Event Industry News Podcast

Ten years ago, Jelmer van Ast took his experience as a playwright/actor/producer and festival organiser across the tracks to found technology company Conference Compass, In this episode Jelmer discusses the Covid tipping point for his business, how it invested its way around the crisis, developing solutions to help customers, new and existing, with their pivots into the virtual world. The focus he...

Bruce Rose has been at Live Group for more than 11 years, finding his way from business development to head of content and learning all the way. Established back in 1975, Live Group has been focusing on digital events and streaming for almost as long as Bruce has been with the business. Expect really interesting content in this episode then and great delivery, focused on Events 2.0 – Live Group’s...

Lou Kiwanuka is founder and MD of training specialist The Shaper Group, vice chair, about to be chair, at ESSA and part of EventWellPledge - a social enterprise set up to support industry people in need. In this episode we discuss the DCMS exhibition pilot Lou attended ahead of the proposed restart in October and the learnings she took from that as a visitor. How reduced numbers and social distanc...

With more than 20-years’ experience working in live events, at Incisive Media and Ocean Media, London, before moving to the Middle East for DMG in 2012, Ashley Roberts took on the General Manager role at Omanexpo nearly 18 months ago.   On the back of World Mental Health Day, the focus for this episode is stress and mental wellbeing. Famously, event organisation/delivery turns the dial right up –...

With more than 20-years’ experience in and around live events, Mike Ford, director at UK/US based full-service engagement agency Touch Associates, has been involved in delivering and developing hybrid and virtual solutions since 2015. In this episode, Mike talks about the reasons clients wanted to switch away from physical show in those early days, highlighting how budget constraints took one comp...

Anna Abdelnoor, a freelance corporate event producer, is co-founder of the not for profit group Isla, which launched in September, focused on supporting and encouraging the event industry’s transition to sustainable working practices. In this episode, Anna discusses the huge appetite for solutions she discovered in putting the organisation together last year, how she has worked with agencies in th...

MD Richard Belcher joined First Sight Media in 2006 when the company was primarily focused on producing DVDs and VHS tapes of graduation ceremonies. Richard helped spearhead First Sight’s subsequent step into the corporate sector; conferences, exhibitions – not least Event Tech Live - and general video production, which in turn led to streaming live events, FSM’s “niche” as Richard puts it. Tellin...

Founding director of independent promoter/festival organiser From the Fields, think Kendal Calling, bluedot, Inner City Electronic, Off the Record and Bournemouth’s Arts by the Sea, Ben Robinson is never short of ideas. Touching on Kendal Calling and the company mantra, in this episode Ben focuses on music, science and culture fest buedot, typically at Jodrell Bank University, and transforming the...

COVID-19 has hit suppliers along the event industry supply chain particularly hard and Downing Street’s ‘one sticking plaster for all’ solution hasn’t helped much. Essex-based Showcase AVi had business halt for several months due to the pandemic’s effect and founder/managing director, Ben Collings, mounts a passionate defence for the greater industry in this podcast We talk hybrid and virtual even...

Alongside her role as senior events manager at specialist information provider Chemical Watch, Juliet Tripp is her own brand; a professional speaker, host, blogger and more besides with an inspiring take on the global event industry picture. In this episode we talk about the transition from physical to virtual events, the value of having that alternative in the shadow of a pandemic, creating effec...

Ratnesh Singh, head of global business at Buzznation Event Technologies, and author/keynote speaker/futurist/strategic technical advisor Bernard Marr are prime examples of tech supply and demand.   As an influencer, Bernard works with companies including Microsoft, Cisco and IBM to help them “amplify their voice” while ‘Nes’ has seen extraordinary demand for solutions to support the global switch...

Spawned from the UK’s first guerrilla marketing agency Buddha’s experience with/onus on projections, disruption and PR stunts and his military background, Mark Evans launched Kommando Experiential Marketing in 2000. Committed to pushing against the traditional advertising/marketing tide, Kommando moved into the digital space and saw the tide change with social media. The group of companies that si...

Ed Tranter, Managing Director at 73 Media/industry spokesperson, had to wholly rethink a launch event, the grassroots’ focused Rugby Show, in the eye of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, Ed takes on an odds-defying journey - from the theory of Ricoh Arena, Coventry, where the show floor would have featured half a rugby pitch, to the reality of the virtual world. Back to the drawing board, Ed...

Ashanti Bentil-Dhue, who heads up virtual production company EventMind, founded  Diversity Ally with Gabrielle Austen – Browne to help foster diversity and inclusion in companies, from recruitment to the boardroom.   In this episode Ashanti talks about how the events model should stop simply talking about diversity and start implementing changes, highlighting issues that can creep in as early as t...

George P. Johnson started as a flag maker/sail repair business in Detroit, providing for automotive events in the city. One hundred and eighty-six years on, GPJ is synonymous with brand experiences all around the world.    In this episode, Jason Megson, managing director at George P. Johnson Experience Marketing, discusses the company’s reach, its mission, client objectives and more besides.   We...

With offices across the world, SpotMe provides enterprise solutions to more than 250 global brands via the web, iOS and Android, as well as a no-code building platform and full support services.   Pierre Metrailler started with SpotMe as a software engineer. Eighteen years later he’s the company’s CEO.   We talk about that journey in this edition, how SpotMe arguably created the first event ‘app’...

Founder and CEO at Washington-based Hubb, the virtual/hybrid/physical event platform, Allie Maygar launched her first company, Impulse Productions, age 21. Stepping across to event technology five years ago, that sprit of ingenuity, entrepreneurism, burns just as fiercely.   In this episode Allie discusses how the event industry Stateside, and Hubb in particular, has changed, or adapted, under the...

This week’s episode features Kevin Lorch, managing director at Eventscase, a white label software business focused on providing the perfect integrated platform for conference organisers, speakers, sponsors and attendees.    In enterprise and SaaS sales for 20 years, Lorch discusses the new tech behind virtual events, the elements he thinks will endure on the other side of the coronavirus window an...

This week’s episode welcomes James Tucker, COO at GovNet, a well-established UK event supplier that delivers public sector conferences, expos and training courses, from local government and housing to the NHS and higher education sector.   A self-proclaimed “tech geek”, James joined the family-run business around 18 months ago to oversee the day-to-day operations.   This edition of the Event Indus...

This week’s guest CEO of TEN6 Creative, Matt Culverhouse. In a more relaxed format than normal, Matt and I chew the fat about the importance of human connection at events.   The two elements that Matt identifies as a “worry” are the exhibition environment and networking as they are difficult to replicate online.   Matt’s background working for some of Europe’s largest venues coupled with his creat...

This episode is sponsored by Grip , a leading AI-powered event matchmaking solution for virtual and hybrid events.   Montgomery Events, a subset of the Montgomery Group, focus mainly on food, drink and hospitality events as well as several different niche events in the UK and Netherlands.   My guest this week is managing director, Lori Hoinkes, who started with the company three 3 years ago with a...

Starting her event career in 2007 with Reed Exhibitions, my guest this week, Katie Morhen, has helped some of the largest exhibition organisations drive attendance and increase sales.   Founder of 52eight3, a specialist marketing agency, the company recently announced the launch of a new free-to-attend training event aimed to support marketers and connect the wider exhibition community.   The need...

This week’s very special guest is Saastock founder Alex Theuma. Following a career in IT, Telecoms and Cloud, Alex moved on to creating a powerful network across the Saas founder and investor community.   During the recording, Alex talks about the pivot to virtual and the launch of SaaStock Remote which open its virtual doors tomorrow (10th June 2020). And, shares his opinion about the future of e...

This week’s very special guest is Saastock founder Alex Theuma. Following a career in IT, Telecoms and Cloud, Alex moved on to creating a powerful network across the Saas founder and investor community.   During the recording, Alex talks about the pivot to virtual and the launch of SaaStock Remote which open its virtual doors tomorrow (10th June 2020). And, shares his opinion about the future of e...

Joining the podcast this week is William Thomson, author, event consultant and head honcho at Gallus Events.   The digital and online event world is new territory to many event professionals, but William started his digital event journey more than a decade ago.   In this episode, he offers insight into monetising events, how to make sure the content for attendees is on point and how to produce lon...