“ Even before people weren ’ t able to meet in person , the need to meet , to have those connections was really important . You ’ ll always need that in-person component . But at the same time , that one meeting point a year isn ’ t always enough , both from a buyer and seller perspective , but also just networking . When you ’ re talking about industries facing a lot of disruption , whether it ’ s technology or something else , everything is changing really quickly . So , it ’ s important to be able to help facilitate the ability for those participants to connect year round . That ’ s , that ’ s really a key of our current model .
“ It comes from the ability to provide customers with an entire calendar of opportunities , to learn , and network and trade both online and in-person throughout the entire year .”
“ We ’ ve all seen how absolutely thrilled everybody is get back out there , you need that physical touch point , but what we ’ ve seen is that you can supplement that .”
Tech When it comes to the technology Hyve is harnessing to implement their omnichannel strategy- Natinsky says it all comes down to growing buying , selling and networking opportunities for their customers .
She says : “ We ’ re using the leading tech in the space , we ’ ve got both in-house capabilities and we work with third party providers . It ’ s a combination . It ’ s really about the meetings , the matching , so that is really the key driving tech for us .
“ When we talk about meetings , that ’ s going to be the in-person proposition , but that ’ s still driven by technology . We see tech as being able to help drive the evolution of that in-person proposition .
“ Then you ’ ve got what we call the Meet-ups , which are a bit more about networking , less about pure trade relationships , and those will be virtual . They serve different purposes . When we think about the different tactics
Jessica Natinsky
we ’ re using , it ’ s to help improve the proposition we already have .
“ We can use technology to help make people ’ s experiences at an in-person event better and it ’ s truly changing the value proposition . It ’ s not just taking the process of who you already had and making them more efficient and faster , but it ’ s actually adding new things for people to be able to do .”
Shoptalk The omnichannel strategy introduced at Shoptalk 2022 saw it ’ s best ever year . Hyve are now replicating the strategy across many of their shows .
Natinsky says it ’ s proved a success at Bett , Autumn and Spring Fairs – but adds it is important to tailor the approach to each market .
“ We ’ ve recognised the importance that it can ’ t always be one-size-fits-all , every industry and the participants in it need slightly different things , they have different challenges ,” she says .
Hyve is also turning the virtual events world on its head by launching the first live version of Fintech which they acquired in April and will be held in Las Vegas in March .
“ That was interesting ,” Natinsky says “ because it started as an online programme , and now we ’ re launching it and doing the reverse and taking it inperson , almost the opposite of what else has been going on .
“ We already know that people love the online proposition . So we thought
“ We can use technology to help make people ’ s experiences at an in-person event better and it ’ s truly changing the value proposition .”
‘ let ’ s actually show that in-person is additive and differentiated and bring something to the table ’.”
Future growth Looking to the future , Hyve ’ s acquisitive sights are set on industries where they can replicate the same technological benefits .
“ We ’ re really focused on organic growth right now . That ’ s very much a priority . We ’ re still in that recovery coming out of the pandemic , but you can definitely see through the acquisitions that we ’ ve made over the last year or two , that industries open to omnichannel growth have been a really key driving factor .
“ This is a capability that ’ s really unique to Hyve , we ’ ve been able to build a meetings program that is just truly differentiated from anybody else in the market , both in terms of scale and quality .
“ When you have these leading events , once a year , it is important to have tools that help supplement that ecosystem throughout the year .
“ Our customers are evolving . We need to make sure that we ’ re meeting their needs as it as it changes .”
Data benefits The other main advantage to Hyve ’ s tech strategy is generating better insights from their improved data .
“ There ’ s this bigger opportunity when you are using all of the data that
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