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Summer Eventia 2012 Review

Kings Place, London

Two days of the best networking and education of the year

The Olympic Games, love them or hate the idea, they are on their way and before we know it, will soon be over. Naturally most of our industry is affected directly or indirectly by the “largest single event on earth” and so this year Summer Eventia, one of the industry's foremost annual events came to London in Spring in a different format to ease the burden on our organisers and suppliers who will no doubt be extremely busy in July.

The format for the event was designed this year to offer each attendee the freedom to access the right content for them. Sessions were run for a full day on both the Monday and the Tuesday with a revolving mechanism that meant attendees could access more content that was meaningful to them. Hosted by Kings Place in London it saw over 200 delegates and 39 speakers participate in 18 sessions ranging from discussiions around technology, creativity and the economy to nurturing talent, sustainability and hte impact of the London 2012 Games.

Conference Highlights

Delegates interacted at workshops, exchanged ideas and engaged in a range of learning and social activities which put them in touch with top industry leaders, great speakers and colleagues from across the industry spectrum.

Eventia Vice Chairman Simon Hughes said: "The content programme for the Summer Eventia 2012 was driven by delegate responses from the previous year's event. We listened to what the industry wanted in terms of education and networking. Judging by both anecdotal evidence and social media feedback from delegates, we have delivered on all aspects. I'm delighted with the results."

With the recent economic activity in Europe and the threat of a downgrade in the UK’s credit rating in the next 18 months, Summer Eventia 2012 kicked off on Monday morning with a keynote address by Dennis Turner, ex-Chief Economist of HSBC, who addressed the key issues that will impact the event industry in the context of the UK economy.

The subsequent panel debate then opened these thoughts up to some of the leading figures in the industry with questions taken from the floor.

Other plenary sessions included a master-class from networking Guru Andy Lopata; a vision of the future of the event arena from the industry press and a panel debate to answer the question “what economic value will the Olympics actually bring to the UK event industry?”

And with the Games almost upon us, the first afernoon was spent discussing the oprational challenges of getting around during the Games with, among others, Nicky Ward from Transport for London and Trevor Smith from LOCOG's city operations team.

As ever, the breakout sessions were designed to offer a great educational experience along with an opportunity to network with new and old friends. This year, we offered a modular approach which gave attendees more than one chance to catch a particular session. Topics included:

Engagement with employees and the new generation
Tips on logistical planning before, during and after the Games
Technology – including a hands on exhibition and discussion workshops
a workshop on trust and cultural differences when doing business overseas
Amplification strategies for your next event and how to measure social media reach
Strategic Meetings Management a method of applying good business logic to meetings management.

Alongside these sessions were our ever-popular practical sessions giving information and advice on the bribery act, employment law and the latest news and development on the Tour Operators’ Margin Scheme.

New to Summer Eventia 2012 came an open exhibition of Creativity, a Learning Lounge - a series of bite sized presentations from partners specialising in areas such as social media, mobile, interactive handsets and delegate registration and a Creative Learning Clinic where practical questions were answered in hands-on session which takes the form of a table top exhibition. A real live learning experience!

Programme

The full programme can be viewed here.

Presentations

Are available by clicking the dowsnloads at the bottom of this page.

The Video

View the closing video of the event here courtesy of drpgroup.

Photo Gallery

See Summer Eventia 2012 in pictures by clicking the gallery link at the bottom of this page.

Main event photography was supplied by: Leo Wilkinson. To see more details and to contact him, www.leothephotographer.co.uk

The photo wall photography was supplied by On Location Events. To see more details and contact them, please see www.onlocationevents.co.uk

Sponsorship

Summer Eventia 2013

In addition to being a great learning and networking experience, The Summer Eventia provides its sponsors with a fantastic opportunity to reach a host of key customer targets and really make an impression over the two days of the conference. The sponsorship opportunities are now available.

The date and location for Summer Eventia 2013 will be announced shortly.

Anyone interested in sponsoring an element of this event please contact the event team on +44 (0)1420 593 614 or events@eventia.org.uk.

Click here to view the gallery for this article.