more, certainly in sort of higher education, further education,
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more and more properly structured vocational opportunities
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are being developed. And I've always felt that the events industry sits halfway
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between both of those. Between academic learning and vocational learning.
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It, it, it, there, it's almost a 50/50 split. When I think of my
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day-to-day job working in a conference or
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a trade show, doing ops, uh, an event, or production
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managing something, I'm either on my laptop doing some form of form
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filling or writing emails, and I've got to use good written
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English, I've got to build spreadsheets, etc., etc. And then I'll be back on a
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floor somewhere than a high— in a high-vis that is very much vocational.
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I think that there's such a lack of understanding about, A, what the events
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industry is, and B, whether or not it could be a viable career opportunity to
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kids from a young age. And so to get to them while they're 11 to
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16, to start actually not just inspiring them— because
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it's not about inspiration, the inspiration will come later— it's about actually letting them
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know what opportunities are there for them. I think it's critical.
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Yeah, I mean, look, I have to do a nod to all our sponsors.
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There's many businesses from some of the biggest venues and agencies,
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production houses and so on, that sponsor each region. They totally believe in what you've
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just said. They They recognize they have a responsibility to really
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be really open and really broad with the messaging from
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the schools program so that, you know, one of the slides in the presentation asks
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kids to put their hands up if they're into gaming, into charity fundraising, into music,
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theater, sport, into art and design,
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into DT and making things, and different hands go up. And then the next slide
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comes up and matches all those different interests to actual job roles in
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the industry. They had no idea that because they were quite
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introvert and just did their thing that they were quite passionate about, that there's
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opportunities in the event industry. They'd see events, they have no idea
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of the massive supply chain and the huge amount of different job roles,
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which obviously Careers Hub sections. I will also say the sponsors
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particularly support the fact that we don't just go into secondary state schools, of which
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there's about 5,000 in the country, and we're engaged with about 15%
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of them already. We've got obviously a long way to go, But we also do
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pupil referral units, alternative education, and SEND.
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In fact, of that 142,000 or over about 5,000
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kids are from those different academic backgrounds.
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So to have a real range of different
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types of young people with a real range of perhaps opportunities
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presenting to them, to see someone from the industry come in from their
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region and explain that broad breadth And as
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you say, they have no idea. They really don't.
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We've never defined ourselves. We never defined and showcased
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all that breadth of opportunity and the sectors. So they have no idea what
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to expect. And by the end of it, it does blow
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their minds. It really does. You see the change of their face, and it's so
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empowering for the ambassadors as well, who come out really feeling like they've credibly,
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in half an hour, 40 minutes, actually maybe have changed young
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people's lives. And we're just obviously 2 years in, we're just beginning to hear and
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be contacted by a number of people who have now left school.
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And in fact, they came— some of them, a couple came up to us at
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Confex this year and actually said, I'm here because, you know,
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some incredibly good-looking bald bloke presented
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to them— probably not me. Definitely not me.
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And I'm now studying, or I've just entered this agency and You know,
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it's as useful for them as it is people who are in the industry.
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So we are beginning to really hopefully
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help the industry get that real eclectic and diverse mix of interested
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people, but interested with their eyes wide open. You know, they may
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have thought, oh, I'd love to go into music, I'd love to go to festivals,
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I'd love to work at, you know, Comic-Con for exhibitions. We give them that more
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broader understanding so that they don't go too niche and decide too quickly, because often
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we'd like them to go I'd love to use my passion, my interest in charity
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fundraising or in art or in design or in DT.
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Is the industry actually for me? You could work cross-sector, we all know that,
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whatever your interest, you know, it's very— there is quite a lot of transition.
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So the broader story they get, we cut off less talent opportunity
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to maintain that interest to the next stage. Sure, yeah, and we
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need to sort of, you know, continue this story and continue this journey and the
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evolution to where we now sit today, which is the experience
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of work programme, which has recently been announced. And, you know, I'm looking
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at a copy of the full press release and it's pretty straightforward
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to understand, but it also provokes a lot of questions when I
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was reading through it. So let's frame it first of all for people. What is
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the Experience of Work programme? Okay, so obviously,
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you know, if you've gone into a school, you've presented to a
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group of children about what the events industry is, that's great. They get
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the interest, they've got a mechanism to perhaps go and look at the platform.
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And we started looking at this as a stage 2 at the beginning of
19:03
this year. And then weirdly at the same time, by luck or strategy, obviously the
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recent NEET report has come out. And also the government has
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recently launched a whole new mandate for all schools across the country to
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have each kid leave school, by the time they leave school, they've had
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to have done 10 days work experience. It's called Equal X. And the schools
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are in a bit of a like, how the hell are we going to deliver
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that? And there's a really clear, meaningful framework to the Equal X experience of work.
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And we were thinking, and we'd heard a lot from our industry, that they'd love
19:31
to have kids coming to their workplace, warehouse, office,
19:35
doing a build on site, but they're really worried about the time it
19:39
will take, the reputational side, the safeguarding,
19:41
insurance, what actually do they deliver content-wise during the
19:45
day, and how much drain that might be on the company that's really, you know,
19:48
going millions of miles an hour. So all at the same time, with the government
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mandate and the stage 2 to our schools program after they've had
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that. It became very obvious that, um,
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you know, a work experience, or experience of work as we call it,
20:00
program was needed. And also historical work experience
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has been, you know, hit and miss. Um, one child,
20:08
12 years, 13, 14, going into a big work environment on their own for
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a week is incredibly intimidating. Often they
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don't get to do and learn much. They're put in a corner. Often the company
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doesn't really know what to do with them. Was the Experience of Work is designed
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to take down all those barriers of worry about what to do
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with them, the compliance, the safeguarding, the time. We don't want anyone to
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reinvent the wheel. We're doing all that hard work in a toolkit called Experience of
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Work Toolkit that breaks down step-by-step guide of how to do it in a compliant
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way, whether it's half a day or a full day. And most importantly, it's in
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a community group environment, so it'd be average of about 15 kids.
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Sometimes it's 5, sometimes it can be up to 50. Go into this work environment
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for either 2 or 3 hours or 4 or 5 hours. That shared community feeling
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gives them a lot more confidence. The framework gives it a lot more compliance
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and a real structure to it, real meaningful. The Equal X is very clear on
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that. And so a variety of different environments, whether it's
21:03
build an office, whether it's then the agenda could be meeting a few different departments,
21:07
having a tour, doing a little challenge, and then a feedback session,
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which is really important. So the toolkit will really support that.
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And give a real next stage to people learning about the
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schools program, the industry from the schools engagement program, and going into a work environment
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in a really confident, punchy, inspirational way
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and come away feeling that they've got it, you know, they understand just how
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they apply that overview to the actual individual business that it
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fits in and where they fit into the big industry as a whole.
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So that, and then in the announcement, it does specifically reference that
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the funding through Purple Guide Grant will support the setup and delivery
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500 experience of work opportunities. So there is a
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number been placed on it at the moment. Presumably you
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would hope that once that initial 500 has— have had
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that experience, um, that this is something then that continues to
22:03
evolve and grow, and maybe that there'll be funding for, for, you know, an expanded
22:07
number of places in future. Well, that, that press release is probably, you know,
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a couple of weeks old because we've already had, uh, 200 more places pledged by
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a number of other associations. Our target is 1,500 in year 1.
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We're launching in September. So, you know, from the
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sort of Event Hire Association to ABKO, MIA,
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AEV, PSA, Plaza,
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and Purple Guide, they've all pledged a
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number of places on behalf of their members to draw down on as a member
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benefit. And they'll be announcing that, you know, when we launch later
22:40
in the autumn. As I say, our target is 1,500 for the year, so we've
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got another 600, 700 to go to be pledged, but at £35
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per cost, it's trying to be really inclusive. So if an average business does like
22:50
10 to 15, that's £400 or £500, which hopefully is not a massive
22:55
drain on even on smaller businesses. And, you know, we've actually had
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a huge amount of interest direct from some big venues, some big agencies, which I
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won't name right out because it's not fair at the moment because they're not signed
23:05
off. But quite right, yeah, we've got a number of big businesses around the country
23:09
that are already pledging that they might do 10 to 15 every
23:12
quarter for some local schools. So it looks
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like we're going to hit that target very quickly, and obviously the outdoor events
23:20
is the focus for the Purple Guide, so that will be for their sector.
23:23
AV obviously very much has, you know, venues.
23:25
MIA, ABCO, PLASA, PSA have their own members from different sectors,
23:29
so they'll be used by those members' businesses
23:34
to meet a lot of different sort of sector supply
23:39
chain and venues and organizers and individual businesses
23:42
obviously showcase that. So it's really exciting because we
23:46
haven't even launched this yet. It's launching in September, so this is a pre-tease,
23:50
but the amount of appetite and understanding of how experience of work
23:53
is important, the government mandate, the barriers in the past, the will
23:57
is there. What do we do with them? And hopefully us streamlining it so the
24:01
cost with the toolkit is really low. And it'll become really easy to
24:05
sign up to because we're going to launch an online dedicated portal in January,
24:09
February next year, which is very similar to the schools one. So on the schools
24:11
one, schools sign up on the portal, put their engagement in,
24:15
ambassadors go on and say, I can do that date, and so on. The other
24:18
way around with the Experience of Work, the companies, the individual employers,
24:22
will put their date. I can do 15 kids in November,
24:26
and it could be on a build, or it could be our warehouse, whatever.
24:29
And then the schools who we obviously got the huge relationship with will then go,
24:33
oh, we can do that date with Year 11s, and then they'll click on it
24:37
and confirm it, and then we'll take care of the logistics of it with the
24:39
talk obviously being talked through. So it's trying to make it really easy and take
24:43
all the barriers down for everyone, and the cost being really inclusive for a lot
24:46
of types of businesses and associations to get involved to represent different areas
24:50
of the industry, as well as bigger perhaps businesses getting involved directly. Well,
24:55
it's bizarre that we're having this conversation today because actually a business that
24:59
I, I do— I work for locally where I'm based in South Yorkshire actually
25:03
had a work experience lad in there last week.
25:07
Um, and that ties in specifically with this time of the academic
25:11
year that they are Year 10 students who in September
25:15
will start their final year of GCSEs. So last week they've
25:20
done basically all their academic learning, they've done their mocks, all the sort of the
25:23
end-of-year exams are done and dusted. They're into the last couple of weeks
25:27
of the academic year, so that's an ideal time for them to
25:31
go off and work experience where a lot of the year groups, the lower year
25:35
groups, are then transitioning up, uh, into the following year. So how
25:39
much tie-in, how much flexibility does there have to be with your
25:43
experience of work program in order to fit the requirements
25:47
of the academic year from the schools themselves and the students and what works for
25:51
them? Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, our target is sort of, you know,
25:53
Year 9 and 11 mainly. We will do Year 7 and 8,
25:57
you know, um, but, you know, the target is that is that sort of,
26:00
you know, 12 to 16-year-olds, those years 9 to 11 where they're
26:04
coming up to their GCSEs. We've also been asked to do years 12
26:08
and 13, so the 17, 18-year-olds as well. We're pretty open, but it's obvious that
26:12
the parents and the teachers at that sort of, you know, 13, 14,
26:16
15, 16 come up to you, see, are asking them, you know, what's your plan
26:19
for post-16? Are you going to stay in school? Are you going to go and
26:22
do a placement, apprenticeship? Do you want to go and study at a college?
26:24
So that's the prime sort of target audience.
26:28
And from a sort of seasonal perspective,
26:31
obviously the holidays are out from
26:35
a schools group perspective. It depends
26:39
on the year group because obviously the GCSE in
26:43
the summer, they have that and they have the mocks and things, but other year
26:46
groups are open in different times. So it actually spreads out quite nicely across the
26:50
year. Sure. Yeah. From a sector perspective, the outdoor industry particularly
26:54
are very busy in the summer. The corporate side might be a bit quieter,
26:58
but then the autumn and the spring terms are very busy for
27:02
the corporate world. But we seem to have a lot of interest from, you know,
27:06
people, especially when the employers can pick a date themselves and not be,
27:10
you know, they can then choose when they've got an availability with the forecast.
27:14
Then it's up to the schools to comply with that. So the onus is on
27:17
the schools to fit in with the industry, who obviously have a huge amount of
27:20
scheduling and so on to do for the capacity and where they are on site
27:23
or, or doing project work. So sure, yeah, there's a nice spread of, of year
27:28
groups and there's a nice spread of seasonality, but there's, you know, this is new.
27:31
This is new for the government, it's new for the schools, it's new for the
27:33
industry. So with a little caveat of we are learning as, as we go with
27:37
this, um, the Careers Enterprise company that runs this on behalf of the government is
27:40
actually talking to us a lot because we're almost at the forefront of it as
27:44
much as they are developing it. And we've done a number of pilots. We did
27:47
one at the O2 AEG, we did one at the QEII Centre,
27:51
we did one at Plaza Show up in Leeds, we did one with the
27:54
agency The Team, formerly Wasserman,
27:59
and I think that was with Sendkids as well actually. So we have got quite
28:02
a robust framework we're building from learning from this, but it is quite new,
28:05
so we've said to all those organisations that are pledging, just bear
28:09
with us, we're developing as we go, but we've got a pretty good idea what
28:12
the toolkit is going to be and the pilots have really informed that. Obviously,
28:14
when the portal launches, the digital portal in February or March, that'll become an easy,
28:18
easier way of matching up the schools to the businesses in an automated way.
28:21
So it's so exciting and so needed.
28:24
Yeah, and one thing I would say from, from firsthand experience,
28:28
I've— my event business
28:32
and my own sort of freelance work has actually brought me into contact with schools
28:35
and young people on a regular basis over the last decade
28:39
or so. And I'm also fortunate enough to have family and close friends who work
28:43
in education, both primary and secondary, and One
28:46
thing I'd say is if there is a new directive or an element of compliance
28:50
at a school or any, any educational institution has to fulfill and
28:55
adopt, if an organization comes along and says we're going to help you make that
28:59
a bit easier, my experience tells me that those institutions
29:02
and those schools will jump at that opportunity. If they've now got to comply
29:07
with this and offer it, and you come along and say, well, look, we can
29:09
offer 20 places to your kids if, if any of them are interested in this
29:13
field of work, then I think you're likely to, to be presented
29:17
with a scenario where schools go, fantastic, we'll, we'll, we'll work with you on this
29:20
if you can help us out, because that's 20 spaces that they don't have to
29:23
find. That's, you know, days of work from a member of their team
29:27
not having to work to find those, those experience places.
29:31
It's free for the schools. We've got a huge relationship with hundreds,
29:34
hundreds of schools who already know us and trust us, um,
29:38
from the schools program. Industry trusts us and we're credibly created and
29:43
operating on behalf of the industry, so they get us and trust us with our
29:47
profile. A lot of things need to come together. There's a lot of detail in
29:50
the Equal X which we've had to read through, which we don't therefore need.
29:54
We can digest that and price it into a really simple toolkit so that the
29:58
schools believe in the compliance and the businesses don't have
30:01
to try and wrangle that through individually. So those barriers are taken away.
30:05
And yeah, and the schools, you know, with that, you know, they don't just take
30:08
on anyone. They have a safeguarding and a compliance remit so
30:12
that, you know, to build up the relationship is really important. And one of
30:15
the biggest hopeful legacies from this is that when individual businesses in certain regions,
30:19
you know, in presenting to the schools in the engagement programme or develop it with
30:23
the Experience of Work, they then build up their own relationships directly with their local
30:27
schools that they may have wanted in the past. Trust me, schools are not easy
30:30
to get through to. There are wonderful CEC hubs around the
30:34
country that are meant to be the conduit between industry and schools, but still some
30:37
schools are really resource poor. They're really under it, timeline pressure
30:41
of resources and the scheduling with the kids. So we've
30:45
got a dedicated person called Jenny who's 2 days a week just cold calling
30:49
schools while Sophie and Candice obviously oversee most of the schools
30:53
and experience of work program. But it does, you do need to
30:57
spoon-feed basically the schools so that they have ability to digest it and understand
31:01
that you're compliant. And it's robust and tried
31:05
and tested and get through to the right person. And that's not their
31:09
fault, you know, they're incredibly busy and industry incredibly busy as well. So to make
31:13
it really simple and easy and digestible for them and really affordable, there's several key
31:17
stakeholders here to manage and bring together,
31:21
which fortunately we've created a really good platform and
31:24
foundation stone to do that as well over the last few years. So we're very
31:27
empathetic to the schools. Very empathetic to the businesses and how busy
31:31
they are and the individual time that they might dedicate
31:35
to this, but to make it really simple and easy, hopefully reassures everyone that it's
31:40
all about the kids and it's all about inspiring them in the most meaningful way.
31:43
And there's a huge amount of these meaningful purposes defined in the Equal 8
31:47
compliance, and we obviously tick all those boxes, so it's
31:50
not a waste of anyone's time. It really can make a difference to someone's life
31:53
and career. And it's very empowering for the employer as well, for the top 2
31:57
or 3 staff to get involved in it and see the experience and the actual
32:01
output and the legacy of what the kids on the day is, is very rewarding.
32:06
Yeah, absolutely. And my big takeaway from today's conversation
32:11
is the amount of people that I still meet in the industry day
32:15
to day, you know, you bump into people and you talk, we're talking to people
32:18
all the time who have it was never their plan
32:22
to start in the events industry or to be working where they are now.
32:24
The amount of people who, you know, mid to senior level in the
32:28
industry who fell into it accidentally 20 years ago and 20 years on find
32:32
themselves, you know, absolutely— if that's not going to sustain itself forever,
32:36
and in an industry that's worth the amount of money that it is worth,
32:40
we can't look to the future of the industry and still just
32:45
rely on people accidentally falling into it when it was never their plan. There has
32:49
to be a longer-term plan than that, both for the future of the industry but
32:52
actually retrospectively looking at how we're going to get people inspired into it at
32:55
an early age. And when I look back now to
32:59
the things that interested me as a 13, 14,
33:02
15-year-old, the things that I was interested in then and
33:07
the things that I like to do, like hijacking the back of an old hi-fi
33:10
to figure out if I could connect it to a VHS player I'm now working
33:14
doing AV production in, in events. You know,
33:18
the stuff that I was interested in and actually wanted to learn about myself when
33:22
I was— are actually all the things that I'm utilizing now. And had
33:26
somebody given me this opportunity back then, I probably would have been able to
33:30
identify, ah, there's a career pathway there that might suit my skill set.
33:34
And that's what— we haven't had that before in this industry.
33:37
We haven't had those opportunities. And we, we simply need to sit in front of
33:41
young people and say if you're interested in this, this, this, or this, this could
33:44
be a path, exactly as you explained earlier. And that's my biggest
33:48
takeaway, is not landing in 20 years' time in a situation where
33:52
people are no longer accidentally falling into the industry. They've actually chosen that from the
33:56
age of 13, 14 years old. Exactly. And joining the dots,
33:59
I mean, I heard a quote recently that one of the biggest qualifications you can
34:03
give to any child is confidence. Um, and that's, you know,
34:06
especially when some of them have grown up in their really formative years during COVID
34:10
they aren't confident. There's all that reports of NEETs and people
34:14
having to send over 200 CVs even just to get response, and AI, you know,
34:18
still filtering through them, and they're feeling very demotivated, very worried
34:22
about their next stage post-GCSE and so on. We can inform them that we've
34:26
got a growing, robust industry, and there are huge amounts of new skill
34:29
sets required in this industry evolving along with, you know, the new variety
34:33
of formats of events we do, the technology marketing, social media,
34:38
content strategy, as well as all the nuances of the individual sectors.
34:41
And, you know, we are in competition with other industries that
34:45
are grabbing them really proactively. So if we want the best talent and be
34:49
this, you know, the UK industry, which is what we're bigging up, to be the
34:52
best in the world, they need to consider events alongside equally, if not better,
34:55
any other competitive industry that's targeting them. And if we can
34:59
be a small part of helping us grab the best talent for the future resilience
35:03
of the industry and the individual businesses of any size, with the support of the
35:07
industry, you know, we're hopefully going to be in a better place going forward,
35:09
as you say. Absolutely. Really important before we wrap up today,
35:12
Rick, that we tell people how to find out more about this. So give us
35:17
the website, probably the simplest place or the best place for people to start.
35:20
Yeah, it's www.thepowerofevents.org,
35:25
and on there there's the overview of the sectors, There's the schools engagement
35:29
programs on there. From the end of July, there'll be a whole new section
35:33
on Experience of Work. So whatever your interest, just becoming involved
35:37
in any of our projects, becoming a supporter or partner, becoming a sponsor of a
35:40
schools engagement, interested in anything, the Experience of Work will be launching
35:44
an event in London hopefully towards the end of September. You're welcome to come along
35:47
to that to learn more. Just get in contact with us at hello@thepowerevents.org.
35:52
We'd love to chat to you, whatever your interests,
35:54
if find out more, but a lot of it is on the website as well.
35:57
Fabulous. And please do stay in touch. We want to know how this is progressing,
36:01
you know, once this launches in September and you
36:04
start to get the involvement from those schools and from the institutions. Please do keep
36:09
in touch and let us know how that's progressing. I certainly will. And yeah,
36:12
I invite the whole industry to learn about it, get involved. Whoever you are,
36:16
you can have a role in this, even if it's light touch to meet your
36:19
busy schedules. It'd be really exciting to hear from
36:23
you, and I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about it today, James. Not a
36:26
problem at all, Rick. And before we wrap up and say thanks
36:30
to my guest properly at the end of today's episode, just a couple of mentions
36:33
for stuff at our end of things. So eventindustrynews.com—
36:38
if you have started your journey today by listening to the podcast on your
36:42
audio platform, please do make sure that you head over to eventindustrynews.com to check
36:46
out the latest news features, special supplements, and of course the supplier directory.
36:50
If you work in the events industry and you're looking for a product service or
36:53
supplier, the chances are you will find it within the supplier directory on eventindustrynews.com,
36:58
where you can find video versions of all of these podcasts. You may have
37:02
started your journey there today by watching today's podcast on the website. If you've done
37:06
that, thank you very much for doing so. Please do also make sure that you
37:09
go over to wherever you get your audio podcasts from— that could be Spotify,
37:13
Apple Music, etc., etc.— and make sure that you like and subscribe to the
37:17
podcast to get all of the latest episodes as they come out.
37:20
So It brings me to the end of today's episode, and the final thing I
37:24
should do is to say thank you to my guest today, Rick Stainton, the CEO
37:27
of The Power of Events, for joining us today. Rick, enjoy the rest of your
37:30
day. Thanks for your time. Thanks, Events Industry News. You've been a partner from the
37:33
start, been brilliant, so keep, keep you— keep the great work up, and I really
37:36
appreciate the opportunity today. Not a problem at all, and we'll see
37:40
everybody on the next edition of the podcast. Thanks,