April 29, 2021 | By Bronwen Largier
The Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia networking event at The Star in Sydney yesterday afternoon had a good turnout from across the exhibition space and other parts of the events sector.
EEAA President and Managing Director of Informa Australia Spiro Anemogiannis urged comradery amongst industry players at the event.
“I know it’s been difficult for everyone – small and large – some more than others, but I think we’ve got to look forward, we’ve got to stick together and we’ve got to help each other out,’ he said.
“The days of being really, really competitive with each other I think have to take a backseat and we’ve got to try and help each other out to get to the other side. We are slowly getting there.
“We’re sort of just coming out of the twilight zone now. We get ahead and we get a Perth hiccup – we’re going to keep getting these hiccups now and again, but we’ve just got to hold our nerve.”
Anemogiannis also encouraged those assembled not to dismiss the digital elements that have been introduced to the industry during the pandemic and see them instead as a complimentary product to face-to-face events.
“There’s no point thinking…that it’s going to go away.”
EEAA Chief Executive Claudia Sagripanti promised quarterly networking events and flagged the short-term recovery strategy being worked on by the association “around rebuilding, reconnecting and making sure that we have resilience, particularly across the supply chain”.
The association is holding another event this evening in Melbourne.