Corporate Events Plus

A rare visit to the Franchise Show at London’s Excel proved a mite depressing for an audio visual specialist. There were over 300 businesses promoting their franchise opportunities but nearly all with a complete lack of suitable display back drops or audio visual support! Exhibitors are taking the space but they are not budgeting for any creative impact. As a result they simply are not getting their messages across in a memorable way.

A trip to International Confex at Earls Court in London reinforced the irritation I was experiencing. Given that this is an event industry trade show you would think we could get the seminar areas right! Once again little money or thought has been given to the environment for the delegates. In recent years it has become fashionable to install see through walls to the seminar rooms but it’s very distracting for delegates and presenters alike. Very low screen bases mean that visuals cannot be viewed from top to bottom, except from the front row, which all too often is empty anyway and the audio reproduction for speech is inadequate. I think it’s embarrassing!

Is this lack of finesse and expertise the result of people being brought in who simply don’t have the experience or training to know any better? This isn’t just about budget. I don’t know why we put up with poor technical support and shoddy environments, particularly at events for our own industry!

One positive in all of this, it’s been a good month for catching up with industry news and although the outlook remains tentative we see a busy month ahead with the run up to retail and financial events in April. There is talk too of possible roadshow events in May and June. Could roadshows be making a come back?

The end of February sees us taking a break from the coal face and enjoying some team building coupled to an incentive in Morocco. The chance of a few days in the sun could not come at a better time after the hard winter we have been experiencing this year. And with the latest announcements of the UK economy beginning to show signs of life once again we’re looking forward to a much needed return of confidence in the live events market – when clients revisit their face to face meetings and experiential events programmes. When that happens everyone will benefit!