Hi, my name’s Terence Corness and I’m the new guy here at Metro.  I started on 9^th Jan and my role here is to identify new business opportunities and secure new clients wherever possible.  My previous experience in this area of business is extensive but my previous experience of the events world is limited having only really come into contact with the industry from a client perspective.  Prior to this I worked for a large organisation selling data and contracts into the property and environment sector.  We ran events, of course, but I was only ever the man on the stand before now.

So what prompted the move?  Well I run my own music and art events outside of work with a friend and have been keen to become more involved with the industry on a professional level too.  I love the way that you start with an empty room and an idea, and then bring it all to life, threading the various components together, until you have a full blown event taking place in front of your eyes.

My first impressions of the company culture at Metro are that it is a very dynamic organisation where things happen fast.  The energy in the office is very positive with a busy, competent and productive team, who clearly know and respect each other a great deal.  It is always difficult to start at a new office where you don’t know anyone, but people here have gone out of their way to bring me up to speed as fast as possible, and to make me feel at home.  My Director Liz Rice, has shown me every sandwich shop within a square mile of the office on various lunchtime sorties.  So I now have a very in-depth, albeit highly localised, knowledge of this specific part of South London.  I particularly love being right next to Borough Market which is proving to be A) Tempting & B) Expensive!

The first thing for me to do on walking into this role was to understand as much as I can about this world, in a short space of time, so I am now enrolled on 2 courses, one at City of London University in Major Event Management & the second on using Adobe’s Indesign creative publishing software to put together attractive client proposals.  I have purchased and am reading two great books: Special Event Production by Doug Matthews and The Freelancer’s Guide to Corporate Event Design by Troy Halsey.  These books cover everything from the very basics of set up, venues, staging, scenic and environmental design right through to the more technical aspects of the audio-visual and lighting equipment available for project managers and event producers in the industry.

As well as the marketplace and the product/service that one offers it is also critical to quickly get a feel for how things operate in a live context and to meet some of your clients, so I have been attending a number of events that Metro are running as well as industry briefings.  The first event I attended was at Vinopolis, where we operate as the in-house audio-visual and events team, this was being overseen by Dave Ashman and was a 50 year anniversary do for a big re-insurance company.  The theme was eighties and the whole place looked magnificent when it was all finished.

I also attended the Meetings Industry Meeting Needs Charity Partners networking evening at Twickenham on January 24^th, which was a great way to be introduced to some industry gurus and allowed for a tour of the hallowed grounds.  I have attended the Event production show over in Olympia, The ICE Gaming Exhibition over at Earl’s Court and a number of client meetings too, so it’s been a busy start, but so far absolutely loving it and looking forward to learning more and meeting many of you reading this in the weeks and months to come.

Terence Corness - Business Development Manager
DDI: +44 (0) 20 7202 2955
MOB: +44 (0) 777032 2955

terence.corness@metrobroadcast.com

Metro are currently providing technical support to a revolutionary art exhibition at the Shoreditch Townhall titled Mind over Matter.

The exhibition features portraits of 12 elderly people - all of who have chosen to give their brains to neuroscience upon their deaths. The participants - five of whom have already died - want to increase understanding about dementia, and had already agreed to allow their brains to be studied for physical signs of the disease, even though they might not, while alive, have outward symptoms. 

 Supported by the Wellcome Trust, Mind Over Matter draws back the veil of secrecy surrounding the practice of organ donation in celebration of those who elect to donate their brains after death for the purposes of neuroscientific research.

Artist Ania Dabrowska met with some of Britain’s oldest prospective brain donors who agreed to be photographed and interviewed about their lives and involvement in brain research. For the exhibition, Dabrowska interweaves photographic portraits, appropriated archival photographs, projections and sound narratives from the twelve donors, alongside scientific artifacts and medical imagery, to present a layered contemplation about the nature of memory loss and to trace the new lives that the brains take on after the donor’s death.

Metro have been delighted to be involved in this project which offers a fascinating insight into the lives of dementia sufferers. Mind over Matter is open until 23rd October 2011.

A move away from logistics and a redefined strategic marketing approach is paving a change in skill set required by event planners at Thomson Reuters.

It was clear that this was going to be no ordinary table discussion as Meeting Professionals International were treated to the insights of Sam Coates - Global Head of Events for Thomson Reuters at their quarterly Corporate Planner Forum last week. The forum took place in the amazing Garden Room at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower and was again sponsored by the Canadian Tourism Commission.

Alongside Sam was Niru Desai - Director of Strategy and Planning for worldwide communications group George P Johnson. GPJ we appointed as a strategic communications partner for Thomson Reuters earlier in the year and were happy to provide the agency perspective.

Sam's insight was lapped up by her fellow diners of corporate event professionals from companies such as Lloyds TSB Private Banking, Deloitte and Canon Europe.

So Thomson Reuters is only three years old and as with most mergers there was a hangover from the age old problem of duplication of event teams and resources. With both companies having previously managed event and exhibition activity on a global scale it was clear that duplication of people was not the only problem...in one country it was discovered that there were no less than 4 separate warehouse of exhibition branding.

Thomson Reuters had no clear landscape on how much was being spent on events, whether the money was being spent well and whether the activity was actually generating any benefit for the business.

So what approach was taken to consolidate and globalise the approach?

The first step was to research the potential models and partners for moving forward the global management of events. It was clear whatever approach was taken there would need to be a clearer understanding of what events were taking place, why they were taking place, whether the right types of events were talking place and what the overall spend actually was.

With GPJ selected to partner Thomson Reuters an initial process of analysis began in order to gather a better understanding of what portfolio of events were actually taking place. This required a top down approach with the process offered high level support by the Chief Marketing Officer for Thomson Reuters. As Sam explained ‘people can be reluctant to share details of events that they manage for fear of the activity being scrutinised and budgets cut.’ To ensure that everyone was bought, in Sam set about assembling a Steering Committee with representatives from all areas to be effected and this helped to shape the approach to be taken. 

According to Niru the portfolio analysis involved an honest look at the role of each event, an understanding how each event fit into the marketing mix and finally a challenge to the business to consider whether the events truly aligned with business objectives.

Thanks to the work with GPJ, Thomson Reuters are now on the road to discovery and real change. ‘Our 12 month calendar has sharpened focus and understanding of what we’re doing and why’ remarked Sam.  Events are continually assessed alongside a scorecard to determine value and to evaluate whether the right decision was made in proceeding with the delivery of an event.

The process of portfolio analysis is not a quick fix and Sam admits that it had taken a good year to gather the understanding that was required to effect change.

The skill of an event planner can sometimes be undervalued and in addressing the time, effort and experience offered by her team, Sam has sought to re-address the perception of value by imposing a suitable internal charge for her teams support. With hours spent managing the events fully recorded, the various internal clients are now developing a better appreciation of what each event entails.

Feedback at events is a full 360 that considers the views of the sales and marketing teams as well as the clients themselves. With lead generation systems that can effectively assess the events’ impact of the clients’ interest in the company.

So what have been the key learning points of the new approach?

‘I wished I had the benefit of having attended a forum like this from the outset’ was Sam’s opening statement at the forum. However in essence her key advice to other planners is

‘Don’t go big bang’.

In her view any change in the way in which events are managed is probably best tested on a regional basis before embarking on a fully globalised model. 

 

Liz Rice, Director – Metro Broadcast

Education Committee – Meeting Professionals International  

Twitter   @misslizrice

 

www.metrobroadcast.com

“I'm organising a hybrid event and it would be great if you could provide the technical support for the event” requested Paul Cook of Planet Planit.

Ehh? What the heck is a hybrid event? I'd heard of hybrid cars...but whilst most conferences run on hot air I wasn't aware that a combination of petrol and electricity came into the equation.

This was to be the first Event Camp Europe. Hot on the heels of a successful event in the US, it was apparently going to be an experiment. Bunsen burner and googles on the ready!

A combination of live event speakers with face paced ‘TED’ style presentations supported buy a whole multitude of digital technologies –web streaming, Google hangouts and Skype.

So the first challenge - how on earth were we going to deliver his event in a 14th Century country house - Down Hall. We wanted attendees to have access to the virtual world throughout the events to maintain what I found out was called the ‘Twitter back channel' - the official title of constant Twitter witter. At last a conference where it was being demanded that you kept your phone on!

So, a decent bandwidth was essential.

The solution - a temporary satellite and a whole lot of cable.

Down Hall was to host the live event but would be linked to simultaneous meetings taking place in remote pods in Sweden, Poland, Belgium and the principality of Croydon.

We had also set up a POD in a separate location of Down Hall so that live event attendees could also immerse themselves in a virtual experience. So overall there would be three audiences attending the event - remote attendees – from across the globe but mainly from Europe, USA and Canada; face to face attendees – circa 40 at Down Hall and the POD people – each POD had around 10 people in each.

Like a TV reality show the event would move between presentations to the live audience and studio links from a virtual MC to the ‘viewers’ at home. The result... Well it was certainly clear from the Tweeting and Twittering that we had the virtual audience hooked.

With the aplomb akin of a regular presenter for Bid TV – Emilie Barta did a fantastic job of keeping the virtual audience engaged with the live event. For a system that so cheap and easy to set up, the Google Hang outs did a great job of allowing the PODs to interact with each other. Presenters were Skyped in from the US.

Overall the event was a carnival of technology that gave one the feeling that with such communication becoming second nature in our home lives it’s only a matter of time before this becomes the norm for the live event industry. This doesn’t have to cost the earth...these technologies are easily available and in most cases they’re free.

Ok...at the moment the experience is alittle clunky…..but experiments like Event Camp Europe 2011 are a great way to start bridging the gap between low level use to serious business and conference use. With the emerging new ‘Generation Z’ kids on the virtual block we can’t ignore the communication demands afoot in the event industry... I for one are terrified of being left behind...so bring on Round 2 of the Event Camp Europe experiment!

Liz Rice, Director – Metro Broadcast

Twitter - @misslizrice

Please note, the views expressed here are the witterings of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Metro Broadcast.

12.32 28th September 2011

Metro’s Credit Suisse team took to the football pitch alongside their colleagues in order to raise money for the charity The Children’s Trust. The fought their way through the rounds fighting off ten teams to get through to the semi final but just missing out at the final hurdle. Scores weren’t disclosed but the office has been reassured that based on the fact that the Metro team beat the competition winners, they could have in fact won the tournament! Most importantly the team successfully raised £500 for the charity and the competition raised £4000 in total for the children’s trust. Well Done Team Metro! (Pictures coming soon)