Q1: The Top 100 European event agency leaders list has provided a who’s who of the events industry for the first time. How do you see this recognition, and what does it mean for your agency?
For us, this recognition is confirmation that we are heading in the right direction – both creatively and commercially. Our approach to working with clients has proven successful with global brands, while the projects we deliver continue to receive recognition from international judging panels. Imagine Nation, our event agency, became part of IF Nation Group 16 years ago in response to changing brand needs and with the ambition of building the expertise required to deliver projects to international standards. Today, that ambition has been recognised on both a national and a global level: we have been named Event Agency of the Year 2026 in Poland, Live Communication Agency Eventex and have entered the Eventex ranking of the world’s 100 most awarded event agencies.
What we’re particularly proud of is our ability to combine creativity and innovation with responsibility – towards our people as well as the business – and to build long-term relationships based on trust. We believe that is at the heart of what a mature agency should be today.
Being a stable, long-term partner is what defines us and sets us apart.
Q2: Live events seem to be the buzzword of 2026. With the industry going from strength to strength, how do you see the future of events?
People today consume more information in a single day than previous generations might have encountered over decades, while much communication has moved into the digital world.
Against this backdrop, live events are one of the few remaining tools that give brands the opportunity to connect with consumers in a genuinely human way – to create authentic experiences and build real relationships. At a time when earning and retaining consumers’ attention has become one of the biggest challenges for brands, events can be a powerful antidote to overstimulation. They create space for genuine emotions and meaningful interaction with a brand. Ultimately, creating an authentic experience of the brand world is becoming one of the most valuable assets a brand can build. The brands that understand their audiences are already recognising this. It is also reflected in our own work: the jury of the EVENTEX AWARDS named Imagine Nation the Live Communication Agency 2026.
Q3: How are economic and political turmoil, rising production costs and ambitious client expectations affecting your agency’s business model?
More than anything, these conditions demand greater business responsibility from agencies. Poland has undergone a remarkable economic development over the past three decades. Today, it is a modern market with excellent infrastructure and is increasingly becoming a regional hub for global brands. We have built a team and a set of capabilities that enable us to deliver highly complex projects across different markets, bring innovation to the table quickly, act as a true business partner and meet the expectations of brands such as Coca-Cola, Disney, L’Oréal, Dell Technologies, Chanel and Chery.
Q4: Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping creative and operational processes. To what extent have you integrated it across your processes, and which jobs remain out of its reach?
For us, AI is, first and foremost, a tool that helps us work faster. It supports research and analysis, helps us develop concepts, and allows us to move from an idea to a visual representation much more quickly. But it cannot replace the things that matter most in live events: understanding people, emotions and relationships with clients, as well as taking responsibility for the decisions we make.
AI can generate a solution. It is still up to a human being to decide whether that solution is right for the brand and its audience.
Q5: Sustainability has become both a strategic responsibility and a measurable business criterion. How is your agency translating environmental commitments into concrete results and accountability?
Imagine Nation has been a holder of an international EcoVadis certification since 2023. Sustainability is no longer something tacked on top of an event at the end of the process. It has become part of how we design projects from the very beginning. This is particularly important when working with global brands, for which sustainability requirements are increasingly built into the tender process itself.
We look closely at production, logistics and materials, as well as opportunities to reuse elements of set design and infrastructure. The goal is to find solutions that reduce our environmental footprint without compromising the quality of the experience.
Q6: How does your event agency attract and retain young talent?
Young people want to make an impact. They don’t want simply to execute tasks. That is why we try to give young team members room to take ownership, experiment, and assume genuine responsibility for projects. Events have a huge advantage in this respect: the results of the team’s work are tangible. Within a few months, you can see an idea turn into a real experience shared by thousands of people.
That creates a sense of ownership and impact that can be hard to find in many other industries.
Q7: If you could enter a time machine, what would you advise yourself when you first started in the events industry?
In this business, we are constantly balancing client expectations and constraints against the agency’s profitability. So, I would tell my younger self: don’t try to say “yes” to the client at any cost.
It is far more important to establish yourself as a partner who is willing to say “no” when something simply doesn’t make sense – and who has the confidence to back that decision up with sound arguments. That is how we build healthier relationships with clients today and take shared responsibility for the outcome.
Q8: If you had to single out one event from your portfolio, which would it be and why?
I would choose the Dell Technologies Forum, primarily because we are delivering its tenth edition this year. The project demonstrates our ability to deliver an event of a significant scale to an international standard. But, for me, there is something even more important: the trust the client has placed in us over the past ten years. Every year, the bar is raised higher, yet the client continues to trust us to deliver the highest quality while bringing fresh ideas to each new edition.
Over the course of these ten editions, we have worked together to create the most important technology industry event in Central and Eastern Europe. That is undoubtedly a major achievement.
“I believe that, increasingly, agencies will be chosen based on the quality of their solution and their ability to deliver it – rather than where they are located.”
Q9: Which industry buzzword would you permanently ban, and what uncomfortable truth should event agencies start discussing instead?
I would get rid of “wow effect” – at least when it simply means creating spectacle for spectacle’s sake. We should be talking much more about the business value of an event, what it is actually designed to achieve, and what emotion it leaves with the audience – and for how long.
Creating something spectacular isn’t particularly difficult when the budget is unlimited. The real question is: what business purpose does it serve?
Q10: Does Europe genuinely operate as one event market, or do outdated divisions between established Western markets and “New Europe” still influence budgets, visibility and access to opportunities?
Europe is increasingly becoming one event market, but the old division is still there – particularly in the minds of some clients and in the way the budgets are allocated.
At the same time, Central and Eastern Europe is reliably proving that expertise, creativity and quality of execution are no longer tied to a particular part of the continent. I believe that, increasingly, agencies will be chosen based on the quality of their solution and their ability to deliver it – rather than where they are located.
Learn more about IF Nation Group here.
