How can the Special Events industry fight back against the media assault?
When the average worker reads about executives getting lavish parties, free golf outings and all-expenses paid travel to exotic resorts – they feel jealous and resentful, because the majority of people never get rewarded for their hard work with anything beyond a paycheck. “If I can’t get it, that no one else should either,” goes the reasoning.
It’s easy and profitable for the media and politicians to exploit the public’s negative emotions. They want blood. The easy and safe thing for politicians to do is to lead the lynch mob; it’s political suicide to anything but.
The media has always profited by appealing to fear, hate and mob rule. So they “expose” company meetings as wasteful and arrogant acts.
A few years ago, illegal immigrants were suddenly to blame for crime, poverty, waste and a host of other ills. Politicians tapped into racism and xenophobia to get attention and followers. They exploited these obscene motives, but framed the argument as patriotic and fiscally responsible. And Americans ate it up.
Now the Special Event Industry is paying the price for our frustrations.
It’s much easier for politicians to mislabel every corporate function a boondoggle for fat-cat executives. It’s easier to for the average voter to get angry at others for getting free golf-outings than to understand financial derivatives. Taxpayers are angry, and it’s hard to get revenge on a CMO.
Misery Loves Company
The Special Event industry is fighting one of the most powerful forces known; human nature. Jealousy, resentment of authority, schadenfreude, the need to scapegoat … these are powerful human emotions that derail logic. Logic does little good when taxpayers are hurt angry and scared.
As I continue to try to remember, you never win an argument. Sure, you may shut the other side up for a while – but they’ll resent you and your position even more, all the while never giving up clinging to their faulty logic.
I know and you know that special events did not cause the banks to lose billions – that special event can be very cost-effective investments that attract new clients and strengthen business relationships – that special events create jobs and support small business. But logic won’t help us, only action will.
We need to send a very clear message to our politicians that bashing the corporate event industry will be very bad for their careers. Your politicians need to understand that maligning this industry will get them voted out of office. That’s all they understand or care about.
If the corporations continue to cancel events for fear of being attacked by Washington, we all lose.
Please, take a moment and visit the advocacy page for the International Special Events Society (ISES) . Take action. Write your representatives and let them know you expect them to protect the industry. The ISES Advocacy Page makes it easy to find your representatives and draft a letter. Please do it now.
