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The Event Industry News Podcast interviewing event planners, event organizers, brands, and agencies from around the globe.
Episodes
Thursday Apr 23, 2020
Thursday Apr 23, 2020
This week’s episode takes me (virtually) across the pond to the U.S.
My guest this week is Brian Fanzo, founder of iSocialFanz, a company which has helped launch digital and influencer strategies with the world’s most iconic brands like Dell, EMC, Adobe, IBM, UFC, Applebee’s, and SAP.
Fanzo, a seasoned podcast host and presenter, is now hosting virtual events - another online product born out of the social distances measures currently in place around the globe.
In this feature-length special episode, Fanzo shares hints, tips and best practice at virtual events including:
Being the ‘Best’ Virtual Event Speaker
Content-Bridging
Attendee Engagement
Create great audio and video without spending thousands $$$$$
Choosing the best platform
Brian highlighted that the demand is there right now having received 17 enquiries this week already.
Whether you’re an organiser, professional speaker or just starting out, you’ll take something away from this edition.
Post Covid-19, I feel virtual elements will play a bigger role in physical events than previously, whether due to travel restrictions or an event simply wanting to reach a wider audience.
To keep up to date with all the news, subscribe for free here.
If you would like to take part in a podcast, then please complete our submission form.
Wednesday Apr 15, 2020
Wednesday Apr 15, 2020
Many organisations in the industry have had very little choice but to pivot to a virtual solution. Swoogo, an event registration platform, is no exception.
Joining me this week is Molly Falco, the company’s director of marketing, who explains what was achieved in just 40 days.
The company’s ethos has always been ‘Make Things Easy’ so the first step was to create a place for customers’ virtual events to live within the existing Swoogo product. Using a single sign on (SSO) process, data is transferred from the streaming platform securely by Swoogo rerouting the link to one of its own. This cool feature also prevents uninvited people accessing meetings, or in Molly’s words “Zoom-Bombing”.
One feature I really like is that this new offering is Streaming Platform agnostic - meaning organisers can use their preferred platforms rather than being forced to learn another. It’s also possible to use multiple streaming platforms simultaneously.
In contrast, Molly went on to tell me that Swoogo will soon be launching ‘Swoogo Virtual’ which will include its own white labelled streaming service. Many will ask (as I did), Is it not crazy to launch another when there are so many others already? Molly said “When we jump on a Zoom call for example, there is almost a total loss of brand identity and very little option for customisation. A cool benefit of having our own is that organisers will be able to customise and preserve brand identity and/or that of their sponsors.
Molly reminds us that the fundamental activity when exhibiting needn’t change completely as a result of going virtual. Visitors dropping in to say hello, having meetings, doing demos or choosing what content they download, is all possible in a virtual setting. Data-capture is also largely unaffected due to the SSO and, there’s no need to pay for a device to scan bar codes.
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If you would like to take part in a podcast, then please complete our submission form.
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
Once again, it’s been a big week for the industry. Since our last broadcast, Edinburgh Festival, Wimbledon and The Open Championship have all been cancelled.
But, is there already light at the end of the tunnel?
On 3 April, China hosted what organisers claim is the first major trade fair to take place in the country following the Covid-19 pandemic. China’s first reported death was 11 January and reports today (7 April) show zero new deaths due to the outbreak.
If the UK were to follow the same timeline, then major events could start as early as the end of May.
If events do get the go ahead as soon as May then marketeers may need to act quick. This week, my podcast guest is Tag Digital’s Laura Davidson, a specialist in digital event marketing who highlights best event marketing practice.
Serving 2,000 events annually, Laura also shares key-analysis from when events began to cancel in Asia through to the more recent cancellations in Europe and the UK.
If you’re interested in taking part in a podcast then please complete the Application Form.
Friday Apr 03, 2020
Friday Apr 03, 2020
In the second in a series of ‘Lockdown’ podcasts, I’m joined by Grip founder, Tim Groot.
Grip is an intelligent Event Matchmaking solution designed to connect relevant people in the physical event world. Up until 4 weeks ago, Grip hadn’t hosted a virtual event but were forced into delivering a solution in less than 24 hours.
The pivot from physical to virtual is upon us and Grip has already facilitated several thousand virtual meetings over the last couple of weeks. Whereby is now fully embedded into the Grip platform and has now rolled-out the additional features to clients including Clarion, Informa and ITB Berlin.
Tim explains virtual meetings has improved the quality of the data and increased interaction and adoption rates. Tim also highlights that this current situation will change events forever and may even accelerate a change in how exhibitions are delivered.
If you’re interested in taking part in a podcast then please complete the application form
Friday Mar 27, 2020
Friday Mar 27, 2020
The UK, in effect, is in Lockdown. As we all know, the event industry was one of the first sectors to be hit by the Covid-19 outbreak.
In this must-watch edition of our podcast, I talked to Craig Mathie, MD at Bournemouth 7’s about this year’s postponed festival.
Bournemouth 7’s decision to move the event from May to August Bank Holiday was for reasons including “giving the virus the best possible chance of passing”.Whilst this is no doubt a crisis, Craig explained that this industry is used to “planning for the worst and we’re constantly balancing severity and probability”.
Before the 2019 festival, Craig explained that a viral outbreak was one of the table-top exercises and that his multi-phase business continuity plan is now been rigidly worked through.
To keep abreast with the latest happenings from within the event industry, subscribe to the Event Industry News newsletter.
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
In this special edition of the Event Industry News podcast, Matt Rakowski from DBpixelhouse joined editor, Adam Parry, to discuss the petition for the government to offer more economic support to the event industry.
Created less than a week ago, the petition has gained huge traction, attracting over 111,000 signatures so far.
Having created the petition and written a series of letters to government officials, Matt discussed exactly what he wants the petition to achieve and who should benefit.
Listen in to learn exactly what the event industry is lobbying for, what this “economic support” might look like and what else the government could do to support event professionals.
Furthermore, learn what you can do to help support this petition and to get it discussed in Parliament.
If you haven’t signed the petition yet, you can do so here.
To keep abreast with the latest happenings from within the event industry, subscribe to the Event Industry News newsletter.
Thursday Mar 12, 2020
Thursday Mar 12, 2020
Speaking from the headquarters of the esteemed AV and technical supplier in the event industry, Universal Live, James had the pleasure to talk to the events director of EVENTIT, Judith Wilson.
Kicking off a week today (19th March), EVENTIT is an annual gathering of meetings and event professionals that takes place in Edinburgh. It is co-located with the bi-annual Business Events Leaders’ Summit (BELS) and comprises education, networking and lead-generation.
Celebrating its fifth edition, EVENTIT is returning to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre where it was hosted in its first year having been hosted in Glasgow for the past three years.
The Scottish event industry is worth £3.5bn. This includes events that are hosted outside of Scotland but created by Scottish companies. EVENTIT was created to help bolster that industry, not just in Scotland but across the UK.
Commenting on the location of the show and the notion that it is purely for Scottish companies, Judith said: “When we first set it up, that’s what we thought was going to happen, that it was just going to be a showcase for Scottish suppliers and Scottish buyers. That has changed quite dramatically since year one and we now have quite a number of exhibitors from outside of Scotland.”
If you think you have a relevant topic and would like to feature on a podcast episode, please email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
Thursday Mar 05, 2020
Thursday Mar 05, 2020
On this week’s episode of the Event Industry News podcast, we welcomed Avantgarde’s digital creative director, Thom Greybe.
Avantgarde is a global brand experience agency that has been designing measurable experiences for 35 years. Its 10 locations include Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Dubai, London, Munich, São Paulo, Shanghai, Vienna and Zurich.
Speaking about the power of experiential events, Thom stated people seek out places and events where they can “feel something and see something different.”
He continued: “I don’t think digital necessarily relates just to screen-based content in the experience arena, I think it actually starts to become a lot more interesting, a lot more part of the story-telling.”
The fast advancement of technology in recent years, such as smart devices and the internet, has made people used to digital technology: it has become a part of daily life for most people. However, technology such as an “84-inch touchscreen” isn’t a usual occurrence so it is important to observe and monitor how audiences react to such technology to determine its success.
Giving an example, Thom said: “People have a much lower tolerance of getting things wrong when everyone is watching. You have to be so direct about what people need to do on that screen because, if they make a mistake, they feel silly and they leave, which is not what you want!”
This creates a challenge for designers to determine the balance of finding engaging content that attracts audiences and making it easy for them to navigate and use.
If you think you have a relevant topic to discuss and would like to feature on the Event Industry News podcast, please email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
Stay up-to-date with the latest happenings in the event industry and subscribe to the Event Industry News newsletter.
Thursday Feb 27, 2020
Thursday Feb 27, 2020
On today’s podcast, our host, James Dickson, was joined by not one but three guests: DBpixelhouse’s creative director, Alastair Reece; marketing manager, Matt Rakowski; and sales manager, Adam Price.
DBpixelhouse provides experiential solutions for temporary and permanent installations. It works directly with creative agencies, event organisers and brands to create memorable experiences for events and venues.
Because their services are better demonstrated than explained, Matt explained that they created the PixelLab - a space in which the team can showcase its latest content and digital experiences: “Some of our solutions are quite difficult to explain, but if you’ve got someone there physically experiencing it, then it makes it a lot easier for them to get what it is that we do.”
DBpixelhouse encourages its clients to adopt experiential solutions, so Alastair stated PixelLab allows the team to practise what they preach.
Augmented reality, touchscreen apps and multi-faceted digital solutions are just some of the technology that is presented at PixelLab.
The meetings at PixelLab are by appointment only so that the team can offer clients undivided attention.
To see for yourself what DBpixelhouse can offer you and your event, contact the team on 0345 226 3083 or info@dbpixelhouse.com.
Follow the team on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
If you think you have a relevant topic and would like to feature on one of our weekly podcasts, please email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
This content is sponsored by DBpixelhouse.
Thursday Feb 20, 2020
Thursday Feb 20, 2020
This week, we were joined by the managing director of the event industry’s charitable social enterprise, EventWell. Helen Moon joined us ahead of Event Wellbeing Day on 26th February to discuss the important issues surrounding mental health within the event industry.
With one in three event professionals suffering from ill mental health each year, EventWell is dedicated to providing the industry with resources, advice, knowledge and support on mental wellbeing.
#EventWell20 is the overarching umbrella that now encompasses two campaigns: #EventWellbeingDay on 26th February and #EventWellbeingWeek that will run from 21st-27th September.
“We’ve got quite an ambitious aim this year,” Helen stated. “I felt that it was important we where we do something where we promote action, for people to do something now and take ownership within their organisations and also as individuals to be better at looking after their self-care.”
Through a partnership with Time To Change, Helen created the EventWell Manifesto. Through this, she is calling for the mental health of all professionals be of top priority in the industry.
EventWell frequently conducts research into the wellbeing of professionals working in the event industry and Helen is concerned that she is not seeing much difference between her findings from year to year. This, she said, has driven her to encourage the industry into action to make relevant changes. Search the hashtag #PledgeForChange.
“We still have one in three event professionals who are suffering from mental ill health each year.”
If you would like to learn more information about #EventWell20 search the hashtags: #eventwell20 #eventwellbeingday20 #EWD20
If you think you have a relevant topic and would like to feature on one of our weekly podcasts, please email molly@eventindustrynews.com.