Event Industry News Podcast

Turning the tide with Undercurrent

Damian Clarke founded brand experience agency Undercurrent in 1991, providing for an illustrious set of clients including Google, Samsung, Live Nation, TK Maxx across 30 years and counting.  

Set for a bumper time 12 months ago, with huge B2B and B2C plans in place, 90 per cent of them live, Clarke’s commitment to a digital edge on everything meant Undercurrent was able to pivot quickly and effectively in the first lockdown, keeping all staff gainfully employed.

In this episode, Damian Clarke discussed how the brand experience hasn’t changed it’s just moved online, how Undercurrent gets into the minds of customers beyond the bots, how integration is the buzz word and how ‘experiential’ has changed over the last 20 years – with everyone being able to access everything all of the time.

Clarke also does the detail on The Current Collective, which he launched three years ago. An umbrella over staff, stunts and a video content agencies, and how each feeds the other.

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Ally Wolf on Clapham Grand designs

Ally Wolf is manager, producer and programmer at “variety club” the Clapham Grand. He’s also co-founder/festival director of Mighty Hoopla.

 

In this episode, Ally Wolf looks back at the Grand’s origins and history, going on to talk about, hosting successful test events post-lockdown 1, working with the Music Venues Trust and with DCMS, representing the venue model and the greater industry, reduced capacity events, costing Covid test protocols and where we go next - before and after June 2021.

 

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Looking at the spoils of Play.Fund.Win

Dan Schofield studied event management in Leeds. He went on to work for Salford City Council before moving to the Middle East with QMDI.

Dan came back to the UK for a job as advance project manager with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic torch relays. Then, chronologically, he was head of event delivery and finishes manager at the Tour de France 2014, head of ops with Manchester City and head of venue operations across town at Manchester Utd.

That weight of experience led Dan Schofield to launch digital charity initiative Play. Fund. Win last October, a timely cash free business designed to play for events of all sizes and their fans.

In this episode, Dan discusses the ambition behind the idea, the benefits it brings to both sides of the digital ticket – every pot is split 50/50 between event and winners – and, crucially, how the system works.

Looking forward with We Are The Fair

With more than 23 years in the industry, Nick Morgan is CEO of large-scale event/festival production company We Are The Fair and We Are Placemaking.

Nick sits on the NOEA Council, is a vice chair of the AIF and BVEP, a member of the NTIA and has recently joined the Festival DCMS/Public Health England workforce

In this episode Nick Morgan discusses lockdown and using it to develop solutions across an event timetable that typically leaves little time for experimentation, how supply chains have suffered, competition for kit as lockdown lifts and demand for tickets booms and where next for the live event model.

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TLC boss faces the future

Liz Taylor, CEO of the Taylor Lynn Corporation (TLC), designs, produces and delivers events for the corporate and private sectors and has done for more than 30 years. 

Alongside a number of high-net-worth individuals, her clients include Manchester Utd and Coronation Street. 

In light of Boris Johnson’s lifting lockdown announcement, this episode focuses on restarting the event industry safely, Liz Taylor talking vaccine passports and the value of compromise, insurance restrictions, moral responsibility and looking after the next generation of event professionals.

Virtual tips from Top Banana

Richard Twamley joined Top Banana as creative director in October 2019 from a similar position at RP Group,

A creative comms agency with a weight of global clients, Top Banana was in a practised position for the streaming revolution, which started in March last year.

In this episode, Richard Twamley talks to host James Dickson about the changing landscape in terms of culture and people, event timelines, flexibility of response, hybridisation and the cost saving for clients through the pivot.

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The return of James Dickson

Event Industry News’ podcast episode 223 is a welcome back for host James Dickson, interviewed by founder Adam Parry who managed the series in his absence.

James, who has put the questions across some 200 EIN podcast editions, and counting, contracted Covid-19 ahead of the pandemic’s first peak, in March 2020.

Taken to hospital by ambulance, James was put on a ventilator for two weeks before starting his recovery programme.

In this episode, Adam asks about that experience, and James’ key learnings from it, before moving on to his plans for the podcasts now he’s back behind the microphone – including the two James has already recorded.

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Ahead of the curve with GDS Group

Harlan Davis is vice president of Product and Innovation at US-based GDS Group. In business for nearly 30 years, GDS started as a publisher, producing B2B journals for select markets including retail and healthcare, before moving across to events in 2005.

Running between 50 and 100 executive summits every year pre-pandemic, for clients as illustrious as IBM and Dell, the GDS model already incorporated the virtual world so was a few steps ahead come the travel restrictions and lockdowns.

In this episode, among other things, Harlan Davis talks through the company background before focusing on the pivot, the advantage in experience, understanding the value in digital and its benefits in terms of accelerated learning. 

Shindig platform spurs spontaneity at online events

Steve Gottlieb, founder of TVT Records, the independent label that gave a big leg-up to the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, Pitbull, Sevendust, Brian Jonestown Massacre and KMFDM, launched online events platform Shindig in 2010.

With a focus on attendee/delegate interaction, Shindig replicates the ‘mingling’ aspect of live events, so people can come across others with similar interests, start conversations, meet and join groups and so on.

This episode see host Adam Parry leave the comforts of Zoom to put Shindig through its paces and to ask Steve about his history in and around events, the motivations behind Shindig, how clients as illustrious as Amazon, Netflix and Mary J Blige are using it and what the future holds.

Spelfie app makes space for branding

Launched last year, Spelfie is an out of this world marketing opportunity for live events. Hand in hand with Airbus’ technology, bookable weeks, months, even years ahead, the app synchronises with a satellite in position. An event-goer takes a selfie from an outside location which is married to the shot from space, a digital mark highlighting the individual’s position and their environment.  

With a BBC contract confirmed and several other big sponsorship names in the frame for 2021, in this episode Spelfie CEO, Chris Newlands, details the design and development behind the tech, how it works and what an effective, cost-efficient space shot means for micro-influencers.