Business View Oceania | Volume 3, Issue 8

47 48 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 offices in Brisbane and Auckland. Ford mentions that business is also booming in New Zealand, through sister company Exhibitions and Events New Zealand. “Our largest exhibition by a longshot is the famous Auckland Home Show. That event covers 46,000 square metres of space and hosts as many as 600 exhibitors. It is by far the largest event of its kind in the entire Asia Pacific region.” Together, Ford’s companies attract up to 5,000 exhibitors and 300,000 visitors every year. Survey results suggest that the economic activity generated across both countries was upwards of 2 billion dollars prior to 2020. These figures have since changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Ford is confident that consumers are more eager than ever to attend events. Such a large and varied calendar does not come without significant challenges. Ford shares that outside influences such as the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, multiple devastating bushfire seasons, and the current COVID 19 pandemic are the most difficult for the industry to fight against, but can also yield great reward when combatted effectively. “It’s about identifying and creating an opportunity for ourselves and our clients to prosper, even from things that generate such a huge negative impact.” Speaking on COVID-19 in particular, Ford expresses her concern for the massive impact felt by the entire events industry and affirms Exhibitions and Events Australia’s determination to bounce back once the pandemic is brought under control. “COVID-19 has been our number one challenge. Any other challenges we might come across are only relevant if we can actually run events, so without our ability to do so, we simply don’t have a business. Another result of the pandemic is that a great many people have been listing, renovating and investing in their homes. Our exhibitors are actually busier than they have ever been and are obviously having supply issues with their products as well. They are barely able to meet the business they’ve got, let alone think about marketing their business further.” Exhibitions and Events Australia has a full- time staff of 40 split across four divisions. The engine of the company is their sales department, from which existing exhibitors are contacted and new exhibitors are sourced. Alongside Sales, the Marketing team work tirelessly to update and develop EEA’s branding, create event features, and market events through digital and traditional networks, including social media, television, print and radio. Once exhibitors are secured, Operations staff begin to pull the event together by liaising with exhibitors and suppliers, and managing technical and logistics details to successfully build and run events. At the end of the day, the Operations department keeps everything running smoothly. Finally, the Administration division manages accounts, EXHI B I T IONS AND EVENTS AUSTRAL I A