The Event Services and Supplier Association (ESSA) has announced the launch of its talent and recruitment hub, a permanent online repository of assets and collateral to support and promote the event industry as a career of choice for young people.

Chris Criscione, ESSA Chair Events Industry Alliance (EIA) chair and managing director of Equinox Design, made the announcement, saying “Now everyone will have the material they need to make a compelling case for careers in the event industry. ESSA has invested in this initiative to help companies campaign and spread the word about the breadth and variety of the career paths in events."

Andrew Harrison, ESSA director, welcomed the launch saying, “The Talent and Recruitment Hub is the culmination of a great deal of hard work, and it gives us a valuable springboard for our campaign to recruit young talent into event services. We’ll keep adding more content for everyone to use as part of their efforts to attract career starters into the industry.”
As part of the launch, ESSA is also promoting its vacancies board to members, providing a focused resource for job-seekers, careers advisors and employment agencies, and helping them to match the right applicants to the right positions.
“We must engage our own communities,” continued Criscione, “and talk to universities, colleges and schools, as well as the undergraduates, sixth-formers and schoolchildren. Once they understand what the industry is and the huge variety of roles and opportunities, you can see their interest ignite. The Hub means we can all promote our industry in consistent, positive way using these free resources.”

Criscione, as Equinox MD, has been practising this kind of outreach locally in Leeds for many years, and believes that the Hub will make that job easier. “Some videos have a general focus, others go into more detail about particular skills or roles, and as The Hub expands, every business should be able to find the material they need to promote careers within their particular sector,” he concluded.