Event Staffing

“A friend of mine who works at one of the world’s (ex) leading investment banks gave me an interesting piece of advice some time ago - ‘Don’t over-analyse. The best understanding you can have is that of an average punter.’

I had been trying my best to get my head around the intricacies of the stock market (and in my case, China’s demand for natural resources). By that stage I’d read every Financial Review expert opinion over the last 6 months and I must say I was baffled that in many cases they were in direct contradiction to the opinions they’d shared six months prior.

For instance, it wasn’t so long ago that we were reading about China’s forecast double digit growth on a daily basis. The ‘experts’ predicted this would continue for as long as any of us could imagine. We should all jump on the commodities band wagon as China’s demand for the likes of iron ore was expected to expand exponentially until the cows came home.

Before we knew it, the bubble burst and the growth slowed; dramatically.

Having thought about it for some time, the only logical explanation I could find for the sudden seizure in demand was, in one word - sentiment.

I have concluded that market sentiment, driven by the average punter is the most powerful force regulating demand and supply throughout the world. Hence, I have rationalized to stop over analyzing and think more like the average punter. This is a mindset that comes easily, being an average punter.

So I have applied this to my industry. The Events and Promotional world has suffered greatly during this global financial crisis. Companies have stopped launching new products, in fact they have stopped making new products. Parties (and in particular Christmas parties) are a thing of the past and corporate networking nights seem to be as rare as hen’s teeth.

Special event catering companies are going into administration at an extraordinary rate and of course (as we all know) the semi-nationalised banks in the UK are not making life any easier for start-ups and small businesses.

So in an effort to counter the doom and gloom I’d like to start the ball rolling with some much needed positive sentiment:

My company is a young business of 18 months. Although 2008 was a tough year, we survived and we did quite well.

We took on a few fantastic big name clients, and many helpful smaller clients. We were profitable and although we missed our targets by a small margin we were buoyed by the strong reaction to our brand and the relative success of our online strategies. So as an average punter, I’m thinking ‘things don’t look that bad.’

Having read all the expert opinions we expected the worst for January 2009. However, for us, they were wrong. LOLA Event and Promotional Staffing turned over more than 90% more business in January 2009 than January 2008. We have grown our client list significantly (even in the last six weeks) and we have just expanded our business into Manchester in response to a strong demand from the north of the UK.

I believe that soon companies will again start launching new products, booking event staff for parties and networking like they used to. And as a result, I believe my business will continue to grow at a steady rate and I will continue to send out event staff as quickly as I can get them through the door.

My business is in providing attractive, skilled and well presented people for events, whether they be hospitality staff or hosts and hostesses. I intend to make 2009 a great year for event staffing and I urge all of my peers to take a similar attitude towards their businesses.

A wave of positive sentiment from average punters is sure to eclipse the Armageddon forecast by the ‘experts’ that monopolise our televison sets.”

Duncan Mitchell - LOLA Staffing