Organised last year in a hybrid format, UNIMEV's annual See You There (SYT) conference was held from 29 June to 1 July in Nancy, at the Jean Prouvé conference centre, where 300 players from the French events industry gathered. It was an opportunity for them to draw a number of conclusions about their business and the continuing interest in professional meetings. After two years of the pandemic, the upturn in trade shows, conferences, fairs and business meetings is here to stay, even if attendance levels are still lower than in 2019This is expected to rise from 15 % to 20 %. Naturally, the absence of distant international customers has weighed on this trend, with a recovery expected from the middle of next year and early 2024.
This conference was an opportunity to look to the future after an unprecedented crisis that has highlighted a number of major challenges: renewing the formats of these meetings, the necessary investment in the modernisation of event venues This is not to mention the fight against global warming, as demonstrated by the Green Growth Commitment signed last February with the public authorities. This commitment organises the industry's transition towards a circular economy for the resources mobilised during professional events, all of which is being developed jointly by UNIMEV, the French government and associated departments.
While the crisis has meant that industry professionals have had to work more closely with ministries and local elected representatives to demonstrate the importance of the sector to the French economy, the sector intends to continue this dialogue through a club of elected representatives. Launched by UNIMEV, Crealians and L'EVENEMENT and known for the moment as "Ev & Terr", this think tank aims to provide them with relevant content on an industry whose workings and multiple links are sometimes poorly understood and to build a relationship of trust with them at a time when the health of companies in the sector remains to be consolidated. "We would like to thank Béatrice Cuif-Mathieu, Vice-President of UNIMEV and Managing Director of Destination Nancy, for her involvement in this think tank." said Mathieu Klein, Mayor of Nancy.
In addition to UNIMEV representatives such as its co-presidents Pierre Louis Roucariès and Renaud Hamaide and its administrator Pablo Nakhlé-Cerruti, this business tourism think tank brings together several members of parliament and local councillors. These include Mathieu Klein, but also Corinne Vignon, MP for Haute Garonne and author of the parliamentary report on the impact of the Covid crisis on the events sector, Jean-François Husson, Senator for Meurthe-et-Moselle, and mayors such as David Lisnard, Mayor of Cannes and Chairman of France Congrès et Evénements, and Franck Louvrier, Mayor of La Baule and Chairman of the Tourism Commission of Régions de France.
Ev & Terr" club to meet at regular intervals with meetings already scheduled for the next Grand Pavois in La Rochelle in September, the Mayors' Congress in Paris in November and the next SYT Congress, expected to be held in Deauville in July 2023. A Through this club, we are inaugurating a new way of joining forces in the diversity of our missions in the service of the economic revival of our companies, which contribute to the attractiveness of our territories." said Pierre-Louis Roucaries and Renaud Hamaide, co-presidents of UNIMEV.
