BEST DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXISTING CONFERENCE
Audience – Shared Services Conference
In November 2021, we were tasked with revolutionising Deloitte’s existing SSC conference into a one-day hybrid event for 400 in-person C-Suite clients, partners and prospects and over 1,500 virtual delegates. The goal was to take the positive elements from the existing conference and transform it into something that would ‘wow’ the audience, connecting both in-person and virtual delegates in a novel way.
In order to transform the ‘traditional’ feel of the regular in-person event, we opted for utilising an open plan model, designed with in-person and virtual delegate engagement at the forefront. The focal 360° wrap-around theatre and live studio, combined with state-of-the-art technology and innovative audio-visual touchpoints created a new energised link with the virtual audience, acting as an anchor to take them through the day, offering a unique way of engaging the audience.
We completely transformed the 2021 SSC conference into a quality experience that rivals industry-leading hybrid events. The impact was huge and Delegates commented on how ‘this conference has gone from strength to strength’. With over 890 leads generated on-site, and attended by delegates from over 39 countries, we’ve been assured that this is the new standard for Deloitte SSC events going forward.
Foundry – CIO Summit UK
The Official CIO Summit UK is an annual event hosted by CIO UK and has run for ten years. For 2021, the event pivoted to virtual for a second time and was produced by a new events team of three. Recognition of the event’s success reached the Foundry president and global VP of events who acknowledged the event as ‘the strongest UK event to date’. Through innovative programme design, the introduction of new session formats, and sponsor packages tailored to their KPIs, the summit achieved the biggest success the company had seen in terms of delivery. Registrations increased by 74% from 2020 and were 213% higher than the guarantee given to sponsors. Unique live attendees increased by 110% year-on-year. The programme hosted 61 speakers versus the 36 that spoke in 2020. 45% of the speakers were female, and 30% represented ethnic minority groups. Previously the programme only hosted a 20% female speaker faculty through highly tailored session formats 89% of the attendees engaged in at least one form of networking during the event dates. Sponsorship revenue succeeded the target by 60%, and 80% of partners returned for 2022.
FT Live – Global Banking Summit
The FT’s landmark Global Banking Summit gathers the sector’s leaders for conversations at a time of radical transformation driven by the pandemic, competitive pressures, evolving customer expectations, disruptive technologies, shifting regulation and the growing influence of ESG. The Summit has developed from a one-day, in-person event that attracted 250+ senior banking executives to what is now a successful large-scale, multi-sponsored digital Summit that attracts over 1400 registrants globally. Not only is the Summit able to provide a talking shop for 900+ banking & finance organisations and institutions, it is profitable and feedback from key stakeholders is that the FT Global Banking Summit is now perceived as an event that banking leaders cannot afford to miss.
FutureNet World
This submission is for FutureNet World 2021 a global event for the telecoms industry in its 3rd year. Over 2 half days, with 60 speakers and 27 sessions, the event attracted an audience of 830 ‘live’ attendees, from 83 countries across the globe. The aim for this event was to deliver a studio based virtual event that felt like a ‘real’ event. The programme was built around 6 core themes with a mix of ‘live’ panels, pre-recorded presentations, ‘live’ fireside chats and ‘live’ Q&A sessions, plus the FutureNet World Awards. A combination of live polls, audience Q&A and chat and invitation only roundtable discussions enhanced the audience engagement that resulted in high average view times and number of sessions per attendee. This testimonial sums up the results well -“Giles Cummings and the FutureNet team have done an excellent job at honing their platform to create something that is very watchable. It doesn’t feel like just another Zoom call, and they made smooth and natural turnovers between pre-recorded and live sections. In fact, it was a lot like being at a live event – in a good way.’
GovNet Communications – Counter Fraud Conference and Awards 2022
Increase in delegates, twice the sponsors and an increase in turnover – these are just some of the achievements of the 2022 Counter Fraud Conference & Awards. This event has developed and grown from a small one-day forum into a supercharged national conference (supported by the government counter fraud function at the Cabinet Office). It is now the home for all fraud, intelligence, audit, risk, strategy and compliance leaders, working across the public sector in their fight against fraud. This year, the Counter Fraud Conference & Awards has increased attendance, improved delegate satisfaction, and increased turnover, which is testament to the team and its innovative approach to developing this flagship event. With fraud reaching epidemic levels in the UK, and now seen as a national security issue, this conference goes a long way in helping the sector fight against fraud.
Mark Allen Group – Energy from Waste 2022
Energy from Waste 2022 is a conference focussed on truly hot topics around climate change and the circular economy. The main driver for change was the programme overhaul, expanding content to better serve industries who need to understand changing policies and how their business will be affected.
Recognising that the industries they serve are actively looking for technology solutions, the team were able to create value in content opportunities for vendors, which added significant value to the conference revenue, making EfW a pandemic scale success story.
The financial results and growth demonstrate a much improved event but in this growth, they’ve beat the competition and have become the leading event of its kind. With busy sessions and the constant buzz of networking, EfW is one to watch.
Republic Group Communication – BrandFestival
BrandFestival is one of the most important strategy conferences and regular professional summits in Central Europe. At the 20th anniversary of BrandFestival, future-shaping top managers, decisive players of the business life and the communications industry will share their experience gained in strategy making, branding and sales processes.
Among other things, Brandfestival has become a significant strategy summit in Central Europe thanks to its focus on content. 20-year history of BrandFestival: a total number of 12,000 participants followed 912 lectures delivered on nearly 800 brands.
2010 was an important milestone, as BrandFestival, organised in partnership with one of the most reputed economic newspapers in the world, the Economist, made it into the calendar of the top events globally, and gained recognition by the international press. Leading international news portal Campaign India commented the event as follows: “One of the most influential strategy conferences in Central Europe.”
The event has three strategic pillars: the “macro-level” lectures, the international TOP names from the world of branding, and the circle of domestic corporate managers who give a comprehensive framework.
The success of BrandFestival is largely explained by the fact that it is not a simple network platform or an “event for sale”, but it also mobilises the intellectual capacity of those who attend it. By strengthening the “zero waste” concept, BrandFestival strives to reduce its ecological footprint to the largest extent possible.
With Intelligence – HFM European Operational Leaders Club
The HFM European Operational Leaders’ Summit has, over the past 12 years, become the key annual fixture for senior operational executives from the largest and most innovative hedge funds in Europe.
The pivot to virtual in 2020 provided us with the opportunity to experiment with new, innovative formats and whilst everyone was eager to get back to in-person events it was clear that an appetite remained for the year-round touchpoints that virtual had enabled, so an external consultant conducted extensive research to validate the idea of an annual series.
In response to a positive response, HFM launched the Operational Leaders Club, an annual events programme centred around our flagship Summit, providing regular touchpoints throughout the year for sponsors and delegates.
A dedicated Club Manager was recruited to offer a personalised experience for all members and to ensure that their interests were represented in all decisions around Club content. As well as Club Events, the Club Manager used knowledge gained to develop a custom calendar of events from the rest of the With Intelligence portfolio (over 150 events).
Using various platforms and offering smaller bespoke events alongside the main flagship Summit, we have enabled efficient, cost-effective solutions that help our sponsors meet their marketing and business development objectives.
