We are still buzzing from last week’s Confex Bonanza. If you missed our daily posts due to (well, actually there’s no excuse!) Have no fear, The Fair is here! Below is a mini catch up of Rob’s Eventice experience to ease the pain!

The Fair was co-cordially invited by ESF Recruitment to take part in this year’s Eventice competition which sees young hopefuls battle it out over the coveted title. The Eventice contest aims to discover and develop the next generation of event industry talent. Similar to the BBC’s The Apprentice but without the reality TV wannabes, bickering and ‘Syed’ egos!

The Fair’s very own Lord Sugar (Rob Dudley,) spent the afternoon at International Confex, navigating participants through a stream of extraneous tasks and briefs that would have Nick Holzsherr in a cold sweat!

It was survival of fittest, the best of the best, the King (or Queen) of the Jungle! Participants were put through their paces, paired into two and were given this challenging brief;

• THE BRAND: Amazon Kindle.
• THE CONCEPT: Kindle wanted to take 50 journalists to a European destination to showcase their new device.
• THE DESTINATION: Within 4 hrs of London.
• THE VENUE: Have a high level of quality and service!

The participants then had to visit a selected number of important destination stands (Austria, Norway, Turkey, etc,) and gather whatever information they thought pertinent within four minutes. Contestants then had to choose a location and develop a presentation about why they had chosen that specific location.

‘Lord’ Dudley shadowed three of the pairs as they spoke to the stands and took notes on their approach, rapport, insight and fed back to the judges who were industry royalty. Nail – biting stuff!

The winners were Mike Hughes, from Cardiff Metropolitan University and James Boardman, studying at Leeds Metropolitan University, who, in a fantastic twist of fate were offered two jobs with AV company Blitz. The only female winner Gabrielle Khaled, was also offered a job by George P Johnson, a great opportunity in such tough times when graduate jobs are scarce.

So there you have it! The Eventice 2013! We’re quietly sad that it’s over for this year, it was great fun! For more information on the latest happenings at The Fair HQ and beyond, check out our Twitter page!

@WeAreTheFair

As some of you may know by now, The Fair’s CEO Nick Morgan was given the prestigious opportunity to speak at International Confex to discuss, ‘What’s Next? Health and Safety after London 2012’.

It was a brilliant discussion with lively debate both in the room and on Twitter (see our Storify of the tweets here) .

The panel of speakers consisted of Terry Smith (Arena Group), Chris O’Neil (MUTA), Nick Morgan (The Fair) and Gavin Bye (HSE Construction Division). The debate looked at the policies put in place for contractors working on all aspect of the games and the good practice that could be adopted from them. Below are some of the key takeaways from their lively discussion:

 -  London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) demanded that every person working on any Olympic site had the event safety passport creating a legacy for the events industry that every worker is now acutely aware of their H&S responsibilities and the expectations of them whilst working on a site.

-  Terry Smith commented that his company have been encouraged to take a step back and ask themselves if they are doing enough – all companies should adopt such conscientiousness.

-  Gavin Bye said how his contractors have become more diligent at all points of a project. He commented that the teams that put structures up are on the whole more diligent to good practices where as the dismantling team have pressure to take things down quickly and it is here where focus on good practice can be lost.

-  Nick highlighted the concerns of contractors coming in from the construction industry to the event industry need to be aware of the challenges. “I would plead (to contractors) that it’s a very different culture, far less of a phased management process and much more intense in terms of the timescales involved.”

-  Unification was said to be needed throughout all local authorities to enable consistency and streamlining across all health and safety practices across multiple sites.

-  It’s important that we learn from mistakes. Problems must be reviewed and communicated across the organisation.

-  Nick also commented how a transparent hierarchy of roles and responsibilities were key to ensuring a successful and safe event.

-  It was highlighted that 11 hour working shifts were the max length allowed during 2012 Olympics. The question was asked whether this was to be adopted across the events industry as a whole.

The panel discussion closed with questions and comments from the floor and the key takeaway that ‘in times of austerity health and safety budgets should not be stripped or cut. Safety first!’

If you are interested in what The Fair has learned from London’s Olympics then get in touch with Client Services Executive, Rukhsana Bentley. Discover how our expert events team can implement these strategies to make sure that your next event is the most successful yet!

Move Over ‘The Apprentice’, The Eventice embarks upon London shores this week at International Confex!

The event industry equivalent to the highly addictive BBC TV series is a competition designed to bring the next generation of business flair into the world of events. So no, Lord Alan Sugar has not had a facelift, Botox, or even a skin peel, our very own Rob Dudley, will be judging the finest young talent out there and looking for the event industry’s next ‘Nick Holzherrs’.

Young contemporaries will be asked to present their ideas and take part in a number of demanding event management - related tests. Created by team building firm Bluehat, participants will be marked by the team of professionals.

It’s survival of the fittest, the best of the best! For information on the latest happenings and news updates on Confex and Eventice check out International Confex website or #Eventice

Tomorrow I will be speaking at International Confex about the Health and Safety lessons that the events industry can learn after the success of our London 2012’s Olympic Games.

London 2012 was an immensely challenging event programme; nevertheless it delivered on the aspirations not only to complete ahead of time and within budget, but also to showcase UK construction at its very best to the world.

Achievements in health and safety, sustainability, equality and inclusion are better than anything achieved previously and we have set new standards for the future in the events industry.

Some of the key lessons I will be discussing at tomorrow’s conference decipher how London’s Games managed to maintain an accident rate that was well below the building industry’s average. And how amazingly there were no work-related fatalities on the whole London 2012 construction programme of 62 million hours worked!

Key lessons that stand out from the Olympic project revolve around the flexibility of approach, proactive contract management, upfront investment, dispute management, agility in governance, empowerment, partnering and engagement throughout the supply chain.

Keep up to date with key findings from tomorrow’s event at @WeAreTheFair  

Nick Morgan, CEO 

Roll up, Roll up! After many years of sharing his knowledge with all of us, The Fair’s Ringmaster (or CEO) Nick Morgan, will be speaking at this years’ International Confex’s Live Experience Expo where he will share his knowledge and experience of the events industry.

Nick, CEO of Big Cat and The Fair, will be accompanied by a panel of other industry experts to discuss the new regulations that have been put in place after last years’ Olympic Games in the ‘What’s Next? Health and safety after London 2012’ seminar. This segment will be running from 14:00 – 14:45 and will also touch upon how health and safety standards have changed for temporary structures and will share with delegates what they need to do to ensure their health and safety standards are up-to-date.

If you feel the content of this seminar is of interest to you then sign up to the FREE exhibition here, and give The Fair’s expert a visit – trust us, his knowledge is invaluable! 

Without stating the obvious it is quite simply return on investment (ROI) for your event.  Everybody likes to know their event has been a success, how that success is measured is another question, especially if your event is not-for-profit. Although for not-for profit maybe return on objectives may be more applicable (ROO).

Determining what success looks like, before the event takes place, is an integral to the planning process.  What do you want to achieve and what’s the desired outcome of the event?  Most organisations aim for a profitable event but ROI is more than monetary.  Did the event reach your target audience?  This could lead to an expanded customer database.  Is the event brand more visible?  Obviously all of these can lead to an increased bottom line in the long term but in the short term these can be seen as intangible ROI metrics.

The Event ROI Institute was founded in 2005. They offer courses and in-house training through a partnership of European consultants focused on improving value of meetings and events.  In their opinion ROI is not a tool, ‘it is a mindset’.

The Institute has created an Event ROI Methodology; which started as an evaluating tool but has quickly become a planning model. This methodology is endorsed by some of the largest industry associations and has become “the industry standard for measuring the effectiveness of meeting and event”.  According to this Institute their ‘Learning Pyramid’ is the way forward.

At the moment the events industry needs to consider three key methodologies;

1. The Event (expected attendance, media coverage, satisfaction): success gained from pre-event marketing

2. The Consumer Experience of the event (Value: Costs vs Benefits): focus on the success and quality of an event

3. The External response to the experience (Attitude and behavioural change).

 Each stage of running an event should have set KPI’s to measure against. If these KPI’s are not set in advance of the event then what is the benchmark? Everything needs a starting point to grow from, only then can the true impact of the event be measured.

In the past it was believed that ROI was a relatively straight forward calculation;

                                    (Return – Investment) 

                                             Investment            x 100

But surely it isn’t that simple. At The Fair we think an effective framework combines the 3 key methods of measurements mentioned above, alongside our event planning and management expertise, in order to cater for and evaluate your different event objectives.  This will allow your firm to trace how to increase ROI and highlight the ‘ripple effect’ of an event caused by effective pre and post event management.

By having KPI’s at each event management stage a combination of objective related equations will give a broadened but more focused analysis, a kind of multi-ROI event framework.  This will enable event managers to highlight strengths and weaknesses within their planning framework.

Seems logical really as who doesn’t want to ensure that their time, energy and money has been well spent. Considering it is seen to be this simple why isn’t everyone using it?

For advice on how to get the best ROI from your events get in touch.

Even though the Olympics took place last summer, the buzz it created around London is still evident and could be used to generate better results for your events. London can become a central hub for events in the coming year if we take advantage of the Olympic legacy. Boris Johnson laid down a bold claim in September after the best sporting summer in recent memory; he wanted London to cement its place as the ‘greatest city in the World!’

Obviously it will be hard to surpass the Olympics as an event but London is gearing up for a big year and the Olympic legacy is the back bone of it. London has always been a passionate and vibrant city but during the Olympics, a different atmosphere was created. A special relationship was created amongst the population of the city and this needs to be expanded on.

The Olympic stadium will begin to host concerts during the summer and this will instantly bring excitement back to that part of the city again. A new experience which will come to London in 2013 is Ride London which is a mass cycling charity event. It is predicted to be the largest cycling charity event in the world with 50,000 people already registered.  

This year will see the return of the Six Nations Rugby to London. Another sporting event which will take place is the Champions League Final at Wembley. This will draw the gaze of the world on to London once again as the best footballer’s in the world will compete for the greatest trophy in football.  These sporting events add to the legacy of the Olympics and separate London from other cities around the world. 

London can become a central hub for sporting events and iconic occasions, after succeeding in hosting the Olympics; anything is possible for London in the future. 

The IQ organisation has once again released an annual report looking at European festivals. The report looks at issues including festival attendance, ticket prices, top concerns and new technology. It has some interesting findings that any events expert would find useful. 

Smaller festivals have been struggling recently and this is clear from the sample used. Last year, the report contained over 100 festivals but this year the figure has fallen to 80. This was down to various cancellations and finical problems for festival organisers. People have got less money to spend on entertainment because of the recession and this point is reflected within the report.

In terms of attendance, the report revealed that it has suffered a further 2.4% decrease from the previous year. This is a worrying fact for event organisers because they need those vital last percentage points to keep their festival profitable. The attendance to capacity ratio was down to 78.8% even though many organisations increased capacity. This move seemed to back fire for many organisers and it will be interesting to see if festivals begin to reduce capacity in 2013. Glastonbury is one of the UK’s premiere festivals but this didn’t take place in 2012 because of the Olympics so this could be a factor for the lower attendances for 2012.

Average ticket prices across all festivals increased by a small proportion. This isn’t surprising with the way the economy around Europe is at the moment. Artist fees and production costs haven’t frozen as of yet so promoters need to find a way to cover these costs. Only 35% of the festivals included within the report sold out, that means 65% were struggling to fill their locations. This is a worrying fact leading into 2013 for all festival organisers. We have lost many festivals and organisations throughout 2012 to bankruptcy and this trend looks set to continue into 2013. The top concern for many festival promoters is artist fees, which continue to increase where as profits for the festival are decreasing. Festivals need to bring in the big stars to attract bigger audiences but this means that they also have to pay big money. 

Even though the festival industry suffered in 2012, we took part in Global Gathering that set new records for attendance in 2012. Over 50,000 people attended the dance festival in Stratford-upon-Avon. This proves that festivals are still a key part of British culture and could have a bright future in 2013. We look forward to working on even more festivals this year. 

Events with a Pop!

With the 2nd term of university in full flow, The Fair were called into action by current clients Glide Utilities to deliver a number of fairs based at campuses around the UK for over 10,000 students.

After creating a bespoke events calendar tailored to best suit Glide’s needs, The Fair events team were tasked with the planning, logistics and execution of fairs and Student Lifestyle Festivals in London, Glasgow and Portsmouth to name just a few. In order to draw students to engage with Glide, The Fair used the one item that all students crave whilst at university… food; and in particular, freshly made popcorn.

With just the right levels of oil, sugar and corn the key element to the ideal ‘pop’, over the past month the events team have perfected the fine art of popcorn-making, whilst obviously testing each batch to ensure 100% quality!

Being well-travelled and clocking up over 1,500 miles and 30kg of sugar, it was clear that all the fairs were a great success and it is safe to say The Fair events team will be steering clear of popcorn for the foreseeable future!

Future Trends of the Event Industry

There are plenty of tools and techniques in the event industry which are said to foresee the next big trends and how the market will react over the next year or so. This time of year will also see a number of ‘Event Prophets’ come out of the wood work as they place claim on their beliefs for the market; some realistic and some so far off it makes you wonder what sort of salts they have been smelling.

We’ve been monitoring the event industry very closely over the past few years; well it is our job after all. After a good year of analysis, thought leadership and company development we put our cards on the table and have decided to make the most of what is out there. It’s no shock that the industry has taken a significant hit over the past few years with many organisations tightening their events and marketing belts. But wasn’t it Bill Gates who said if he had only $1 to his name he’d spend it on marketing which events fall under? It’s for this very reason that we’ve set up The Fair, an events management agency based in London’s Bow.

Over the past 10 years we’ve worked with some of the globes biggest names including Google, Mars, Rolland Garros and the World Rally Championship. In order to be able to offer our clients the best service that we can, we felt setting up a new agency would be the best way forward; this way we can concentrate fully on what’s happening in the industry and how we can surpass our clients’ needs and wants.

Our only prediction this year for the industry is that it’s going to be a big one. With so many fantastic opportunities arising around events such as the Olympics and the Queens Jubilee, it’s up to businesses to make the most out of every possibility.