Stéphane Lecca, Managing Director, Publicis Events

18/04/2011

"While it cannot be denied that the crisis shook our industry to the core and put several agencies in dire straits, it was not without its positive effects"

BWMN caught up with Stéphane Lecca, Managing Director of Publicis Events, a large events agency that counts many global corporations among its clients, to quiz him on the state of the events industry.

BWMN: How would you describe the state of the events industry at present? How has it recovered in the wake of the global financial crisis?

Stéphane Lecca: The events industry was severely affected by the crisis because of the nature of our business. Events agencies have very few annual contracts, relying instead on requests for proposals. It was therefore very easy for organizations to withdraw their requests when they began to experience financial difficulties, and even though very few longer-term contracts were cancelled, the industry was hit hard.

As well causing the cancellation of a great number of events, the crisis also had a great effect on the budgets of those remaining, reducing them by around 20-30%. This period of difficulty lasted from the beginning of the second half of 2009, and through almost all of 2010.

However, since the final third of last year, the number of event requests has begun to pick up, and it has now risen to pre-crisis levels. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for their budgets, which remain roughly the same as in 2010.

While these figures show that the events industry has recovered fairly well, we are still only cautiously optimistic. The market is becoming more and more competitive, it is getting more and more difficult to win bids, and of course it is still very much at the mercy of unforeseen circumstances. One only need consider the current state of the automobile industry and the earthquake in Japan to understand that there is little guarantee of future security in any business.

BWMN: What measures were taken by the industry as a whole to combat the effects of the crisis, and what did your company do in particular?

Stéphane Lecca: While it cannot be denied that the crisis shook our industry to the core and put several agencies in dire straits, it was not without its positive effects, insofar as it taught us some valuable lessons.

By that I mean that it forced us to re-think our profession in order to meet our customers’ demands, which were now much more stringent. With their budgets now reduced, they were looking to maximize the impact of their events for the least cost. This encouraged events professionals to consider their work in a completely new light, and to ask themselves several difficult questions:

Given that the number of participants at corporate events was now lower, how could we make the most of this reduced ratio of delegates to those leading the event?

With the disappearance of certain events, how to motivate your employees?

How to organize events more cheaply?

How to help our clients with their communication problems?

Furthermore, to combat the reduction in the number of clients, agencies were forced to adapt a very aggressive marketing strategy to attract new customers, and to ensure the continuing loyalty of existing ones.

BWMN: How do you see the future of the events industry? What trends do you forecast for the future?

Stéphane Lecca: We believe that events agencies will have to develop a new set of skills peripheral to the organization of events, such as marketing and technological expertise.

With the increasingly complex demands of our customers, just offering traditional event-related services is no longer enough. We have to expand our range of abilities, whether it is through partnerships or by integrating the skills into our existing companies.

I feel that we also have to be able to offer more in the way of advice to help our clients. However, that does not mean that we should move away from the organization of events in order to focus more on consultancy, as I have heard some events professionals suggest. This, in my opinion, would be a grave error. Today, Publicis Events’ greatest strength, which explains why our customers keep coming to us for ever more complex solutions to their needs, is our ability to organize an event while keeping to the budget.

Neglecting the organizational side of the business would lead to us becoming consultants to a market in which we no longer operated. I am convinced that the quality of our advice would suffer dramatically.

BWMN: What are the current fashions in the events market? Are there certain kinds of events which are becoming more or less popular?

Stéphane Lecca: We are seeing fewer and fewer flashy events, which are being replaced by those which are more practical and meaningful. Interactive events which tell a story and which interest participants, responding to their needs and answering their questions, are also becoming more popular. I also find that nowadays, speakers tend to get to the point more quickly, and avoid any waffle or business-speak.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we are experiencing a trend towards events which are designed to motivate delegates and instill in them a sense of pride and belonging. Of course, in the post-financial crisis world this is a fundamental aim of many organizations.

www.publicisevents.com