“Our work to support the next generation…. has taken on extra resonance”
The IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum programme is a global programme for budding event professionals and takes the form of a series of Forums around the world. Each Forum, designed for students in the final year of a hospitality, event or tourism management course, is a unique and free opportunity to learn from and connect with industry experts and fellow students. Some forums also offer the opportunity for students to showcase their creativity and compete in the International University Challenge.
In response to the pandemic, the IMEX team took a fresh approach to these Forums, re-working them for the online world. Seven online Future Leaders Forums have taken place to date, attracting over 350 (369) students from 11 countries. The first virtual Forum was held as part of PlanetIMEX in May last year, which also hosted the final of the International University Challenge 2020. The brief for this year’s International University Challenge has also evolved to address the challenges brought by the pandemic and now focuses on planning an event in a post-pandemic world.
Students are very aware of the challenges of entering the event industry post-pandemic but remain optimistic and motivated as Jacobi Wozniak explains: “I have a lot of uncertainty going into the event industry. When I chose this career path, I never imagined that I would be going into a virtual event world. I love people and I miss in-person events so much.”
Jacobi studies at Madison College and participated in the Future Leaders Forum during PlanetIMEX October 2020 edition. She continues: “I’m currently looking for internships and it’s proving to be quite difficult. I believe that the increase in virtual events has resulted in technology taking over some of the jobs that a person would be doing. However, I’m hopeful that the vaccine rollout will pave the way for live events to return and am looking forward to this.”