Hearts & Minds: Don’t let your guard down in conference season

A senior executive of a famous drink brand was in huge demand at industry events and conferences. He was a ‘character’, admired for his track record and experience, enormously entertaining and given to telling amusing anecdotes. Often, he would be asked to speak or if not, and he went anyway, he would be singled out by other delegates and journalists. His days would end, late at night, with him in a bar, regaling the crowd with his memories and views. He would be asked about a sector development or sometimes what he thought of such and such a politician. Back would come a witty tale or a forceful opinion.

Lately, though they’d found their way into social media. That was provoking consternation on high. Having one of their number being quoted about the drinks trade was one thing; but seeing him criticising the country’s leaders in the most derogatory terms, that was quite another.

Welcome to the nightmare of the conference season. This week it’s the annual property fest of MIPIM and doubtless several folks will leave Cannes today or tomorrow with sore heads and tales to tell. Likewise, there will be comms teams hoping that accounts of the goings-on don’t reach a wider audience. In the case of the alcohol company, they asked a media trainer to lay it on thick, to tell the legendary veteran to be more careful and to understand that those reporters who were buying him a nightcap and claiming to be his friend were also on duty – they were there to get stories.

Budgets are tighter these days and delegations are smaller, but the annual get-togethers and dinners can still be a headache. You wish your people to be there, to make useful contacts, to stay on top of trends, to spot openings and leads. Chance encounters can be invaluable. Equally, you hope they behave and don’t say or do something that may come back to haunt them and the firm. Next week there will be CEOs and comms teams giving thanks that MIPIM has been and gone without incident.

It may smack of nannying, but you need to remind those colleagues who are going to watch what they’re doing and saying. They might not appreciate it, but the warning should stick. It doesn’t have to be brutal and off-putting but simply alerting them to the dangers.

You don’t want to end up like one chief who would patrol the bars rounding up his team and sending them to bed. That would be too much. But a modicum of discretion and common sense is still required.

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.