Why EFI, now?

[I would like this to be a series of colourful boxes, which can be flipped to reveal detail].

  • We have no single international, independent Not-For-Profit institute representing our collective voice and harnessing the collective intelligence of all those in the events & festival industry across different types, sizes, sectors, geographies etc and the valuable crossover and insights between all event sectors, for the benefit of all - from EFI’s ‘The Art & Science of Events & Festivals’ Original Research; Insights articles; Symposiums; to our Spotify Podcast.

  • Our industry is dynamic and growing, fast. EFI’s collective intelligence bring us together to highlight and tackles some of the biggest issues and challenges events and festivals face, as illustrated through our industry generated “challenges map”.

  • Sustainability is critical to everything we do, the question is: what are the quick wins; deeper and longer changes required; and the barriers to being economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable. Every EFI ‘Sustainability’ activity and resource aligns to 1 or more of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and provides evidence-based insights to help decision making.

  • There is a global skills shortage: from the bottom to the top - EFI’s ‘Road to Director’ initiative helps provide a structure learning and development pathway for all, especially for the next generation of 16+ school and college leavers and 21+ university graduates.

  • Education, for individual students and organisations, can be expensive - EFI has committed to providing 100+ free open-access 15 hour courses, EFI Certified, with a certificate of completion, covering all events and festivals related topics. EFI also has a jobs board to help you learn for free whilst at the same time as earning money and developing your career in the events and festival industry.

  • Bridging the industry and expertise with the academy and world-leading university research, intelligence, education and scholarship has never been so important - everything EFI does and produces aims to bring these two important communities of knowledge together to improve how we think about and practice events and festivals, from strategy, to planning, design, execution, to evaluation, legacy and making them work for the people and the places that play host — by doing so shifting how we do events from “Good” to “Great”. We believe that integrating the 5Vs - 1) ‘Volume’ (collecting big(ger) data sets), 2) ‘Variety’ (triangulating data sets to provide a more nuanced picture), 3) ‘Velocity’ (collecting data quickly to be as relevant as possible), 4) ‘Value’ (to ensure the data we collect aligns well to our aims), to 5) 'enhance ‘Veracity’ (the truthfulness of what we can and can’t say) - together being more scientific in our approach to knowledge and insights, which can help us answer “if this, then that” challenge.

  • Our industry has no single internationally recognised professional development and recognition scheme reflecting the complex knowledge, skills and competencies events and festival industry. EFI’s ‘Fellowships’ initiative, underpinned by the ‘EFI Development Framework’ provides the recognition those working in the events and festivals industry deserves and help attract and retain talent in the industry and avoid ‘brain drain’ - still the after effect of COVID-19.. Professionalising the industry in this way is critical to improve the way events and festivals are planned and delivered to prevent 1000s of deaths and injuries that occur - saving lives and improving livelihoods.

  • There is no single “Oscars” style award for all those working in the events and festival industry, celebrating the world’s best in class - from “Best Director”, “Best Production Team”, “Best Ceremony”, “Best Experience”, “Best Scholarship”, “Best Outcomes” for various sub categories, from “Inclusion” to “Community Engagement” - EFI launches the “EFIees” (pronounced “eefees”), taking place on 19 June 2026, with nominations open from 3 January 2026.

  • A global network for a global industry - EFI is the world’s biggest events and festival network combined of practitioners, policy makers, governments, NGOs, charities, students to scholars. Tap in to a bigger network than you’ve ever been part of through our intellect;, business and networking events and opportunities.