Developing the Scottish Bakers Annual Conference and Awards
Success Achieved
How Scottish Bakers have grown their old traditional conference by 28% attendance, 50% on sales, and 80% on exhibitors, and created a must-attend event for members.
Organisation
| Name: | Scottish Bakers |
| Member geography: | National |
| Members: | 400 delegates |
| Based in: | United Kingdom |
| Website: | http://scottishbakers.org |
Introduction
Scottish Bakers had a vision that our annual conference was to be the shop window of our association. In 2010 there were 65 people at the conference in Peebles Hydro. To achieve the vision an implementation plan was put in place to develop world class conferences for our members, stakeholders and sponsors.
Key objectives were to add value to our member businesses; build a community of bakers in Scotland using family businesses as a model; positively engage with suppliers from the trade; provide a relaxed social environment for buyers and sellers to know each other; and give our members time to think and reflect on enhancing their business. To achieve this we worked at obtaining sponsorship; delivery a quality exhibition area at the conference that bakers would want to visit; attracted key note speakers and presentations from industry leaders within the sector; created the Scottish Baker of the Year Awards to give another reason to attend; and attracted over 350 delegates to the event.
Discovery
Scottish Bakers was established as the Scottish Association of Master Bakers in 1891. Five years ago a new Chief Executive was appointed and the journey started to modernise what had become a “sleeping giant!” The Association had lost its way during the previous decade, once it had more than 2,000 company members and was respected by key stakeholders, Government and its members.
Therefore the embryo of the strategy for the 2015 conference has come from work that we started back in 2010. A series of strategy “away days” were organized for the Board and a new strategy developed with the aim to be known as the “Voice of the Bakery Sector in Scotland and respected by its members, stakeholders and funders”.
Clear objectives were developed based on 4 P’s.
- Profile -To encourage ordinary shoppers from Stranraer to Shetlands support their local baker’s;
- Policy -To be a must consult organisation by local and national Government, its agencies and departments.;
- People - To be respected as the largest provider of high quality bakery and food and drink apprenticeships in the UK and Ireland;
- Professionalism - To provide a range of services that add value to bakers businesses.
The Board of Scottish bakers comprising of 18 owner, managers and managing Directors of bakery companies in Scotland agreed that our annual conference was to be the shop window of our association and an implementation plan was put in place to develop world class conferences for our members, stakeholders and sponsors. In 2010 there were 65 people at the Scottish Bakers conference in Peebles Hydro. To achieve the aim of delivering a world-class conference that was valued by our members, sponsors and key stakeholders would mean a major step change for our Board and conference organising committee.
Therefore stretching strategic objectives were set which have stayed with us for the last 4 years:
Our objectives for our conference included each of the following:
- Add value to our member businesses
- Build a community of bakers in Scotland using family businesses as a model
- Positively engage with suppliers from the trade
- Provide a relaxed social environment for buyers and sellers to get to know each other
- Give our members time to think and reflect on enhancing their business
- To accept an operating loss for up to £40,000 in total, for the first 3 years with the objective to at least break even in year 3.
We thought we could achieve these through:
- Obtaining sponsorship to enable us to provide a high quality event
- Delivering a quality exhibition at the conference that bakers would want to visit
- Attracting key note speakers and presentations from industry leaders within the sector
- Creating the Scottish Baker of the Year Awards to give another reason for bakers to attend
- Setting a target of attracting at least 300 delegates to the two-day event (Friday & Saturday)
Objectives
- Develop a world class conference in line with feedback received from our 2014 conference
- Attract 300 delegates to the Friday afternoon exhibition, Friday night Scottish baker of the Year Regional Awards and Bay City Rollers entertainment
- Attract 400 delegates to our conference including quality bakery and business speakers - Lord Digby Jones; Mich Turner MBE; Martin Lightbody; Pete Sidwell; and Paul Grant.
- Attract 425 delegates to the Saturday evening Presidential dinner and Scottish Baker of the Year National Awards
A financial target of breaking even:
- Attract sponsorship income of £90,000.00
- Ticket including of £30,000.00
- Keep the weekend ticket price at an affordable level £150.00 per delegate to include: 3 drinks receptions; Exhibition of 35 suppliers to the bakery sector; Friday dinner; Scottish Baker of the Year Regional Awards ceremony; high quality entertainment from the Bay City Rollers; full day of conference presentations; Presidential Dinner, Scottish Baker of the Year Awards; Entertainment including a pipe band.
- Build our community by encouraging all delegates to bring partners and give it a bakery family feel.
Project period
September 2014 - June 2015
Project Team
- Alan Clarke, Scottish Bakers;
- Alan Stuart, Stuarts of Buckhaven;
- Andre Sarafilovic, Wm Stephen Bakers;
- Brian Sarafilovic, Pars Foods;
- Craig McPhie, McPhies;
- Don Henderson, Goodfellows of Dundee Ltd;
- Gordon McGhee, D McGhee and Sons;
- Jim Brown; John Gall, Brownings the Bakers Ltd;
- Lewis Maclean, MacLean’s Highland Bakery
Project Partners
- All of the conference activity was designed and planned by the conference committee and implemented by Scottish Bakers staff.
- Daily Record - Media partner, the highest circulation newspaper in Scotland, for the Scottish Baker of the Year Awards, that are an integral part of the conference.
- Easyrecruit - External recruitment agency, to enter the paper based customer votes (19,000 of the 23,000 votes cast were completed in our members shops and premises by their customers).
- We received sponsorship from Bako Northern & Scotland, British Bakels, Flemings, Puratos, Zelandia, IREKS, Fleming Howden, Macphie, the Clydesdale Bank and California Raisins.
Activities
The starting point was to engage with our members to determine what they thought of our current conference and what they would like to see included. We did this through a series of 3 regional roadshows around Scotland and met with 125 bakers through these events. We also asked bakers what type of things would make them attend and it was as a direct result of this consultation that we instigated the Scottish Baker of the Year Awards.
An organising committee was established with a strategy and operational plan developed to deliver the first new style conference. This strategy has stayed with us the last 4 years and we have grown the size of the conference year on year.
The conference subcommittee was comprised a number of our Board members, bakery members and suppliers to the industry. Each of these groups were represented by the Managing Directors of their companies, the reason for this was to ensure that we had the ability to resource the decisions.
The main focus has been to create an event that Scottish Bakers are proud to attend and take part in and the outputs and outcomes are proof that this is happened in May 2015. In order to realise our vision we developed a draft outline of what the conference would look like and took this vision to our members and potential sponsors.
Keys to Bakery Success – Unlocking Potential word cloud
We created a style of Keys to Bakery Success – Unlocking Potential. We used a word cloud graphic of a large key stating inspiration and bakery words.
We developed a sponsorship package of:
- Conference partners;
- Overall partner, includes speaking slot at conference, prime exhibition space and presenter of the overall Scottish Baker of the Year Award;
- Gold sponsor - sponsor of the conference, an exhibition space and presenter one of the Scottish Baker of the Year product or business awards;
- Silver sponsor - a sponsor of the conference and an exhibition space;
- Exhibitor.
This aimed to add value to our sponsors and we developed a conference app which offered attendees on the Friday afternoon a range of offers from our exhibitors including 10% off all orders placed with our conference partner up to an order value of £5,000.00. This meant that many bakers would receive a £500.00 discount for placing their normal weekly orders which
in turn more than paid for their conference fees.
Every sponsorship package include tickets for the event meaning that sponsors could invite bakers to their table.
We developed a marketing and communications strategy to engage with our members, sponsors and stakeholders. The objective of this strategy was to maximize sponsorship and attendance at the event.
We developed an action packed programme which included an exhibition, a full conference programme and 2 awards ceremonies.
We used project planning methodology to manage the design and implementation of the conference from inception in September 2014 through to delivery, dissemination and evaluation in June 2015.
Innovation
There were many innovations this year at our conference but what makes it unique is the community that it has created. The delegates are members of family and national businesses, and by encouraging partners to attend it has become a fantastic mix of business and social activities that anyone who has experienced for the first time has told us ‘they have never experienced a conference like it’.
Combining the conference with Scottish Baker of the Year Awards and attracting exhibitors and sponsors are innovations that have really changed the event. Exhibitors want to be at the conference to network with bakers and make contacts that will lead to business development.
Technology has been a real focus, with interactive presentations displayed on large screens. And social media has played its part, helping to put the event into the national arena.
Finally involving Scottish Bakers customers in the voting process has helped drive forward the excitement regarding the national awards which are announced at the conference. Scottish Bakers know that if they win an award it goes back with them into their community and the difference this makes is outstanding.
Marketing
For the Scottish Baker of the Year Awards we delivered a direct marketing campaign and a high profile publicity campaign through which we have raised the profile of our bakers in Scotland, giving pride to their work in Scotland.
We delivered a bespoke multimedia campaign, including traditional media and social media, to encourage entries and attract votes. The Conference and Scottish Baker of the Year Awards has highlighted the professionalism of the baking industry in Scotland, allowing the public the opportunity to champion their local baker. 600 bakery products were entered into the awards this year. The conference has also assisted our engagement with local and central Government and their Agencies helping to strengthen partnerships that influence Government policy on all areas that impact on bakers in Scotland.
Conference & Awards poster
We specifically network with Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council, inviting them to partner with the event and attend the awards ceremony. The key messages that now surround this event include:
- Scottish Bakers supports craft bakers across Scotland
- Scottish Bakers has launched Scottish Baker of the Year to find the best baker in Scotland
- The Conference and Awards recognises success and celebrates the achievements of professional craft bakers in Scotland
- Baking is a great profession and we should be proud of our high street bakers
- Baking is a skilled profession with many unsung heroes; it’s great to see some of the most skilled bakers in Scotland being recognised for what they do day in and day out.
- Scottish Bakers run a world class conference.
Challenges
The key challenges were to secure sponsorship and key note speakers to ensure this was a world class event.
Achievements
The media and TV coverage was exceptional and winning an award at the Scottish Baker of the Year Awards makes a positive impact on every winners business.
The conference was reinvented as a result of the development strategy and the establishment of the organising committee. Creating the Scottish Baker of the Year Awards to the conference added excitement and a real competitive edge to the conference evenings. More than 23,000 customers from all across Scotland voted for their favourite bakery products and favourite baker, 186 bakers were invited to enter products to be professionally judged.
Winners of the Scottish Baker of the Year Awards
There were 6 product categories: Morning Roll; Scone; Bread; Savoury; Biscuit & Cake; and 3 business categories Craft Baker of the Year (for a bakery with 3 or less shops); Retail Baker of the Year ( for a bakery with 4 or more shops) and wholesale Baker of the Year (for a bakery with no shops). The overall winner of Scottish Baker of the Year was selected from the winners of the 3 business categories.
Creating a world class programme of speakers and adding exhibitors with enticing offers created a very special weekend event. The results from our 2015 conference was our biggest and best yet, starting with 36 impressive exhibition stands over three rooms with each exhibitor going to tremendous effort to ensure their stands looked professional and interesting. T
he conference included three drinks receptions; 2 award ceremonies; a superb cake decorating master class from Mich Turner MBE; a series of bakery and business related presentations including a keynote address from Lord Digby Jones whose presentation earned a standing ovation!
The amount of PR that is generated every year is steadily on the increase, promoting the sector as a whole and tackling the issues that are universally faced within the industry. This year, excluding all TV and radio coverage, we secured £480,000 worth of editorial coverage and a readership of approximately 36 million in the Scottish regional and national press. 23,000 Customers voted for the Scottish Baker of the Year, 425 Delegates attended the conference weekend, 185 Bakery companies participated in the event and there was 1 Scottish Baker of the Year 2015.
At the end of this year’s conference we contacted all of our participants and sponsors to obtain feedback. As a direct result of this 28 of our 36 exhibitors have committed to a 3 year sponsorship deal and 100% of delegates rated the event very good or excellent.
We received more than 100 emails, cards and letters of congratulations. We had 5 TV performances, radio coverage and coverage in the major national and regional press across Scotland.
Targets & Statistics
Statistics - targets vs achievements
Feedback & Testimonials
Tom O’Toole from the Beechworth Bakery in Australia told us it was the best business event he had ever been at in his life and he is a motivational speaker on the international speaking circuit.
After our conference the overall winner of the Scottish Baker of the year Awards Gordon McGhee Managing Director of D McGhee & Son in Glasgow said it was the best feeling in the world and that every one of his 400+ staff, took pride in their win, a number of whom were at the conference. He said we couldn’t buy the motivational boost that this has given our business or buy the recognition that it has brought to our business from customers in Scotland, the UK and internationally.
Wider Impact
Due to the number of delegates, key spokespeople now want to attend this event to raise their profile in the sector. Delegates want to attend the conference as they are now assured of a well organised event at which they can network and get up to date on the latest trends and issues.
