Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome back to Eventful Encounters, the podcast where we sit down with the people shaping our industry, the organisers, the innovators and the ones quietly building off it building the infrastructure the rest of us rely on every day.
Speaker: Today's guest fits into that last description perfectly. In December last year, Matt Stalker stepped into one of the most influential roles in the association events world, becoming the new executive director of Abco, succeeding Heather Lishman as she moved on to retirement.
Speaker: Matt brings over 20 years of experience in the professional body sector. professional body sector. He now is now six months in and we're going to talk about those first six months. What's new for ABCO and why associations like this matter more than ever to people in our industry. So welcome Matt to the podcast. Thank you for having me.
Speaker: That's all right. So let's get started. What first drew you to the ABCO role after two years in kind of two years, two decades in professional bodies? So I'd been working in an in-house role, as you say, for just over 20 years. And you hit a point where you think, if I don't do something new pretty soon, I'm going to doing this forever. And whilst I was very happy doing what I was doing, it felt time to...
Speaker: explore other options for various reasons and this just was the perfect timing I saw it come up on I think it was LinkedIn as a job had a chat with the agency that was working on it and as I got through the process in terms of the interview process and met the board members and met some of the members um got a really really good feel about the organisation yeah um So I threw my hat in the ring, um first face-to-face job interviews for best part of two decades, which was interesting. That must have been daunting. Yeah, I've been on the other side of the table plenty of times, but not being interviewed. um
Speaker: And I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity. Amazing. saying So what surprised you most in those first few weeks? Was it meeting the co-chairs, the exec team, industry partners? It was a real...
Speaker: baptism fire if you like because Heather who had been in post for 15-16 years, yeah um by the time I'd worked my notice period out with my other employer, we had about two weeks to try and do a handover and that was two weeks building up to one of APCO's big events, the Excellence Awards last December. So we had a really, really tight turnaround time to try and get as much out of Heather's notebooks and her mind as possible and she was fantastic in terms of the support there. um And then I was right into it at the event. And the thing that probably struck me straight away was how warm and supportive and friendly that community is, not just to me, and everybody has been great to me, but to each other. yeah Because in some ways, there is an element of competition in that membership community. and If I take my event to one venue, I can't take it to the other. If I work with one agency, I can't work with another agency. But everybody is super supportive. Yeah.
Speaker: they are all going through the same challenges, working through the same issues, if you like, in different ways. But everybody's been so supportive of each other. And you see that at all of the events we run, the big ones, the small ones. um We ran our Festival of Learning in April. And one of the people that came said to me afterwards, and she was there for the first time, she said, I didn't really know what to expect. But i came away and I'd made friends. And it's a really, really friendly event.
Speaker: It is a friendly group, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely agreed. So of everything that you've kind of touched on so far, the dietary requirements toolkit, the beam family trip guidance, new members joining, what are you most proudest of at this moment in time?
Speaker: It's really nice to see the guidance work our groups have been doing come to fruition. So you mentioned a few things there. So I can't claim any involvement because this was all rolling before I joined.
Speaker: But being able to go to our own event and share that guidance on neuro-inclusivity, on dietary best practice, really, really important things that the event sector has to get right. yet And actually being able to say, look, here is a guide on how you can do it and do it well.
Speaker: And I know you as a venue have taken on board the neurodiversity toolkit. Yes, we have. Gold standard. Gold standard and the first in the world. But helping people with that and then showcasing our own events. So it's not just a case of then saying, OK, we've come up with this dietary guidance on how to do it really, really well.
Speaker: That's one thing. But then to actually roll it out at our own events. Because we've got to practice what we do. Yeah, exactly. So doing things like that. really really helps and I think people recognise when it's got the ABCO brand on it you know there's a quality to it there's a peer review element to that it's not just one individual or one company saying hey we've decided how this has come together it's the community coming together feeding in and coming up with something that can be used well across the world and one as we've over seen the uptake of these standards all over the world international interest and try to do more things of that nature to support the community really
Speaker: amazing and what do you think the hardest thing to get right has been? That's good question. The breadth of what we're trying to do um just understanding how all the different pieces come together. yeah For me, it's about wanting to grow the organisation. That's what I've been brought in to do.
Speaker: We want to grow the organisation, but we don't want to lose that sense of community. It's not about chasing numbers. We're not interested in just member acquisition for the sake of member acquisition. We hope that will happen by offering a really, really good value proposition for our members.
Speaker: But trying to get that balance of all the different things we're trying to do with a small team, um So there's not only one major made major challenge in that sense, it's just been the breadth of we're trying to do over the last almost eight months now.
Speaker: Has it been eight months now? Almost eight months. Look at me, it's only six months. and So how have you balanced listening and understanding the membership first against wanting to make kind of a really quick early impact and get those quick wins in?
Speaker: So there's been lots of opportunities to listen to members, whether it's on a one-to-one basis where, you know, Teams call is going to see them in person, whether it's at the big events, whether it's our monthly coffee and chats that we have online with our members. So there's various different channels where I've been able to do that. And that's been really useful, really helpful. Because we serve such a diverse membership, we've got everything from the events student currently at university right through some super experienced professionals across to venues across to agencies across to our allied members and everything in between so we're trying to serve such a diverse community listening has been really important um rushing into trying to reinvent the wheel. A lot of what I've done probably in the first six, seven months have been what we've referred to as fixing some of the plumbing, the unseen stuff behind the scenes that make sure ABCO is running properly. and
Speaker: There have been lots of processes we've been putting in place and ensuring the structure in place for the organisation to grow. So we've deliberately not um been too proactive proactive in trying to change everything.
Speaker: yeah learning what works is most important starting see a few things differently now. It's really starting to around grow our programme of CPD for our members. and But the first six months or so it has all been about learning how the organisation currently works, learning what the members want and think of what we currently do before rushing in to make change. it would be a big mistake to come in and think, I know best, we're to it my way or a different way. Learn how what works now. What doesn't work as well, there's anything that's not quite as it should be. um And then start to make those improvements.
Speaker: Interesting. So we look forward to seeing what improvements you make. So you've talked about building kind of a brighter future for ABCO. um What does that actually look like after the next over the next kind of one to three years, maybe?
Speaker: So we've got a big piece of work to improve the member value proposition, I think. And it's about understanding each of those different groups because going back to that breadth, what the student member wants is going to be quite different to what the young professional wants, which is going be quite different to what the super experienced professional wants, is going be quite different, again, to what the industry partners and industry members want. yeah So understanding each of those different communities, recognising that Not everything will we do will be for everybody. So we do have our big events where we bring the whole community together, and that's really important. But a lot of our smaller events, whether it's roundtables, training, workshops, webinars, they'll probably only appeal to a subset of our community.
Speaker: But we'll do enough of them to make sure there is something for everybody. So we're really trying scale up that provision, getting to a point really where every month we're trying to make sure there's a roundtable, there's a webinar, there's a training course of some sort, and there should be something for everybody in that mix. Because some of the topics we cover are universal, but some of them are very, very particular. We've done some training on the ABPI code. Now, i have to have admit, I didn't know what the ABPI code was before I joined Abco. um
Speaker: And for people who are listening, it needs to be something people are nodding their head at, going, oh, yes, it's really, really important. Or, yeah, that's not me. it's It's all to do with if you're running events in the pharmaceutical space. if you're not in that space but frankly it's not for you but if you are in that space Boy, is it really important. So it's recognising that some things we do will be very important to small groups of our membership, others will be very important to large groups. yeah And trying to support all of our members with their needs and understand what those needs are.
Speaker: And how do you see kind of Abco's position relative to other bodies like the MIA, BEAM, kind of AEIA? A-I-E-A, I always get that one wrong. Yeah, we try and work together where we can. We've all got a unique value proposition to a particular community. So anybody who doesn't know about ABCO, we are exclusively focused on the association and not-for-profit events community. So we're not in the festivals, we're not in the weddings, we're not in the corporate space. Some of our members might work there, but we are primarily, or exclusively, should say, focused on association and not-for-profit sector. So there are...
Speaker: pan industry issues we can work with those associations you mentioned on and we do come together yeah we're going to try and do everything ourselves we're not big enough um it's not right for us to try and do everything ourselves so where we've got um areas of common interest we come together where we've got areas of our own expertise, we tend to lead on that, and then others lead on their areas expertise. But we seem to find that everybody has got their own unique space within the bigger event space. Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned there that community growth is kind of a key focus, and you've had a lot of new venues like the Crownflowers and Newcastle join recently.
Speaker: What kind of pitch are you making towards venues and PCOs who are not yet members? So I think for venues, it is about helping them connect with people who might bring them businesses yeah direct about it, it's about helping you grow your business as a venue and we can put you in a room virtually or physically with people that run events, association and not-for-profit events. And also of course by being an APCO member um it's assigned to that community that you understand that community as well. So for venues, it is primarily about helping you develop your staff, but also primarily develop your business. For the individuals, it's about skills development. It's about finding a community that is your community. yeah um What I have found is that a lot of people have told me since I started, oh, the events community, everybody knows each other.
Speaker: I don't actually think that's as true as... people might think. Not not not in every setting not every space. So venues, I get the feeling that is very well connected. Agencies, I think, very well connected. Having spent my whole career in an in-house role,
Speaker: I simply don't think that's the case. Some of us, when we're in that in-house space, you're so deep in your sector, you're so deep within your association, you don't actually get a lot of time to come up and meet your peers doing the same job in a different sector. You don't get to go to other people's events. So that bit um of the the sector, and that's a really, really important bit for ABCO, if you like, and I think there's a lot more we can do there. um One of the big challenges for me is making sure those people know we exist in the first instance. yeah Because until they know we exist, they're not going to engage with us. Until they engage with us, they won't consider joining us. So I was talking to head of events, a very well-established
Speaker: professional body last week who didn't know we existed before we started the call very positive after the call and the great thing about abco is we have a fantastic member retention rate once people come and engage with us yeah we don't lose many people the challenge for abco is making sure people know we exist and come and have a look at us don't mean necessarily join straight away if you do that's great we love that but often it's case of come along to one of our webinars come along to one of our events see what we're about and everybody i've seen so far has come away going yeah this is my community these people get me because whether you're running events for surgeons or engineers or scientists
Speaker: the principles of trying to run really high quality events and conferences are very similar. And when you can come together and share your pain, as it often is, and share your successes as well, and that's even better, um you can do that in a non-competitive space. Because if I'm running events for surgeons and you're running events for surgeons,
Speaker: scientists we can share what works we're not with each other we're not competing at all so it's a really nice community in that sense so trying to help people out of their their deep industry role where they're so deep within their own organization they don't come up and learn from others that's a big part of what we can try and do share best practice um help people develop their skills we know from previous guests so many people fall into events rather than have that formal training absolutely um i was one of them so we all end up with this
Speaker: um uneven skill set coming in because we haven't got that base level of training. So one of the things that APCO can do is help plug some of those gaps um because it's not consistent. yeah know My background might be different to your background and that might be different to the next person's background. We've all ended up in events. Between us, we've probably got all bases covered. But between us, we've also probably all got individual gaps. yeah and So trying to bring that community together, that's really what APCO is all about.
Speaker: I think you've summed it up perfectly there. So how do you see Abco's role in raising standards across the wider events industry? So we certainly celebrate excellence and high standards through things like our awards events, through our various conferences where people are encouraged to share successes and trying to make that good practice common practice. So if we're doing something really well over here, how can you take that and do it over there? So we try and create those case studies, those examples for people to learn from each other. And of course, there is also a standard, you know, from an ABCO perspective to join ABCO. There is a peer review element. We don't just let anybody into the club. So simply having that ABCO membership badge is one way of demonstrating competence and commitment to the sector. and
Speaker: But for us, a big part of what we do is try to showcase really good stuff um because, like i said, it is so transferable across the sector. Absolutely. So what's one thing you want people in the sector to know about ABCO right now?
Speaker: If you're not already part of ABCO, you're not you've not already engaged with us, come and have a look. Whether that's come to an event, come to our website, come and see what we're about because, like i said,
Speaker: People stick with us. They realise this is their community. If you're in that not-for-profit and association event space, there's nothing else quite like this. It's an opportunity to meet and learn connect with people doing things very similar to you. And it's a great way of...
Speaker: sharing, sharing what has worked and what hasn't worked and what you can learn from. I know, having not been a member of ABCO prior to being appointed the Executive Director, there are things i have learned already in the last seven or eight months that, boy, I wish I'd known them a few years ago because i would been applying those to the events that I was running. yeah So you will learn something, your events will improve by being part of ABCO. So come and have a look, see what we're about.
Speaker: Matt, thank you so much for joining me today. It's clear that ABCO is in the middle of an exciting chapter and it's been great to hear that first hand from you. and For anyone listening who wants to find out more about ABCO membership, upcoming events like the Festival of Learning or just want to get in touch with Matt directly, we'll kind of follow put your details in the show notes. Thank you for listening and as always, stay up to date with all things Eventful Encounters, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Speaker: Thanks!
