Outsourcing congress increases, says ICCA

It was a good example of hybrid event, which opened to the interaction of an audience of 300 participants from 43 countries, who previously participated in interviews and online later in the session along with 150 members of ICCA.

If you want a virtual event, do it right: the event is planned as a professional television production, with multiple cameras, professional presenter and moderator, something important to the experience appealing. And it seems to work: as the moderator of the online part of HCIBS Heijkoop Gerrit, “78% of participants said they learned something they can use in their professional life immediately.” The hybrid workshop lasted 2 hours. It began with an introduction to exclusively for the online audience, followed by an interactive debate live on stage, and a Q & A with the panel.

The live debate was chaired by the CEO of ICCA Martin Sirk, along with association leaders as Finn Raben, CEO of ESOMAR, the association of global market research, Karen McMain, President of the International Association of Orthoptic and Jarno of Boer, European head of global company CIMGlobal PCO.

As the debate on outsourcing, partnerships and suppliers are not always aligned. These were some of their conclusions.

Quality vs price?

The OPC considered that companies outsource a simple matter to optimize costs while these consider that the aim is to raise the quality standards of their events, and access to better technology.

Trend: Will return outsourcing?

According to ICCA, a majority of associations have regained control of part of the outsourced services, especially the “critical”. We have all seen cases of large associations reduced their outsourcing to a purely logistical management of hotels, transfers, gala dinners, while more strategic aspects (content, sponsors, membership, marketing …) are managed internally.

But surprisingly, a majority of associations and OPC expect outsourcing services grow in the coming years so that the competition between suppliers (OPC) will increase. Good news since a sector better by having specialist consultants who provide very specific knowledge develops. Outsource Logistics To the question “What services would have to outsource an international association” without surprise wins logistics (75%) followed by social events (57%), but then turn to services that only a minority of votes harvested: exhibition and sponsoring (41%), online marketing (38%), communications and PR (33%), competition management (32%), site selection (31%) and finally editorial management, financial management and member management.

Beware: the customer has to feel comfortable

Perhaps one of the points where more diverged each other was the perceived risk associations to outsource their services, a risk not perceived by suppliers / OPC … but it is essential to understand in order to provide the proper level of transparency, clarity, explanation risks and how they are managed.

Martin Sirk, said: “It´s a very complex issue, some associations looking to redo the in-house management, but others want to outsource more and with different levels and forms of competition Organizations that used to have the monopoly of knowledge in their respective fields. now face an extremely competitive market, so they are looking for a business model that makes them more efficient, not only in the organization of meetings.This will have implications for how providers interact with their customers because they may have to personally deal with intermediaries who increasingly control decisions the same time, the associations are telling us that a key issue is its ongoing relationship with its members, every subcontractor must respect this if you want to succeed. “