EW speaks to Christophe Cizeron (pictured), CEO GL events Venues
What is GL events Venues’ attitude to the pandemic situation in general?
GL events Venues is a network of 53 venues in 28 countries. Our biggest challenge is to adapt to each local situation but also to act globally, to offer a consistent approach to our clients.
If we look back in the mirror 18 months, [we see] the sudden stop and the administrative lockdown of our activity plunged our venues into a paralysing situation. Nevertheless, we demonstrated our ability to adapt, to imagine new ways of working.
Faced with the almost permanent impossibility of meeting and gathering, virtual events, video conferences, webinars and other online content have surrounded our daily lives. To adapt to this new environment, we have developed a range of connected solutions to host and help organisers propose hybrid events.
As a network of venues, we can offer companies, institutions, and associations a digital extension of their physical event. State-of-the-art equipment, advice from our technical teams, professional services and exceptional locations all combine to make for a successful event.
Corporate clients can organise a small or medium sized meeting or rent a TV Studio in one click via a new online booking solution.
What are the key learnings kept from a situation like this?
As we resumed in September, we saw the strength of face-to-face events as clients showed the pleasure they have in meeting and establishing business relationships.
Strict sanitary protocols deployed in all our venues, labelled with the Safe and Clean certificate by Apave, testified that event business can go on safely.
Nevertheless, the virtual world opened new possibilities. The digitalisation of our events must continue as long as it allows us to improve the customer experience, to widen the audience and to animate a community throughout the year with high added-value content.
Our venues are part of an ecosystem in which our audiences, as well as our clients, partners, and subcontractors, are all involved.
More than ever, the venues have a key role to play in the heart of the regions by attracting, hosting, and retaining events that raise the profile of the destination and contribute to regional economic and social development.
Many destinations have been creating alliances to attract large-scale events: Lyon, of which the Lyon Convention Centre is a member of the EU Convention Bureaux and The Hague, with the World Forum, is part of Hybrid City alliance. These collaborations can provide meeting professionals with access to knowledge, innovation, and tools to produce hybrid and multicity events.
We have ensured operational staff are being trained in topics such as digital services and sustainability. Developing new skills in areas including data privacy and data management is crucial.
What is the ambition of GL events Venues for the coming year?
Despite the situation remaining complicated in many countries and travel restrictions limiting attendance at major international events, there are many good signs.
First, our network is growing. We welcomed three new sites last year: Blue Med Convention Center in Santos, Brazil; Anhembi in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Voyage Samaritaine, in Paris, France. The expansion continues with a venue in Chile, Nuevo Parque Vitacura in Santiago, and we have many projects to come.
We are also developing strategic partnerships, such as Oak View Group and Live Nation working with us to develop the world class indoor arena in Anhembi.
Despite the pandemic, refurbishments have been made in some venues, integrating environmental features and versatile spaces, including at Grande Halle d’Auvergne, Exhibition Centre in St Etienne, MEETT in Toulouse and Hungexpo.
Together with our employees, we have built a strategic roadmap to 2024 focused on customer experience, well-being and career development for our staff.
We enjoyed being one of the primary signatories of the net zero carbon events pledge at COP 26 and are launching a CSR roadmap. GL events Venues has chosen ISO 20121 for all its venues and all of that gives us our energy to enter 2022 positively and more resolute than ever.
