Read on for an insight into how we pulled off YOURgb’s largest ever conference!
At the beginning of 2022, when the world was opening up and live events were becoming reality again, we were approached by a veterinary company, looking to host its first ever UK wide conference in the heart of Birmingham. There would be up to 1,000 delegates over 2 days, with an awards gala dinner sandwiched in between plenary sessions, breakouts and keynote speeches. YOURgb jumped on board to help with all things logistics, planning and branding. We were excited to get started and the eagerness from this didn’t just come from live events, it was fuelled by the fact we had less than 3 months to plan it…
PRE-EVENT MANAGEMENT
Short lead times on projects is nothing new for us, but this was YOURgb’s largest ever conference and it was a challenge we were ready for. Working with our lovely clients we started mapping out our project to ensure a seamless, fun and engaging conference. If there’s one thing we love here at YOURgb HQ, it’s a project plan!
When looking at an event of this scale, one thing to keep in mind is communication. We are incredibly lucky that we work with wonderful clients who are looking to create interesting and memorable events, which is a great starting point for us to come on board to make the project planning phase fun and simple! This client was no different – open communication, honest conversations and realistic time frames spurred us on to pull together a mammoth event in under 12 weeks.
We virtually met with the client every week to chat all things talent, agenda, guest support, guest journey, branding, scripting, catering, AV, staging, entertainment plus so much more, and quickly the event started to come together. We had an agenda, all of our speakers, the creative content, on-screen content and everything was ready that was going to make this event amazing.
The doors opened, and in the blink of an eye, we found ourselves at the end on the 2 days, looking back on the buzz immediately felt when guests began to arrive. It was the first time a lot of colleagues had met in person from across the country, and it was great to see the energy this created. Everyone was engaged with the plenary sessions from the executive leadership team, keynotes from renowned speakers on motivation and change and breakouts that aimed to get the opinions, thoughts, and ideas from everyone in attendance. The conference was all about looking ahead to the future and how they could work together as a company.
A POST-EVENT LOOK BACK
We were delighted to have been involved in so many aspects of this event including guest management, graphic design, branding creation and management, on-site management, gala dinner management, talent management, scripting live show calling, theming, content creation and supplier liaison, plus so much more, and it was a career highlight seeing it all come together.
Highlight moment? Meeting the lovely Katie Piper, one of the keynote speakers on the final day!
Although we got our hopes up some little animals may be joining our delegates, it was an amazing experience, and we can’t wait for next year already!
