Sarah Jayne Portelli

Skyrocketing Malta’s Events Towards an Innovative Future Event planning in Malta has gone through an unpredictable yet epic journey over the last fourteen months. The ban on public events only further enticed patrons to expect the return of their favourite events once Malta could safely regain some sense of normality. Meanwhile, Malta’s performance artists craved a creative outlet, wanting to return to the stage and entertain the masses. Behind the scenes, event organisers worked tirelessly. They planned for the uncertain future of events, which ties in heavily with the tourism sector in Malta, while also adapting to the safety protocols. What this ‘new normal’ required was adopting an innovative point of view as an unavoidable pause took hold of Malta’s events sector. Keeping all this in mind, the Malta Tourism Authority, the organisers of Malta’s biggest events, including the annual favourites Malta Rocks, Malta International Fireworks Festival, and Malta Airshow, seized every opportunity to expand. The events team at Malta Tourism Authority comprises a tight-knit group of just six people, including director of events, Lionel Gerarda. When you meet Lionel it doesn’t take you long to realise he’s a people person with passion driving all aspects of his life. He faces each day and any challenges positively, taking inspiration from his late mother. “Mum always taught me we live in a crazy world. But it’s either you're going to be crazy and have fun in it, or to fight the system. You can never win, so take everything with a pinch of salt.” The former DJ became a fashion designer for Bortex Fine Tailoring’s women’s line over a year-long stint, despite no formal training. “I always had the creative side, like drawing things up and designing, and I always tried to invent things. I love to paint... and to design a lot of things. But of course, it wasn't my line of work.” Next, Lionel undertook sound engineering with an events company, leading him to study online and later move to Berlin for eight months. On returning to Malta, qualified as a sound engineer, he worked in the gaming industry due to a lack of opportunities in the events sector. Finally, in 2017, Lionel found his fit with the Malta Tourism Authority. He would go on to change the face of events on the island. While reflecting on his six and a half year career as a club DJ, Lionel said, “an important part of it is that you need to understand that people are saving their money. People are going to buy clothes, people are doing their hair and doing everything for this day/night out”. Unselfishly, he admitted, “of course, it doesn’t matter about what you're passing through in your personal life. You need to go there and make people have fun. That was always on my mind.” Bringing events to Malta, promoting fun and good vibes, and seeing the island stand alone as a unique European destination for live events, is important to Lionel. “I always said it and made it clear that Malta cannot be the next Ibiza. Malta is Malta. We always kept that in mind, that we need to do things right. First, you need to see that it will not create a burden for the Maltese residents or for the Maltese infrastructure.” Although the Malta Tourism Authority events team aims to attract interest from various countries, a majority of the target audience for Maltese events is British. Lionel says it’s because the British have a similar social mentality to the Maltese. They go out dancing no matter if they are twenty-five or fifty years old and have a fun-seeker drive. Plus, the price of alcohol on the island is more attractive than in the UK. While the rise of prestigious dining options in Malta, including Michelin star restaurants, is attracting the Italian clientele. The Italians seek the finer details; how food is presented on the plate, the design of the establishment and the quality ingredients of the dish. With a vested interest in events, a positive attitude, and a passion for life shining through everything that Lionel does, it’s understandable that he gels well with his hardworking events team. To Lionel they are family as they hang out together after work, attend events, watch movies and dine out as a group. They also kept each other company during Malta’s public shutdown. Ultimately, it’s this camaraderie that saw them get through the event ban stronger than ever. During the hiatus, while still planning and producing events, Lionel and his team stayed united. “We ended up helping the enforcement unit. We went to check out restaurants just to keep ourselves busy, busy, busy,” Lionel shared. The focus was always to remain positive and flexible. To emerge out of the difficult period with a solid plan and even stronger, with more events planned, while going ahead with running events incorporating government health protocols. What came out from this reflective period was massive for the Malta Tourism Authority. An expansion of the events team to include a separate digital marketing and PR component also happened during the pandemic. The Malta Tourism Authority CEO gave Lionel six months to re-haul the website. The transition into digital marketing took some theoretical learning on Lionel’s part, for which he undertook a course. The first post-ban event Lionel and his events team produced and brought to Malta was a seated concert featuring Malta’s world recognised lyrical tenor, Joseph Calleja. Titled Joseph Calleja–Sanremo 70 years of Dreams, the event took place in early September at Floriana’s outdoor public space, The Granaries. The events team followed the government's health protocols for social distancing. They designated seats for a maximum of six people per group, a two-metre gap placed between each. Plus, a maximum bubble of 340 people for each section was mandatory. For Lionel and his team, this first event was the safest way to ease people back into the idea of once again going out and attending public events. Lionel understood the show's elderly demographic. The elderly were the most apprehensive about returning to live events, and also the demographic most hit financially by the pandemic. Viewing the event as an opportunity to gauge if people were interested in attending events again, plus being willing to invest their money, paid off. The event went well and Lionel felt overwhelmed with joy and achievement. The result gave his team confidence in moving forward towards upcoming planned events. There was a week's gap between the positive reception from the Joseph Calleja event and the next massive event to hit Malta; It’s a Kind of Magic–The Queen Story featuring the BBC Orchestra. During the gap between shows, Lionel found an opportunity to support Malta’s local talent. He gave the stage to the annual Malta Rocks concert featuring many local artists. When the announcement of It’s a Kind of Magic–The Queen Story featuring the BBC Orchestra, for a September 24th date hit, the ‘seated events only’ protocol still held up for all public events. There were 4000 eager attendees already with tickets and similar public safety protocols to the Joseph Calleja show were in place. Shortly after, something amazing happened for events in Malta, causing Lionel to act drastically. The ban on standing events was now lifted, but of course, with safety guidelines. Lionel was honest in sharing that he did the unthinkable. He sat together with his teammates and said, “Listen, this is a challenge. There's an appetite for standing events. Let's challenge ourselves. Let's change the event from a seated event into a standing event, offer a full refund for those that don't want to come to the event.” The risk paid off. Looking back, Lionel shares, “we created twenty-two metres by eight-metre bubbles, separated by two-metre corridors”. He laughs, “it was a logistical nightmare. But we made it possible. We split The Granaries like sausages. It was like a farm!” By creating bubbles made up of groups with a maximum of 100 people standing, which was protocol at the time for standing events, the event with eight-thousand people standing went ahead successfully. Each grouped off section had a separate entrance, a bar, waiters and public amenities, and included a temperature testing booth at the entrance. By following the government health guidelines, the Malta Tourism Authority events team avoided any Covid-19 cases and clusters for events in 2021. The Superintendent for Public Health confirmed this, much to Lionel and his team's delight. During this period, Lionel remained optimistic as a leader stating, “my vision was that we need to create fun because that will be how we will prove (to) our Superintendent of Health that events can happen safely and it will create a feel-good factor for everyone.” Following on from these groundbreaking successes, The Malta Tourism Authority events team continued to produce standing events leading towards the end of the year. To name a few there was the Pete Tong Classics, Malta Fireworks Special 2021, FIERI by Cirque du Soleil and Fairyland. This year, 2022 holds a lot of exciting events for Malta. Kicking off in January is the annual 10th edition of the Valletta Baroque Festival, and continuing through the year there will be the first-ever L.O.L. Surprise! LIVE show, ŻfinDays – Double Bill and A Little Bit of Opera in Gozo throughout the year. However, the most innovative and interesting project Lionel has been overseeing unfolded in Dubai for Malta National Day at Dubai Expo, on January 19th. Through a series of events, they celebrated Malta. One event was a full musical showcasing Malta. Designed and produced by Lionel, incorporating ten dancers, a band, and eight singers, the show was an unraveling of Malta’s story. “When I was designing that I said listen, you need to be in the middle of Malta, then keep on going out. So we started with the Maltese history, the land and the people, faith and hope, Maltese Festa, Malta and the European Union, Malta where it started, what Malta is, and going out to what the vision is for Malta in the future.” Lionel thinks big, and he has cosmic plans for events that will send tourism on Malta into the forefront of the world in the future and beyond. He proved this to ring true as at the Dubai event he introduced the world to Maria – the first Maltese virtual citizen. Ten days after they introduced Maria at the Dubai show, they brought her to Malta and launched her at Esplora Interactive Science Centre in Kalkara. Maria will also receive her virtual passport. Excitedly, Lionel shared his knowledge about how virtual influencers have taken over the marketing world. Influencers are endorsing celebrities products on Instagram and this trend has inspired Lionel to apply a similar approach to Malta’s events and tourism sector. During the winter months, when Cirque du Soleil was on the island, the Malta Tourism Authority hosted an entourage of thirty influencers from Love Island. The group showcased Malta’s winter activities–quad biking, hiking, rock climbing, sailing a rental boat to Comino in Malta’s winter sunshine. The success of these events leaves Lionel hopeful about Maria and her part in shaping the future of tourism and events in Malta. “The idea is that we will have Maria in all the squares and Valletta–it will be the face of Malta”, he says. In the future, Maria will be Malta’s very own virtual influencer. Having an AI influencer for Malta’s tourism sector is a trend emerging in other parts of the world. Malta is now moving as part of that exciting wave of change. The total number of event attendees Lionel and his team are aiming for in 2022 is approximately 200,000. As they have proven last year, reaching this target goal is more than possible with a bit of teamwork and forward-thinking. Sarah Jayne Portelli for Temple Magazine, Issue 8 2022 (Written January 2022) Find out more about Temple Magazine: https://www.templemagazines.com/templemagazine