The Year of the Tiger Brings a Year of Recovery

By Cathy Breden, CMP-F, CAE, CEM, Chairperson, 2022 Board of Directors and EVP/COO of International Association of Exhibitions and Events

The year is quickly coming to an end, and it is time for me to reflect on the accomplishments of EIC over the past year. The EIC Board of Directors and Council set an aggressive agenda for moving the work of EIC forward and I am pleased with what has been accomplished. I would like to thank our CEO, Amy Calvert, and the team for their dedication to EIC and our Vision, Mission and Values. We have aligned our work through the framework of People, Planet and Purpose. Below you will find some of this year’s highlights that I am particularly proud of and that will have a lasting impact on our industry.

People
The Equity Acceleration Plan & Benchmarking Study: This crucially important study, released in October, offers our sector insights around attitudes toward DEI and a framework to move our vision to action.

The CMP Certification Competency Analysis and Job Task Analysis is underway, and focus groups have been held around the world. The work of this project will inform future domains of practice for event professionals.

EIC Global Awards & Hall of Leaders Celebration: What a wonderful event this year’s awards programme held at The Cosmopolitan was. My sincere thanks to MGM Entertainment for their ongoing support. One highlight for me was having the opportunity to personally congratulate those who received well-deserved recognition for their contributions to the events industry.

Planet
The EIC Centre for Sustainability and Social Impact includes the Sustainable Event Professional Certificate and Sustainable Event Standards (SES). Organisations around the globe are seeing the value of these programmes and are working with  EIC to leverage these as talent development resources for their team members  and cohorts. IMEX was the first trade show to be recognised as having achieved the Platinum level of the event standards. IAEE is committed to the standards and is pursuing certification as well, and I hope other organisations will embrace this initiative.

Purpose
As part of our work with Oxford Economics, the Quarterly Barometer for Q2 was released. This important data enables us to advocate on the impact of the events industry around the world. The Global Economic Significance Study will be released shortly.

It has been an honour to serve as the 2022 Chairperson of the EIC Board of Directors. We have been through some tough years, and I never dreamed that when in 2019 I was asked to consider the chair position I would serve during such pivotal years for the Council, and the industry overall. The experience has been challenging and yet worthwhile.

The next EIC Board chair is the very smart and charismatic Sherrif Karamat, President and CEO of PCMA. Sherrif will adeptly lead the Events Industry Council through 2023, along with EIC’s CEO Amy Calvert.

My thanks to our wonderful volunteers and EIC members. And to our partners, thank you. EIC could not do its work without your support.