Conceived by Chris Lawson, manager of the Saville production team in Edinburgh, the conference was designed as an educational forum for the Scottish events market and the agenda was devised by polling the market, using social media to determine the most pressing issues of the day.
The topics chosen by the virtual community were Social Media, Event Content and Hybrid Events and the initiative attracted delegates from many different sectors of the industry. These included event managers, conference planners, corporate event teams and destination management companies, with many joining the event on-line or via Twitter.
The day was chaired by events journalist and consultant Richard John who fielded questions from the live and online audiences and kept the day running smoothly. The technology used in the event included vote pads, question submission via iPads on the tables, online polling and Twitter interaction. The entire event was also recorded and webcast live by Saville's digital event services team.
The day culminated with Calum McCallum of Merkland Events making the case for Scotland's own independent event association, which was enthusiastically received. 94% of the audience voted in
favour and Calum will now be working on the next stages of the proposal.
Denise Pinto and Lizzie Fisher of Origin Events said: "The content was extremely informative and the conference also provided great networking opportunities, not only with industry experts but also our peers. We have already introduced the concept of hybrid events to our clients and the response has been very positive. We look forward to the next one!"
Speaking after the event, Richard John said: "I was delighted to be involved, and it was great to see such a huge turnout on a Friday afternoon. An excellent mix of speakers and some great feedback generated, not only from the audience in the room but also from those watching at home. There's a real hunger to learn more about issues such as hybrid events, content creation and social media and the huge level of support for a Scottish Event Association was astounding."
(Claire Beeson)
