Liverpool latest stop on TechPro road trip
It’s important for any business to meet as many prospective customers as possible. But when you believe your offering is so unique, it becomes essential to get some face-to-face time with prospects to explain the benefits of a relationship with TechPro.
Which explains why TechPro’s Event Services Director Mike Foyle and I headed to the C&IT Northern Forum 2019 at the Arena and Convention Centre (ACC) Liverpool on 26th April.
This was the launch of the first C&IT event dedicated to event planners with offices outside of London and the South East of England – it’s great to see the importance of Northern agencies being recognised and events of this nature being staged outside the capital.
Only event agencies for us
The two-day event draws a line between the corporates that want events organised and the event agencies that organise them, allowing agencies and suppliers to meet with the representatives of the corporates on day one.
There was the option for us to attend the first day to meet with corporates, as the ultimate customer in the chain, but it’s not the TechPro way, it’s live event agencies all the way for us hence our decision to attend the second day of the event.
Despite choosing only to meet with agencies on the Friday, we were up on the Thursday evening and joined the 90-100 delegates for networking, dinner and drinks at Liverpool Cathedral, which had been hired specifically for the occasion. What a stunning venue!
Meeting and greeting
In advance of the event we had already been allocated meetings with several agencies who had specifically expressed an interest in meeting with us as they felt they would benefit from understanding more about our ability to ensure flawless delivery of live events.
Happily, on the Thursday evening, I shared a table with a few of the agency representatives we would be meeting more formally the next day, which made for a great night and even better Friday, when we had much to discuss from the night before – what goes on in Liverpool, stays in Liverpool.
We had arranged 12 one-to-one meetings for Friday, starting around 10am, which meant first we experienced a 20-minute ice-breaker session, designed to get everyone in the right mood to ensure productive meetings with our chosen agencies.
The fascinating opening to our day, ‘Body Rap by Orangeworks’, finally managed to get everyone (almost everyone) up and freestyle dancing to an African beat, all enthusiastic for the meetings to begin!
Insights and Knowledge
Interspersed with the day’s meetings were a series of seminars, both panel sessions and presentations, offering a new perspective on the future of events and their evolution for corporate clients.
With topics ranging from ‘Going from event planner to event strategist’ to ‘Ensuring a truly immersive event’, there were great opportunities to learn from the most experienced individuals in the sector.
For TechPro, the event was a big success, giving us the opportunity to connect with potential customers and arrange follow-up meetings, when we get to explain in far more detail about our huge stock of quality equipment, our qualified teams and vast project management experience.
However, we are not naïve and recognise the real success of this event and similar ones in future will be measured by our ability to turn these meetings into delivering on the service we promise and accelerate our growth ambitions.
Tracy Armstrong – Marketing Manager