Unlocking Leadership: With Phill Hirons from TechEx Events

Welcome to our ‘Unlocking Leadership’ series, where we tap into the wisdom of some of the most inspiring founders, leaders and creative minds of today. Explore insider stories, strategies and insights, as we unlock the secrets of successful leadership.

Meet Phill Hirons, a passionate events professional and the new Managing Director for TechEx Events, a global series of exhibitions that brings together thousands of executives from across the enterprise technology ecosystem.

Phill began his career in the Royal Air Force as an aerospace battle manager and political liaison officer. Whilst in the role, he spent 18 months leading the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme, and organised a series of events aimed at strengthening the relationship between UK government and UK and NATO forces. It was at this point he discovered his real passion lay with events and connecting people.

Following roles in some of the world’s leading events companies, including Clarion, IQPC and Informa, Phill joined TechEx in 2024 to head up the growth and expansion of their portfolio.

Having recently moved to the coast in South Wales, he splits his spare time between family, the beach and his love of sport (football, rugby and NFL, among others!). He also has a keen interest in fitness, travel and cooking.

Here, he shares his strategies on empowering employees, inspirational leaders within the industry, and what’s exciting him most about the future of the tech event space…

What are three core principles that guide your approach to leadership?

PH: I’m the type of person who naturally reverts to gut instinct, so over the years I’ve forced myself to rely on data more frequently than feels natural. As humans, we often create and manipulate narratives to fit with our desired outcomes, so by collating raw data first (and not simply building datasets to fit with any one assumption) you can begin to rely more on fact and less on trying to prove theories.

Secondly, I’m a big believer in people buying from people, so building rapport and creating long-lasting, meaningful customer and client relationships is incredibly important to me — even more so as we’re operating in a world which looks to automate as much as possible.

Finally, and for me, this is the most important – be open, honest and transparent. It’s a small world, especially within the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) industry and whatever your aim, you need people to help you achieve it. You need to build a culture that’s conducive to collaboration, both within your own organisation and externally too; being open, honest and transparent is central to this.

How do you foster a culture of innovation and creativity within your TechEx Events team?

I think this needs to be a mix of the environment you create versus specific tools and training you provide. One thing I’ve taken from a former business is using debrief and/or ideation sessions to create team buy-in across any event you’re putting together. This starts with some form of anonymous questionnaire to differentiate between a collective issue and individual preferences. From this, it’s a workshop which focuses on what’s going great, what needs to change and what people would love to see included.

The final step is creating an interactive, fun and visual strategy to bring this to life. I’ve found by doing this, you’re able to re-position the team around a series of common goals and encourage ideas from all parts of the business — irrespective of their experience, age, background or seniority. The best ideas don’t always come from the same people!  It’s also important to find ways to encourage everyone to contribute, not just those with the loudest voices or strongest opinions.

From a cultural perspective, it’s about empowering your employees, encouraging new concepts and initiatives and allowing people the freedom to make mistakes — and learn from them. This isn’t easy, nor does it happen overnight. We’re not where we want to be quite yet, but progress is certainly happening, and operating as a scale-up, now is the best time to engrain this into the DNA of the business.

How are you promoting diversity, equity and inclusion within your team and across the events you manage?

Internally, we strive to create an environment where everyone’s voice is heard and more importantly, valued. It’s our job as a management to actively listen and continue to encourage open discussion. I also believe in customisation and accommodating the needs of the team so that they can feel comfortable, secure and productive.

There are naturally some limitations to this, but experience tells me that in most instances, if you invest in the needs of the team, it creates a ripple-effect and in turn fosters a more inclusive environment and develops a sense of belonging within the wider team.

Externally, it can be tricky, but we have a duty of care to our audiences and the industries they represent. Visiting other events, working with steering committees and of course, listening to feedback helps us put these initiatives into practice. So, whether that’s catering to all food preferences, ensuring prayer rooms are available onsite, going paperless, creating diverse and inclusive content and everything in between, we want our audience to feel valued, both personally and professionally.

What are you most excited about in terms of upcoming opportunities or innovations being explored within the tech event space?

AI is the obvious one, and for good reason. There’s just so much it can do across all teams to help us enhance our events, both physically and digitally. But outside of this I’d say it’s those innovations that are focused on creating meaningful networks. For me, the real value in events lies in networking opportunities, and as such it’s the tools that help us improve these experiences that I’m most excited about.

Social amplification tools are a great way to leverage your existing communities and reach a wider audience, especially when you’re able to do this using your existing brand advocates. I also believe in making interactions as easy as possible, so I’m excited by the opportunities technologies are bringing to us that can help us personalise and improve onsite networking as well as engage large parts of the audience who might feel overwhelmed in large crowds.

I’ve also recently seen some cool immersive experiences, which bridge the physical and virtual realms, so I can see advancements in things such as VR and AR becoming a need-to-have, not just a nice-to-have in the coming years.

What is one of the biggest challenges within the industry today, and how are you navigating this?

There are a lot of challenges, but competitive advantage is probably the biggest. There’s a lot of competition – good competition – from the largest MICE businesses in the world; incredible independent agencies, great content-focused niche events, large tradeshows and everything in-between — many backed by P-E or VC funds that recognise the opportunities our industry possesses. So how, amongst all that competition, do you differentiate yourself?

Our focus is on connecting people through better networking, compelling content, industry partnerships and creating the right environment – digitally or onsite. We listen to our markets and bring to life something that’s interesting, relevant and ultimately of value to them.

RELATED: TechEx Events: Bringing new ideas to life at Olympia London

The other major challenge is an industry-wide issue of recognition. Exhibition News posted a great article on this back in January, which underlined the strength of the industry in the domestic market. In short, the UK is undoubtedly the world leader in this sector with six of the top 10 largest organisers being British, including the top three. Our industry is worth $100bn globally and yet almost everyone who works in our field fell into it by accident! Raising the profile of our industry is vital, not just to our short-term success but the long-term health of our industry. How we overcome this hurdle as an industry is something I’ll leave up to those far more knowledgeable and experienced than me!

What’s the best piece of career advice that you’ve received?

Control the controllables. We’re lucky enough to operate across multiple industries, cultures,
geos and time-zones, with so many external factors. The focus needs to be on the process and
influencing those areas we can control, not worrying about those we can’t. It’s something a
former boss and mentor, John Geenty, used to say to his management team and it has always
stuck with me.

Which leaders inspire you?

As a sports fanatic it’s hard to look past the most dominant players and coaches – the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady etc. Those leaders who not only inspired their colleagues, but inspired their teams/franchises, who in turn breathed life into their towns and fanbases. Beyond this, in the biggest sporting showcases such as the Olympics, there are athletes who inspire generations and transcend beyond the sport itself, so there’s almost too many examples to draw on there!

From an events perspective though, it’s the serial entrepreneurs. The likes of Jonathan Weiner and Anil Aggarwal definitely spring to mind. They’ve founded and subsequently sold numerous shows, including Money 20/20, HLTH and Shoptalk — all industry-leading shows in their own right. To create and sell one business is impressive, to do this multiple times, with the success rate they’ve seen — and in competitive landscapes — is incredible. In my eyes, they’ve quite literally created the blueprint for success when building and scaling events.

How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance?

I place a lot of intrinsic value in exercise, so factoring that in four to five times a week is incredibly important to me. I work in Bristol three days a week and live in Wales, so I build exercise into my schedule around my bigger priorities – family and work – but I still find the time to do it as I know this helps me relax mentally. I’m also a firm believer in Brian Tracy’s ‘Eat That Frog’ mantra, by confronting the most challenging task of the day first to boost productivity and create a structured environment that allows me to work effectively – I’m easily distracted, so this has been a life-saver!

Ultimately, there’s no one silver bullet – or at least none that I’ve found – it’s just a question of
being disciplined, prioritising effectively and being kind to yourself and your loved ones. I
recently became a father for the first time, so I’m not sure I can pretend to have a perfect work-
life balance just yet, but I still try to find plenty of time to spend with my family as well as having
some ‘me time’ – even if that’s a simple as going for a walk and listening to my favourite podcast.

“It’s just a question of being disciplined, prioritising effectively and being kind to yourself and your loved ones.” 

What has been a personal career highlight?

Prior to events I was an officer in the Royal Air Force and spent 18 months as the lead on the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme, developing a better relationship between UK government and UK and NATO forces. As part of this, I became involved in the Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo, in which I had the honour of escorting HRH Queen Elizabeth II – not for the whole day, just a quick salute and then to the Royal box but that was pretty special!

I’ve also been fortunate to work for some incredible businesses, travel the world and meet true pioneers in many different industries. Seeing the impact these events can have and the value they bring is why I can’t see myself leaving the industry. My personal career highlights are centred on seeing those people you hire, train and develop flourish into leaders. Investing the time into others, bringing out their strengths and developing talent will always bring me the most career satisfaction. In any organisation, your people are your foundation, so why wouldn’t you want to make those foundations as strong as possible?

Finally, what’s a favourite motto that you often draw on?

Someone who I worked for previously used to say that ‘Someone’s greatest strength is knowing where they’re weakest’, and that has resonated with me ever since. I use this when developing event strategies, when hiring and when looking at growth opportunities. It forces us to ask the difficult questions and accept that we have flaws, even when we don’t want to admit they exist. It can make for some tough conversations, but it ensures you tackle those things that are likely holding you and the team back from achieving bigger and better things.