The Digital Pivot’s Trojan Horse

What I love the most about what you've highlighted, Adam, in our offline conversations, is that you wanted to build a Trojan horse, right? Tell us a little bit more about it, because I think this kind of highlights the key, the good that has to come about this. And so the Trojan horse, investing in the long term, the rebooks, and how does that all fit together in that context?

My view is that kind of like the reason that I got excited about it, to understand what our Trojans. From the Trojan horse perspective, what I was really looking at is how do we basically load the dice, right? How do we load the dice so that when those business development managers and marketing managers, who are the ones that are responsible for kind of saying, actually, we want to invest in your event next year, are kind of putting us at the top of the pile, you know, that that's. That was what I was looking for in that Trojan horse. But the key element really is kind of like, why. Why did we think. Why did we think that the event was going to do that and why, Crucially, it was almost. It was more a sense of like, what would happen if we didn't do this? That was my kind of underlying fear. It was like, if we didn't build a studio and we did just broadcast live from our bedrooms, as it were, we were just going to look like everyone else. And I mean that with the greatest respect, because there are some awesome, incredible events that are doing just that. But in our space, in the renewable space, we're fortunate to be in a growth market, right? And there's a lot of competition coming in there. From what I would describe as traditional conference and events organizers who can produce an event, as I say, far more effectively than we can in many respects. But I think what we had was we had an edge on creativity, we had an edge on being able to do something different. And my sense was that if we didn't do this, we would just become another line item in a budget, as it were. And, you know, someone's asked on the, on the. On the. On the Q and A, what's the structure of our business? I think that's kind of important to understand as well, because that plays into that Trojan horse. We're a team of 25. The Tamarindo group has kind of like three core divisions, right? So it's got a. It's got a membership and a media business. It's got kind of an events arm, but it's also got a consultancy. And the consultancy is, for us, really, where there's a very high Value of kind of consultancy service that's playing into our space. We're focused exclusively on the renewables market and by coming in and demonstrating in one division, in one area in our events business how we can think differently and how we're prepared to really put our money where our mouth is, it drives a far deeper customer relationship than we would ever have had by saying, can you join a Zoom call at 2 o' clock type thing or whatever, you know, like that's what got them because they start asking questions and they want to know more about us and you know, that's why now we are looking at much more engaged briefs with them whereby we're, yes, we're working with them on sponsorship deals for next year, but we're also widening that and looking at content stuff and managed networking and all sorts of interesting stuff that kind of started from that creative hub.

Totally, totally. And I think this is kind of the key aspect that from again as we're saying, the baggage of the traditional pure play event industry that they used to kind of beginning and end like a campaign for the event, now what were going to happen, the way they build their teams and structure their sales teams and everything. It is important also to highlight that like among the Tamarinda Group, your team kind of sells across the whole spectrum. So all this has increased tremendously the value of the conversations that you're having with your sponsors. And I think that's kind of where the real benefit is, which to me highlights for eventuals out there is just that a little bit of a change in the mindset is hard. And don't get me wrong, the industry is facing the most difficult time of their lives. And what I really want to highlight with today with the audience is that for this to be an inspiring element, many are looking into subscription models, many are looking into the report and insights and data aspects and they're playing around with this. And I think that's kind of what the interesting story that we've got there.

Ricardo, if I can add to that as well, please. Do you know, if we listened to the tech supplier base, as it were, that what they were telling us that we needed six months ago, you know, we'd all be walking around with avatars, you know, around digital, you know, virtual booths and stuff. And with the greatest respect to that, to that world, that doesn't excite me. That's not what got me into events and I suspect that's not what got you into the events world either. And I suspect that's what didn't get Sort of got, you know, our audience in. It's the ability for us to be able to walk around a room and tap someone on the shoulder and have that immediacy. And I think that, you know, it was a question of where you put effort, Right. It's like, do you want to put effort into building a digital booth and doing all that sort of stuff which has value but you lose control of, or can you put effort into something else? And that was a very. There was a crossroads there where it was kind of like, where are we going to invest our time? You know, and, you know, which way does it go? And I think that's a really important question that doesn't often get answered by the event organizer. Exactly.

And also a big part that I want to highlight as well was that you have this conversation with your sponsors, with your stakeholders, saying, look, we're taking this journey. And then again, going back to the very beginning, you took them on the journey, you already told them you this is not. Things are unlikely going to go back to what we used to deliver for you at a physical event. This is now the road that we're taking. You're coming with us. Yes or no. And if you're coming with us, let's think about 2021, 2022, which I think is very clever because you're like locking in the conversation. You extend the longevity of the conversation and by default, I suspect, is the longevity and the size of the potential opportunity deals. Opportun might be one. You know, it's like eating a little bit more of that budget pie that they might have internally. And I also want to kind of bring into the picture here is that when you were involving the sponsors so that they could invest in better quality presentation or quality of it, then that got escalated to be at the sitting table or have that attention of the CEO of that potential partner now, then you're going to be, you know, and again, that longevity, that long conversation is great. And I think that you've hit a score there.