Thank you to all who have supported and contributed to The Iceberg movement. It has been an utter privilege to serve you and the communications sector you represent.
I hope you share the view that our efforts in curating and co-creating the storytelling of the sector have moved the needle regards the understanding, and the narrative, of business and professional events as catalysts for social, societal, and economic transformation – because the time has come to renew The Iceberg Partnerships as we offer to maintain and evolve efforts to promote and defend the sector on behalf of you all.
I believe that for The Iceberg to maintain momentum as a shared repository for storytelling – providing resources to illustrate the impacts and legacies of events to policymakers and their community investors – it is essential that our partners and their leaders in the sector verticals (association meetings, corporate events, and trade fairs especially) sign up to this collective effort alongside our destination, publisher, venue, ambassador, PCO, sustainability, consulting, and other supply chain partners and communities.
As one global industry association leader commented to me when discussing the need for such a repository; “It’s when the sun shines, James, that it’s time to invest in an umbrella and that is what you are providing – by all of us, for all of us with no preference or favour given”.
Given the pandemic, escalating climate crisis, negative footprint of business events, the inflationary and recessionary pressures aside from the war in Europe, I believe we will need to fight our corner as a solution provider harder than ever in the coming years.
Critically, we must arm ourselves with the tools and frameworks to illustrate the data and storytelling that align our communications sector to the social, economic, and sustainable development agendas of our destination investors and business & professional user communities. The carbon footprint of our sector is the largest elephant in the room, presenting an existential challenge. To achieve a shared promotion, and defence, will require far greater collaboration between the organisations and the destinations hosting them – as was beautifully illustrated by Alessandro Cortese of ESTRO and David Noack from Madrid, and endorsed by Genevieve Leclerc of #Meet4Impact at the BestCities Global Forum in December..
This will require a collaborative approach – one illustrated by the investments by partners such as the Copenhagen Legacy Lab, Meet Denmark Study, UTS Sydney’s Legacies of Business Events Study and publication of The Power of Conferences, the work of MMGY and the GainingEdge intellectual capital index, the Impact Measurement Framework from #Meet4Impact, and the GDS Movement.
This requires many voices – but one consistent message that business and professional events are critical to the solutions required to the challenges facing societies and articulated through the 17 UNSDG Goals and Targets.
To speak effectively to governments and policymakers we must first speak a common language, and second illustrate that the sector is a solution provider to their own social challenges and growth agendas.
Both the IMEX Policy Forum and the NetZeroCarbonEvents industry collaboration with the UNFCCC illustrated that the sector is capable of speaking collectively, but we must engage the users, owners, and beneficiaries of events in the narrative we share in order to illustrate value creation through the UNSDGs, rather than value consumption of our supply chains and the visitor economy alone. To this end, The Iceberg is open and inclusive to any and everyone involved in promoting the sector and the legacies of events.
We are simply the curators of your collective story within a shared repository.
Some upgrades to The Iceberg for you:
I am already in advanced discussion with various partners to use this 2023/2024 edition as a platform for 4 key initiatives which will advance The Iceberg mission to position events at the epicentre of positive change:
We will continue selecting the best of the best from our partners and ambassador newsletters and social posts and curating a ‘Producer’s Pick’ with the continued additional links to partner events, newsletters, and education as normal.
I want to end by applauding the work of all The Iceberg partners and ambassadors who have helped to shape the new narrative of our sector. I also want to thank the team who have delivered 4 years of dedication to transforming the narrative of the business and professional events sector and also to welcome a new face to The Iceberg family, the much loved and respected former CIM editor Katrin (Kate) Schmitt who will be reporting, on-demand, for The Iceberg from 2023 onwards. I would also like to take the opportunity to say a special “thank you” to Curator-in Chief, Robert Coren, for his unstinted dedication to The Iceberg cause and the creation of 100 editions of Business Events World – thank you so much Robert who will continue to support these shorter-form newscasts and newsletters featuring the best of the partner contributions.
More on these programs next year as they evolve!
Please confirm your partnership or ambassadorship for 2023 and 2024 no later than 30th November to Jen Tobitt admin@the-iceberg.org who will oversee your Iceberg profile at www.the-iceberg.org. If there is anything that you would like to discuss about your partnership, please contact me at james@frederation.com or +44(0)7836-741333.
Please also view below a few links to my ‘Producer’s Video Picks’ including the Global Industry Manifesto and some key interviews from industry leaders over the past edition of The Iceberg.
I look forward to welcoming you all to the 2023/24 edition of The Iceberg on behalf of the entire business and professional events sector.
The Iceberg and Business Events World are facilitated by The Fred Production Company Ltd.
* All partner organisations receive minimum x1 Ambassador profile plus inclusion of monthly newsletters, events, research, and educational offers within the appropriate sections of The Iceberg. These partner assets to be shared via Business Events World, The Iceberg newsletter, for all partners and ambassadors to share via their own distribution.
** Global industry associations may realise partnership by securing equivalent number of Ambassadors from within their members.
*** One event per partner can be reviewed, in video, subject to reporter hosting and video editing / reporting costs being met by the partner.
Send your application to partner to admin@the-iceberg.org
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Producer’s Picks |
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