Recently, all the Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists™ from BC to Newfoundland gathered for a retreat. Thirteen of us were together for two and-a-half days of strategic planning and discussions. We looked at all of our services. We observed how we are providing solutions for our sponsorship-buying brand and property-selling clients. We then discussed and strategized how we can do an even better job of serving our clients. The focus was on what we do and how we can get better results.
There were many areas in which we are doing well. For those, we cheered and looked at how we can become even better. We looked at how we can be more cost efficient. For services that need more support, we strategized even more and looked at ways we can provide better value for our clients. We looked at our present and future human resources capacity. We audited the SMCC Western Sponsorship Congress™ and SMCC One Day Workshops and determined how we can get more people to attend and deliver even better value. It was an amazing two and-a-half days.
In my mind, though, the outcome was that we need to look to the future. As a leading Canadian sponsorship agency that serves both sponsorship buyers and sellers, we know that the future is critical. As an industry, we are not fully resourced to meet our future. As a company, we may not be either. I am not sure that there is enough human capacity out there to truly service the industry. Our coast-to-coast team of consultants presently each have a minimum 15 years in the industry. Senior sponsorship consultants who are qualified and experienced with at least a decade of buying and selling expertise along with consulting and mentoring experience (not juniors or interns who are hired to do grunt work and also work on client audits, valuations, and mentoring services) are in short supply. Last month, we found such a rare person and brought him on board to serve our clients full time. Chris Reed joined us, going from a part-time contract to a full-time senior consultant on our team. As we search for a second person of this quality to meet our needs, we are struggling. In the near future, we will add a second full-time consultant to support our existing team of five senior consultants coast to coast, but we really need to search for just the right person who can deliver results to our clients.
My “ah-ha” moment at this corporate retreat was that we need to do more to plan for the future. We need to increase our professional development opportunities as an industry. More brands and properties need to understand that the industry is growing and that HR capacity will be an issue. Properties and brands need to invest more in developing their key employees through conferences such as the SMCC Marketing Awards and Conference on April 3, the upcoming eight SMCC One Day Workshops from Nova Scotia through Vancouver Island, and the Canadian Sponsorship Forum in Montreal this summer. Beyond this, they need to invest in mentoring and coaching to prepare their teams members for leadership roles. Just as the food service industry suffered a labour shortage and was paying dishwashers $15 per hour in the mid-1980s, to the projected 30,000+ shortage of skilled labourers for the oil and gas industry in Alberta alone by 2020, our sponsorship industry will be short of skilled labour in the near future.
Since 2006, as the Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study has revealed, our industry has grown by 40%. All indications are that it will continue to grow exponentially. But if we don’t plan today for the future, we will be in trouble. We won’t have the necessary expertise to serve our industry and we will pay the price.
I believe it is our responsibility to plan now for the future. I encourage you to comment below with your thoughts and about how you plan to make a difference in developing our industry’s HR capacity. Together, we can ensure the health of our industry, but we must all be part of that solution.
These are just one person’s thoughts. Yours are welcomed as well, please comment below. And thank you for reading.
Brent Barootes
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Brent this “ah-ha” moment happened to us a couple of years but it’s exactly the same We need to increase our professional development opportunities as an industry. More brands and properties need to understand that the industry is growing and that HR capacity will be an issue.
Properties and brands need to invest more in developing their key employees. With the help of two senior sponsorship professional, Jacques Renaud (he was at the start of Cirque du soleil) and Nathalie Courville, they are professionals who have their own business, they also teach at the University here and give classes on a International level. l’institut de l’événement was created in Québec and it has grown greatly grown over the past year.
You can find information about it on the web site but unfortunately it’s in French only http://www.institutdelevenement.com but I can put you in contact with Nathalie or Jacques It could be interesting for you guys to exchange ideas, because that’s exactly how the institute was created, exchanging ideas.
Lucie,
Thanks for this feedback. It really is an issue and something we need to address. We need to look at truly developing the “next generation” and not just burning them out as interns or juniors. The life blood of our industry rests on it. Please connect me with Jacques and Nathalie.
It would be great to exchange thoughts and ideas. Thanks again for reading and for your feedback. Brent
Education and professional development are critical in all industries, but especially so in sponsorship. Far too many brands still look at sponsorship as a “feel good” initiative and not as a valuable marketing opportunity. I imagine, Brent, those “ah-ha” or “ohhhh” moments happen every time your organization present a seminar. I have seen that on those occasions when the Partnership Group comes to the Okanagan. We just need to reach more people.
Every day we, as sponsorship professionals, have an opportunity to educate, promote the industry and encourage our partners and prospects to learn more. Next week I am fortunate to bring 40 business people together over the lunch hour to discuss sponsorship valuation and goal setting. There will be many “ah-ha” and “ohhhh” moments and these folks will take back some very valuable information to improve their organizations sponsorship programs. This event was inspired by the work you do Brent in promoting the development and education side of our industry. So thank you and keep up the amazing work you and your group does every day.