By Mary Tucker | Senior Communications and Content Manager | IAEE

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: the exhibitions and events industry complains about empty seats at the talent table while simultaneously making those seats look profoundly uninviting.

We’ve convinced ourselves we’re in a war for talent, but the real battle is much closer to home – it’s a failure of communication, structure and follow-through. The next generation isn’t rejecting a career in events because they’re uninterested in what we do. They’re walking away because we haven’t given them a compelling reason to stay, a clear path to get started or proof that the investment of their time and energy will actually pay off.

Warwick Davies, Founder of The Annabelle Project and Principal of The Event Mechanic!, believes the problem isn’t the talent – it’s our approach. With more than two decades leading revenue strategy and talent development in the global events industry, Warwick has seen firsthand what doesn’t work. More importantly, he’s built something that does.

The Annabelle Project is a mentorship and exposure model designed to move college-age students – particularly from HBCUs (Historically Black College or University) and Hispanic-serving institutions – from industry-curious to industry-committed. It challenges the conventional “pipeline” thinking that treats young professionals as a commodity to funnel through and replaces it with a system built on mentorship, access and accountability.

In IAEE’s upcoming webinar, Getting Young Professionals Into the Events Industry: The Annabelle Project Case Study, Warwick will break down exactly how this model works, why traditional initiatives fail and what organizations serious about talent can do differently.

We sat down with Warwick ahead of the session to dig deeper into the assumptions holding our industry back and what it takes to actually solve for long-term talent retention.

What do you mean when you say our industry has a “relevance problem” rather than a talent shortage, and when did you first realize this was the core issue?

Warwick: When I talk about a relevance problem, I mean this: the industry is failing to clearly explain why a young person should choose events as a career, how they get started and what success actually looks like over time.

I realized this after years of watching the same pattern repeat. We would host a panel, shake hands at a career fair and then wonder why nothing stuck. Students weren’t disengaged; they were unconvinced. From their perspective, the industry felt vague, inaccessible and transactional. If a career can’t be explained clearly or experienced meaningfully early on, it quickly loses relevance, no matter how exciting we think it is.

Another phrase we hear in the industry is that we have a “war for talent,” which I believe is an improper framing of the issue because wars assume an external enemy. This problem is self-inflicted.

The exhibitions and events industry hasn’t lost talent because young people don’t want to work here. We’ve lost them because we make entry confusing, advancement opaque and commitment one-sided. If you want talent to stay, you have to show them where this career goes, how they get started and who is personally invested in their success. Most organizations stop well short of that.

Most organizations are investing in career fairs, internships and panels to attract young professionals. Why do you believe these efforts are failing, or perhaps even making the problem worse?

Warwick: Because they prioritize visibility over responsibility.

Career fairs and panels are easy to execute and easy to justify internally, but they rarely create continuity. Students meet professionals once, hear success stories without context and are then left to navigate the rest on their own. Internships often help, but too many are poorly structured, unpaid or disconnected from long-term opportunity.

They make organizations feel like they’re “doing something,” but they rarely answer the questions students actually care about: Who will advocate for me? What happens after today? What does success look like in year one, three, five?

When there’s no follow-through, no mentorship and no accountability on either side, these efforts can actually reinforce the idea that the industry isn’t serious about developing people, it’s just sampling them.

Can you walk us through the key components of The Annabelle Project model and what makes them more effective than traditional recruitment strategies?

Warwick: The Annabelle Project is built around three core components: mentorship, access and accountability.

Each student is paired with an industry mentor who commits to an ongoing relationship, not a one-off conversation. Students are given real access to professionals, events and employers so they can see how the industry actually works, not just how it’s described. And both students and mentors are held accountable for preparation, communication and follow-through.

What makes this more effective is that it mirrors how careers actually develop: through relationships, exposure and consistent expectations, not through isolated touchpoints. We don’t treat students like inventory and the program isn’t charity. It’s professional development with standards.

You’ve specifically focused on students from HBCUs and Hispanic-serving institutions. Why was that intentional, and what have you learned about how these students engage with – or perceive – our industry?

Warwick: It was intentional because these students represent a deep pool of motivated, capable talent that the industry largely overlooks. These students aren’t lacking ambition or capability. They’re lacking proximity to the industry and people willing to open doors, and then stay involved after the door opens.

What I’ve learned is that once these students understand the scope of the events and exhibitions industry – and can see people like themselves succeeding in it – engagement isn’t the issue. Commitment follows quickly when opportunity feels real and support feels genuine. The barrier was never ambition; it was proximity.

If the industry is serious about diversity and talent retention, it has to stop fishing in the same ponds and wondering why the results don’t change.

What does career momentum look like in practice, and how do you measure whether someone has moved from “industry-curious” to “industry-committed”?

Warwick: Career momentum shows up in behavior. Students move from asking, What is this industry? to asking, What role should I pursue?

They start intentionally researching companies, following up professionally, seeking feedback and showing up ready to contribute. They take ownership of their development rather than waiting to be selected.

We measure commitment by consistency: sustained engagement with mentors, proactive communication and concrete next steps like internships, entry-level roles or continued involvement in industry organizations.

What’s the biggest misconception organizations have about attracting young professionals? And, if an organization can only make one change to how they approach young professional recruitment, what would you tell them to do first and why would that shift matter most?

Warwick: The biggest misconception is that branding alone will do the work. Students don’t need more messaging about how “exciting” events are. They need proof that this industry will invest in them the way it expects them to invest their time and energy.

Stop treating recruitment as an event and start treating it as a relationship. Provide clear expectations, real mentorship and early wins. Have honest conversations about money, growth and opportunity. When those things are present, commitment follows.

One meaningful mentor relationship will do more than ten panels or a hundred résumés collected at a career fair. When a student knows someone is personally invested in their growth and that there’s a clear path forward, the industry stops being abstract and starts being real. That shift is where retention begins.

What will attendees walk away with from the webinar?

Warwick: A practical framework and a mirror.

We’ll break down exactly how the Annabelle Project model works, where traditional initiatives quietly fail, and what organizations can do differently without building massive new programs or budgets.

But more importantly, attendees will have to confront a hard question: Are we actually building careers or just checking boxes?

If the answer makes you uncomfortable, that’s where the real work starts.

Click here to register for Getting Young Professionals Into the Events Industry: The Annabelle Project Case Study and learn more about upcoming IAEE webinars here.

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