• May 11, 2026

The Next Gen Edit: Honest Conversations on Pressure, People and Progress

The Next Gen Edit: Honest Conversations on Pressure, People and Progress

The Next Gen Edit: Honest Conversations on Pressure, People and Progress 1024 683 micebook.

In this latest Next Gen Edit, Sophie Burn, content and communications manager at XSEM and a member of the micebook Shadow Board, shares her reflections from the group’s recent session at The Ampersand, exploring the realities of leadership, pressure and progression in today’s events industry.

If there is a shared thread running through the events industry right now, it is how much is being asked of teams in terms of speed, thinking and delivery. The latest micebook Shadow Board event felt like a timely moment to step back and properly unpack that with people who are living it day to day.

We kicked off with an honest temperature check around the room, with people refreshingly open about what is currently taking up most of their headspace. Three themes surfaced almost immediately: resourcing pressures, rising client expectations around speed, and the ongoing challenge of maintaining some form of work-life balance as an aspiring leader in an industry that rarely switches off at 5.30pm.

Resourcing was a major talking point. Not in a dramatic “everything is broken” sense, but more a shared acknowledgement that teams are being asked to do more with less, and at an increasing pace. That naturally fed into client expectations, which now often sit somewhere between urgent and “can we have this yesterday”, but without the sense that it is said in jest.

What made the conversation particularly valuable was being in a room with people facing similar pressures across different agencies. It created a genuine sense of perspective and shared understanding. Rather than viewing these as isolated challenges, the discussion shifted towards how others are approaching them, what is working, what is not, and where there is opportunity to adapt or support one another.

The tone then shifted with a presentation from the Monaco Convention Bureau. Beyond the obvious appeal of the destination, it served as a useful reminder of the power of storytelling in destination marketing. It is not just about selling a place, but about shaping perception and, at times, challenging the assumptions we bring into a brief without even realising it.

For me, the most valuable part of the session came from hearing honest insights from the leaders of Yellowfish, Top Banana and Nteractive. Each shared reflections on leadership and their own career journeys, and there was a refreshing lack of polish. It felt grounded, open and very human.

A few key themes stood out. Firstly, nobody progresses without taking risks. Not recklessly, but in recognising that growth often comes from stepping into something before you feel fully ready and trusting your experience to carry you through.

Secondly, people really are central to agency life. Not as a corporate cliché, but in a practical, everyday sense. The best ideas, strongest client relationships and healthiest cultures all come back to the quality of the people involved, and how well they are supported and empowered.

Finally, leadership was consistently framed as vision over task management. Organisation matters, but the core of the role lies in setting direction, building belief and helping people understand where they are going, not just what they are doing.

What I took away from the afternoon was not a list of grand revelations, but something more useful: a sense of shared experience. The challenges are real, but so is the ambition. There is something reassuring about being in a room where people are openly figuring it out, rather than pretending they already have all the answers.

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