Event Industry News Podcast

New market for InEvent

Pedro Góes is CEO at InEvent, an integrated end-to-end events platform which has customers in 67 countries and the likes of Facebook, Coca Cola, KPMG, Bosch, Santander among its users.

The July 2021 launch of subsidiary platform EventMarket is at the core of this episode, Góes detailing its capacity to hook clients up with proven local agencies around the world, giving InEvent a new level of global reach.

Host James Dickson asks about the impact, the spoils, of joining the Y Combinator seed accelerator program in 2019, just ahead of the Covid 19 crush, and how much it helped InEvent adapt and deliver through the pandemic.

Pedro Góes also highlights how consumer tech companies are waking up to the value in event tech and much more besides.

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Bournemouth 7s talks July 19 and tackling government indecision

Dodge Woodall and Craig Mathie, owner/founder and managing director respectively, design and deliver Bournemouth 7s, a sport and music festival that’s established itself as a sell-out fixture attracting 30,000 fans over a May weekend, typically, and 400 teams playing a variety of competitive/social sports.

In this episode, Woodall and Mathie discuss the impact of the government’s stop, start, stop again approach to live events – or most of them. They highlight the lack of understanding, the myriad flaws in Westminster’s approach to financial support for the sector, how Dodge Woodall has dug deep to keep the Bournemouth 7s team together, the value of relationships through the festival’s 14 years and much more besides.

 

Now hear this – Raccoon Events’ CEO hits back over Johnson’s delaying tactics

Mike Seaman, CEO at Raccoon Events and chair of the AEO UK Organiser Group, wrote a passionate response to the Prime Minister extending restrictions through to July 19.

Published on www.raccoonevents.com – under the News tab – Seaman asks ‘Why are exhibitions being discriminated against?’

In this episode, referencing his post, Mike Seamon talks about the value of the sector, coping with moving shows, getting freelancers and the rest of the supply chain back to work, the built in ‘track and trace’ at live events, why big businesses/big personalities have stayed quiet and whole lot more.

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Totem Hybrid – poles apart

Christopher Bo Shields, co-founder of Totem, started out in theatre, as a lighting and sound technician, before going on to launch Lock On Productions at the turn of the century.

Lock On slowly became more of a media comms agency, ultimately developing tech solutions and Bo Shields co-founded Totem Hybrid in June 2020.

In this episode, Christopher Bo Shields talks about the past, his thoughts on the event industry model through the pandemic, changing strategy as the goalposts moved, the new values of virtual, data, capacity to test events online and accessibility over broadcast ‘quality’ before focusing on Totem’s own hybrid platform.

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Wroe power at JL Lighting

Mike Wroe, the new non exec chairman at JL Lighting (JLL), was CFO at Just Eat from 2008 to 2016, a period which saw the business move from “a couple of million” in turnover to nearly half a billion.

Mike steered Just Eat into the FTSE 250 where it was the fastest growing company for a good while, leaving the business to seek new adventure in 2016 after that huge growth phase.

In this episode, Mike Wroe talks about meeting JLL founder/MD Jack Linaker and making the move into the events industry, opportunities in a changing world, the benefits of being ‘fiercely competitive’, digital acceptance and how hybrid might be the hardest step.

Mike also mentions the Brexit word…

Unbridled agency on the fast track

Working out of Denver, Colorado, Tim Woodring is chief solutions officer at event management, production and creative agency, Unbridled.

Launched at the turn of the century, initially focused on event logistics, Unbridled acquired a travel agency in 2002, going on to add registration to the mix in 2004, creative services in 2007 and production 2008, since when the company has enjoyed a “wild ride” in growth.

Currently, Unbridled produces about 400 events a year, with a mix of services and industries, from 50 capacity to 10,000.

In this episode, Tim Woodring highlights the value in connecting employees with their employer and how working from home has changed the map in terms of what job people feel they can apply for.

Woodring also discusses Unbridled staff’s sprint to adopt/adapt to the virtual world in spring 2020, the metamorphosis from ‘webinar’ to virtual event, how professional sport has the ultimate hybrid show for years, Thomas Kuhn’s book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and more besides.

Introducing EMMC - made to measure

Launched in March, the Experiential Marketing Measurement Coalition (EMMC) is out to standardise core metrics and assessment methodologies and promote them, alongside aggregating and sharing anonymous benchmarks.

In this episode, EMMC founders Dax Callner, strategy director at Smyle, Katie Streten, head of experiential strategy for VMLY&R Commerce and Matt Sincaglia, VP of strategy & analytics at RedPeg Marketing, talk about the inspiration they drew from the lack of certified approaches to measurement in “our space” and the subsequent thinking and planning behind the coalition.

They discuss measuring what matters, bypassing the competitive instinct to deliver telling detail for the whole membership, which includes the likes of Astound, DRP, Explori, George P Johnson, Impact and Velocity, presenting understandable core metrics and the ‘So What’ test.

Powering up next generation events with Brandfuel

David Ball is founder & CEO of Brandfuel, a creative agency specialising in the sustainable design, planning and delivery of virtual events.

In this episode, David Ball discusses the race and pace of change over the last 12 months and the resulting new efficiency. How to balance the live and virtual equation, the impact of talent leaving the live events world and helping freelancers to get ‘match fit’ again through the company’s Plus One programme.

Host James Dickson also asks about sustainability and David details dealing with the ISO process and setting a target to make Brandfuel a net zero emissions business by June 2022.

Behind the TRO white paper treasure TROve

Conceived as an event management and production agency nearly 40 years ago, around the automotive sector, TRO joined Omnicom in 2008 focused on designing and delivering live experiences for clients including Adidas, Volvo, Nike, Molson Coors and Under Armour.   

In this episode, Michael Wyrley-Birch, the company’s chief executive, and client partner Lucy Knill discuss TRO’s ‘How to thrive in a post-pandemic experience economy’ white paper.

Adding individual perspectives to the document, Michael and Lucy look at the value of direct interaction, then and now, how everything from holidays to a walk with friends has a new worth, being/staying aligned with an audience, the demand for new content, defining culture in 2021, how to stay relevant and the new experiential universe.

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On brand, on message with TBA

Guy Horner is CEO at brand experience specialist TBA Group, which operates three divisions: Sports, Brands, Entertainment, and provides for a stellar set of clients including Red Bull Racing, Diageo, Dr Martens, Carlsberg, World Rugby, The FA, F1 and Formula 1.

In this episode, Guy Horner discusses the changing landscape for brand experiences, virtual launches, unpacking the power of the pivot, platforms and tech, extending the footprint for exhibitions, storytelling in 2021 and TBA’s recent acquisition of marketing agency Top Banana.