Keep your eyes peeled for some last-minute brinksmanship and potential trade deals between the US and the rest of the world. You never know; this could all go away the way it started. The US and China seem to have agreed to a truce which might start the road to normalisation. Even in that scenario, the world outside the US has been warned; Uncle Sam doesn’t want to be your uncle anymore.

The United States' implementation of new trade tariffs on “Liberation Day” on April 2, 2025, has ignited widespread debate over its impact on international trade and the global tradeshow industry.

Trade tariffs are taxes placed on imported goods, driving their prices up and thus making them less competitive in domestic markets. As a result, nearly all international businesses exporting to the US are facing an instant decline in their local market competitiveness to varying degrees.

It was January 2015 when I took to the stage at the first UFI Global CEO Summit to discuss digital strategy in event businesses. A decade later, even though the world has changed drastically, the central premise holds true: Events businesses are handshakes businesses

…a key consensus from our panellists: the post-COVID revenue rebound is largely done (net sqm could tell another story, though). As a result, we anticipate a return to GDP growth plus a few percentage points as the baseline trajectory for the foreseeable future. That naturally means almost everyone will be looking to top that with inorganic growth, AKA acquisitions...

“...in 2012, the top 10 organisers represented around about 15-16% of the industry, and by the time you get to post-covid 10-11 years later, that's moved up to 29%, so compared to other industries like grocery supermarkets, that's still not very much, it's still very fragmented, but that's an incredible pace of change over ten years.”

Apple just unveiled their ski goggles for the super-rich: Apple Vision Pro, priced at $3499, to be available in early 2024. If you're done reading all the "Here's why you should be using ChatGPT for your event strategy" posts, you can now happily move on to "Here's why every event marketer needs a VR Strategy" posts. Happy days!

This digital checklist provides a range of questions that address the CEO's personal interaction with the digital systems and assets, the organizational structure and the management processes, and advanced technical questions to ask techies. CEOs can use the digital checklist to ensure the right KPIs are tracked for data and digital across their organization.

Lately, I've been approached by more than a few analysts acting on behalf of Private Equity firms looking at investing in B2B Event businesses.

The ease of achieving the four above mentioned business goals show an exponential difference in favour of Face-to-face versus a video call, whilst the marginal utility of a video call is somewhat questionable in comparison against an audio call.

Here’s an interview with me on the importance of Face-to-Face communication

The events industry has finally found its long-awaited burning platform. Whether it be conferences, tradeshows or hosted buyer events, Covid-19 is taking a devastating toll…

When I saw the press release I was both relieved (that we, people amongst event organisers who thought this would happen someday were right) and also curious on what exactly this meant for our business.

We're living in an always-on, always-connected world which we navigate with our smartphones and yet we give each other pieces of paper when we meet for business...

Look at that lonely peak and the emptiness that surrounds it above and make a wild guess what that is...Yes, you're right, that's the yearly web traffic for a B2B tradeshow. I showed this graph in a recent presentation I delivered at the Shanghai CEO Summit and sadly for our industry, no-one was shocked. (by the way, this actually is a real graph from one of our shows)

"What is digital?"
In a recent wave of presentations I've had the privilege of delivering around the globe, I defined "digital" as the new electricity. To us electricity is a natural part of how the world works. It's just there, it just works... Actually, without it nothing (except perhaps bicycles!) would work, yet we don't ever question its mere existence. (sort of a Matrix trilogy existential debate of man vs. machine)

It is unfortunately true that digital is confusing a lot of people in many industries, let alone the exhibitions and events industry. Thus a vacuum is created on what exactly to do about it, on how to handle digital transformation?

Last week I had the privilege to deliver the opening speech at the UFI Global CEO Forum. Among many other topics in my presentation, one seemed to become the new catch-phrase of the exhibitions industry: The Handshakes Business