Roundtable
Ian Stone, MD at UK
Industry Events, who
works on ChemUK, adds:
“When launching an event,
partnerships can hold the
key. If you don’t secure those
key partnerships, you can
get shut down very quickly.
You only have to look at
the association strength
in North America, where
they rule the roost and are
highly protective about their
events.”
Tom Fisher, former
marketing director and now
group marketing operations
manager at Clarion Events
adds: “It’s tough when you
licence out events and they
can run a show the way
they want. When I started
working on the PowerGen
events, there were four
different logos for the same
event and there was no
brand continuity. We have
had to be careful about
this and have provided
brand guidelines and tone
of voice and even what the
registration platform looks
like. You don’t just launch
because you think you can.
We’ve been researching the
recent launch of the Enlit
rebrand for almost two years.
We’ve done personas, spoken
to our key 100 customers
and asked them what do
you think about the market,
rather than imposing our
event on them.”
“We have a really
impressive show in Europe
and we leverage this show
to help us to talk to new
markets about what they
think about going into a
region.”
Jenna Gardner, Show
Manager at QD Events,
who has the Carnival event
at SEC, said: “I think the
Carnival is very tailored
around Glasgow and has a
rich cultural history there.
To launch the event in
England, it’s key that we did
the research, right down to
health and safety.”
Athena Kyriacou, portfolio
marketing manager for
Media 10 on the Ideal Home
Show explains that the
Ideal Home Show is a good
example of a developed
brand in the UK. She adds:
“We’ve done
personas,
spoken to
our key 100
customers and
asked them
what do you
think about the
market, rather
than imposing
our event on
them.”
“We have launched the show
in Manchester and Glasgow.
We do well in Glasgow
with around 45,000 over
four days. Wherever you
launch, it’s important to
understand the impact of
the event on each regional
show. It’s essential that you
do plenty of research in that
region and truly understand
what the customer wants
in that area and build your
event and marketing around
that. Media 10 is excellent
at establishing the right
partnerships.”
Get venues to support you
Adrian Evans, who heads
up the sales team at ECL,
said: “I deal with exhibitions
and conferences and the big
buzzword is legacy - what do
conferences leave behind in
that region? Every event that
you hold will have a legacy
for that area and what we
don’t get asked very often is
for support from the local
region for exhibitions, but
we do on the conference
side. The diabetic conference
came to Liverpool and they
wanted to have a positive
impact on health in the
North West region which is a
really positive message.”
“The National Running
show could have a
The Name in EVENT HIRE
0800 458 5701
[email protected]
Charles Wilson Engineers Ltd
February — 45