Global recession, natural disasters, pandemics, political instability, travel disruption… With all these challenges, how can organisers make the case for event spend and how do they ensure that the messages reach all the right people?
These were amongst the questions posed at the inaugural CONFERENCE Scotland forum, presented by Saville Audio Visual in partnership with Edinburgh Corn Exchange and catering specialists Prestige Scotland.
Conceived by Chris Lawson, manager of the Saville production team in Edinburgh, the conference was designed as an educational forum for the Scottish events market and the agenda was devised by polling the market, using social media to determine the most pressing issues of the day.
The topics chosen by the virtual community were Social Media, Event Content and Hybrid Events and the initiative attracted delegates from many different sectors of the industry. These included event managers, conference planners, corporate event teams and destination management companies, with many joining the event on-line or via Twitter.
The day was chaired by events journalist and consultant Richard John who fielded questions from the live and online audiences. The technology used in the event included vote pads, question submission via iPads on the tables, on-line polling and Twitter. The entire event was also recorded and webcast live by Saville’s digital event services team.
The day culminated with Calum McCallum of Merkland Events making the case for Scotland’s own independent event association, which was enthusiastically received. 94% of the audience voted in favour and McCallum will now be working on the next stages of the proposal.
