PA Life discussed how to deliver great corporate events with Caroline Medcalf, Director of Venue Find and Events at Agiito.
What advice would you give to a PA who is new to event organising?
It’s harder than it looks! There are many different facets to organising. My advice would be to plan, prepare and then check and double check. Have a plan A, B and, if it’s particularly risky or weather dependent scenario, a plan C. I have never yet run an event where the whole thing from start to finish has run smoothly or without some sort of issue arising. You need to be prepared for all eventualities from coaches breaking down to guest speakers being ill on the day of the event. I always suggest starting at the end – what is the desired outcome of the event? Once you have established the reason why you are having an event in the first place, you can then work backwards to ensure that everything you plan is focused on making sure the end result hits all your objectives.
What’s your scope in organising corporate events? Do you offer a service from start to finish?
At Agiito we have two main areas with regards to Meeting and Events. Firstly, we have our Venue Finding team who are experts in matching the right venue to your requirements, from a 5* resort hotel to a local Town Hall, and everything in between. For smaller meetings, our customers can take advantage of our proprietary technology, Meetingspro. It enables users to view rates and venue availability in real-time, and submit their enquiry. We were one of the first TMCs to launch this and it’s enabled our offline Venue Finders to dedicate their expertise to more complex bookings.
Secondly, we have our Event Management team who are a dedicated project team there to support our customers throughout every step of the event. Each one of our customers is assigned a dedicated Project Manager who directs all the logistics of running an event including finding the right venue, building a delegate registration website, managing all the invites and responses, sourcing third party suppliers such as caterers, AV, and production specialists, and keep everything on track with a detailed project plan. We then manage all the onsite logistics to ensure everything runs smoothly during the event and collate feedback reports at the end of the project to make sure we’ve hit all the objectives.
Our team act as an extension of your own team, making sure everything happens exactly how you want it, to our professional standards, both leading up to the event and on the day.
How can you offer the most value to a PA running an Event?
In the current climate we are seeing that lead times and deadlines are much shorter than in previous years. We work with PA’s and EA’s who have had an event land on them with little notice, and in addition to doing their day job! We have a dedicated team of people who can support by offering their expertise and knowledge when it comes to planning great corporate events.
We have relationships in place with suppliers across the board that we work with on a regular basis, so have the experience and ‘know how’ to make things happen quickly. The team do this every day all over the world for thousands of customers, so in answer to the question, I would say expertise, knowledge, and experience, all of which translate into an efficient and professional service.
Agiito is also a business travel management company. Does this offer an additional benefit to your event management offering?
The fact that we have a venue finding team along with a dedicated travel team including flights, rail and accommodation means we are able to not only book travel for our delegates attending events, but we are also able to deal with amendments and cancellations along with the inevitable changes to itineraries, all under one roof. We are also able to offer consolidated billing which means less invoices to check after the event has taken place. Over recent months with the short notice train strikes and Air Traffic Control strikes, having an inhouse travel team with 24/ 7 support has been invaluable to our customers.
What are the prominent trends in this year’s event landscape? And have these changed from the pre-pandemic trends?
Sustainability has always been on the radar, but I have seen a huge increase in requests for not only tracking and offsetting meetings and events, but also ways in which we can avoid or reduce emissions in this area. We all have a responsibility to support our customers in meeting their sustainability goals by making everything visible and offering alternative options wherever possible.
Another trend which we welcome is the focus on delegate wellbeing, from offering hybrid events so delegates don’t have to travel if they would prefer not to, to longer refreshment breaks and packed agendas. We work with our customers to develop healthy menu options at lunch breaks, and we have also seen a drive away from the more traditional networking and teambuilding sessions. For example, we have run several events where the delegates volunteer for local charities, and this has had fantastic feedback.
How important is delegate / employee wellbeing in event planning and management now?
Wellbeing is a huge focus right now and not before time! The days of back-to-back agendas and a 30-minute turnaround before dinner are gone, and we are working with our customers to suggest ways in which we can support their delegates in this area. Recently we were the first agency to partner with Eventwell, who offer Wellbeing Hubs at events. The hubs offer a quiet space away from large and often noisy events where delegates can decompress and take time out to recharge and relax. It’s a great initiative that has been well received.
You may also enjoy reading about Agiito’s industry-first venue booking platform that informs you of travel times to each venue.
