Geoff Donaghy, CEO of ICC Sydney and group director of convention centres at ASM Global (APAC), concludes his impactful 30-year tenure with ASM Global this month. The award-winning chief looks back on how he played a part in propelling the business events industry forward amid some of its most challenging times
What are your reflections on a career that has spanned significant evolution in the business events industry?
I have been too busy to think about it but now it is August, I can see the finishing line. Although I do see it more as a next chapter, which might look like sleeping for a week or two to start!
We have gone through many phases: pre-opening, launching, Covid recovery, and contract extension negotiations. We are now at a point where it is crucial to step back and thoroughly reassess our approaches, embracing the cliché, ‘if it’s not broken, let’s break it,’ to adapt and evolve. I won’t be directly involved in this next phase but the market is rapidly changing, and the whole value system of the industry is evolving significantly.
But the industry’s journey has been terrific, and I feel privileged to have been a part of it, and to have helped ICC Sydney reach where it is today.
Few leaders have achieved as much in this industry as you have. What do you put your success and longevity down to?
Well, thanks for the kind words but my success has to be judged by other people. That was probably a big realisation I had very early in my career as a manager before I got into the venue business, which I have been in for 30 years now.
So jumping forward, I do not cook any meals or write event plans. If I was going to do anything in my career and devote as much of my time, energy and mental contribution, it was to work very hard to find the best people. Through a concept of CV plus chemistry – which underpins all of our recruitment programmes – we work very hard to give our staff the best circumstances to get even better. Care and kindness have been foundational in my approach because it is all about people.
Our venue is located in one of the most dynamic and beautiful settings in the world. However, the greatest risk of a negative impression relates to people. We regularly survey our clients and delegates, and run at close to 99 per cent satisfaction ratings. They might mention the building, but they talk about the people and how our team cared about them, their success, safety and security, and their enjoyment.
Have you ever had a blinding revelation, a moment of unexpected insight that had a profound impact on your professional journey?
Actually, there is, now that I think about it. It came during my time in the tourism industry in North Queensland. It was the early days of the Cairns Convention Centre, the first regional centre established outside a capital city in Australia, which presented significant challenges.
We had many ambitious plans, but reality struck when we opened the doors and realised that only half of them worked. So I had to make a whole lot of big changes. And people get excited by the big changes but after they buy in, you have the challenge of keeping people focused and motivated.
I was spending a lot of time in Japan at the time and I read about the concept of kaizen – small, constant improvement. And the story I read was in the early stages of the industrialisation of Japan and there was a business deal with an American company.
The American company said they would tolerate 10 per cent of the products they bought being defective. The Japanese people were very puzzled by that and went back to the Americans and said, we can deliver your product. But why on earth would you want us to make 10 per cent of them defective?
That was a bit of a blinding revelation to me, and out of that came the concept of constant small improvement or CSI, a phrase I coined that resonated and got embedded in Cairns, and then in Sydney.
I also extended the CSI acronym to mean the Client’s Success is Imperative, because when you are fully committed to a client’s success, you will be successful by automatic association. It also stood for Creative Solutions Invented because we know there is a solution for every issue presented. There is no reason to be paralysed by problems. The two biggest variables are time and money, and the best solution is the one you come up with.
What do you believe has been your biggest or most meaningful contribution to the industry?
Probably two parts. First was being able to lead the team through Covid, to retain, sadly not our full team, but very close to it. We worked with our owners and were probably one of the few convention centres in the country, if not the only one, that did not formally close. We kept people occupied and had the most meticulous storerooms in the country. We did a lot to keep as many people in place so that when things turned and came back, we were able to respond immediately and deliver those events.
Second, it was also an incredible privilege to play a part in the industry, serving as chair of what was BECA (Business Events Council of Australia) and then, during Covid, as deputy chair, along with my role in AIPC (International Association of Convention Centres) as chair.
I say privilege because that is another value I hold dear. As you know, ICC Sydney is an A$1.5 billion (US$1 billion) project delivered through the financial model of a private-public partnership (PPP), but I also took that acronym and made sure the staff understood that PPP also stood for Purpose, People, and Privilege. I like to do things in threes, apparently. But if you do not understand that you are in a very privileged position, that is when the sense of entitlement can come in, and that breeds arrogance. Clients will pick up on that pretty quickly.
What do you see as the key challenges and opportunities for the industry’s future and the next CEO?
The industry’s future is marked by an accelerating rate of change, increasing demands for sustainability, and the potential impact of AI and technology. The next CEO will need to deeply understand the importance of people and maintaining a strong culture. It is a dynamic space, and adaptability will be crucial. We must stay ahead of evolving client expectations and the constant evolution of events.
The new CEO will be coming into an incredibly well-established senior leadership team. We have got some of the best people in each of the streams that make up the nine or 10 divisions within the convention centre. We quite deliberately grouped those right at the start into three functional areas for the outcomes of winning events, running events, and supporting events.
Just as people’s technology in their own homes is constantly improving, so are their expectations when they come to a place like a convention centre, which needs to be so much better than what they can experience at home or in the cinemas. That is something the team here will work on.
Do you have a favourite memory from your time in this industry?
I often get asked that. And I am tempted to say, the best memory is the last successful event we ran. But it is probably the first big international event that we had at ICC Sydney, which was the big world banking event, SIBOS. We undertook the whole planning, bidding, and negotiations for that well before the construction even started for ICC Sydney, and it was the very first time SIBOS had chosen a venue that had not been up and running and had a track record. So they put a whole lot of trust in us.
I remember standing in the foyer, quietly in the background, when those delegates started arriving and seeing the different cultures represented by delegates from all around the world, coming together for a common purpose, and that probably reinforced to me what this business was all about.
What do you think you will be feeling when your last day arrives on August 30 and what are your plans moving forward?
I have mixed feelings about retirement and while I am stepping down from full-time duties, I am still in negotiations for a potential ongoing role for a short period. But I take pride in the impact I have had, particularly in selecting and supporting a great team. Beyond that, I look forward to spending a whole day reading a book instead of just grabbing bits here and there, and listening to a whole symphony all the way through.
I leave with an overwhelming sense of pride and satisfaction and if I accept credit for anything, it has been the ability to select and put together a team, and supporting them to be fantastic contributors in their allocated responsibility. I have been involved in so many buildings but at the end of the day, it is the people that made the difference in my life. I run into people who worked with me 10 to 20 years ago and it still gives me satisfaction when they tell me how much they learned from me.
