Welcome to another week and whilst we are firmly in Fresh mode, last week we did our bit for Cloud 9 with a couple of days very wisely invested in the inaugural Meetings Show UK.
The Meetings Show UK was a major new event for the UK meeting industry
offering an unrivalled platform of inbound and outbound business and bringing
together the heart of the meetings community. The hosted buyer programme – the
first in the UK – identified influential buyers, the education programme was devised by a panel of leading industry figures guaranteeing the very best
content and the networking opportunities provided even more chances to build
those critical relationships.
The Meetings Show UK was the first UK event to offer a fully hosted buyer
programme which accommodates buyers from Europe
and beyond and we were lucky enough to be included. In addition to this, unprecedented industry support and a powerful
marketing campaign attracted thousands of additional trade buyers from across
the corporate, association, agency and public sectors.
We enjoyed a great event with Manchester Live at BAFTA with a performance from Lesley Garrett and a great overnight stay at the Grovesnor at Victoria and whilst at the event we also managed to catch up with some of our key contacts from some of the fantastic venues we use in Manchester.
As a new event there were a few teething problems but on the whole, it was a pretty well run and organised event, which featured an exhibition showcasing UK and International
destinations, venues and hotels along with key providers of meetings and
technology services. A major professional education programme was also available and whilst we were too busy networking to take advantage, the speakers and their content looked great.
One of the sessions we would have liked to attend was hosted by Steve Elliott, Managing Director of Blackberry Productions who presented a free QEIICC Masterclass, titled ‘20 Tips for attracting
more people to your events’. Essential for all event organisers, and even after all this time, we recognise that its sometimes good to go back to basics!
So what did Steve have to say....
1. The start point for almost any event has to be Research. Finding
who, what, where and when other events are taking place around your
planned event date is critical to optimising the number of people that
can and will attend your event.
2. You’ll probably have a good idea of the Objectives for your event.
That is until someone asks you what they are. If you are not crystal
clear on the aims and purpose of your event and what success is going to
look and feel like you risk not communicating clearly with your target
audience.
3. A Draft plan Is always a great way to begin to get your ideas and
thinking structured and begin to create a framework around which other
elements of the event can be developed. Begin with simple logistics,
start and finish times, get in, break down, key features of the event
and then build on from there.
4. Particularly for ‘first time’ events it is good to Test your draft
plan with groups of people that have a vested interest in the success
of the event. Include
target audience groups in the testing exercise. The wider you test the
longer time you’ll need to carry out the exercise.
5. Content they say is king. All speakers must be effectively briefed
and managed to align their content with your core theme. Rich content,
properly communicated will encourage people to get involved and excited
about your event.
6. People need to know if attending an event will be ‘worth their
time and/or money’. A clear statement of features and Benefits, repeated
frequently in your marketing will attract and encourage people to
attend events.
7. Frequently the first thing people do before starting planning an
event is book the Venue. This is a big mistake. It’s not just about
availability on your preferred dates and capacity. The choice of venue
should reflect the personality of the event.
8. Thinking hard about your target number of
guests/delegates/attendees is critical. I’d always plan to ‘Sell out’
and be oversubscribed. It is so much easier to manage a waiting list
than chase numbers.
9. To maximise the numbers of people attending your event effective
Promotion is vitally important. I believe in going out to the market as
early as possible to achieve the best results. Establish the date in the
diary, run a tease campaign releasing an early indication of headlines
and highlights. Feedback from previous years is really useful.
10. Ultimately it’s about designing, developing and delivering a high
quality event experience that establishes and builds a positive
Reputation with a target audience as the ‘go to’ event for your chosen
theme.
Successful events
that attract an audience, engage and interact with them and ultimately
inspire them will be based on robust upfront research, detailed planning
and excellent delivery to ensure that what we create not only meets but
surpasses the expectations of our audience.
In other news this week we are also looking ahead to 2014 and various events we have in the pipeline.....the 2014 DARE Awards with the PRCA, the CIPR Northern Conference with the North West CIPR Committee and others...
And it would be remiss of us not to mention that the World Cup returns in 2014 with all eyes on Brazil....!
But our focus for now is both Fresh and the Brand You Awards with Bristol Media which both officially closed last week - although we are starting to wonder how anyone in the world manages to get anything done as deadlines don't seem to matter any more - but maybe that's us being far too soft!
Check back next week for updates on Brand You and Fresh and in the meantime, enjoy the sunshine and have a great week!
