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The Event Industry News Podcast interviewing event planners, event organizers, brands, and agencies from around the globe.
Episodes
Thursday Nov 14, 2019
Thursday Nov 14, 2019
This week on the Event Industry News podcast, our host, James Dickson, welcomed the director of exhibition sales at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), Dan Thurlow.
The SEC is a meeting and event venue in Glasgow composed of three buildings: the SEC Centre (five interconnected exhibition and meeting spaces), the SEC Armadillo (3,000-capacity) and The SSE Hydro (a 13,000-capacity concert, sporting and special event arena).
Originally the SECC (Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre), the venue rebranded to the SEC to offer more clarity on its venues and services.
It offers event spaces suitable for conferences, exhibitions, sporting events, concerts and corporate events. It can be accessed via train, taxi or plane; the SEC shares a city with Glasgow Airport and has a dedicated Metro station on the campus.
Dan described the in-house team’s approach as hands-on, helping with concepts and discussing with clients about their objectives and requirements. “We want to make shows as strong as possible – we don’t want unsuccessful launches.”
Praising the venue’s location, Dan stated that visitors have a broad choice of hotels, restaurants, bars etc., from which to choose should they want to take a break from exhibiting or their meetings. He said: “We encourage them to travel into Glasgow and see the best of what the city has to offer. Exhibitors are sometimes here three, four nights at a time.
“There’s lots to do in the immediate vicinity but two stops on the train and you’re in the city.”
If you would like to feature on one of our weekly podcasts, please email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
Thursday Nov 07, 2019
Thursday Nov 07, 2019
Joining our podcast host, James Dickson, on this week’s episode of the Event Industry News podcast was Will Curran and Brandt Krueger.
Brandt is a technical producer, educator, speaker and consultant for the meeting and events industry who describes himself as a “geek dad and husband”. He is the founder of Event Technology Consulting and is based in Minnesota, USA.
Will Curran is the founder of Endless Events, an AV production company that has been running for 12 years.
Both guests are hosts for a weekly podcast dedicated to event technology.
Explaining that he believes there is a “time and a place” for all models of AV production, Brandt stated that the occasion dictates whether it is best to use in-house AV, a third party or to buy/hire in your own AV equipment.
Over the course of the podcast, Will and Brandt described some of their worst experiences in the AV sector, drawing on these examples to demonstrate where certain situations went wrong.
Overpricing proved to be a common “malpractice” in the world of AV, with some venues inflating their starting bids for organisers to use their in-house AV production. Additionally, organisers can then feel trapped if they are contractually bound to use the in-house supplier.
Will and Brandt explored the different practices that organisers can undertake to avoid losing money or time on AV.
If you would like to feature on an episode of the Event Industry News podcast, email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
Thursday Oct 31, 2019
Thursday Oct 31, 2019
Digital Innovation Director and Co-Founder, Neil Mortimer, joined our podcast host, James Dickson, on this week’s episode to talk about how events can increase value for organisers, clients and sponsors.
Wonder is a creative events agency composed of experienced event specialists. It works with companies such as Google, BT, VISA and Deliveroo to design and create events across the B2B, B2C and B2E sectors.
Yesterday, it launched Future Live Today – a new agency to fulfil the evolving requirements to build more technology into events’ ecosystems so they increase in value.
Stating that event technology and marketing technology are complex facets in the world of events, he believes that clients, event organisers and even event agencies need additional support to make efficient decisions.
“Decisions that seem straight forward at the time aren’t always the best decisions financially or effectively,” he said, stating that Future Live aims to educate and inform professionals to make better decisions.
“I think we’ve seen a new era of event technology companies coming through.”
Neil also offered his professional opinions on the use of technology for both organisers and consumers, stating that events can be driven from both the professional and user perspective.
“If you are building anything that human beings are going to be interacting with, you have to have something that augments an experience.”
If you would like to feature on an episode of our weekly podcast, email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
Thursday Oct 24, 2019
Thursday Oct 24, 2019
On this week’s podcast, our host, James Dickson, was joined by the CEO of Manchester Central, Shaun Hinds, to discuss the future of sustainability at the tech-advanced venue.
With more than 25 years in the hospitality, property and business service sectors, Shaun was appointed CEO in June 2017 after serving in leadership roles at the Association of Event Venues, YourWelcome and the BridgeStreet Global Hospitality.
“We’re proud of our heritage but we need to remain relevant and we need to remain contemporary in a very fast-moving world,” Shaun stated when explaining how Manchester Central facilitates the needs of the modern event organiser.
The team at Manchester Central commits itself to provide a flawless infrastructure so that clients can deliver unique and top-of-the-range experiences. The team works with specialists and its existing infrastructure to explore that they, as a venue, can offer their clients.
Situated among universities, Media City, hotels, stations and retail areas, the venue lends itself well to event organisers looking for their next venue.
Drawing Shaun’s attention to the venue’s sustainability focus, James asked what Manchester Central is doing to improve its carbon footprint.
Shaun stated that he increasingly sees sustainability being placed in the top three places on clients’ agendas because clients themselves are becoming increasingly conscious of their own environmental impacts.
“As a venue, we take it pretty seriously,” Shaun said, explaining the recycling and waste policies the venue has in operation. The venue also has a dedicated team that is responsible for managing the supply chains and audit trails to follow its recycling.
If you would like to feature on one of our weekly podcasts, email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
Friday Oct 11, 2019
Friday Oct 11, 2019
On this week’s episode of the Event Industry News podcast, Exposure Analytics’ commercial director, Rob Murdoch, joined us to offer a preview of his forthcoming talk at Event Tech Live on Wednesday 6th November. Here, Rob will engage in a panel discussion on the correlation between design effectiveness and data effectiveness.
Returning to the podcast for the third time, Rob explained the role Exposure Analytics plays in live events: “We help brands and agencies determine how effective their events are through the use of data and footfall analytics.”
Data, as Rob explained, is only effective when people know how to use it. The data that is presented from experiential analytics companies can accurately demonstrate where footfall was heaviest, the number of entries, the flow of visitors and dwell time, among other things.
“What our clients are interested in is the truth. Whether it’s a good number or a bad one; they want to know because then they can act on it,” Rob stated, explaining that receiving high statistics is not as useful as receiving high-quality statistics.
In terms of using facial recognition (FR) to capture data, GDPR poses several obstacles. “[With FR], we’re picking up personal data. Your face is your personal data.” However, some of Exposure Analytics’ devices can pick up an individual’s mood, expression, facial features and gender. This allows his clients to identify any trends within their audiences: whether the majority were male or female, for example.
At Event Tech Live this year, Rob will share a panel with 2LK’s Andy Sexton, VenuIQ’s Oliver Rowe and Crystal Interactive’s Rob Curtis. You can find the full list of Event Tech Live’s educational sessions here.
If you would like to feature on an upcoming podcast, please email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
Thursday Oct 03, 2019
Thursday Oct 03, 2019
Hellen Beveridge, the data privacy lead from Data Oversight, joined our podcast host, James Dickson, to discuss GDPR within the event industry.
Having given a presentation on the subject at the Event Tech Live Exhibitor Masterclass in September, Hellen was invited on our podcast to elaborate.
Data protection is not a new concept with the previous data protection act being enforced in 1998. However, within the last 20 years, technology has changed in such a way that laws were struggling to keep up. Particularly within the event industry, professionals use various databases in their day-to-day jobs and handle copious amounts of data.
Cautioning event companies that buy data, Hellen said: “Be really careful when buying data. Because buying data is like putting a drop of oil in your water source; the minute you buy dirty data, your entire database is dirty.”
She described data as a person’s most important asset, so businesses need to take care when collecting it and ensure they only collect the data that is necessary for the business.
Hellen finished by explaining the ICO – the Information Commissioner’s Office – is the statutory authority for the UK and it regulates the data protection within Britain. The law requires that organisations or sole traders who process personal information to register with the ICO.
James is registered with the ICO and he described the process as easy and worthwhile.
Registration is simple, quick and can cost as little as £35 per year. Find out more on www.ico.org.uk.
If you would like to feature one of our weekly podcasts, please email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
Thursday Sep 19, 2019
Thursday Sep 19, 2019
Recording from Universal Live’s base in Bradford, Yorkshire, was commercial director, Neil Clappison. Alongside him was Jason Cardy, the event director at Capita Travel and Events. Universal Live is a technical event production company while Capita Travel and Events is a travel management company. Together, the two professionals were able to use their combined experience to discuss the client-supplier relationship in the event industry.
Reviewing the long-standing partnership that Universal Live and Capita Travel and Events have had, the two event professionals explore the supplier chain when planning events.
“It’s a ‘one-team-approach’ all the way,” Jason said, describing his opinion on how clients and suppliers should plan the events. He stated that both clients and suppliers alike should be open with each other when discussing the pitch.
Agreeing with this, Neil said one company won’t be experts in every facet of planning events: some may be proficient in event management, another in production. It is, therefore, important to recognise this and bring in different partners to help create the event that the client wants.
Listen to the podcast to learn how Capita Travel and Events and Universal Live approach clients’ pitches, budgets and negotiations.
If you would like to feature on one of our weekly podcasts, please email editor@eventindustrynews.com.
Thursday Sep 12, 2019
Thursday Sep 12, 2019
On this week’s podcast, we discussed how podcasts can benefit live events. Offering their expertise on the subject was Cvent’s marketing manager, Brooke Gracey, and team lead, Cody Liskh from their offices in Portland, Oregon.
As hosts of the How Great Events Happen podcasts, Brooke and Cody were able to offer our podcast host, James Dickson, invaluable advice on how to use podcasts for events.
Podcasts are useful for event professionals to broaden their scope of expertise and knowledge. They are also convenient, accessible and not restricted by time or location – they can be listened to anytime, anywhere!
Technological advancements have been such that digital content can be created easily and inexpensively. Easily produced, Podcasts are beneficial for creating or expanding the topics of conversation out in the industry, offering professionals otherwise inaccessible information/education.
Additionally, podcasts are an added platform to market events: professionals can easily use them to “tease” content out of plug their events. Post-event, podcasts can keep the momentum of engagement going, offering guests a platform to express their comments, keep updated with event information and find content from the event itself.
Offering her advice to professionals who may seem hesitant to launching a podcast, Brooke said, “Go for it. See what the audience likes and use those learnings for when you do your next season.”
Cody agreed: “It’s really interesting to analyse what we think our audience wants to listen to and what our audience actually wants to listen to.”
If you would like to feature on one of our weekly podcasts, please email editor@eventindustrynews.com.
Thursday Sep 05, 2019
Thursday Sep 05, 2019
Joining James on our weekly podcast was Event Resources Group’s director, Kevin Waters. Kevin entered the event industry in 1992 when he started his own agency and has since been a board member for the International Live Events Association (ILEA). He is now the director of event consultancy firm, Event Resources Group.
Here, he discussed the various training and qualifications we can now receive within the event industry.
“Never dry”, the event industry is constantly evolving, with new techniques, practices and technologies being introduced all the time. Various training courses within the industry may help professionals from being left behind.
However, is there such a thing as ‘over-education’? Should those hoping to gain entry into the event industry focus on work-based education rather than classroom-based?
The event industry is no longer focused on hosting a repetition of conferences or parties; it endeavours to move audiences’ emotions to create memorable experiences. Professionals hosting the same, tired events each year fail to understand the value of “spectacular” events and will, therefore, be overshadowed by “specialists”.
Kevin believes that event professionals, especially those just starting out, should “cherry-pick” courses and training sessions and follow a specific line of education to give themselves an edge over their colleagues. Broad-scale event training courses may produce a conveyer belt of generic event professionals with no distinctive knowledge, experience or ability.
If you would like to feature on one of our weekly podcasts, please email editor@eventindustrynews.com.
Thursday Aug 29, 2019
Thursday Aug 29, 2019
Joining James on this week’s podcast was first-time guest, Louise Findlay-Wilson, MD of Energy PR. Louise boasts a career that spans over 20 years, in which time she has worked with the likes of the BBC, TSB, Schwartz and NatWest. Today, she talked to us about her experiences working with event professionals.
Louise believes that working with many sectors, not just events, gives her a unique edge to her work as she is open to new ideas, sees various perspectives and discovers trends in multiple industries.
During the podcast, Louise took us back to the beginning of her career where technology and restrictions confined her to doing things very differently. Nowadays, technology allows us to communicate, track data and create work instantly, infinitely changing the disciplines of every industry.
PR has become more reactive to people due to the instantaneous nature of today’s technology. Social media posts and digital content has added another layer to work responsibilities in PR and other sectors.
“There’s a lot of scope to be incredibly engaged with your audience which I think is fantastic for show organisers.”
She also describes the difference between working on a B2B and B2C show regarding press coverage and interview opportunities. “With B2B, you’ve got a more focus niche of media that’s going to be interested.
“With B2B, there’s still a really solid incentive for businesses to attend shows.”
Listen on to hear Louise discuss different aspects of working with event organisers, covering topics regarding creating ideas, negotiations and show coverage.
To feature on one of our weekly podcasts, please email editor@eventindustrynews.com.