That Was The Week That Was 05-09 June 2023
The Good Host Paradox
We are in the middle of the annual, annual general meeting season. IATA and CANSO had their meetings this week, the week that was. ACI is scheduled to AGMise at the end of the month. For those counting the airmiles, this year we are looking at a June in Istanbul, Berlin and Barcelona. It is that time of the year, the one time of the year that the various trade associations are obliged to discharge their statutory obligation to get their members to approve accounts, elect executive committee members and discuss the fees they intend charging.
In the good old days, long, long ago, IATA’s AGM was scheduled for a week and took place in places like Hawaii. In the modern world that was clearly untenable, so the process has, over time, and with a certain amount of missing and hitting, been honed down to the basic structure you see today.
There are differences, of course, but largely, all of the big associations’ AGMs now take the form of a day or maybe a day and a half of a ‘summit’. It has to be a summit. Fancy admitting you were gathering your members for a meeting. This involves panels on topics of importance to the industry, or at least to the DG, and positions are reiterated. There has never been, in the history of AGMs a panel that has changed a single mind. Before, or after the summit, formal meetings for various groups, regional, alliance, common interest group, are arranged. Interlaced through the summit are a number of informal meetings as well. Over and above, there are the social events to attend. It can be a bit of a marathon.
For the members of the association, this is a rare chance to meet with colleagues across the industry, so for them, the two most valuable things that an AGM can provide are wide corridors and long coffee breaks, so that serious networking can take place.
What, you may ask, about the social events, the gala dinners, the welcome and farewell cocktail parties and so on? Surely, networking can happen there?
Sadly, this brings us to the Good Host Paradox. The host of the jamboree feels obliged to Make An Effort. That involves entertainment. At the very least a host, a singer, maybe a juggler. Once a band is on the scene, they are, of course, paid to play, so they play. Usually very well. But everybody in the room just wishes they would stop, so they could talk.
Plus, over time, we get entertainment inflation. Once a band was necessary, but before long you are getting Kylie doing a 45-minute set. She has been known to fly, but she does not leave the house to perform for free. After Kylie played a few years ago, the US airlines sponsored the IATA AGM in Miami and they reset the counter by engaging a mariachi band to play table-by-table. But it was a mere reset.
The one word that the three AGMs share this year is ‘collaboration’. Maybe they should get together and call a truce?