Event Industry News Podcast

Joining our host, James Dickson, on this week’s podcast was Fleek Marketing founder, Jonny Ross. James enquired about the SEO (search engine optimisation) side of things in terms of building and developing a website for an event. Primarily, SEO is the optimisation of online content for it to appear higher in search engines such as Google. This can make the difference between your website sitting on page seven or page one of Google search results.  Jonny explained that there are a variety of different techniques and opinions in the industry regarding SEO but there are fundamental aspects to it that all websites should follow, such as keywords and target audiences. Not only must you understand your target audience, you must take into consideration when they may be searching, the device they may be using and even their dialect. All these details can affect where your website sits in the search results. James probed into the “grey area” that is Facebook and asked if Google can pick up data coming from ‘events

On this week’s podcast, our host, James Dickson is joined by two guests from separate companies working collaboratively to organise Bournemouth 7s Festival. Craig Mathie, from Bournemouth 7s and Steve Jones, from FesTech, describe the practical uses of technology at events. Launched in 2008, Bournemouth 7s is an annual sport and music festival that welcomes 30,000 guests and hosts five different sports – rugby, netball, dodgeball, hockey and volleyball. The 400 sports teams, combined with live music and camping, creates one of the biggest festivals of its kind in the UK. Describing the journey of planning the event to the clean-up afterwards, Craig and Steve depict how they implement technology that ensures a smooth, safe and enjoyable experience for everyone involved, from the guests to the sports teams to the organisers themselves. Introducing himself as the MD of the “technical side”, Steve explains that FesTech is brought on each year to run the design and implementation of the technology used at the e

Join us as we talk to Tito co-founder and CEO, Paul Campbell, and delve into what makes the company tick, the importance of maintaining its core values and why creating a community helps success. Essentially, Tito is event ticketing software that was created to offer the best check-out experience for buying tickets online. Speaking from the head office in Dublin, Paul comments on how taxing buying tickets used to be: “Buying tickets felt more stressful than it [should have been] or you were landed with a tonne of forms to fill in before getting your ticket and I felt there should be a better way.” Initially starting out as a simple bit of code, Paul used his software background to create an app to connect PayPal to the Tito website. Describing the evolution of Tito, Paul explains that he and his colleagues avoided the “start-up mania” that other companies fall into as they didn’t want to fall victim to ‘hyper-growth’: “focusing on growth at all costs to get investors’ money back can compromise one’s morals

Joining James on the Event Industry News podcast this week is Emma Little, CEO and founder of the free, venue-finding service, ExecSpace. Delving into the early days of the company, Emma reveals the reasons behind the business, the struggles of “starting her own company from scratch” and how to maintain the momentum a decade down the line.  In what can be described as a well-populated world of venue-finding, Emma describes how she entered the scene with no experience in the industry having come from a telephone sales background: “it’s about being humble and honest enough to admit what you do know and admit what you don’t”. She reveals the main reason to set up a company was produced by essentially being a career-driven home-bird. Following other companies would likely have taken her away from Edinburgh, so, to combat the push to move to places such as London, she decided to take her career in her own hands and set up a company. This, Emma agrees, is probably a backwards way of going about it: most people

On this week’s podcast, host James Dickson is joined by the founder of Volt, Frederik Jensen. Volt specialises in supplying charging and cloakroom solutions for outdoor events. Having launched their product at Denmark’s legendary Roskilde music festival, Volt quickly developed a pedigree for supplying mobile charging solutions for festivalgoers. However, the company has expanded and developed some clever solutions to aid cloakroom operations. It may sound simple, but by utilising smartphones and some clever programming, the company aims to improve the audience experience thought reduced queues and a more efficient service.

This week’s Event Industry News podcast looks at how events communicate their sustainability efforts to their customers. Joining host James Dickson to discuss the subject is Joss Ford, founder of communications agency Enviral. There are very few events out there that don’t pay attention – even in a small way – to the matter of sustainability. Although the depth of their commitment may vary, there is a consensus that events have an obligation to ensure they operate in a greener manner. Joss talks about how events can effectively communicate the strategies that they are deploying, as well as highlighting the work being done by other organisations to promote the subject within the industry.

This week the Event Industry News podcast looks at an innovation that could transform the way exhibition stand marking is conducted. Joining host James Dickson is CEO of August Robotics Alex Wyatt, who speaks about Lionel, the robot created to mark out floor space in event venues. During the podcast Alex explains how Lionel works, the various types of marking that the robot can deploy, and the operational aspects of deploying the technology. He also answers questions relating to the accuracy of the marking, along with the way the robot can analyse and identify issues with floorplans prior to the commencement of marking.

The Event Industry News Podcast once again goes trans-Atlantic for this week’s episode, as host James Dickson links up with CEO of INVNT, Scott Cullather. Scott launched INVNT in 2008 with a clearly defined ambition to create a global agency that would deliver innovative and dynamic events for the world’s leading brands. Ten years on – and having just opened the company’s Singapore office – Scott talks about that way he and his colleagues went about pitching to potential clients as a new agency. Having established an early reputation as creative thinkers who were prepared to take risks and explore new ideas, Scott also talks about how he retains that attitude whilst also balancing the business need for consistency of practice.

The Event Industry News podcast returns with its first episode of 2019, and welcomes Cvent’s Brian Ludwig to the show.   Host James Dickson talks to Brian about his 18 year career with the company, looking back to when the now global tech brand was just a handful of young people with a desire to make a difference.   During the episode Brian also talks about the challenge of delivering solutions to territories that may have different social or cultural protocols, and the awareness that they need to have in order to provide a service that best fits any given location.