The IAEH consults its members every year to understand their experiences and expectations, key areas of interest and to make sure the activities proposed remain relevant. This year, with the uncertainty of COVID-19 and its impact on events globally, the need to ensure the IAEH provides the right content, in the right format, is more important than ever.

Making the most of our opportunities to share information and best practice remotely is particularly important with the current restrictions on international travel, and survey results for 2020 showed that members have been making good use of the IAEH resources.  Quarterly Newsletters and Monthly Insights are the most used, followed by the content shared on the IAEH website. The IAEH Webinar Series, which was launched in 2019, has also presented good results and the feedback from members was that they would like to see this work continue.

The IAEH work is based on nine key areas. To choose the ones that are the most relevant in a specific period in time, the IAEH asks its members to select three key areas to be the focus for the knowledge sharing, networking and advocacy activities. This year members have requested a focus in three key areas:
• measuring social and economic benefits
• attracting visiting tourists
• hosting safely, securely and on budget.

These areas of focus are perhaps to be expected; economic recovery for many nations will include encouraging the return of international visitors.  These visitors, along with local participants, need to have confidence that an event is being safely delivered in all aspects.  The measurement of the value of events has been a key discussion point for the IAEH since its inception; the case for spending public money on events requires an accurate and broad measure of impact.  The Directors will now turn their attention to ensuring these points of focus are addressed through the next membership year.

The feedback on the group of directors’ work was positive and the group has the support of the majority of member organisations to continue acting to manage the IAEH’s daily activities. Comments included noting the experience and knowledge of the Directors, and their willingness to work on behalf of the association.

Members were also supportive of the IAEH’s plans for 2020-2021 and the budget was approved – the document with plans for the year ahead and budget planning is available on the Resources page for members only. Regarding the membership fee, 96% of those who responded agreed it should remain the same, noting it is reasonable value for a necessary consortium, and that it is more important now than ever before for event hosts to be able to share information.

---

The 2020 IAEH Members’ Survey also included a section on the impacts of COVID-19 to event hosts. The results of the COVID-19 related section will be explored in detail in a dedicated publication and fuller details of the findings of the survey are available for members only on the Resources page.