The second meeting of the new Event Industry HR Working Group took place at Diversified Communications, Brighton on September 13 2017, with Trevor Foley of tfconnect in the chair.

Foley welcomed all attendees to the meeting, and expressed thanks on behalf of the group to Diversified for hosting the event. Following round table introductions for the benefit of new members and the reading of the apologies, the group approved the notes from the last meeting in March and heard updates from Foley and Kim Dance of the AEV on the actions that sprang from it.

With the formalities and preliminaries concluded, Foley introduced the first guest presentation from Justine Kane, course director at Event Academy. Kane told the group about event courses at the Event Academy, and how the group can get engaged with their work, and explained how Event Academy delivers student-centred learning across a varied programme of all-round skills for the events industry. Kane also noted that Event Academy courses are accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and the Institute of Hospitality, as well as being CPD certified.

Foley thanked Kane for her informative and thought provoking presentation, and then led the group through the day’s discussion topics, starting with an update on the AEO Talent Programme. The lively group discussion also covered apprenticeships, guidelines for employing temporary and agency staff, competency frameworks and event team staffing numbers.

After the group discussion, Foley then started a round of Chairman’s Q&A, prompting queries and requests from the group for, amongst other things, more information about GDPR, equal pay regulations, employee engagement and post-brexit visa arrangements. After returning to the topic of GDPR for a brief discussion,Foley then introduced the second guest speaker of the day.

David Preston, CEO of Realise, an events and live communications training agency, was then invited to present to the group. Preston introduced himself and his company to the group, before going on to explain the events assistant apprenticeship, and how group members might use the apprenticeship levy.

Foley thanked Preston for his illuminating and informative presentation on the topic, and noted that a copy of the event assistant standard and the presentation would be circulated to group members after the meeting.

With the principle agenda items having been dealt with, Foley sought the groups agreement for proposed meeting dates in 2018, including bringing forward the first meeting from April to February. The group agreed to meet on Wednesday February 21, 2018 at the QEII Centre, London, and Wednesday October 3, 2018 at the International Centre, Telford.

The meeting concluded with a short discussion about HR structures within member businesses, before Foley thanked all attendees and guests and formally closed the meeting.