Last week, we co-hosted the regular #eventplannerstalk Twitter chat about ‘How to attract and retain young talent in the events industry’ with event recruitment expert Robert Kenward. Robert has worked within the recruitment and events sector for over 17 years and explored the world of hiring from all angles — namely as a candidate, client and recruiter. For the last three and a half years, he has run the recruitment agency ‘YOU search & select’ where he connects top talent with leading agencies within the live events, experiential and integrated communications sector.
From many talks with industry professionals, it has become apparent that a number of agencies face challenges in terms of attracting and retaining talent. In a highly people-driven business, are we falling short on securing top candidates for our businesses?
Before starting to discuss the challenges of attracting talent, we wanted to define what ‘young talent’ in fact means.
Young talent is not solely related to age, but also to the level of expertise and industry experience. According to Robert, ‘young talent is someone who is new to the industry or is a junior, mid-level entry candidate who has little direct experience but has bags of enthusiasm and transferable skills.’ Irina Graf from The MICE Blog added that ‘these are usually candidates with less than five years’ work experience but with basic knowledge of event management and a willingness to work and learn.’ Valerie Wagner from Hotel-O-Motion suggested that ‘these are newcomers or career changers who are new to event management or event planners with experience but new to new formats and new event orientation. Learning is a constant process. Talent shouldn’t be a question of age, and HR has the basic task of retaining talents and using them correctly.’
