News Focus
F
ollowing Easyfairs’ acquisition
of FutureBuild in September, EN
caught up with Futurebuild’s event
director Martin Hurn and Easyfairs
director Lourda Derry to find out
what impact the deal has had on the
fortunes of the show.
Hurn, who has been in the
construction business for 16 years and
was at the heart of the deal, said: “The
show remains pretty much the same
and any changes to its format have all
been light touch. But where Easyfairs
have really added value is on the event
technology side using platforms like
Poken to drive ROI for exhibitors and
deliver increased customer care. This
is where we will start to see a huge
impact and acceleration around our
event.
“Easyfairs have also boosted our
sales team. Because we’re up against
competitors that have larger sales
teams behind them, Easyfairs were
able to come in and add to that. We’re
an event that is very content rich but
our visitors want to see more products
and innovations and working with
Easyfairs can help us to achieve this.
We now have more time to go after
growing trends and issues like climate
change and we’re able to properly
tackle green issues and new initiatives
around Future Home Standard.”
Derry explains that Easyfairs
doesn’t believe in tampering with
anything that inherently works: “I’ve
seen through many integrations at
Easyfairs over the past 13 years and
the one thing we don’t do is pick apart
a team. What Martin has done on this
event is get deep inside the market
and gain substantial knowledge and its
business as usual in relation to their
proximity to the markets, seeing their
clients, brand management, where
they work; none of that has changed.
“What we have been able to
do, because of the growth and
infrastructure of Easyfairs, is quickly
bolt on a full finance team, operations,
HR systems, additional sales resources
and marketing support. It hasn’t been
14 — December
Easyfairs
facilitates
Futurebuild
growth
Saul Leese revisits one of
EN’s most popular web
stories to find out what
impact Easyfairs acquisition
of Futurebuild has had
Futurebuild 3-5 March 2020, ExCeL London
a large pendulum swing from taking
a smaller independent and turning
into a larger business but simply
supporting it with our infrastructure.
We’ve taken away the business
services side for Futurebuild, which
they would have had to do themselves
previously, so now they have the
resources and time to concentrate on
what they do really well.”
Derry believes the brand is the
right fit for Easyfairs. She said:
“Futurebuild is about driving change,
about showcasing innovation and what
Easyfairs has achieved as a brand itself
fits perfectly with this. We believe in
serving our community, delivering the
right content, showcasing the right
brands and attracting the key headline
speakers and ministers. This show is
so relevant right now across so many
different sectors.
“People that come to our event are
the influencers in the market and it’s
our job to inspire them. Curating a
show, satisfying the specifying needs
of 6,500 architects that visit our
event is no easy task but I believe our
new, strengthened team has every
component to deliver exactly that.
Futurebuild has already set itself apart
from other shows in the market, and
we will continue to do so in 2020 and
beyond.”