For the last year, with the setting up of the Events Industry Alliance (EIA), the industry has at last had the sort of outward looking representation that so many have long desired. A quick glance at its own round up of the year shows that the EIA has apparently made a good start. National quality media coverage is well up and outside marketing agencies have been met and awareness in what the industry does has been increased to the extent that a steady stream of these agencies is now contacting the EIA for information and help. To this can be added a number of academic initiatives such as the development of an A Level event marketing course and, perhaps most importantly, a significant building of relationships with central government. The EIA’s group chief executive, Trevor Foley, is pleased with what the association has achieved in its first year and the amount of work that he and his team have put in is certainly impressive.

However, it’s all very well talking to all these people and telling them about the events industry. To what extent are they actually interested in what Foley has been telling them?

"That’s actually a good question and one that’s very topical," says Foley. "Yesterday I had the first senior level government meeting in eight years that I was excited by. In the past we’ve gone in and hardly had a sympathetic ear but yesterday I met Brain Leonard who is the parliamentary private secretary for Minister of the Department of Culture, Media and Sports, who told me that he understood the significance of our industry and that events are now centre stage where in the past they simply weren’t on anyone’s radar. There was also a recognition of the value of the experience economy and how quickly and dynamically that it is growing compared to other sectors. He also told me that, as far as the creative and media industries are concerned, we are now in the loop."

Foley says that there are four things the EIA would like to get from the government namely ministers coming to open key UK exhibitions, help in the bidding process for large international peripatetic events, an understanding of the dynamics of the industry and, ultimately, money. This isn’t necessarily hard cash but rather a recognition of the importance of, for example, free travel for visitors such as is often the case for exhibitions overseas.

At this point it is worth underlining that the EIA is firmly committed to spreading the word about the wider world of events rather than specifically exhibitions. Is it not dangerous to drop the word ‘exhibition’ altogether? Indeed, is it not a shameless ploy? By embracing the wider events world you increase the number of potential members, and therefore revenue.

"We’re not dropping the term ‘exhibition’ totally, in fact the jury is still out on what the best way of proceeding actually is," says Foley. "But it is a commercial reality, certainly on the part of the venues, they host all kinds of different events. We’ve had several high profile venues join recently who are less worried about the terminology and more concerned about getting their share of the pie and they see the AEV and EIA as a way to help this happen."

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