You’ve all heard of “entreprises à missions” (companies with a mission beyond just profit) that the Pacte Act will enshrine by modifying the French Civil Code. Some are discussing the relevance of the subject, yet in reality, the more an organisation has a social impact, the greater its potential value for its customers, shareholders, employees and for the whole of society.

For our profession, it is a huge news, because our entire profession has a mission to create value with a capital V:

First of all, human value: the events industry creates relationships so groups of individuals can come together; events are a place for discussion,  impromptu events, serendipity, all of which make life so wonderful. Before we create financial or intangible capital, we are the creators of relational capital.

The world is becoming digital, of course, but digital technology has become powerful precisely because it serves to boost this relationship economy. The second Value created by the event is, therefore, web content. What else do we put on social media apart from parties, holidays, spectacular things? This is true for everyone, and even more so for companies or institutions whose non-event posts would be mere advertising or even spam. The event is web content, otherwise, without us, the Internet would be a database like Ceefax from the 1980s!

Influencers, these new stars that companies want to seduce, are eager for our events to showcase their editorial content, and in turn give added value to our profession through the new visibility that this provides.

In less than 5 years, new Marketing in sectors of luxury, sport, technological products, fashion, interior design, etc., has gone from producing advertisements broadcast on mass media to producing events promoted by influencers and specialised media. The Value of Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn owes a lot to us!

It is also very surprising to see, after years of focus on e-commerce, the return of trade geared towards point-of-sale events. Pop-up stores and retailtainment are the new martingales of value creation in distribution; so many playgrounds to be developed for events professionals.

In addition to consumer products, the event is obviously at the heart of B-to-B relations: the fairs of the middle ages have turned into shows with world-renowned brands (SIAL, CES, Mobile World Congress), festivals that structure markets (film festival in Cannes, contemporary art at Fiac, etc.). We can see the proliferation of major hybrid events such as South by South West at Austin in Texas, which are accelerators of interdisciplinary porosity, which create immense value by breaking down the barriers between creation, art, technology, distribution, and all the major topics such as health, food, finance, etc., in short: augmented moments of life.

The cities, regions or countries hosting these events have grasped the potential in terms of attractiveness, to bring in tourists, attract students to universities, promote research centres, incite managers to settle with their families, generating a virtuous economic and social circle. The city of Austin has doubled its population in 15 years and is already seeing itself as the next San Francisco.

At national level, we all have in mind world exhibitions, the Olympic Games, as well as major summits such as the G7. France has many advantages in terms of destination, functionality and image, and above all, it has tremendous expertise in events.

We willingly accept our mission to create value for others. We are so lucky to do this job!

Find issue 34 of Tendance Nomad via this link.