Event report
Launch lessons and hard-won wins
Georgina Kay reports from the recent EN Launch Club session in London’ s Convene Sancroft venue
n 26 August at Convene
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Sancroft, St Paul’ s, in London, Mash Media’ s( publisher of EW) EN Launch Club – Trade Shows Edition brought together a sharp group of organisers, event professionals and suppliers laser-focused on one thing: how to launch and grow successful trade shows from scratch. The EN Launch Club series is providing practical and useful educational programmes throughout 2025 for launching a variety of new formats.
Here’ s what stood out: the wins, the warnings, and the lessons they unpacked throughout the event.
Clarity, data & grafting: The ingredients for trade show success One consistent thread across multiple panels: passion needs clarity. If you can walk into a room and clearly state what your event is for, what problem it solves, who it serves, and how it differs from alternatives, you immediately win credibility.
Data usage featured heavily. Not just basic stats, but digging into signals: non-returning visitors, under-represented niches, stakeholder feedback.
For B2B vs B2C strategies? Yes, there is a shift, but the underpinning demands are the same: so interrogate the data, build relationships with stakeholders, and be ruthless with testing assumptions.
Alongside data, grit was a recurring theme. Launching an event rarely goes smoothly. Those who succeeded spoke of trusted partners, constant communication with their supplier network, and staying ready to adapt format or model in the early cycles of the event.
Budgeting, audience building & risk management Sessions 2 and 3 delivered gold on practical planning: how to build a launch budget and a critical path, and how to generate an audience from scratch. The advice was detailed and honest: begin organically( website, community, digital presence), listen before scaling, and assume that the first version will need tweaking.
Risk management came up repeatedly. Concepts need to be stress tested, red flags include: unclear ideas,
Left: EN Launch Club session lack of market engagement pre-event, over-reliance on personal assumptions and overlooking investment costs in new geographies. One panelist’ s mantra:“ If you believe in the concept and you’ ve done the prep, get it to market.”
Sales, rebooking & scaling Where many launches stumble is in selling a dream( to sponsors, partners, potential attendees), especially when the event doesn’ t yet‘ exist’. The advice here was to secure credibility early: align with experts, show transparency in growth plans, and put in place your rebooking strategy and processes early.
Another big win: leverage‘ waitlists’ to demonstrate demand, use Bellwether Reports or alternative events in the same industry to signal interest, and make sure you can deliver what you promise. Once that community commits, your reputation and ability to scale rest on follow through.
Takeaways
• The importance of organic content and referral marketing to seed interest
• The need for flexibility in concept and format early on, while maintaining clarity on USP
• Inflation and venue costs are affecting trade show viability in certain geographies
• Research case studies from smaller scale launches in similar geographies and sectors, where risk and return paid off.
EN Launch Club’ s- Trade Show Edition didn’ t just tackle the real challenges facing organisers today, it was also a valuable moment to connect directly with the suppliers that make these launches possible, including headline sponsor Quartz Business Media. The next edition, focused on conferences, takes place in London on 24 October. See: https:// events. exhibitionnews. uk / en-launch-club / conferences-edition for details. EW www. exhibitionworld. co. uk Issue 5 2025 25