"An event manager must be able to suffer"

Simon Ackermann, Habegger Group. MK In your opinion, what is the importance of top-organized events as effective marketing and communication tools today?SIMON ACKERMANN Live communication measures, including events, are unrivaled when combined with digital channels. Digitally, a brand can communicate interactively and around the clock. The live moment charges the brand through a real experience and multisensually complements what has already been built up digitally in terms of branding. Those who synchronize these two channels and use them transmedially in the future will be able to dispense almost completely with the classic "above-the-line" measures.MK You organize events worldwide in very different cultural environments. What is the most important prerequisite for successfully mastering this challenge?ACKERMANN Only those who are able to listen, who are informed in depth, who enter a new cultural sphere and who meet people unknown to them without prejudice will be successful in these foreign markets. Often the truth on the ground is very differentiated, there is no black and white, but only diffuse worlds, which must be read differently depending on the situation.MK What skills does a young event manager need today in order to succeed in this sensitive business?ACKERMANN He must be able to suffer. Everything has to be implemented faster, cheaper and better today than a year earlier. This work hurts. Without passion for the live experience, young newcomers don't get through the start. Without inner fire, the pressure is too great.MK How do you rate the corresponding training and continuing education programs in Switzerland?ACKERMANN There are a large number of offerings. Unfortunately, these are conceptually very different in order to be able to really compare them. I notice that the lecturers often lack many years of practical experience. There is too often an attempt to replace a lack of practice with overly theoretical models. Event management is primarily a matter of experience and is difficult to teach theoretically. The industry lacks academically certified tools.MK Do you maintain an exchange with event management training providers?ACKERMANN We maintain a fairly close exchange with students who are writing their "Thesis". For this purpose, we teach at various universities of applied sciences as guest lecturers. However, a really close exchange with the suppliers does not take place. For example, we have never been approached and asked what personnel our company will employ in the future.More about Habegger AGAuthor: Robert Wildi