“ People have got a bit lazy about the creative process ...”
vision at Tobacco Dock . Fundamentally you waste space unless you can see the vision that you are adding value through experience .
“ At the simplest level , exhibitions are a showcase for your brand . You can still sell space at Tobacco Dock but in a different way . If you look at what clients like the Festival of Marketing have done , Adobe becomes an experience zone . “ We are now in a supercharged era of people craving experiences . It was already building well before the pandemic . People will invest their
Jonathan Read
hard-earned disposable income in an experience , but it ’ s got to wow .
“ Bike Shed does it incredibly successfully , because the starting point is not ‘ how can our stand holders sell more bikes ’, it is basically a curation of fantastic machinery . The detail they go into comes right down to making sure the brand of coffee served in their clubhouse in Shoreditch is exactly the same as the coffee at the event . That ’ s the level of detail . We work with their head chef to curate the street food , designing the overall customer journey
to deliver the experience people are craving .”
Tobacco Dock ’ s clients see the value of the unique experiences the venue can help them create .
“ Return on your space is a short-lived triumph if there is no engagement for your sponsors and for your exhibitors ,” says Read .
“ The design is crucial to the process . In 2022 it ’ s no longer good enough to say ‘ we promised we were going to deliver you an audience of 20,000 people , 20,000 people have come through the doors but actually they were disengaged by the show ’. And that ’ s why shows die .”
“ We saw a trend in festivalisation in B2B events five or six years ago . And part of the reason for that was having a different tempo for different parts of the event . The whole thing can not be at 100 miles an hour and reliant on keynote speeches . There is a rhythm to these things , you know people are going to gradually slow down and then need a lift .
“ Take the example of Salesforce and Dreamforce . It ’ s designed as a festival but it ’ s absolutely a B2B conference .
London Craft Beer Festival
April — 11