Development of an AGM with small table-tops, to a commercially viable leading industry event
Success Achieved
Development of an AGM with small table-tops, to a commercially viable leading industry event, resulting in 500% increase in exhibition space over 5 years and the doubling of the association's membership.
Organisation
| Name: | The Lifting Equipment Engineers Association |
| Member geography: | International |
| Members: | |
| Based in: | United Kingdom |
| Website: | https://leeaint.com/about |
Discovery
LiftEx began in 2005 after a few member companies wished to display their products at the AGM during the coffee breaks and grew organically for the next 5 years. In 2010, increased demand led us to create LiftEx and bring on a partner to professionalise and strategically develop the event for the long term, and to remove roadblocks to help us streamline our workload and help us achieve our goals.
Objectives
To leverage the existing AGM attendance:
- For the event to be the UK’s leading exhibition for the lifting industry
- Members to have an annual platform to meet and network and discuss issues outside of the AGM
- Make this a LEEA-endorsed event with strong member benefits, but attract non-members to boost membership
- To align the event with key industry media partners
- Increase the % of end-user buyers across all relevant vertical markets
- Aim for 1000sqm net exhibition space in 5 years
- 2000 visitors by the 2015 event
- Make this the no.1 go-to event for education, industry updates, innovation and networking
Project period
March 2014 - November 2014
Project Team
- Operations Director
- Business Development Director
- Web Developer
- Marketing Manager
- Conference Producer
- Onsite Support Staff
Project Partners
- L2 Conference and Events – our PCO, who drove the project and are an “extended arm” of our association.
Activities
Defining the event strategy – establishing the goals and objectives not only of the association but also the event stakeholders (sponsors, large-scale exhibitors, key media partners) to ensure a successful event for all parties.
Reviewing the key success factors throughout the project to ensure we are on track.
Position LiftEx as the leading event in its fieldand elevate the event to the next level by adding educational content, knowledge sharing, new features, and targeted networkinopportunities – so that it is the ‘go to’ event for all those interested in the overhead lifting industry from relevant vertical markets.
Holistic communication strategy – produce a consistent message across all touch points driving to a single event landing page - be it an email signature, advert, HMTL email, etc, providing a toolkit and making it easy for the association to market. This also enables us to analyse the results of every part of the campaign.
Create an event identity complementing the association's branding but as a “stand-alone” event. The logo was designed to incorporate key products in the industry in a simple and striking way, as well as highlighting the 3 key strands of the event. We produce consistent branding across all marketing channels including website, print and social media.
Design and build a simple yet effective event website which to act as the hub for the event.
Marketing campaign – create a full annual campaign reaching out to all end-user markets
As part of this campaign a key focus was to work closely with the media partners to establish close, ongoing relationships
Using relevant content and compelling messages to drive potential visitors to find out more on the website and ultimately register their attendance.
Sponsorship & Exhibition Sales – produce a professional sales prospectus with creative and varied packages with a variety of price points, focusing heavily on pre-event engagement between sponsors and visitors.
Establish a formula for post-sales so sponsors and exhibitors are well serviced and can maximize their event presence:
- An “account management” approach for the key sponsors
- Marketing toolkits.
- Easy to navigate online exhibitor manual.
Support the membership by working closely with them and giving them the tools to proactively reach out to their contacts, promote their participation and on-site activities, gain new business and ultimately grow the event.
Future development - constantly gathering valuable content to enable promotion for the next events – gathering testimonials, video content, snapshots, successful deals made on-site.
Venue and location selection – working closely with the venue and the city to look at activities of mutual benefit.
Challenges
- The need to create a professional show, but not appear to be too “over-commercial” and being sensitive to the members needs
- Creating opportunities to suit all budgets
- Encouraging all exhibitors to understand the benefits of a larger show
Achievements
- Reaching the target number of exhibitors
- Selling over 50% of exhibition space for the following year onsite to gain momentum for the next show
- Exhibition space increased by 200sqm to 1000sqm
- Visitor numbers increased by 400%
Feedback & Testimonials
“If interested in lifting equipment this exhibition is unmissable”
Brindley Chains
“A valuable and worthwhile day of networking and introductions to new equipment.”
MOD
“Found the event to have an abundance of information and products which will enhance my plants lifting activities”.
EDF Energy
“Great focused event in the lifting industry for both exhibitors and visitors!”
Codipro
“The premier UK exhibition for the Lifting Equipment Industry”
Gunnebo Industries
“An excellent, well attended show”
English Braids
“LiftEx proved very successful in gaining new promising customers and sales prospects for our company”.
Kito
Wider Impact
Association membership has doubled in the past 5 years.
