Dominique Schwarts
President ACEA

Association of Communication Event Agencies
www.aceaweb.be

Let me start with the definition of Event Communication: it is a communication discipline that generates direct interaction with targeted audiences through event techniques without using the media. The event itself is the communicator and also a marketing tool that is used to touch a certain audience at a defined venue.

It goes without saying that our sector has also been touched severely by the crisis. We see redundancies – sometimes even up to 50% of the staff! -, and we also see a definite tendency to stay in Belgium with the events. There is also an increased ‘sales’ activity where the owner or manager of the agency will increase his direct contact efforts where in the past these contacts were maybe left to an employee.
Multi-day events are mostly reduced to 1-day events as lodging has become a luxury costs.

All in all companies still have to communicate with target audiences but will want to be seen to do this in a budget conscious way as most of the time they have asked their staff to make sacrifices as well.
The briefing today is clear: no ostentatious luxury, this means simpler venues, simpler food and simpler accessories. Where in the past a welcoming team of hostesses would welcome guests, today it will probably be the staff of the client who will handle the welcoming of guests. ‘Sober’ is definitely a word we hear a lot these days!
We are looking currently at reductions in budgets of about 30%, much more is not possible because then an event becomes a non-event.

Although the competition between agencies is stiff as the clients are shopping more, the clients still have a tendency to stay with their preferred agency, which at least is good news!
On the whole we are rather optimistic about next year although we are convinced that the “budget conscious” conditions will probably still continue. Why do we say this? Simple: advertising is not only expensive but also does not guarantee that the targeted audience is reached. Communication Events however, reach not only a targeted audience but also ensure that the message is loud and clear. Therefore we are confident that even with lesser budgets, events will continue.