On 26 October, I attended The Business of Events Senior Leadership Forum, a conference in Westminster, London which brought together leading figures from the events industry and government to discuss some key issues.

Just before lunch, everyone in the room was asked to line up along the back wall in order of how long they had worked in the events industry. At the far right, many veterans reached into 40 or 50+ years. But at the far left, second only to a new staffer who had joined five days ago, was me: proudly contributing four months of industry experience to the grand total.

I tweeted a picture of the line from EW’s sister publication Conference News, proclaiming: “Surely with this much brainpower we can solve some industry problems?” Shortly after, I received a tongue-in-cheek reply from another eventprof, who suggested: “Or does it mean there are too many old ***** and not enough new ideas?”

Let’s be fair here: this was a conference titled the Senior Leadership Forum, and it was explicitly aimed at those who know the industry inside and out from years of experience. But it got me thinking, nonetheless: is the events industry in touch with the younger generation?