As 2015 comes to a close, it is time to look back and reflect on all fantastic events that took place this year and congratulate ourselves for all the hard work and great achievements. In this post I want to share with you some of the best industry events I attended this year in London that inspired, educated and entertained me and also offered fantastic networking opportunities.
The Meetings Show
In its third year now, the B2B industry event is the meeting place for event planners to meet global suppliers face to face, network with industry peers and attend education seminars. I enjoyed this event because it is like a big class reunion where you see all your colleagues from all over the world and catch up on latest news. The speakers programme was very good and covered a variety of topics for agencies, corporates, associations, venues, sessions on personal development, leadership, technology and more.
This year I was also a speaker at the show, you can read about my session “social media strategies for agencies” here.
ISES Accelerate
ISES, the association that focuses on creativity held their first annual conference at The Emirates stadium. I enjoyed this event because I had the opportunity to listed to some of the high profile speakers and event planners including Colja Dams, CEO of Vok Dams from Germany, King Dahl, Executive Director of Event Design, MGM Resorts from Las Vegas, Kevin Jackson founder of The Experience is the Marketing and president elect of ISES and Caprice Bourret, a successful business woman, TV personally and entrepreneur, owner and founder of By Caprice Brand. I enjoyed this event because I come from the corporate sector and sometimes caught us focusing too much on operations and logistics with less focus on creativity. This event was very inspiring and educating.
Read more about the event here.
Cake decorating workshop with GC Couture
I can’t think of a better way of spending Friday afternoon than doing a cake decorating workshop at one of my favourite hotels, the Four Seasons Canary Wharf. Our afternoon started with Champaign and canapés before learning some decorating techniques, than we had an afternoon tea (more cake!) and finished with learning few other techniques, with all cupcakes to take home and share with colleagues or family. Why I loved it? Because I love cake! Well as well. The event was perfectly organised, the quality of products and teaching was excellent, choice of venue was perfect and it was a good balance between learning new skills and networking.
You can read more about it here.
Advertising Week Europe
Originally from the US and now for the fourth year in Europe, it is a one week long event for advertising professionals. It covers branding, media, marketing, sales and technology where some of the biggest brands present their case studies. The event took place at different venues around Piccadilly Circus and there was something for everyone. Two session I particularly enjoyed were about social influencers and the LinkedIn B2B forum.
Sustainable brands
This event is for companies looking to incorporate sustainability into their daily business, or those doing it already and looking for new ways to innovate and be market leaders. I enjoyed this event because the content was very good and focused on how we can start implementing sustainability and changing consumer and employee behaviour, rather than talking about sustainability and why it is important (we know it already don’t we?).
Challenge with this topic is that it is very hard to excite attendees about sustainability and here the speakers shared examples how to make employees and customers a part of driving this change in an engaging way.
Read more about my takeaways here.
Citizen event
The less formal of all but an event that made it to this list is Citizen Events which takes place every last Friday of the month at Grace Bar. It is very simple – same place, same time, no content and only networking with one rule – no sales. This event is open to everyone – suppliers, corporates, agencies, freelancers and students, and that what makes this event so successful!
I am very excited for 2016 and can’t wait to attend some of my favourite events on this list and others!
What were the best events you attended this year and why?
No Comments