The last thing I expected to be thinking about when I went to IMEX in Frankfurt this year was the idea of wife-swapping, but that’s exactly what came to mind as a result of a conversation I had with two buddies of mine, one from the Vienna Convention Bureau (VCB) and the other from the Amsterdam Convention Board (ACB).
On the Netherlands stand, ACB’s Marc Horsmans and I were chatting away when we were joined by Ulrike von Arnold from the VCB. Before I go any further, I should point out that both Ulrike and Marc are happily partnered (but not with each other) and not, as far as I know, in the market for any spousal exchanges. No, like most of us, their acquaintance with such practices is limited to what you see on TV reality shows such as Wife Swap or, if Wife Swap isn’t tacky enough for you, Wife Swap USA.
If you haven’t seen it, in Wife Swap two different families ‘swap’ wives/mothers, and sometimes husbands, for two weeks. Despite having a title associated with the habits of saucy swingers, participants in the show do not actually share a bed with the temporary guest. But to crank up the entertainment value of the shows, the programme deliberately swaps wives with dramatically different lifestyles.
For me, the unbridgeable distance between the two main participants’ lifestyles is a major weakness of the programme.
It inevitably leads to over-the-top histrionics on both sides, with screams of “What do you mean, is this fish organic and dolphin friendly? It’s from the chippie down the road.” For me, it would be much more interesting and edifying if they swapped people from families with almost identical lifestyles. The observations would be much more measured and discerning.
Anyway, back to Frankfurt, and it was during my conversation with Ulrike and Marc that the idea of convention bureaus arranging temporary bilateral staff exchanges was born. The feeling was that both sides would benefit from having a member of staff spend a week or so in each other’s convention bureau, observing how things were done and comparing practices with their own.
Particularly for people who have only ever worked in one convention bureau (or venue – the same principle applies), this would be a refreshing opportunity to study another, similar, organisation’s systems and procedures at close range. Both sides would be sure to benefit by picking up a few ideas to take back to their own convention bureau and implement there. The only catch I could think of was: would you really want to have a competitor seeing what you do on a day-to-day basis to win events for your destination? But Marc and Ulrike both seemed to agree that this wouldn’t be
a problem. If they are right, then why don’t we start here in the UK?
Surely a member of staff from the Aberdeen Convention Bureau could pick up some useful tips by spending a week in the offices of Conference Leeds, and vice-versa? Or create a win-win situation by swapping a manager from the Edinburgh International Conference Centre with a manager from the Belfast Wateont.
After all, in academia, we’ve had inter-university staff exchanges for years, and the cross-fertilisation of ideas and experiences they create benefits everyone. They’ll never make a Channel 4 series about those prof-swaps, but they are a great way of facilitating knowledge transfer, and isn’t that the business that the conference industry is supposed to be in anyway?
This was first published in the August edition of Conference News. Any comments? Email sarah@mashmedia.net
