Interview
Quite a bit has happened since Raccoon Events ’ last in-person show before September , the National Running Show in January 2020 , including the company picking up an EN Award in July . Twenty months on the from its last show , the company held the inaugural National Running Show South at Farnborough International on 11-12 September , after it was delayed from July . According to Seaman the show had a pre reg of 24,958 , with a 27 % conversion rate , compared to its usual rate of 50 %. “ Our perception of that is that there are people that have events coming up that didn ’ t want to get pinged . That ’ s probably one of the biggest reasons for the lower conversion ,” he says . To increase this going forward , Seaman says Raccoon will increase its pre-registration – particularly due to consumer confidence being lower than it was pre-pandemic – so instead of relying on a 50 % conversion , it will now have to rely on 30 %. Seaman says : “ I think we as organisers are just going have to be a little bit more agile and understand that our pre reg won ’ t convert in the same way , so we ’ re going to have to work harder to get a bigger pre reg .” Despite the fact the show was quieter than usual and that several speakers dropped out last minute , Seaman adds that the anecdotal data showed people stayed for longer and that the post show social media feedback was “ immense ”. In addition , the show had a rebook rate of 87 % - another positive
On the home straight
for organisers . He adds : “ It was kind of the case of the old exhibition organiser ‘ quantity versus quality ’; the quality was very high , because the people that did come in really wanted to be there and because we checked every single person before they entered the building for the Covid Safety Certificate ( CSC ), pretty much no one wore masks . That actually made for a much more interactive and communal environment .” As for what Seaman has learned from the build-up to this year ’ s event during the pandemic and what other event organisers can learn , he says : “ I think we need to be careful not to overreact . After we published the fact that we ’ re doing the CSCs
One day after the National Running Show South launched at Farnborough International , EN ’ s Joe Gallop caught up with a tired but beaming Mike Seaman , CEO of event organiser Raccoon Events
on entry , we had three quite aggressive complaints , but that was out of 25,000 people .” He adds : “ We actually had some quite good call outs , so especially in this market you should take everything a bit slower , and don ’ t react to everything at face value … particularly on social media .”
Supply chain Despite talk of industry wide issues , Seaman says he found no issue with his supply chain this year : “ Some of the previous suppliers have gone but they ’ ve been replaced by really good ones . I think our job as exhibition organisers is to make sure that we ’ re treating them fairly ,
Autumn — 33