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The Event Industry News Podcast interviewing event planners, event organizers, brands, and agencies from around the globe.
Episodes
Thursday Dec 12, 2019
Thursday Dec 12, 2019
Fifth Element Group is an award-winning live experience company that is recognised throughout the world for creating large-scale galas, events, fundraisers, conferences and activations. On today’s podcast, president, Aaron Kaufman, spoke to our host, James Dickson, on how to keep events “real”.
Speaking from the head offices in Canada, Aaron stated that Fifth Element Group was born from him discovering a “gap in the industry” 16 years ago when clients’ expectations were not being met properly. Aaron wanted to merge the management and design of an event into one firm.
Transparency between event planners and clients regarding fees is critical for a successful relationship. Aaron explained the planner should break down each rental/purchase to the client who then, in turn, appreciates where their money is going. Hiding costs suggests the planner is not confident they are providing good value for money.
Aaron also claimed that healthy competition is ideal within the industry. “Going after” your competitors and their clients is something that should be practised to stir up business for companies. However, he stressed that this needn’t result in bitterness between event professionals.
“We’re in business to do business.”
He also stated that he uses business practices to obtain his objectives. As an event organiser, he needs to create memorable experiences for his clients, therefore, if “any solution” gives him the opportunity to do that, he will absolutely do it: “That’s business ownership.”
Overall, Aaron believes that organisers should follow solutions that will help them continue to conduct business. Though the event industry is fuelled by creativity, it is fundamentally a business.
If you would like to feature on an episode of the Event Industry News podcast, please email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
Thursday Dec 05, 2019
Thursday Dec 05, 2019
Joining the Event Industry News podcast this week was Deborah Henley, the founder of Vivacity Consulting. Deborah is a professional speaker and former event booker with training in psychology. Though her education in psychology may not be event-related, she stated that it has given her a deeper understanding of audiences, languages and how to engage people.
Deborah used her time on the podcast to discuss how best to choose a speaker for your event and describe her top practices to get the best out of them.
Deborah lives by what she calls the ‘KFDs’. Before speaking, she asks herself, what does she want her audience to know by the end of her presentation; what does she want them to feel and what does she want them to do.
Additionally, she claimed that if your speaker can describe in simple, concise terms what their subject is about and the key points they wish the audience will take away, you, as an organiser, can feel reassured that they will transfer this concise description to their presentation.
“If [your speaker] can’t tell you in one paragraph what their talk is about, then they might ramble in the actual talk itself,” Deborah said.
She also suggested that allowing speakers access to the area in which they will be presenting prior to their session is beneficial. It allows them to “own the stage” and do their own “mental rehearsal” to better prepare themselves.
Lastly, Deborah explained her “seven Cs” to which she refers when choosing a speaker where she questions their:
- Ability to connect
- Credibility
- Ability to put their thoughts into context
- Conviction
- Ability to collaborate or build a sense of collaboration in the room
- Ability to cause action and inspire people
- Ability to create a community
If you would like to feature on an upcoming podcast, email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
Friday Nov 29, 2019
Friday Nov 29, 2019
For this week’s episode, podcast host, James Dickson, spoke to CEO and founder of Conference Compass, Jelmer van Ast. Founded in 2010, Conference Compass is an event app provider for the conference sector.
Speaking during the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Congress, Jelmer explained the benefits of designing and developing an app for one specific sector.
Due to the event industry being so broad, the technology that supports it has to be adaptable. Though both are live events, a band concert in a park and a multi-strand conference are two very different occasions, therefore, they require different products, services and technology. This is also the same for the event app.
Focusing on creating apps for the conference sector allows the team at Conference Compass to develop sector-specific solutions for organisers.
“Pick one thing and do it well,” James agreed, stating that an app that is suitable for different events would offer a “diluted” offering as opposed to something that is specifically designed for one type of event.
Conference Compass set out to replace the printed programme with a digital version before developing the technology to create more interaction with attendees.
Other technological advancements such as new mobile devices, WiFi and internet speeds help guide Conference Compass’ developments. Jelmer explained that he develops apps that do not solely rely on external technology such as WiFi and data – if the external technology is faulty, it makes the app look faulty.
If you would like to feature on one of our weekly podcasts, please email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
Thursday Nov 21, 2019
Thursday Nov 21, 2019
Founder and MD, Holly Moore, from Make Events joined our podcast host, James Dickson, on this week’s episode to discuss the role of women in the event industry as well as her personal journey.
Make Events is a corporate event agency based in Cheshire that revolves around creating the “ultimate experience” for top brands including Garmin, Myprotein and Twitter.
Last February, Holly ran an event for her staff. She believes that the best way to drive a message home is through a live event and so she put this into practice for her own team which served as the delegates to the two-day conference.
This event allowed Holly to communicate the agency’s strategy for 2019 as well as remind the team of Make Events’ core values.
“The event was two-pronged: to drive the message of Make Events forward for the financial year and to give them [her team] the experience of an event that they loved so that they could sell it to clients,” Holly said.
She stressed that the devil is in the detail when it comes to planning. During her event, delegates (her team members) were presented with their favourite beverages and snacks while their favourite quotes were written on their bedroom mirrors.
Holly also wove research into the event and ensured all sessions were no more than 22 minutes. This has been proven to be the length of time an audience’s attention is captivated, so any content beyond this point of time is more likely to be wasted.
“Everyone’s attention span is so much shorter than what it used to be. If you leave more time for Q&A, the sessions become much more authentic.”
If you would like to feature on a podcast episode, please email molly@eventindustrynews.com.
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.