With more than 25 years in the live event industry, Anthony Veitch is both an expert in production and is a director of a leading speaking agency. He has a particular interest in how crowds work and learn.
Thought and Leaders is a regular business podcast covering every aspect of business post-COVID.
With more than 25 years in the live event industry, Anthony Veitch is both an expert in production and is a director of a leading speaking agency. He has a particular interest in how crowds work and learn.
Thought and Leaders is a regular business podcast covering every aspect of business post-COVID.
spk_0: 0:06
This is thought and leaders on. Welcome. Welcome actually to this thie first episode off our revise name for this podcast, which is thought on leaders on DH. What a leader we have with us today. We have got from Red brand on specialist speakers and teach, I
spk_1: 0:38
mean in life event now, Jonathan, for 25 years and more right now, Yes, I'm a director with specialist speakers. We like to say that we are the leading speakers bureau in business. Technical in economics, in politics, I'm also a live event producer.
spk_0: 0:57
Tony talking about live event. Surely this is a time when when it comes to events that most communications are going from faith to faith to you about is it? No.
spk_1: 1:11
I think a lot of people have now understood the capabilities of remote working, but at the same time, uh, it's going to show the limitations. Everybody working. We're all watching lots of screens at the moment. On maybe 25 years ago, people thought that one day everybody in the knowledge industries, everybody who didn't go outdoors to work would be doing what we're doing now. It was the broadband would would liberate us from the from the chains of place. Well, you know who it is, keeping us all in our place and locked up for a little bit longer in our homes.
spk_0: 1:52
By the time this podcast goes out, a lot of the audience will be back at work.
spk_1: 1:58
Theory goes that we will all have learned to work remotely toe work via Webcast. We can all zoom around the place
spk_0: 2:04
I remembered soon. By the way, I remember zoom lollipops. That's how old I am. Uh,
spk_1: 2:12
yeah, I think. Did it go orange? That's it. That's the one. You look like a walk it, You know, it's made of sugar and ice. I think
spk_0: 2:24
going back to more serious point. Humans are social animals, you know. They won't change. And so I mean, really. Do you think this is gonna be something that sticks? Yeah,
spk_1: 2:35
particle steak. And part of it won't stick on DH eventually the market on because you say the eternal verities, how human beings really work, you know, at a fundamental level we'll sort out what it's used for and what is not used for. But when we get back into the world, it will be used for everything, because in all distant comes, The message is, is a bridge. Some data is missing now. Hopefully, lots of noises taken out what signals taken out as well. So, you know, we're only working in two dimensions when we're in zoom or banks or whatever. Um, the country three come with a heavier price tag. That's a premium product. So what's the difference? What's the differential? Well, you know, it's one where one can understand what's going on. You're in the room, you get cues. The subtlety of message. It's not available on the phone. Whether the phone is actually a phone has been great during this time and not available via email. Smoke signals, most code, zoom or whatever. It's all the cues that we get from face to face contact. Let me tell you about Mark Chang. Easy Professor Mark Chang, Easy, who reckons that surgeons should operate on make it patient. Surgeons are able to fully understand what's going on if they get all of those colour. Micro cues, which they possibly don't even understand that they're receiving themselves, certainly wouldn't be available by any sort ofthe system. Where, for instance, you can't control the colour and it's there. It's in someone else's hands. You can get, for instance, also the olfactory cues, and there are so many cues in face to face communication, which we probably don't it not only do we not realise they're getting them, we may not even know their names yet. You get that in the space in the meeting space and you don't get it. You can't get it via any sort of reward system. Do you
spk_0: 4:41
think that events companies such as yours will start thinking about holograms and stuff like that off speakers? I think
spk_1: 4:49
we're focusing party much on what's on the stage. They're not on the function of the event. Um, Rory Sutherland suggested that the reason that everybody bought a dishwasher was because it was somewhere you could store dishes.
spk_0: 5:07
Yeah, not to do with the washing of the dishes.
spk_1: 5:09
Well, yeah. Okay. That's a nice thing, isn't it? Look, they washed the dishes as well.
spk_0: 5:14
So and his point being I'm losing this.
spk_1: 5:16
Well, point is that this gentleman thinks that events are about who's on stage and live events are about the people being there, there about meeting each other, the the the the overt purpose of the product is they really buy it for debt working. But they're for esprit de corps. They're there to build their team. What, your
spk_0: 5:42
company and what your could. I have attended several of your award ceremony. You create this amazing atmosphere, and that's what people are really buying into. Yes, you can have an amazing speaker. Yes, you can have an entertaining speaker. But more than that, what you're saying is it's about the atmosphere, isn't it? I
spk_1: 6:01
think that obviously suspect from John From which goes from the Suri informational of one end, um, to a the entertainment at the other end there was There's two ways to buy a speak of. People will call us and say, I want Jonathan. I desperately want Jonathan on stage. What we say is too expensive for you. I
spk_0: 6:23
need a new bloody manager. At this point,
spk_1: 6:28
all they say I hang on, I desperately need suddenly next week, talking. Who's Becca style about Chinese currency. They
spk_0: 6:36
want someone who is an expert in their field. If we
spk_1: 6:39
look at the whole ecology of an event, it may well be that there are other ways off disseminating that information out with a conference, one of the reasons they wanted Conference and supplies for people in finances. They want to get those people in the space because the sponsors want them there in the space they want relationship, relationship, the relationships they want most of all face to face that there was very often a further purpose to the event in getting people into the three dimensional space.
spk_0: 7:20
So do you find that clients are asking now for virtual events?
spk_1: 7:27
Yeah, a whole load of publications of speakersbureau media, those channels Ah a V houses. They've all been suggesting that they mean desperately busy with with a lot of on light. There was a huge amount of stuff out there.
spk_0: 7:50
It must be very difficult for you as a speaker bureau to start saying the people, I want you to pay for this when it's I mean, really, it's being like confetti out there with so much content isn't from
spk_1: 8:01
the quarter view of an individual speaker, consultant, expert. If they have something which is a value which adds value for the customer, then it still has value. They shouldn't be underpricing. Let's do it remotely. It would not have the same, um, sticker price because it doesn't include an awful lot of work. It doesn't include North lot of time costs. They're not gonna have to go from wherever to the venue. So
spk_0: 8:34
a lot of people Tony are talking about flexi working, being, you know, the norm. Do you think that you're going to be getting enquiries from clients who are going to say, Look, we want the speaker. We think she's amazing expert, but we want her to do it remotely and where boot were projected onto a giant screen. If
spk_1: 8:56
a speaker performer has something which is useful, then they shouldn't be under pricing it during this. What is really a short time? I think this time that we're going through, it seems like weeks get shorter, but the time itself is eternal.
spk_0: 9:16
You know, it
spk_1: 9:17
seems like the speak. It's only bean two months of this, but it seems like it's mean a couple of years. Yet Monday to Friday goes like that, it said, Since when, Forget to win one way 4567 were finding that online calms, especially meetings, were pretty exhausting. Difficult because because they weren't getting all accused. They couldn't. They couldn't act in a way which was quite
spk_0: 9:48
natural. A lot of companies will be using and have Bean using the idea ofthe cove it toe lay off people, quite frankly, because it's a great excuse to get rid of what they would call Deadwood. Now, do you think that will also have an effect on the events industry that people say? You know what? We could save money. I know. Having to pay for the speakers, flights, hotel, this, that and all the rest of it. Did you think that cove it will, you know, make a big impact? If the
spk_1: 10:19
economy is 90% or 80% of the size, it was then maybe, you know, the industry will be 80% or 90% of the size of its pro rata. Would they start to move from live to remote on cost grounds? Yes, I can see that they could. They will do that. Um, what they would not get is they would not get the ability to take someone aside on DH. Say, I would like to do this deal or would you like to come and work with me or would you like to put a new enterprise together or what the hell is going on in your department and all of those things which, ah, I can only work outside off the screen. You know it. Sze, very controlled on the owner controls when we're looking at a screen. It's the old news reader thing, you know. It's only when you're in Lee in the newsroom, whether you know whether the newsreaders wearing trances so good. Yeah, I know we're putting on a performance. I know it's, you know, that event is theatre, but it's because it's three dimensional on because it it's it's human beings working much more randomly then much more, many more random outcomes of possible, much more serendipity is possible. Can
spk_0: 11:51
you see a future where you're gonna have events with the speaker on the audience wearing Marce?
spk_1: 11:58
Yeah, E Well, I'm sure that you put it this way, people, Um if we are to poll the whole population off of Earth way can always find the outliers, whether that would be an out liar or whether it be a commonplace. I know. But so I'm sure somebody's gonna do that.
spk_0: 12:29
Are you going to have are you goingto have on every table place? Because I know that you do these big dinners. You know, in terms of your event, are you going to have Are you goingto have a sponsored mask that you give to each person?
spk_1: 12:43
Well, anything this tricky.
spk_0: 12:45
Yeah. Maybe you have to give them a strong mind. You save you on on catering? Yeah.
spk_1: 12:54
So I don't think it's possible for the industry to say what is protocols are going to be until we get until we get guidance.
spk_0: 13:06
So the big thing for Red Brands point of you, Tony and the special speakers point of view is will they come back? Will people come back? Has had bean any precedents that weaken, you know, refer to in terms of wow. Well, pandemics Maybe there isn't. I don't know. Is there anything?
spk_1: 13:26
Well, they they always come back. You must remember Jonathan with the roaring twenties with all of its face to face and its events happened straight after terrible Spanish flu pandemic that followed the first World War. The coronation off Charles the first was interrupted by the play. Wow. Really? Yeah, on DH. Apparently I I think that if he It really didn't go very well. Not enough people turned up and he find all his lords from not turning up. At that time, the there was compensation for the for the event industry of the time. The girls got together and they compensated the human Marge men. Well, they were going. They would be transporting the guests. They would have seen one of the and principal trades involved in the event industry of the time on DH, the London Gilles Fuck together to save them. So do you think
spk_0: 14:41
do you think do you think that the government should be compensating people who are working in the events industry? The event
spk_1: 14:49
industry, because of its structure, has had, um, possibly rough deal, especially some of the banana company, Some of the very small businesses. There are people undertaking a lot of work at the moment in trying to get the Treasury to understand some of the hardship. There's a lot of people are going through that, and they are that lot of people's work stopped very suddenly. The event industry exists in order to bring people together. Right now, the last thing we need is to bring people together. So the event industry is going to be the last out of lock down. It's going to be after the pubs and restaurants.
spk_0: 15:47
So what? You guys come back? Yeah, that's it. That's the ball.
spk_1: 15:53
I think that's right.
spk_0: 15:54
So in the meantime, in the meantime, your company would it be offering more virtual stuff to just bridge tell us a little bit about what you're offering right now so that the listeners Khun can cogitate that in terms ofthe stuff that they could think we could get these guys involved?
spk_1: 16:14
Yeah, we have fun. We have a speaker who will be speaking to 1500 guests next week.
spk_0: 16:21
Tell us what you can offer people right now in terms of virtual events on speakers.
spk_1: 16:27
What we've done is we have partnered with people who have known how to do this Aunt have grown with doing this over 20 years. So
spk_0: 16:40
you have got So you've got where people to come to you. You've got not just the speakers, but you've got the actual experience on how to actually make this work.
spk_1: 16:50
Wei will bring people in who have bean doing this stuff for since since the nineties on DH have have invented it. They've written it. They've coded it. I think there was a trade off. The people will assume it was very easy to use. It was very you express user friendly thing. I think that the security implications didn't bother people at the start. In an emergency situation, they bother people increasingly. Now. WeII went into face from zoom to A to a very stable platform on DH two. Yeah, we could send that to as many people as you like.
spk_0: 17:40
How are people? How do people contact you? If they want to create something, they're going to remember whether it's going to be their employees or their partners or whoever it might be in terms of events. How do they contact you? Tony?
spk_1: 17:53
Do follow us on Twitter Speaker Underscore Bureau. That's it. Are
spk_0: 18:01
you on them? Are you on the almighty? LinkedIn?
spk_1: 18:04
Look for may A N t h. I could remember myself a n t h o n y On. If you're gonna spell Veach, it's the e I you see, actually d before the lie, the easier for the I. I find us info special speakers dot com go to the website please. All
spk_0: 18:28
right, then. So in that case, thank you for Thank you. Attorney from Red granite. Special speakers. Everybody out there. Remember, business is business on. Business is in our hands and what we do with business, it really is up to us. It's really up to you. But let's do something a little bit to make this world a little bit of a better place until next time. Speak too soon thought leaders.