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GL events and NOEA launch first Futures Forum White Paper

By 20/03/2017Company news

GL events and the National Outdoor Events Association (NOEA) have released the industry’s first ever White Paper concerned with the future of outdoor events. The Futures Forum White Paper was created following a meeting involving high profile members of the industry, who were asked to predict the trends that will shape its future.

Areas covered by the paper include the importance of the experience economy in pushing consumers outdoors, and the role of the industry in creating bespoke and tailored event products, across every public demographic, to accommodate this trend. The paper also reports on discussions concerning the increased role of businesses and brands in outdoor events, and the opportunities and threats they represent.

The report represents the beginning of an industry-wide discussion spurred by GL events as NOEA’s first Futures Supporter, and the Association’s desire to share market information and research that helps the industry plan for its own future. The report touches briefly on both event technology and secondary ticketing, with future discussions planned to delve even deeper into these areas.

“There is an amazing thirst for this sort of discussion and the resulting findings, and we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the amount of engagement we’re getting from the industry at such an early stage,” commented Rachel Baker, UK Group Marketing Manager at GL events. “We see our role in the industry as supporting the associations that are concerned with its development; how we prepare for the future and how we shape it for ourselves.”

The Future’s Forum will reconvene throughout 2017 and into 2018, when it will address other areas of the industry’s future, from globalisation to the importance of entrepreneurialism, to the role of cities and destinations in accommodating outdoor events.

“The Futures Forum and the new Futures Forum White Paper are all intended to begin a discussion within outdoor events that allows us to gather as much information and opinion as possible, and then share it with the rest of the industry,” commented Andy Grove, Interim President, NOEA. “These are important topics that the industry needs to discuss, and we’re thankful to GL events for allowing us the resource to have these discussions.”

Download your copy here.