ESSA Calls for a More Meaningful Approach to Industry Partnership

The exhibition industry may be comfortable with the language of partnership, but the Event Supplier and Services Association (ESSA) is calling for greater attention to what that relationship means in practice.

The UK trade association’s intervention follows discussions at the IFES World Summit in Munich earlier this summer, where the relationship between suppliers and service providers, venues, organisers and exhibitors came under scrutiny. A suggestion that suppliers and service providers might be better described as “partners” prompted ESSA CEO Andrew Harrison to make a broader point about how the supply chain is treated across the industry.

“The supply chain is not asking to be called a partner. It is asking to be treated like one.”

For ESSA, that means bringing suppliers into discussions early enough to influence operational decisions, listening to their experience and considering the implications of those decisions for the people responsible for delivering an event.

The association points in particular to build and break schedules, venue access and tenancy arrangements. These can have a direct impact on workforce wellbeing and operational delivery, yet suppliers may only be consulted once key parameters have already been established.

“Respect, understanding, being included early enough to influence decisions and being listened to when those decisions affect how work is delivered matter far more than changing the label,” Harrison says.

The issue also extends to the role of the supply chain in shaping the exhibition experience itself. Once an exhibitor has committed to an event, many of the decisions around venue and associated services may already be fixed. Suppliers and service providers are then responsible for translating those decisions into the physical environment encountered by exhibitors and visitors.

ESSA argues that this contribution should be reflected in the way the supply chain is involved in the planning process.

“We are a creative industry,” says Harrison. “If we continue flattening exhibition environments into standardised, off-the-shelf solutions, we risk losing some of what makes live events valuable in the first place.”

Shorter tenancy periods, greater standardisation and commercially driven operating models are among the pressures Harrison identifies as potentially limiting that creative contribution. At the same time, he points to the investment being made by suppliers and industry associations to improve standards across the sector.

This includes work around sustainability and carbon measurement, reusable systems, health and safety, accreditation, training and skills development.

“These improvements have not happened because somebody came up with a better name for the supply chain,” Harrison says. “They have happened because businesses and industry associations have invested time, money and effort in raising standards.”

For ESSA, those investments provide a more tangible measure of partnership than terminology. The association is not suggesting that collaboration across the exhibition industry is absent; rather, it is calling for greater consistency between the language used to describe relationships and the way those relationships operate.

That could mean reconsidering a tenancy window when the proposed schedule creates unnecessary pressure on the workforce, adapting access procedures where operational experience suggests a better approach, or involving suppliers before plans become difficult to change.

“Partnership is not something any organisation can simply declare,” Harrison says. “It is something other people recognise through the way they are consulted, included and treated – particularly when time is tight, pressure is high and the easiest commercial decision is not necessarily the right one.”

The intervention comes as exhibition organisers, venues and suppliers continue to navigate pressures around costs, sustainability, skills and workforce conditions. Against that backdrop, ESSA’s argument is that the supply chain should be involved not simply as a delivery function, but as an experienced stakeholder in decisions that determine how an event is ultimately delivered.

“There is plenty of good work already happening across our industry and plenty we can build on,” Harrison says. “But we should also be prepared to acknowledge where the gaps remain.”

His conclusion returns to the terminology that prompted the discussion in Munich.
 

Read Andrew Harrison’s full statement in full below:

Call Us “Partner” — Just Show Us You Mean It

"We use the word “partner” a lot in our industry. It appears in presentations, proposals and panel discussions. But what does it actually mean? At the IFES World Summit in Munich earlier this summer, a discussion about the relationship between suppliers and service providers, venues, organisers and exhibitors brought that question into sharp focus.

At one point, the idea was floated that suppliers and service providers should be renamed “partners”. The response from one service provider on stage was refreshingly simple: the label did not matter nearly as much as the meaning behind it.

I agree. The supply chain is not asking to be called a partner. It is asking to be treated like one. That means being involved early enough to influence decisions, rather than being brought in once plans are effectively irreversible. It means fairer build and break schedules, sensible access arrangements and a willingness to listen when operational experience says something needs to change.

It also means recognising the role the supply chain plays in the product itself. We are a creative industry. The businesses designing, building and delivering exhibition environments are not a bolt-on at the end of the process. They help create the experience exhibitors buy into and visitors come to see.

Across our sector, suppliers and service providers have already invested heavily in raising standards around sustainability, carbon measurement, reusable systems, health and safety, accreditation, training and skills. None of that required a rebrand. It required people doing the work.

There is plenty of good collaboration happening across exhibitions, and no stakeholder group has a monopoly on getting things right. But partnership cannot simply be declared in a presentation or printed on a badge. It is something people recognise through the way they are consulted, included and treated, particularly when the pressure is on.

Call us “Partner” if you like. Just show us you mean it."

Andrew Harrison
CEO, Event Supplier and Services Association (ESSA)
 

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