Roundtable
than just telling an organiser ‘that’s what we
agreed on’ there needs to be more flexibility
that would go an awfully long way.”
Cooke-Priest explains that it’s often the
exhibitors that get hit by the fallout from these
weaker relationships and the way they operate,
including; parking, hotel prices, power and
stands. He suggests that it may be an idea to
build the additional charges into the overall
cost when selling the stand, so there are no
surprises further down the road.
Transparency
Seaman, believes a lot of ill-feeling stems
from this relationship. He adds: “You’re an
exhibitor, you book a stand and then you get
stung, in their perception, by late charges that
they would assume were part of what they
agreed with us. They’ve committed emotionally
and mentally to the event and then two/three
months out they receive their manual and
then they realise they have to pay for a light, or
an electric socket and Wi-Fi and often those
services are delivered by multiple points of
contact, which becomes a really uncomfortable
customer experience. They then end up going
back to their account manager, which is us, and
we have to explain to them, there is nothing we
can do about it.”
Dom Miller, CEO of Completely Group,
who organises a retail leasing event called
Completely Retail Marketplace and recently
partnered with Informa on an event next year,
has solved this problem. He said: “The shell
scheme is custom built in advance and power
is built in, catering and Wi-Fi is provided, we
design everyone’s stand for them, so they pay
one price and everything’s included. Most of
our exhibitors don’t know they are born, and
they don’t know any better.”
56 — November
Flexibility
Sigler, who works with large and small
organisers, adds: “Quite often this rigidity
is stifling creativity. I had an organiser who
wanted to put in two catering points at the new
event and they told us we’ll put the first one in
for free, but you’ll have to pay for the second
one. There were valid reasons for doing it to
help flow and so on, but they just said no. What
they need to do is look at it differently and ask
themselves what are going to lose putting in an
extra catering point? and how will it help and
strengthen this event and the relationship with
the organiser.”
Seaman believes more can be done: “The
venue does their due diligence before taking
on a customer and risk, and they now have a
duty as a team, the venue and organiser, to
share ownership of the customer experience.
Not from the moment they walk through the
door but from the moment they leave their car
and that’s the bit where it gets disconnected
because as an organiser we are shut off from
the first and last 20 minutes of a customer
journey and car parking is almost always one of
the big issues.”
Nolan, former Haymarket, headed marketing
at Centaur, who now supports marketers across
the industry and heads up SmartCities World
Nolan O’Connor, managing director of
SmartCitiesWorld believes there needs to be
more flexibility, he adds: “There are venues
that have a certain set of values. We have a set
of values and we often pick a venue that shares
our values and that makes way to a smooth
experience whether it be exhibitor or
Mike Mikunda,
Clarion Events
Murray Ellis,
Commercial Vehicle Show
Carlo Zoccali,
Farnborough International
Sam North,
Inflection Point
James Cooke-Priest,
PTSS Limited
Mike Seaman,
Raccoon Events
Nolan O’Connor,
SmartCitiesWorld
Dom Millar,
The Completely Group
Miriam Sigler,
Ways and Means Events