What do European associations of event agencies do?

Participants were Elfie Adler, CEO of FAMAB (Germany), Andrew Winterburn, representative of Eventia (UK), Alessandra Lanza, president of Consulta Degli Eventi AssoComunicazione (Italy), Michel Bensadoun, chairman of ANAE (France), along with Oscar Santiago, President of the Club for Excellence in Events. Two media were present: Eric Mottard, CEO of Group eventoplus and Sagone Salvatore, president of ADC Group (Italy).

In Germany, which has the largest event market in Europe (25 billion euros), the association has managed to unite more than 250 members between planners and suppliers, presenting a solid structure between its various departments and functions. The same applies to the UK, where the association also offers advisory service to employees and promotes our industry by interacting with public authorities.

Also noteworthy is the progress in France, where in addition to lobbying activities, there is important training activity for professionals, including a summer university. In Italy, interestingly, the association published a manifesto denouncing some bad practices of customers and how it affects quality in our industry. In Spain, the Club for Excellence in Events last year launched a Code of Ethics to lay the foundations of industry events and also supports a school for event planners.

Except for Germany, which has even a slight growth in the sector, other countries have undergone significant declines with the crisis, estimated at around 10% in most cases.

With the help of Ephymera Sustainability, sustainability consultants for events, it was found that depending on the country, there is a greater or lesser action on sustainable events. Germany stands out with FAMAB initiatives, which created its own certification. And the UK has its own system of certification of the event (BS8901). Although it is still widely used. France already has a number of initiatives and websites for sustainable events. In Italy and Spain there is still little definition of the subject.