Paul Colston sits down with Rick Stainton from The Power of Events to discuss two year’s of progress and activity.
Industry advocacy body and not-for-profit organisation The Power of Events (PoE) was centre stage at International Confex at the end of February, as it marked its second anniversary of advocating for the UK events industry.
As well as curating eight sessions on the keynote stage at Excel London and also the Event Production Show main stage, the PoE team was active in showcasing the breadth of the industry’s power and reach.
With two years of hard work now under the organisation’s belt, the team was keen to shout about the main pillars of its work and take the message out into the events industry and educational establishments at large.
There is a good story to tell and smart new tools to tell it: The Event Industry Insight App, the Careers Hub on the main platform, and a UK-wide Schools Engagement Programme are all rolled out and building momentum. The PoE founder Rick Stainton told CN during a break at Confex that these initiatives were all created based on suggestions from official supporters and partners from across the seven sectors making up the broad events industry. Testament to a broad democratic movement feeding into the organisation.
The update and activity at Confex followed a one-hour Linkedin broadcast, supported by D&B Solutions and Giant iTab, streamed live on 13 February which involved contributions from over 25 industry leaders.
The livestream broadcast focused on showcasing what the PoE is all about and thanking the industry for their unprecedented collaboration in making it a reality, including updates and exciting plans for the further development of the Schools Engagement Programme, set to reach out for a further 250+ engagements in 2025.
The Insight app has so far been downloaded by over 600 organisations and over 2,000 individuals, who have been able to participate in six Pulse survey checks. The app also now includes Dissertation Showcases – a collaboration with Northampton University, Greenwich University, and Manchester Metropolitan University – designed to shine a light on the research being conducted by the 2025 graduating class entering the workforce this summer.
Looking back on the two years of hard work, Stainton praised the commitment of time put in by the hundreds of volunteers, many of whom have also joined the Advisory Board and/or become ‘ambassadors’ to deliver the presentation showcase in schools and colleges.
He also gave thanks to partners who have invited the PoE to their industry events and awards to help spread the word. “It is refreshing to see competitive advantage put aside by so many partners who contributed to the initial success of the growth of The Power of Events,” he says.
“If you’re promoting the event industry and sitting behind a screen and never go out to events, then you’re not practising what you preach. Our team has made a great effort from day one to go to as many industry live events, so we’re seen and to listen as we advocate the power of events. All the work we do is credibly suggested by the events industry.”
Stainton also underlined he was keen that everyone feels ‘invited’ to the project, which he stressed “was by the industry for the industry” and not about the the PoE team deciding what to do. “We have an advisory board with 35 industry leaders across seven sectors. We also have a regular Task Force meeting open to any supporter.” This he claims helped foster a sense of community and ownership for all passionate about the UK events industry.
The Open Task Force is about what is current, he explained, whereas the Advisory Board is about sense checking the future plans and looking at long term strategy.
In terms of industry feedback over the two years, Stainton said one bit of advice acted on was the recommendation to concentrate on doing two or three things very well, rather than tying to tackle too many proposed projects at the same time.
That said, quite a lot has been taken on and achieved, top line wins, to recap, being:
- Launching the research app, which was a pilot with the University of Northampton and spreading it up with Pulse checks and research projects
- 2,000 individual users and 600 orgs downloaded
- The Schools Engagement Programme which has involved 120 engagements engaging over 22,000 young people in 2024.
- The Power of Events ambassadors – all equipped with information and presentation decks – have been able to illustrate the variety of routes into the industry, defining five key ones, including: University, Skills, Apprenticeships, Internships/Placement and direct Recruitment.
“Schools have a mandate to get in industry speakers and they appreciate our supportive approach. We’ve had hundreds of ambassadors sign up to take our message in there,” adds Stainton.
This March, Edinburgh has become the fourth region to join the Schools Engagement Programme, alongside Birmingham, South Coast and Hertfordshire, with Liverpool/Manchester/Cheshire, London and Bristol/Bath regions set to be part of it in 2025.
Stainton stated another 100 schools and over 20,000 students have already been booked in for 2025 across the four current active regions and with another 150+ school engagements from the new proposed regions planned later 2025, projecting over 50,000 young people could be engaged this year.
He is also keen to stress that with all the principal industry associations, trade media and support organisations as partners, The Power of Events is not about attempting to duplicate efforts on that front, but rather on showcasing all their great work in one place.
Stainton is keenly aware the pace of delivery is dependent on participation and funding and encourages more to get involved and at least download the app to increase the representative response to the Pulse checks and future research projects. He ended the rallying call with the The Power of Event tagline of: ‘Support, Share and Suggest’.
The breadth of supporters truly is new ground for the industry Stainton reminded, from rights holders and organisers to key venues, AV production companies to staffing companies, agencies to infrastructure providers … all collaborating. And, while he recognises this strength, he stresses there is an expectation on delivery.
You can help that process by getting involved at: www.thepowerofevents.org
