Events and Engagement Done Differently: Issue 1
Rob Woodhead
Dad to two, husband to one, outdoor lover, stoic thinker and experienced CEO and business leader.
Welcome to issue one of our new newsletter!
Events have had to evolve tremendously in a very short space of time, and coming straight out of covid into a potential recession throws up huge amounts of challenges for you and your business.?One thing that hasn't changed is the need to engage your colleagues and customers with innovative events and experiences to increase engagement, create real value and separate you from the crowd. ?
In addition to this, the key topics of sustainability, accessibility and inclusivity within event experiences cannot be an afterthought or an add-on, they should be at the forefront of every event and considered at the very start of the planning process. This demands imagination, understanding and dedication. The simplybetter team are committed to driving best practice in this space to create a more sustainable, accessible and inclusive future in the events industry and we’re bursting with innovative ideas.
So through our newsletter, we hope to share insights, innovations and more, showing how we Think Differently about event experiences and help you create experiences that drive people engagement and keep sustainability and accessibility at their heart.
Designing events that drive better engagement and deliver better results
Join us for our live webinar Wednesday 8th March 10.00-11.30am UK
If you need to create events and experiences that demonstrate real value to your business and stakeholders and engage your audience, join us for our upcoming webinar where we will give you insights and tips on how to maximise the impact of your events and ensure that you get as much return on investment as possible.
Topics will include:
Rob will be joined by Floss Clifford , David Gallagher and Tom Baines . We look forward to seeing you there! Sign up free here .
The challenges of designing a more sustainable, accessible event
We all know any gathering of people will create emissions through travel, catering, venues, energy used and waste. Plus events must be inclusive and accessible for all attendees. Designing your event with the end in mind is essential to creating sustainable but accessible events, that engage your people. This approach certainly isn't always free of challenges. In this article, we look at the challenges you face when designing a more sustainable accessible event, and what you can do to overcome them. Find out more.
Elements of a sustainable & accessible event
Creating engaging, sustainable and accessible events doesn't happen by accident. To be successful, there is a lot of serious planning involved, from deciding on the type of event (virtual, hybrid, live) to choosing the venue, designing sessions and content, creating resources, even deciding on catering. A whole host of things will need to change for your event to become truly sustainable or accessible. Researching and testing them all takes time, an open mind and flexibility on budget. In this article we share some of our outside-the-box thinking, to ensure we achieve all these goals. Find out more.
Victory Village - Live experiential event and celebration
Victory Leisure Homes wanted to bring their customers together to update them on all things Victory and say thank you for their support. We loved thinking differently about the brief to help them create a truly innovative event experience. Watch the VT for details on how we worked together to create something magically memorable ??????
领英推荐
C&IT Awards
HUGE congratulations to our very own?Danielle Haworth (née Davies) ?for being selected on C&IT's Agency A-List for 2022! Danni is an incredible talent and this well-deserved award is a testament to all her hard work. Well done Danni!
Supporting four amazing causes close to our hearts
Over Christmas, we asked the team for the charities they would like us to support at the end of 2022. It was our pleasure to donate to the 4 fantastic charities below.
Keep an eye out in the next issue for an update on how the money donated is being used, and if you’d like to know more about each of these amazing charities, just click the links below.
Budgeting for events vs budgeting for engagement.
As 2023 unfolds, the compounding effect of Brexit, Covid, the war in Ukraine, and the rising cost of living means that we’re facing more uncertainty in our daily lives than ever before.
When the future is uncertain, we can't rely on past experiences to inform our decision-making. Without that tool, we can become anxious about what the future might hold.
In business, this can often lead to a “batten down the hatches” mentality, whereby spend that is deemed “non-essential” is often reduced or even cut completely.
For some businesses, we know that internal event spend can fall into this category. “We just can’t justify the cost of bringing everyone together this year” is a phrase we’ve heard all too often over the past few years.
And in a number of instances, that makes sense. If you’ve always run an annual event, but never set clear objectives or measured the outcomes, then it’s very difficult to justify spending hundreds of thousands of pounds for no tangible return.
But here’s the challenge:
During these times of uncertainty, it’s more imperative than ever to keep colleagues updated and informed.
This is even more important given the adoption of hybrid working, where those spending the majority of their working day at home will be feeling more alone and isolated from your business and their colleagues than ever before. A recent report from LinkedIn has found that 61% of workers are considering leaving their jobs in 2023*: can you really afford to lose your best talent to the competition?
So rather than looking at this budget as “event spend”, reframe the conversations with stakeholders and consider it as “engagement spend”. What opportunities can you create throughout the year to bring people together (whether that be virtually or in person), and create experiences that drive colleague engagement and advocacy, and deliver better business results by doing so?
That might mean having to rethink what your year looks like. Scrap the annual big bash, and instead look at quarterly updates; using a mix of live, virtual and hybrid experiences throughout the year. That way colleagues can engage with the content on their terms, no matter where they’re based.
The link between increased colleague engagement and better business results is undeniable.
We’d encourage you to be bold, think differently about how you’ve engaged colleagues before, and use your newfound super-powers to not just retain your best people, but attract the best from your competition too!
We're here to help, so drop me a DM, or get in touch with me or the team directly, we'd love to share ideas and insights on how you can drive up people engagement during these tougher times
All the best,
Rob Woodhead
Managing Director