Event Industry News Podcast

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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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.

Diversity is not enough

Having worked in events for 15-years, Lauralee Whyte moved from experiential marketing towards the content construct, focused on sourcing speakers and talent.

Having seen, and drawn from, the shallow waters of practiced options, in July 2021 Lauralee launched Spectrum Speakers & Entertainers, the UK’s first diversity focused content bureau.

In this episode, she discusses the motivation behind that move and why speakers at events from different backgrounds are invariably asked to talk about their experience as a minority more than anything else.

Lauralee Whyte looks at learnings from lockdown, inspiration, representation and opportunity, tapping into micro-communities and working with Brixton Finishing School.  

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How CMOs should prep for the new event world

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Devin Cleary is the VP of global events at award-winning digital platform Bizzabo – multiple-winner of the Event Tech Awards’ coveted People’s Choice gong.

With more than 16 years’ experience designing and delivering diverse experiential marketing programmes for b2b, non-profit and consumer markets, Devin has an enviable track record in strategising and executing in-person, virtual and hybrid events.

In this episode, Devin Cleary discusses budget cuts, which began pre-pandemic, and how chief marketing officers (CMOs) can prepare for this era of redefined events, what the impact of Covid-19’s delta variant on in-person events is likely to be and how event professionals and CMOs can effectively collaborate through that window.

Cleary also looks at in-person sponsorships and how the event marketing landscape has changed over the longer term – from 2010 on.

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Exploring variables in Precision Communities

Dr. Baris Onayis an entrepreneurial executive with 15 plus years’ experience in b2b media, events, exhibitions and conferences. He launched Precision Communities six months ago, on a mission to build virtual events that ‘catalyse’ companies outside the traditional loop.

In this episode, Baris Onay discusses his learnings from the Covid-19 pandemic, the story behind the company name, cost efficiency, mitigating risk with event series, moving away from the make or break mentality, the untapped value in the virtual world and much more.

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Truly Event Genius

Reshad Hossenally found his inspiration in a part-time job; selling tickets, by hand, while at university. He went on to found Event Genius, and the related Ticket Arena consumer brand. In 2019, Hossenally and the Event Genius, Ticket Arena company joined forces with Festicket, becoming one of Europe’s leading primary ticketing and event tech providers.

 

Trusted by the likes of Coachella, Afro Nation, Amnesia Ibiza and Rolling Loud, the Event Genius Group provides services to 35 different countries generating sales of more than £650m.

Throughout, Event Genius has stayed in step with Hossenally’s original ambition – and the company name - to provide promoters with a better means to sell tickets and to manage all aspects of the business.

In this episode, Reshad Hossenally details his role in the recent flurry of Liverpool test events, which, with clinical tests for audiences either side, required no social distancing and no face masks. He talks about Event Genius’ cashless payment system as well. Crucially, post-Covid, it facilitates speed in event transactions and prevents congregation in typical pinch points, reducing risk of contamination and the potential for identifying contacts via RFID bands.

Look out for Hossenally detailing the system’s new functionality too.

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Gower on growth at The Game Fair

With a background in big events, from London and Southampton Boat Shows to the International Festival for Business, James Gower was a perfect fit with The Game Fair when he was appointed managing director in 2015, and still is.  

In this episode, James Gower talks about the Fair’s considerable history – the late Prince Philip famously branded it the ‘shop window of the countryside’ - before digging into fallow 2020 and the positive impact that had on the 2021 show. How build time was cut from 12 weeks to four, adjustments to the site layout, new elements to the audience – a product of the lockdown reconnection with the great outdoors - and much more besides.