Panama. At the Sheraton Hotel in Panama City, the award day of the Central America Quality Summit 2021 was held, organized by the Latin American Quality Institute (LAQI), where business leaders from all over Central America met, representing companies and organizations from different sectors in products and services.
As part of this activity, the engineers Luis Alberto Cabareda and Juan José Cabareda were recognized as Central American entrepreneurs of the year 2021, and their company, Ten Tu Evento (Jabes Holding, S.A), was awarded the award of "Central American Company of the Year 2021", in the sector of Organization and Production of High-Level Corporate Events
AVI Latin America spoke with Cabareda engineers about the recognition and panorama of a sector that has been hit hard by the pandemic.
AVI: What were the reasons for granting the recognition to Ten Tu Evento?
Luis Cabareda: LAQI is a private non-profit organization, whose purpose is to promote and support the competitiveness of Latin American companies and organizations, LAQI conducts opinion studies, surveys and periodic evaluations of different companies under the LAEM methodology (Latin American Excellence Model) that establishes standards and procedures oriented to quality and it is through these criteria that it is determined which companies can aspire to the award and finally, who can reach it.
LAQI within its evaluation, determined that Ten Tu Evento met the requirements set forth and that we finally represented the organizational culture of excellence in quality and service that they wish to promote.
AVI: Tell us briefly about the history of the company
Juan Cabareda: Previously when a company held an event, its organizers faced many problems in the logistical, communicative, coordination, financial order, and especially in service levels since they had to contact different suppliers who worked differently and without coordination with each other; this ranged from the audiovisual theme, scenographies, furniture, structures, prints, content creation, videos, graphic design, websites, protocol staff among others.
It is there where in 2010 Ten Tu Evento was born with a concept of "Integral Services for Corporate Events", giving the option to all organizations to have all these items in a single company, professionally addressing all stages of the planning and execution of the event. All this, having a clear focus on customer service, giving quick and timely answers, and having as one of the added values, the willingness to get involved in advising on the best solutions to the client for your event.
AVI: What is the company's focus and in which Latin American countries does it have a presence?
Luis Cabareda: Our first focus is the client, we always review what are the latest trends and needs of the sector and we work to be able to offer the solutions with the greatest impact for the objective they are looking for. Secondly, we have a constant development of the staff in each of the operational, technical and administrative areas to develop the events effectively and offer you a positive service experience in contact with us. Finally, the acquisition of cutting-edge technological and quality equipment that guarantees a high-altitude experience.
Our headquarters are located in Panama City, as an international connection point, it has allowed us to provide services in events to important private companies, NGOs and government in the United States, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Trinidad Tobago.
AVI: The events sector has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. How quickly do you see the recovery of the sector?
Juan Cabareda: we know that the events sector as a face-to-face activity was one of the most affected sectors, however, in the global aspect, other solutions were promoted for companies in their need to continue communicating with their collaborators and with their public such as hybrid and virtual events.
The sector has enormous potential that has broken down geographical barriers and changed the game, only in this case players have had to adapt to the new scenario and this process carries a learning curve which not everyone has traveled. To the extent that both organizations understand the need for this model, which is already a trend, and event companies adapt to the new reality, the sector will resume its momentum by placing itself in the important place it has always had. This is a big challenge that has a positive outlook for the future in the short term.
AVI: Virtual and hybrid events have been the option to continue with meetings during the pandemic, are they here to stay?
Luis Cabareda: Totally. The pandemic caused the transition that had been taking place progressively to hybrid and virtual events to accelerate drastically. Previously about 20% of the events were transmitted virtually, today that figure can reach 80% and will continue in that way because the vast majority of companies have seen the added value of being able to disseminate their events in different channels to complement physical meetings.
I believe that hybrid events will be the norm from now on because the human being has the need to connect physically, but also to be able to be more effective and productive with time and resources, so hybrid events are an ideal solution to achieve both objectives.
