I have just returned from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia working with Deloitte Touché, process mapping events for an international development bank.
It illustrates how many companies realise their events are the public face of the organisation and far too important to leave to day to day operational management. In this case the bank has numerous events in 56 countries and the divisions did it all their own way.
My job was to find the common system they used to deliver the events. One of the many problems was that one division did not share their event information with any other division.
This is perhaps the strongest trend in the events industry in the rapidly developing economies such as the Gulf countries. As the events grow in importance they are coming to the notice of the board and senior executives.
Of interest I was able to use the new Canadian International Competency Standard in Event Management to illustrate that event management is a professional methodology. I believe this new standard will have a large impact on the developing economies as they search for standards for all their professions.
Also my new books has just been released to the world!
Events Feasibility and Development (2011, Elsevier)
