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saying , ‘ we ’ re taking the trade show to the US because trade shows work in the US .’
“ On the flip side of that we were in Dubai recently , hosting a leaders networking event and RecFest would not work out there for a multitude of reasons . But our kind of brand leadership will work very well over there .
“ It ’ s being able to look at opportunities , ask questions and not being too thickheaded to say ; ‘ No , I think they ’ re wrong , this will work .’
“ It ’ s your it ’ s like your baby . No one likes being told their baby ’ s ugly . It ’ s hard sometimes to listen [ to criticism ] without getting a bee in your bonnet , but you just have to .”
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“ When you come up with stupid ideas on a weekly basis , you need people that can say ‘ that ’ s really stupid ’.” |
Daring Added to that , the reputation for being daring and disruptive can bring pressure to up the ante on each edition .
“ I don ’ t think you have to keep reinventing yourself every year , because that that ’ s really difficult . “ Between 2014 and 2018 we literally changed the look and feel every time and it was heading towards more of a festival . It was like , we ’ ll use an indoor market and then we ’ ll use a bar , Borough Market , a boat on the Thames . That ’ s literally like starting from scratch every single year and creating different challenges for yourself .
“ That ’ s not sustainable at all , especially when you get to a decent scale . So , I don ’ t think we have to do that anymore .
“ Don ’ t try and reinvent the wheel every year . It ’ s like a travelling band . You ’ ve got to play the classics , but also you can introduce some new stuff .”
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Jamie Leonard
Data Leonard knows for a fact his approach is paying off . The RecFest team has now tapped into a successful niche and understands exactly what their audience does and does not like , and their data backs it up .
“ You can look at something like a RecFest and go , ‘ it looks like a fun time ’, but there ’ s also a really massive amount of data underneath . We can track anyone anywhere in the park . So we know when people get turned off from speakers , we know at what point people will stop bothering going to a session , and what vendors get the most traffic to their stands .
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Spring — 17 |