By Paul Mathers.
Exhibition Organisers might be the most underrated project managers in the job market. And yet, when it comes to the broader events industry, they are largely unseen.
An agency can take a brief and ideate and deliver an event or activation.
A promoter can engage talent, promote and deliver an event.
A venue can provide the infrastructure and environment in which an event takes place.
A supplier can build the physical event.
All of these disciplines are highly specialised, and exhibition organisers rely on many of them. But an exhibition organiser has to bring all of them together — while also carrying the commercial risk.
It starts with an idea.
Then comes the business case, budgeting and financial risk. Venue negotiations. Supplier contracts. PR and media. Sales. Marketing. Audience development. Stakeholder management. Risk and safety. Government and council relationships. Conference programming. Hundreds of speakers and exhibitors. Partnerships. Associations. Boards and advisors.
And then there is the unexpected.
Weather events. Traffic chaos. Operational failures. Last-minute cancellations. Complaints from exhibitors, visitors or stakeholders.
Even when the problem is outside your control, you are still the person standing there dealing with it. Because ultimately, you sold the dream to the exhibitor, the partner and the visitor. And on event day, you’re there to deliver it.
That’s what makes exhibition organising different.
Exhibition Organisers don’t simply manage an event. They plan it, sell it, market it, finance it and operationally deliver it. They bring multiple departments, disciplines and complex workflows together and manage them as one commercial proposition.
Put simply: they manage the whole ecosystem.
Which raises an interesting question. With a skillset like that, why aren’t Exhibition Organisers more visible in the broader project management and senior events job market?
The skills are highly transferable. So why are they so often overlooked?
Paul Mathers
Paul is a highly experienced commercial event executive with more than 30 years’ experience building, launching and growing successful consumer event brands across Australia, the United States, United Kingdom and Southeast Asia. His career spans business leadership, P&L accountability, strategic partnerships, sponsorship, revenue growth, brand development and team leadership. Paul has led multidisciplinary teams across sales, marketing, operations and event delivery, while developing commercially successful events in the automotive, lifestyle and pet sectors.
His achievements include leading some of Australia’s foremost consumer events, delivering multiple EEAA Award-winning exhibitions and building internationally recognised brands in highly competitive and diverse markets globally. Connect with Paul through LinkedIn HERE
