Event Industry News Podcast

How venue marketing teams can help to deliver great event experiences.

This week’s podcast welcomed representatives from three of London’s most well-known event venues.

Joining host James Dickson was Julia Galbraith, Marketing Manager for Exhibitions at ExCeL London, Kate Simpson, Head of Conference & Digital at London’s Business Design Centre, and Jazmin Beale, Head of Marketing & Communications at Olympia London.

It goes without saying that every event needs to market itself properly. Without the correct exposure before, during, and after, an event will quite simply fail to succeed. The responsibility for marketing is placed heavily on the shoulders of professionals working directly for any given event, but on this week’s podcast the guests explore how a venues own marketing team can help to deliver great event experiences.

Whether it’s offering unique local-knowledge, helping a client tap into nearby resources, or passing on the experiences gained from witnessing hundreds of other events, this week’s guests look at everything that venue marketing teams can offer and why organisers should be utilising them.

Expedia hoping to revolutionise the way meeting rooms are booked

If you’ve booked a hotel or a flight in the last few years, chances are you’ve come across Expedia. Having been launched in 1996, the website is one of the world’s leading online destinations for consumers and business travellers looking to book travel packages

The company has now launched its first dedicated service for the meetings and conference industry. The service will allow organisers to quickly book meeting rooms and conferencing facilities without the need to manually request quotes and enter protracted email conversations with venue staff. They will even be able to add extras like refreshments and bulk book hotel rooms for delegates, all in the same way as booking a single hotel room. The service was initially trialled in Germany over a two-year period, and is now set to be rolled out into more territories with support from some of the world’s major hotel chains.

Joining the podcast to give further insight into the service is Felix Undeutsch, Head of MICE & Groups at Expedia.

Task Manager vs Strategic Planner: Using tech to streamline meeting planning

Joining the podcast this week are two guests with a collective knowledge of how technology can streamline the process of event and meeting planning. CEO of Hubb Allison Magyar joined us from Portland, Oregon, whilst Social Tables' Senior Community Manager Laura Lopez joined us from Washington D.C.

During the podcast, both Allison and Laura endorsed the idea of time investment, suggesting that the time spent learning how to use a new type of technology will ultimately be paid back by the time saved further down the line.

Both guests also looked at the long-term strategic opportunities that are created by reducing the time spent ticking off tasks, giving organisers more chance to plan long-term goals and analyse targets.

Are European festivals out of touch with younger audiences?

Joining the Event Industry News podcast this week is Dr Chris Kemp, who specialises in human movement and has a PhD in cognitive psychology.

Back in January, Chris organised a focus group comprising 43 European Festivals and a group of 14-16 year old festival goers who got together to identify how in-touch the events were with their younger customers. The session highlighted an alarming number of areas where the festivals were described by Chris as being ‘on a different planet’ when it came to providing and understanding their customer needs.

In the podcast we ask whether organisers really know the best way to communicate with their younger audience members, and should they be seeking more guidance from their audiences in order to shape their operations?

In the episode, Chris highlights some of the key concerns raised by the young people during the focus group, and what he thinks organisers could and should be doing to improve the festival experience for younger audience members.

Health & Wellbeing in the events industry: do we need help?

Media outlets in the USA have reported on a study that reveals that the role of event co-ordinator is in the top five most stressful jobs. In light of this coverage, the issue of health and wellbeing within our industry was the topic of conversation in the latest Event Industry News podcast. 

Joining host James Dickson, the podcast welcomed back President of the ILEA UK Chapter Alistair Turner, and Helen Moon, Managing Director of EWL Club UK. 

During the podcast, the guests talk about the issue of health and wellbeing within the events industry, and whether it is a problem that can be tackled with better skills training. They also highlight the new eventswell.org.uk website, that has been created as a platform to host advice, help and understanding of and health and wellbeing issues affecting event professionals. 

The Virtues of Facebook Live and other streaming services

This week’s Podcast welcomed Director of Broadcasting at Zut, Chris Holmes. He joined the show to talk about the various social media live streaming platforms and how they can be deployed successfully by event organisers.

During the podcast, Chris talked about the quality of content that can be put out and how organisers can best amplify their events down these channels. He also spoke about how these channels offer interactivity elements, allowing events to combine live streaming and audience feedback into one platform.

Referencing work that Zut has done for sports brand Umbro, Chris highlighted how China has seen a massive boom in live streaming, with the UK currently lagging behind the far east when it comes to adoption of the available services when it comes to events. 

Podcast General Election special Part 2: Uncertainty needs curbing to avoid further doubt

In the second of our General Election reaction podcasts, Event Industry News welcomes two more guests offering their views and opinions of how the result could affect the event industry.

 

Podcast host James Dickson was joined by Director of Brookhouse Ltd David Phillips, a B2B Events & Marketing Consultant, and Nick Wright, a Teaching Fellow in EU Politics at University College, London. Nick’s highly informed input was made more relevant by his previous experience of working within the conference industry.

 

During the episode, David Phillips talks about the word ‘uncertainty’, and how its frequent use by commentators and politicians is potentially causing even more unrest among business leaders. He also considers whether pessimism within the industry regarding Brexit could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Can UK music festivals and live music tours survive a ‘hard’ Brexit?

Following on from last week’s post-General Election special edition, the Event Industry News podcast continues the political debate by looking at how UK music festivals and the live music touring industries could be affected by a ‘hard’ Brexit.

Joining host James Dickson was Parcel Hero’s Head of Consumer Research David Jinks. As a specialist price comparison site, Parcel Hero act as an online broker for logistics, with a significant part of its business conducted in the live music sector.

Speaking under the scenario of a ‘hard’ Brexit, David highlighted many of the issues that could hit touring operations, including the issue of carnets and the financial obligations that would have to be met upon entering the EU zone from a post-Brexit UK.

He also gave some interesting facts and figures relating to European visitors to British Festivals, and whether a currency valuation drop would mean good or bad business for UK festivals.

Podcast Special: What does the General Election result mean for the events industry?

Last week the country was thrown into turmoil as the General Election returned a hung parliament. Amid growing uncertainty in the business world, what does this election result mean for the events industry?

In a special edition of the Event Industry News podcast recorded on Monday 12^th June, host James Dickson welcomed two guests who lead significant companies within the industry, both of whom have been extremely vocal with their opinions about the UK’s current political status.

Group CEO of DRP Group Dale Parmenter was joined by Andrew Baxter, Managing Director of Europa Worldwide Group.

During the podcast, both guests spoke candidly about how they see the outcome of the election affecting the events industry due to the growing level of uncertainty regarding the makeup of the government and the forthcoming Brexit negotiations.

Entertainment, Engagement & Managing Criticism with Media 10's Giles Perry

This week’s Event Industry News podcast welcomed Media 10’s Giles Perry to discuss the ingredients used to create and drive this established brand.

During an engaging conversation with host James Dickson, Giles talked about the challenges of moving the show between various venues including Olympia London, EventCity in Manchester and the SEC, Glasgow.

Giles also stressed the importance of understanding that they work in the entertainment industry and that the content and customer experience is key to them improving the event and delivering the experience that loyal visitors have come to expect.

He also gave his reaction to some well-crafted criticism of the catering at the Olympia show that was posted by a visitor on TripAdvisor. Despite a response by Olympia directing the customer back to the event organisers, Giles confirmed that the catering during their event is delivered by the venue’s own preferred suppliers, prompting a question as to whether the venue team should have taken more responsibility for the complaint.