Event Industry News Podcast

A heart as big as Liverpool International Music Festival

Yaw Owusu, executive manager at Playmaker Group (PMG), has curated the Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF) since 2013.

 

Typically focused in Sefton Park, Covid 19’s impact on the city’s celebrated portfolio for live music has seen a telling switch in LIMF’s structure for 2022. This episode is the story of a festival working for its surrounds, for its community – fans, artists and promoters.

 

Recorded two weeks ahead of the event, Yaw discusses how, coming off the pandemic, with Liverpool venues suffering, LIMF model 2022 is moving indoors - delivering a cultural tour of the city and making sure venues “get the fair end of the stick”.

 

In a fascinating 40 minutes Yaw talks inclusivity, logos and theming the event around Liverpool’s huge appetite for music.

 

This year the theme, and the formula for his longlist of potential players, is Power To The People & Purpose – a mission Yaw fully explained to performers so they can play a full part in its delivery.

 

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.

Getting behind Bizzabo

Working out of Boston on the US east coast, Devin Cleary is VP Global Events for Bizzabo, the event experience operating system, and a regular on the podcast.

 

In this episode, the focus is back on event tech - in the particular context of 2022, the uptick in optimism, getting back to live events and analysing the changes post-pandemic.

 

Devin Cleary highlights the new air of confidence, going on to compare tighter commercial purse strings with consumer spending and balancing the cost/sustainability equation in light of the big virtual/hybrid steps taken through the last two years plus.

 

Cleary goes on to talk, at some pace, about on demand, getting creative and the happiness hangover, the podcasts model, the greater post-event follow-up, a host of invaluable show floor tips, be it in-person, hybrid or virtual, delivering takeaways and much more.

 

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.

 

How can brands bring back the boogie this festival season?

Formerly senior logistics manager for Jack Morton Worldwide, Adam Goodman founded full-service creative agency ACA Live in 2008.

In this episode, Adam talks host James Dickson through his 20 years plus in events world, from studying hospitality business management in Leeds via a conference and banqueting role at the Langham through to setting up ACA.

With drinks brands a core component in the company’s impressive list of clients, then and now, that’s the focus as Adam discusses their presence, their value, at green field sites, adding to the audience experience, the post-pandemic appetite for the festival model, its pain point, using technology, social media, and much more. 

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.

Introducing The Power of Events

Rick Stainton, the man behind creative agency Smyle, founded One Industry One Voice (OIOV) in the eye of the pandemic as a ‘coalition of associations and businesses created to champion the entire events industry’.

 

In this episode, Rick explains why OIOV has recently been rebranded The Power of Events (TPOE) – a partnership with, but not limited to, Greenwich, Westminster, Surrey, Leeds Beckett, Bournemouth, UWS, Edinburgh Napier, Ulster, Swansea and Cardiff Met.

 

A persuasive speaker with a whole lot to say, Rick talks about the Covid-19 impact and his ‘diplomatic crusade’ which brought OIOV together two long years ago, getting commitment from myriad trade associations and businesses. 

 

Rick goes on to mention the opportunities and the recovery process, the potential for newcomers, as well as the lack of respect from the media and government, and how that fits with a ‘completely party agnostic, non-lobbying’ TPOE.  

Event adaptability with Conference Compass

Jelmer van Ast, founder and CEO at Conference Compass, a company – based in the Hague – which is behind customisable event engagement platforms, comes back to the podcast some 12 months after last time.

In this episode, Jelmer talks event adaptability with host James Dickson, the science of technology and increasing engagement.

He goes on to discuss investing in product development and, crucially, why organisers have to build in an ongoing level of malleability post-pandemic. Despite the inherent fear of dramatic change, it’s ‘adapt or die’!

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.

Energy PR: Consumers’ attitudes to event sustainability

Louise Findlay-Wilson is founder/managing director of award-winning agency Energy PR and an investor in green energy.

 

In this episode, under the umbrella ‘Consumers’ attitudes to events’, Louise talks about shows’ sustainability initiatives pre-pandemic having to catch up with the public’s invigorated passion for the subject, how quickly negative, and positive, communications can spill out from an event, how crucial it is to get the message right from the start of a campaign and how the collective social consciousness has sharpened up, and become more particular, over the last couple of years.

 

Louise uses Energy PR clients to detail her thoughts, telling host James Dickson about the Packaging Innovation Show’s zero landfill policy and how the green room at Plant Based World is truly green – everything in there being plant based.

 

Louise and James also discuss making use of venue ‘downtime’, where possible, for community projects, how shows have stepped up, incorporating tech to make takeaways digital rather than paper – for exhibitors and visitors, putting social media to work and much more.  

 

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.

Brand experiences turning a complex message into a compelling story

Ex-pat American Dax Callner, strategy director at creative agency Smyle and president of the Experiential Marketing Measurement Coalition, returns to the EIN podcast 18 months after his last appearance.

In this episode, which has more answers than questions, Dax’s primary focus is a job Smyle did for the National Grid and how that relationship started during lockdown.

Dax looks at best means of telling the story that helps brands connect with their audiences and how Smyle’s creative/stratgic expertise solutions helped National Grid  to revinvent its capital markets day.

Dax Callner tells host James Dickson about the power, the potential, in dumb questions,

how National Grid is ‘super cool’ in its initatives, picking key stories and ‘rock starring’ them, updating antiquated systems, finding key high emotion moments in the room and online, creating a sense of intimacy via video and much more.

Trends in telco and what they mean for the event industry

Founded in 1991, Sledge is an award-winning event, content and creative agency.

In this episode, Ben Heaysman, film and content creator at Sledge, discusses the company’s experience with the hybrid model pre-pandemic and bringing it to bear for clients caught out by lockdown; framing shots, lighting, sound quality et al.

Among much more, Ben tells host James Dickson about crafting content to keep a virtual audience engaged, gamification, indoor v outdoor shoots, studio time, audio-only presentations and changing technology.

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.

Revolutionising the Secondary Ticket Market

A digital/tech mind working in the event industry since 2014, Ryan Kenny launched Seatlab at the end of last year, raising capital to revolutionise ticketing with blockchain technology. 

In this episode, Ryan, who thinks and talks quickly, explains the premise for Seatlab, how its NFT (non-fungible token) or ‘smart contract’ solution amplifies and secures proof of ownership, beating touts, bots and fraud in the process.

Ryan tells host James Dickson about bridging the gap between traditional tickets and NFTs, how simple the system is to use, the control it gives, royalty splits and the benefit to artists in the resale market, educating people in the ideas, getting the world to listen and more. Much more.

AMR - Behind the letters of event strategy

Denzil Rankine, author and thought leader in the global events and exhibitions industry, founded AMR in 1991 as a specialist in due diligence before developing the business into a strategy consultancy.

In this episode, after doing the background on AMR, Denzil talks about writing Reinventing Live – The Always on Future of Events with Marco Giberti through lockdown, before digging into the company’s new Exhibition 3.0 framework.  

 

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.