CEO Update: June 2024 Edition

Dear colleagues and members,

In recent weeks, at various industry events, I have had many conversations with UFI members from around the world, as well as colleagues from other event industry sectors. In many cases, we ended up discussing expectations of UFI and other industry associations. Specifically, questions around what members (whether businesses or individuals) expect to get in return for their membership fees. What is the “deal”, what are the expectations, and how can associations deliver on those expectations?

Essentially – and this is what we come to in many of these conversations – successful associations have moved from a transactional relationship between members and industry bodies to becoming the home or host of industry communities. This is a particular focus for our industry as events are meant to bring people together. While many businesses benefit from the information, data, research, educational services and branding that associations provide, the more successful associations grow faster because they benefit from active community members. These members challenge and support everyone who works for the association, which in turn shapes the way these associations work – moving from static multi-year plans to dynamic strategic frameworks.

As the saying goes, “no man is an island”, successive UFI Presidents over the past few years have stressed the call for you, the members of UFI, to actively participate in our activities and help shape the services that UFI provides to the industry. The UFI of today is not the same as the UFI of 3, 7 or 15 years ago – we have learned and trained to be more flexible in balancing regular activities (such as our events or Barometer studies) with actions and plans that respond to specific needs (most critical during the pandemic).

Everything (literally everything) that UFI does today is based on what you, our members, need to see as your own success. Granted, not everything can happen in a few weeks…some things take years, given the necessary priorities and limited resources that every organization faces, and UFI is no exception.

Today, the entire UFI team is focused on serving the industry. I often say that we ourselves are “service providers serving the service industry”. A year ago at IMEX in Frankfurt, there was a discussion about how “industry egos” were holding the industry back. This resonated with many parts of the events ecosystem, and – now that the year has passed in June – there have been calls for more collaboration, with some pointing to UFI as a great example of this. Let me take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for being a UFI member – thank you for your input into the work we are doing, both big and small.

This UFI Info is another update on what we do for you and for you. For those of you who will be traveling to Zurich: we will see you soon and don’t forget to tell us how we can better support you.

Sincerely,

Kai Hattendorf, CEO of UFI