Column for Conference News - Feb 2021
Callum McLean, HBAA Membership Director and also Capita Travel and Events’ Director of Business Partnerships, talks about the association’s board restructure and plans for supporting members and the wider industry in 2021.
As we continue to navigate this era of disruption and move towards the recovery phase, being part of a stronger, united community is critical to survive and thrive. And the HBAA’s role, as the association for the meetings, events and accommodation industry, has never been more vital.
When Covid hit, our initial annual plans were put on hold. We moved into survival mode with our members to support their urgent, short-term needs, and collaborated further across the industry, particularly on advocacy.
Engagement with our members has continued to be key. For example, we ran regular pulse checks to understand how we could help them in an ever-changing environment and provided advice and guidance on a vast scale. We lobbied the government on many issues, including calling for furlough extensions, VAT cuts, financial support and grants to re-skill and re-equip our people.
Our longer-term vision, set out last year, was to become #HBAAFutureFit. This was about ensuring our association is robust, relevant, resilient and fit for purpose for members and the industry as a whole going forwards. We also wanted to be a platform for those underrepresented in the sector and to deliver support for non-members too.
We have now defined clear objectives that will heighten our industry contribution and position us as an industry leader by providing insights and championing change.
Last year we stripped back the organisation to its foundations to look at who we are and what we represent for our members. A year of change and restructuring was ahead. We did not know the devastating effects Covid would have at this point, but it has made our drive to be FutureFit all the more pertinent.
An in-depth review of our structure revealed that we weren't broad enough as a board to support our membership completely and the longer terms plans of the association, especially as we’re all volunteers with busy day jobs and teams to lead. Membership was continuing to grow throughout 2020 – people needed support and more guidance– so it was only right to push ahead with our plans.
As 2020 progressed, like all businesses, we've had to review inwards, as well as supporting outwards. As part of the process, we conducted a thorough analysis of what skills we require from a board to lead the association and also reviewed what our members needed.
This has now resulted in doubling the board’s size to bring in more leaders with specialist expertise from a diverse cross-section of the industry to better reflect our members' needs and interests.
The new volunteer board has seven roles, including three new ones, plus two consultant executive directors. As well as the treasurer there are directors for marketing, membership, governance and strategy. In addition, we now have advisors for specific roles to broaden our expertise and we will continue to review and expand the structure as needs require.
The role of association Chair has been discontinued along with the executive committee and sub-committees. This decision will enable us to take a much more strategic and agile approach, with the launch of action groups for key projects and initiatives.
However, HBAA has always been an organisation that welcomes members who wish to play active roles and, through various focuses and activities, this will continue within this new structure.
Our vision is now: “Driven by leaders, united by collaboration and a significant contributor to an industry which delivers £70bn* spend into the UK economy.” HBAA will be all about spearheading representation to government and policymakers, elevating a sector voice, and championing change and sustainable economic health.
Taking this forward, as the new board settled into our respective roles at the end of last year, we established a future strategy framework, based on four pillars: resilience, innovation, ethics, and quality. These will underpin everything that we do.
With resilience, for example, we are committed to ensuring our members are best placed to adapt and grow. We need to manage the impact of Covid, Brexit, trade overseas and any other major business issues on the horizon. It’s about supporting our members to build and bounce back better and balanced.
People have been hugely impacted by Covid-19 and this will be a significant focus for the HBAA in 2021. And when we talk about people, there are several strands to this. Firstly, mental health and how we support people will be very important to the future success of our businesses. HBAA has been championing the importance of mental health for several years and we will expand our training courses to offer more support on mental health and wellbeing in the coming months. This has also been elevated by our recent announcement of a new partnership with Eventwell and also continuing to support Buses4Homeless.
The second strand to people is the huge talent shortage we now face as a sector. Sadly, a large amount of highly talented people in the industry have been lost to redundancies and this must be tackled. Thirdly, the digital disruption of our industry, with the emergence of virtual and hybrid events, means there are skills and knowledge gaps, so training and education will be crucial to move forward.
Confidence needs to be restored, too, particularly among our corporate customers. It is our duty to show how venues and events can be made Covid-safe for when restrictions are lifted. For instance, to help members be ready for the return of live events and build confidence among their customers we are now offering training for Covid Secure meetings and events.
In our research, one of the main things our members really needed was a voice – a strong and collaborative voice. What will continue in 2021, and will be welcomed, are associations working together in collaboration to join forces to put weight behind campaigns and key initiatives and ensuring the roadmap of recovery is united and clear for all members, regardless of which association they are a member of. After all, we are one family. The collaboration between associations in 2020 was very much unprecedented. Agendas were put aside, as they should be, and we welcome the continuation of this approach across the industry.
It’s about coming back stronger, it’s about coming back better, and that means we need to work smarter – not necessarily harder. This is about the survival of an industry and we need to stand tall together.
