On the necessity of transformation

A look back to the future

After a long and challenging year in which many a company had to overcome major hurdles, the light at the end of the tunnel is at least becoming more visible. A new normal is gaining more and more stature. In live communication as well.

Our agency POMMEREL Live-Marketing took the time to look back to the future and put a few questions to our managing director Reinhard Pommerel.

Reinhard, what has been driving you in the last few months as Managing Director of POMMEREL Live-Marketing?

Like so many in our industry, we have faced major challenges. After the initial “Nothing goes anymore!”, we had to develop ideas above all on how we as an agency, but also as an industry, could react to the constantly changing specifications. Entrepreneurial vision and our fundamental will to innovate were very important in the early stages of the pandemic. After all, we didn’t just want to keep up, we wanted to be one step ahead of changes, if possible, or shape them ourselves.

We designed new, innovative hybrid event formats for our clients and also developed our very own hybrid format with POM NOW 2020 “Time for Change!”. This event has opened our eyes wide to possible future scenarios and development possibilities for live communication. We are in a gigantic transformation process! This is true not only for our industry, but for the entire business world – and even for very fundamental questions about how we all want to interact, work, communicate and even live with each other.

How would you describe your work during this time?

I would call it transformation work. At the level of our industry representation, we have jointly developed state-of-the-art hygiene concepts for a new normal of live communication. We are currently working on a possible digital implementation. The work, moderated by the RIFEL Institute, aims to identify a possible exit strategy and outline how business events can be conducted safely in the post-coronal era, thus enabling a re-launch of the events industry.

We have also been very close to our clients over the past year. We did a lot of consulting work to accompany our clients – companies and public institutions – in the long term in their transformation process towards digital live communication. However, we also converted analogue events into hybrid or digital events in a very concrete way and at very short notice. For example, despite the adverse circumstances, the Helene Lange Award ceremony of the EWE Foundation and the 100th anniversary of the VHS Oldenburg were very successful.

What are customers particularly concerned about at the moment?

We are currently encountering transformation processes and the development of new communication formats in a wide variety of sectors. We are working on new formats for one of the world’s largest project developers for commercial real estate, for e-commerce in medium-sized wholesale and for the finance and insurance industry in northern Germany. Gamification as a component of digital communication plays an elementary role here. We work with great partners who develop customised blended learning platforms or gaming and event apps for our purposes, for example. However, these projects are by no means only about exciting live formats, but also about the question of how companies can approach their markets, customers and employees despite the lockdown in order to achieve their strategic goals. We develop new formats that have a turnover-increasing effect, but we also focus on employee motivation, which has a positive effect on corporate culture.

In addition, we work with city councils and public institutions. Here, the focus is primarily on projects with very fundamental objectives: How do we shape urban coexistence? How do we achieve a revitalisation and conversion of our inner cities?

And almost incidentally, we have also succeeded in adapting work processes in our agency to the changed circumstances and – this has been particularly important to us – to digitalise and make them more flexible in the long term.

What lessons do you take away from the last few months?

A first conclusion looks at our own work. Our ability to not only adapt to changes, but to stay one step ahead of them if possible, has grown enormously. Our agency can act in an immensely versatile and flexible way.

We have always been convinced that changeability ensures a high degree of sustainability. This is the only way to permanently face change and even productively shape it with the help of new business models. Transformation is a long process that demands a lot of energy. The Regnose principle developed by Matthias Horx is a constant companion in our strategic thinking and actions. It has made us even better at anticipating possible future scenarios, developing options for action and acting accordingly in a targeted manner.

What does that mean for your clients?

We talk a lot with our clients about the importance of changeability for resilience. No one should expect that we will sail through calmer waters in the future or that everything will go back to the way it was before Corona. Through this understanding, as well as through the process of experience and learning, we have succeeded not only in managing our own transformation, but also in being a valuable partner for our clients’ transformation processes.

The questions to Reinhard Pommerel were put by Christine Post
Project Management and Conception at POMMEREL Live-Marketing

­Yes, I want to …

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