LITTLE LEHMAN LETTERS

AUGUST 2009

I hope this finds you well!

I arrived at the recent Leaders Conference in Chicago with a bit of a cold and arrived home, after 2 long haul flights with the flu and only worked part time for the rest of the week.
After the first day of the Conference lead by Kathy Deluca we had a great networking dinner.
One of the highlights of the second day, was the mock Board meeting for the ISES Gotham City Chapter run by Mark Thorsby. Each Board member had a role to play and the “Board” was surrounded by “Observers” who had to comment on the behavior of the Board. My role was to agree with everything the Chairman said and when it was time for my “Observers” to comment, I was told to be more myself and not just the Chairman’s best friend.
After the meeting I had time to ask the delegates how the world was treating them and here are the bullet points I noted.

  • The workplace is less frightening – more positive than negative.
  • Canada is creating a coalition of Industry Representatives from within their Chapter members
  • The Business Events industry is developing across the globe
  • Revenue is strong and more importance is being put on ROI (Return on investment)
  • There is less fluff involved in the events being produced
  • Corporations are paying cancellation fees rather than being seen as extravagant by staging events
  • Money is being spent by corporations in order not to be seen that they are spending money
  • Partnerships are being formed between smaller operations and pooling their collective resources
  • Budgets are remaining the same but clients are wanting to be less obvious
  • Clients are reducing their travel expenses and staying domestically within their own regions
  • There is a growing importance on ‘greening’ accountability
  • In-house catering is on the increase
  • Pharmaceutical/medical companies are being more careful with their expenditure
  • Business certification is becoming more important
  • Things seem to be getting better
  • Team building and moral boosting is growing in importance
  • Refocusing is happening

Overall, I thought all of these things are showing that the ISES Industry is strong and resilient and it has been a great experience working with the 4 US RVPs and the Affiliates in Austalasia, EMEA and Canada and the Board of Governors through President Elect, Kathy DeLuca.

From last weekend the Australian College of Event Management held its 2009 Conference on the Queensland Gold Coast, it was well attended and supported by the ISES Sydney Chapter.
For me the highlight was a presentation by Ian Kiernan, Chairman of Clean Up Australia and Chairman of Clean Up The World. He has recently been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of New South Wales and had come to the conclusion that if you had a doctorate then you should have done a thesis and in his opinion, each thesis should include an equation. So his equation is E=1 or – the Environment is equal to Number 1.

I trust that everyone has started to pack their bags for Eventworld in San Francisco from the 4th August.
see you there.
Glen

__________________________________
Glen Lehman
CSEP
AFMEA
Chair ISES International Relations Committee
Director, Australian Performance Fund

Managing Director
Lehman & Associates
 L 1  645 Harris Street
Ultimo  Sydney 2007
t    9281 2555
f    9281 1563
m  0408 461 973
e   glen@lehman.com.au
w   www.lehman.com.au