A Simple Message: Events Are Powered By People

The Association of Event Organisers has just launched #ChooseEvents, an industry-wide movement running from 1–4 September 2026 that brings organisers, venues, suppliers and agencies together behind one idea: events are built by people, and those people deserve to be seen. Hundreds of businesses across global markets are being invited to share their own stories under the hashtag, with the aim of putting careers in events in front of the students, career-changers and jobseekers who might never have thought to look here.

Why Talent Has Become Everyone’s Problem

It is easy to assume an initiative like this is aimed squarely at the big organisers and venue operators. In practice, the skills gap runs right through the supply chain. Stand builders, print specialists, project managers, logistics coordinators and on-site crews all sit behind the scenes of every exhibition that goes up and comes down again in a matter of days. As the sector has recovered and grown post-pandemic, finding people who understand both the creative and the practical sides of live events – and who can work calmly under a hard deadline – has become one of the biggest constraints on growth that organisers and suppliers report.

What It Means For Exhibitors And Suppliers

For anyone commissioning stands or managing exhibitor programmes, campaigns like #ChooseEvents matter beyond recruitment marketing. A sector that is actively investing in bringing new people in is one that is better placed to maintain quality and reliability as demand rises. It is also a useful reminder that the individuals project-managing a stand build, or hand-finishing a graphics panel the night before doors open, are doing skilled, often under-recognised work worth talking about publicly.

We will be watching #ChooseEvents with interest over the coming weeks, not least because our own team – designers, print technicians, project managers and installation crews – is exactly the kind of talent the campaign is trying to shine a light on. If you are planning a stand, a print run or an event and want to talk it through with people who do this for a living, get in touch with the Papyrus team.