You can complete some remarkable feats all by yourself. Teach yourself French. Write a novel. Hike a hundred miles.
But one thing you can almost never do all alone is create a professional special event. The task simply takes too many hands and too many talents. You can oversee the team, but you need that team to carry out your vision and, sometimes, to tell you when you're being shortsighted.
This issue brings our annual look at the biggest DMCs in business, and it's striking to see that some of the biggest players in the business are forging new alliances with other big players. These industry leaders see the power of collaboration, realizing they can accomplish more when they work together rather than struggle against each other. Turn to page 24 to read more.
We also bring you the 13th edition of our "Corporate Event Marketplace" study. Conducted exclusively for Special Events by Penton Research, the study takes the temperature of the corporate event world at midyear, and gives a forecast of how 2015 is taking shape.
The majority of respondents--65 percent--expect the number of corporate events staged this year to remain about the same as their “typical” amount. One in four--28 percent--expect to stage more. They are a bit more optimistic about corporate special events in 2015; 33 percent expect to stage more, while 55 percent expect the number of corporate events to remain flat. Turn to page 11 for all the details.
And also in this issue, we bring you an article that has turned into one of our most popular annual features: our "25 Young Event Pros to Watch." Every year we reach out to members of the Special Events Advisory Board, both past and present, to ask what young event professionals are shaping the future of our business. And every year, I am impressed by the young pros they recommend.
This year's crop represents all aspects of the industry—from rental to catering to planning to design—and come from everywhere from London to Las Vegas. They credit their success in events to a range of talents, be it design chops or the art of keeping a cool head in a crisis. One young pro even says that a little bit of insanity helps him stay in the game. Turn to page 15 for the full story.
One theme I heard over and over again as I interviewed these rising stars is the joy they find in working with colleagues and clients to craft special events. They find that collaboration fuels their own creativity and ignites inspiration. I hope you get inspired, too.
