Event Industry News Podcast

Farnborough International facility flying high

Carlo Zoccali joined Farnborough International Ltd in 2016. Responsible for venue sales, operations and customer service he also oversees relationships between the venue and the wider events industry.

Involved with trade associations throughout his career, Carlo was president of the ILEA from 2017 to 2018 and continues to be an active board member of the Europe chapter.

In this episode Carlo Zoccali’s focus is beyond the airshow (FIA) which, cancelled in 2020, comes back to the site in July this year. It’s on newer heights instead, the 12,500sq m exhibition hall opened in 2018 and the similar size space outside among them – and how that combination delivered as live events slowly came back to life from mid-2021.

Carlo Zoccali talks about the Farnborough footprint facilitating everything from exhibitions and experiential events through to conferences and product launches in its new meeting room portfolio, re-connecting people in 2022, audience-driven demand, niche events, elevating experiences and contemporary delivery.

Ink Factory’s perfect picture

Since 2011 Chicago-based Ink Factory has been delivering visual note-taking, physically and virtually.

Creating pictures that summarise key takeaways for conferences, meetings, brainstorming sessions, show content and much more, Ink Factory clients include Adobe, Amazon, CAT, Deloitte, Ford, Unilever, Whole Foods Market and the YMCA,

In this episode, Ryan Robinson, the company’s co-founder and CMO, discusses the business before digging into the immediate gratification audiences get from visuals and its benefits in retaining information and recalling it.

Ryan Robinson goes on to talks bookmarks in the brain, using keywords, colours, the focus on training, listening and adapting, videos, illustrations and preventing distraction.

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Talking shop with The Party Goddess

Verbose, in the best Los Angeles tradition, Marley Majcher is CEO of The Party Goddess, an A-list full-service event planning and catering company in LA,, and author of acclaimed business guide for entrepreneurs, But Are You Making Any Money?

In this episode, Marley details her background, from cooking school in Paris and egotistical chefs right through to standing out in the event planner crowd.

The conversation with host James Dickson covers celebrity endorsement/the publicity machine, organising events in LA, big budget clients, contracts, confidentiality agreements, young starters’ expectations and much more.    

Vendoir vidi vici

Launched at the threshold of the pandemic, March 2020, Vendoir is a platform for sole traders, freelancers, start-ups and existing suppliers to showcase their service to customers without paying for marketing.

Vendoir also allows clients to book vendors based on their reputation, budget, location, event type etc., with just a few taps.

In this episode, co-founders Oshoma Zekeri (CEO) and Yoma James Kukor (COO), discuss the personal and professional experiences that got them thinking.

They highlight the app’s focus on quality, ratings and reviews, local talent – everywhere - calendar/geography/budget functionality, payment protection, getting the best out of everybody and opening doors for freelancers.   

 

Music: Wish Background by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4633-wish-background License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Deep into EventWell

The message ‘One in three event professionals will experience poor mental health every year, in the form of stress, anxiety, depression and burn out’ is spelled out loud and clear on the EventWell site - https://eventwell.org/about/

Helen Moon founded the not-for-profit CCLG social enterprise in 2017 to serve as the mental health and voice of the event industry.

Talking to host James Dickson at the Association of Event Venues (AEV) annual conference in the Business Design Centre, Helen Moon discusses mental health first aid, the impact of increased workloads post-‘freedom day’, the potential for burnout, the spoils of proper planning, on site EventWell hubs/quiet rooms, working memory, the benefits of repetition and much, much, more…

 

Music: Wish Background by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4633-wish-background

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Four on the Business Design Centre floor

Host James Dickson attended the AEV (Association of Event Venues) Conference at the Business Design Centre (BDC) last month, a fertile ground for podcast content.

In these four rapid-fire Q&A sets, James talks to management from some key locations, north and south.

We kick off with Kate Simpson, marketing and comms director at the BDC, together with Paddy Lynn, head of events management at P&J Live, a conference and events venue in Scotland.

Both venues have served as vaccination centres and the focus here is, post ‘freedom day’’/pre-Omicron, on getting the event needle back on the record - dealing with diaries, delays and postponements, managing turnarounds, the sanitising everything process, concessions from organisers, branding and beyond.

Max Ball, executive director at the Business Design Centre, is in the second podcast with Sean Hinds, Manchester Central ‘s chief exec, and Simon Mill, chief commercial officer at Excel.  Beyond the AEV 2021 success story, they discuss their lockdown learnings, the benefits of what has turned out to be a short return to live events and the pressure venues had to put on government to reopen beforehand.

Up next, Alden Arnold, project manager for the Association of Event Venues, has a quick look at shorter lead times, the hunger for the original live return, collaborations and compromise, asset sharing, interaction and attentivity. 

This edition of the EIN podcast wraps with Lauren Hudson, health, safety and sustainability advisor at Manchester Central, and Siân Richards, who’s in a similar role at Olympia London, talking sustainability and the pandemic impact on objectives and execution. They touch on the net zero roadmap, COP26, conscientious thinking, fielding questions from organisers and energy usage on the show floor.          

Pleased to MEETYOO…

Launched in 1999, in a different guise, Berlin-based MEETYOO is the digital events business behind a customisable platform providing large-scale virtual events to audiences with up to 50,000 members.

More than ‘simply’ software, MEETYOO guides clients through their virtual/hybrid event life-cycle.

In this episode, Tony Kula, founder & CEO at MEETYOO, and Product Management Lead Tim Gutsche talk about starting the company and its evolution – organic and through acquisition - over the last nearly 12 years.

Kula and Gutsche detail background knowledge about digital platforms ahead of the pandemic push on the sector, product development, and customer service since March 2020. Additionally to flexibility, conveying a unique experience, developing engagement, support, managing expectations, data, and much more…  

Fully loaded CLIPr

Former head of computer vision key initiatives at Amazon, Humphrey Chen, co-founded video analysis and management platform CLIPr 14 months ago, in the thick of the hybrid event revolution,

Working out of Seattle, CLIPr, uses machine learning to index every minute of a video and generates an automated table of contents by identifying topics and sub-topics.

In this episode, Humphrey Chen highlights the CLIPr revolution,, from personalising the video experience, fostering interaction and reaction, adding bookmarks, finding key content across a whole event to making 365 a reality.

Chen talks new revenue streams, advanced analytics, the network effect, synchronous and asynchronous modes, and much more.

Conference Compass’ hybrid points

Conference Compass, the Dutch next generation event platform specialist, has produced a telling, timely document ‘How to run the most engaging hybrid events’.

In this episode, CEO Jelmer van Ast, who founded the company more than 11 years ago, discusses the thinking behind the publication and what its ambitions are before going on to look at the trends, or steps, towards hybrid, the strength in smaller/more local events and rethinking the reach for a larger audience.

Jelmer van Ast also highlights the value in learning from repetition and engagement, developing the Conference Compass platform over the last 12 months, targeting the technical wants of the hybrid model, the crucial relationship with AV partners and much more.

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If you would like to take part in a podcast, then please complete our submission form.

Ingenuity and Eventistry

Owner/CEO of Eventistry by Alecia and host of the 6 Figure Event Podcast, Alecia May is an award-winning certified strategist and coach.

In this episode, Alecia May talks about using 87 – EIGHTY SEVEN - virtual event platforms over the past three and half years and the key takeaways from that extraordinary weight of experience.

May goes on to discuss different clients/different requirements, being at the forefront of technology, the benefits of familiarising yourself with a platform, ‘test it, test it, test it’, workarounds, tech stacks and much more.