Roundtable
Adrian Evans, director
of sales, ECL
“It was a great insight for
us really, just to learn
from organisers. I think
with most people we
just ask them how we
can help them run their
business and help them
achieve what they need
to. Research seems to
be key and I think, us as
a venue, we've got to
realise that we have to
continue and develop our
research offering. A big,
strong word from today
was partnership and we
want to be a true partner to
help them to achieve their
business goals.”
“We've got our own
insight team within the
venue. I think we have to
look at the local audience
and ask what they are
looking for? And get back
to the organiser offering
them a partnership and
utilise all of our contacts
and data rather than
looking at just what the
venue can offer.”
46 — February
huge impact on cities or
regions and any council
or regional body will see
the benefit of that and
help develop the event and
put you in contact with
key people in the region
to develop the show. We
are council owned and we
support any events that
benefit the region or the
city.”
Sam North, MD at
Inflection Point, a coaching
and training business, who
also worked in marketing at
Clarion, added: “When we
worked on EventCity, we had
a really good relationship
with Manchester Airport,
and we were able to work
with airlines and travel
agents. The venue made a
huge difference to helping
us get into the airport and
airlines and helps us get
going.”
Fisher adds: “Not listening
or looking at what your
audience wants is incredibly
risky and I’ve seen what
happens to organisers that
don’t pay attention to this.”
Tranter explains his
“We all see strong partnerships
internationally with venues, but we don’t see
it that much in the UK and it feels like we’re
two separate communities”
approach to cloning One
Earth: “We have a strategy
for One Earth but you have
to be more flexible than an
established brand. You have
to do the research and talk to
people. Every event that we
do we try to put part of our
profits into that area. There
might be spin off regional
events or gatherings but lots
of people do that and I don’t
want to stamp on regional
sustainable events doing
good work. My vision for
One Earth is a national event
or possibly a North/South
event.”
Colm Graham, Senior
Exhibition Manager at ECL,
adds: “Audience is key for
regional events and we do
a lot of research to help
organisers understand if
there’s a market in the North
West for their event. We
actually ran our first ever
event inhouse, and it went
very well for a launch. We are
definitely interested in doing
more research for organisers
to help them.”
Stone believes venues need
to form stronger partners.
He said: “Venues want to
attract, encourage and
develop and be partners with
organisers that have events
that benefit the region. We
all see strong partnerships
internationally with venues,
but we don’t see it that
much in the UK and it feels
like we’re two separate
communities. The venues
need to get more involved
in the subject and there
could be stronger financial
partnerships between venue
and organiser with more risk
sharing to encourage seed to
sapling events to grow.” EN