Live Recruitment

AstraZeneca, Axa PPP Healthcare, Porsche, Friends Provident and Roche were among brands attending the event at the Penthouse Leicester Square on 1 September.

“I do believe live events are powerful, but on one condition,” added Taylor. “They have to come from a customer benefit model. Live events are not an end in their own right; they are about getting the customer benefit message across, and that way they are worthwhile.”

Taylor shared examples of brand management from his experience as managing director at Eurostar, chief executive of Sainsbury’s Bank, and head of brand management at British Airways.

He told gathered corporate event planners and agencies including Euro RSCG Skybridge, Smyle, BSI, Top Banana Team and W&O Events that it was critical to recruit business leaders to ensure success.

“As marketing people we have to stop recruiting marketing people and start recruiting business leaders,” said Taylor. “You need to have people in the marketing department that can influence the rest of the business.”

Six sector roundtables at Brand Book Live saw event planners debate the health of each sector and identify the top brands driving event marketing in the financial, automotive, consumer goods, pharmaceutical and retail sectors.

After seven years some of these companies, which had included Hospitality Box, had not traded a single penny. As a result of this he made the decision more than 12 months ago to wind up the aforemetioned companies and keep just three brands under the WL Franchise. These companies are Londonlaunch, Londonlaunch Live and Londonlaunch Learn.

“More than a year ago I took the decision to wind up the companies that were not relevant to us, or that had never traded,” explains Broome.

“We did everything in the correct manner with our accountants. Any debts or money owed was to myself, my family and the bank. We have never had any trade creditors, and do not owe anyone in the industry any money. Our londonlaunch.com business and our forthcoming show, Londonlaunch Live are both doing extremely well.”

Details on Companies House about the closing down of some WL Franchise’s companies also back this up with the biggest creditors being cited as Broome, his family and Barclays Bank, which is normal for most small businesses.

The results come as COI has revealed it will make 40% of its staff redundant on 1 November. All 737 staff - including its 16-strong events division headed by Simon Hughes - are at risk of redundancy.

Motivcom divisional managing director Nigel Cooper said: “The government’s austerity programme has an impact on confidence because, while you might not deal with the public sector at all, your clients may do.”

TRO managing director Keith O’Loughlin said the agency’s previous seven-figure government billings gave it first hand experience of the issues.

“The changes to public sector activity will have ramifications for the industry, along with the need for justification of budgets through ROI,” he said.

Eventia chairman Mark Saxby added: “Live events are one of the most effective communication mediums. We must hope the government bears this in mind when seeking to cut expenditure and take considerable resource out of organisations such as the COI, with a knock-on effect in terms of jobs among all those in the supply chain.”

Meanwhile, 30% believed proving ROI would be the biggest test of the coming year.

In figures

287 - Number of jobs that will be axed at COI

90 - Days of redundancy consultation for COI events staff

38% believe public spending cuts are the biggest challenge to the events industry (C&IT online poll)

“We are asking event promoters and planners to position the toilets back to back to lessen the risk of them being tipped over,” said UK Event Safety manager Glenn Ramsden.

UK Event Safety’s concern is not only that those inside could be covered in something rather unpleasant, but that many portable conveniences use aggressive chemicals to keep them clean, which could result in rather more permanent injuries.

According to the company in one recent instance a teenager was said to have ingested some of the contents whilst being freed from the toilet.

Although the UK Event Safety said it understands not all cases of toilet tipping can be stopped, it suggested more careful planning of festival facilities could improve visitor safety and prevent a messy situation.

However, it forecasts downturns in corporate hospitality of 2% in 2013 and 1% in 2015 following the major sporting events.

Horrific

AOK Events managing director Alex Hewitt said: “We are more optimistic in terms of next year and feel our business will grow by considerably more than that. Last year was horrific but this year there is an improvement and I would be very surprised if we weren’t up 15% this year on 2009. I am cautiously optimistic.”

Travel Impact/Vantage Point Group director Ray Roberts added: “I would be extremely disappointed if I were working in the domestic market to only achieve an 11% increase over five years.”

Extraordinary

Roberts pointed out that “extraordinary” one-off events such as the Olympics would provide a “huge boost”.

“That suggests the expectation is that in the other years there won’t be an increase, which I would find surprising,” added Roberts.

Availability

Venues Event Management chief executive Anita Lowe said availability would prove to be an issue, however, over the next 12 months.

“Every year brings different challenges and the next 12 months will be no different,” she said. “Certainly one challenge that we are increasingly coming up against is availability, particularly in London. However, the industry seems to have started growing in confidence again and booking venues much more in advance, which does have some advantages with availability. With the Olympics getting closer and closer, the availability problem in London is going to become more and more challenging.”

Qualitative

MBD carries out its market research around four times a year, said research team assistant Hayley Brierley, and gains qualitative information from around 50 firms.

“We will be doing the next report in about six months,” said Brierley. “Depending on the economic conditions at the time, things might change.”

High profile

Keith Prowse’s head of marketing Ted Walker said: “Looking at a number of recent market reports, as well as our own segmented market research, the five-year forecast for the industry looks very encouraging. There are a number of high profile events coming to the UK over next decade that will be positive for business, and corporate hospitality industry growth will continue to be driven by the UK’s most iconic events such as the RBS 6 Nations, Premier League football and The Championships, Wimbledon.”

Titled ‘Exhibition and Event Organisers’ this research from Plimsoll also revealed that out of the top 726 companies analysed 475 are worth less than they were last year. 

Plimsoll analyst David Pattison said: “It’s not surprising that the value of companies have taken a pounding recently, but the extent of the squeeze is striking.”

“A number of factors have affected values. As demand slackened and companies were inclined to protect their market share, many saw profitability fall as a result. Declining margins have been the biggest weight on values in the market. The 343 companies that have suffered 30% and more falls in their value have all seen their profit margins plunge too.”

However, there is hope for the industry with 249 companies worth more than they were last year. Pattison added: “Considering the malaise in the market over recent years that is a quite remarkable achievement. I hope it points to better times ahead.”

In addition to valuing 726 companies in the market, the new analysis will instantly highlight which companies are prospering in the post recession market place, those taking a big gamble and those heading for trouble. It gives an instant performance rating on each company and highlights those ripe for acquisition.