Point of View: Emma Poxton

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Emma Poxton
Events Consultant at Northumbrian Water Group
www.linkedin.com/in/emma-poxton

As part of our commitment to championing the industry, we are talking to people about their careers and what IEM means to them.

Emma has worked with Northumbrian Water Group since 2006, where she started in a support role for the wider Corporate Communications team learning more about the external communications, events, corporate responsibility and marketing roles. Her reporting line was within the Events team, and that’s where Emma’s passion for events began, as a majority of her time was spent supporting her team with the admin tasks for and the setup of internal and external events. In 2014, with the introduction of a new Internal Communications team, Emma was able to advance her career in a role that focused solely on how the organisation engaged with and made the company a great place to work for the employee audience. During this, she continued to deliver internal focused events like roadshows, conferences and awards ceremonies, as well as the more technical aspects of keeping employees up to date through producing and editing content for digital comms channels, alongside completing her foundation and advanced diploma with the Institute of Internal Communications. Towards the end of 2020, an opportunity arose for Emma to move back into a full-time events role, where she is now fully responsible for events for both internal and external audiences.

Q What does the IEM mean to you?
A Starting out in a new role at a time when the world of events has seen its biggest shake up due to the pandemic, it’s great to have a central place to seek advice and best practice and connect with other event professionals. It’s also great to have a professional body to set out a standard of skills and knowledge to make sure I’m always striving to be at the top of my game.

Q Why did you decide it was important for you to get involved?
A I really valued the support from the IoIC and the courses they offered to help me develop my skills while in my Internal Comms role and I wanted to have that same network of support and opportunity to build my skills in my new role.

Q Where do you hope to see the IEM in 20 years’ time?
A I hope the IEM will be an established body, with lots of members from a diverse range of organisations and skill levels that come together to share, learn and champion the event management profession.

Q What is your favourite event related memory?
A The first event I attended that made me think “Wow this is what I want to do for a career,” was at a retirement event for our then chairman at Beamish Museum in Co Durham. We had private access to the museum and were transported to drinks reception in the 1900’s town via a tram, before heading over to a beautifully illuminated marquee next to a vintage fairground. Fast forward 12 years and my favourite event that I delivered was our Greatest Showman themed employee awards, complete with ringmaster compere, big top projection mapping on the walls and a hot air ballooning elephant floating from the ceiling!

 

Headline: Event Professionals – on the road to Government recognition

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The Institute of Event Management (IEM) together with the Business Visits and Events Partnership (BVEP) submitted comments to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) with proposed revisions and additions to their SOC2020 draft.

The Standard Occupational Classification Codes is the system that categorises jobs into general types for the purpose of collecting, calculating, analysing, and disseminating data. The SOC covers all jobs in the national economy, including occupations in the public, private, and military sectors.

As reported in the BVEP’s UK Events Industry Report, chapter 6 on People, the jobs undertaken by those in the events industry are scattered, hidden and non-existent in the existing SOC codes.

As part of the consultation process by the ONS on SOC extension codes, it was requested that the code 3557 ‘Conference and Exhibition Organisers and Managers’ be changed to ‘Event Managers’. As this level was not part of the consultation it was thought unlikely that this would be approved. The ONS have however agreed to change the new SOC2020 codes so that 3557 is now entitled ‘Events Managers and Organisers’. All the new codes to download at the ONS website.

3557: Event managers and organisers
SOC-EXT2020 SOC-EXT2020 Unit Group Title
3557/01 Conference managers and organisers
3557/02 Exhibition managers and organisers
3557/03 Festival managers and organisers
3557/04 Hospitality managers
3557/05 Wedding planners and organisers
3557/99 Conference and exhibition managers and organisers n.e.c.

Susan Spibey, Executive Board Chair of IEM, commented that “this is just a first step towards official recognition of the sector.  There is still much work to do as this does not cover the main SOC Code work neither SIC Codes which are used by businesses to register at Companies House. Again, Events does not exist on the SIC Code framework.”

Caroline Jackson, Vice Chair of BVEP and Chair of the Skills & Talent Working Group commented that “we are really pleased that the ONS, and the bodies involved in deciding on the new SOC extension codes, have recognised the need for the generic title of ‘Events’. Once this has been published, it will be up to employers and researchers to ensure that those codes directly related to events are used. For too long the valuable events workforce has gone unrecognised and the pandemic has highlighted the need for official figures that the Government accepts.”

 

Point of View: AEME

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Association for Events Management Education
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2371448/

As part of our commitment to championing the industry, we are talking to people about their careers and what IEM means to them.

The Association of Events Management Education (AEME) was founded in 2004, with the central aim of advancing events education within the UK and overseas higher education institutions.

Q What does the IEM mean to you?
A AEME have known the IEM founders since 2006 and at the Annual Forum in 2016 the need for professional accreditation for the industry was discussed and presented by IEM.  This was further developed at the 2017 event and since then it has been on the agenda of AEME.  As an educational association that provides support for the Higher Education sector delivering Event Management courses throughout the UK, we decided that it would be useful to have a voice in the development of the IEM and for the benefit of our members and students at our member institutions.

Q Why did you decide it was important for you to get involved?
A The majority of our members are lecturers and have held positions within the Events Industry or gained experience in supervising their students to create successful events within their local communities.  As such our members have extensive experience of both event theory and praxis.  Therefore, it was felt that AEME could offer much to a partnership with the IEM and vice versa.  In particular AEME and the IEM can work together to develop a professional and fit for purpose accreditation programme for the industry and University level academic courses.

Q Where do you hope to see the IEM in 20 years time?
A It is hoped that working together AEME and the IEM would have fully developed the above-mentioned course accreditation and that this would be accepted by Industry and rolled out across the events sector and that IEM would be a significant voice for the industry with annual membership of over 5,000 and Chartered status gained.

Q What is your favourite event related memory?
A As an organisation, there are many favourite memories  related to the forum that AEME hosts annually.  This year the event is being hosted by partner University of Brighton with a theme centred around Diversity and Inclusion.

 

Point of View: Simon Venn

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Simon Venn
Head of Events and Partnerships at The ReThink Academy Ltd
linkedin.com/in/simonvenn

As part of our commitment to championing the industry, we are talking to people about their careers and what IEM means to them.

Simon has over 20 years experience in the events, exhibitions, conference and meetings industry in an operational programme and project delivery capacity.  He has worked in both the public and commercial sector, managing and delivering event programmes, driving revenue streams, managing large project teams and partnering with commercial organisations and relevant stakeholders to deliver required outputs and outcomes.

Q What does the IEM mean to you?
A much-needed organisation to provide support, insight, training and information to help me grow and develop as an event professional.  Also providing an opportunity to keep engaged and UpToDate with other event professionals and, most of all, a place that can promote recognition and accreditation to all the hard-working professionals in the events industry.

Q Why did you decide it was important for you to get involved?
A Pretty much in the middle of COVID-19 in mid-2020 when I saw so many colleagues and contacts collaborating and reaching out together – we need a central body and institute to represent us as a profession.

Q Where do you hope to see the IEM in 20 years’ time?
A national membership with over 25,000 members and a growing international membership.

Q What is your favourite event related memory?
A As an Events Director of a 4-day event at the 02 arena, having absolute free reign of the whole venue and access to all parts and getting excited about who had used the toilet in the changing room we were using as our office.