CHALLENGES
After the success of the 2022 Annual conference, Matillion approached us to produce their Super All Hands event for 2023 to engage 700 delegates and partners. The multi-day conference would include 2 exhibitions with 42 exhibitors, 59 sessions including a variety of keynotes and breakouts, 2 awards ceremonies, numerous off-site fringe venues, a quiz and a party. The content was also broadcast live online to a number of their audience tuning in virtually around the world.
The theme for this year’s event was Productivity with an emphasis on engaging content led sessions, so the challenge for the Make Events team was to facilitate a complex agenda, manage all logistics and delegate registration for a global workforce, and bring the space to life through high impact and eye-catching branding.
SOLUTIONS
To make the event bigger and better than the year before; we transformed Manchester Central into a Matillion Hub, with large scale print throughout the venue, an impactful expo hall, as well as providing multiple activities and engagement opportunities in the communal areas including an F1 simulator competition, branded Batak competition, ‘through-the-years’ photo wall, ‘in-the-moment feedback’ wall, and a Manchester skyline colouring wall.
As the theme of the event was Productivity, within their field of data; we welcomed a fantastic external keynote session from the HAAS F1 Team Principal, as well as engaging sessions from the executive team. The 2 exhibitions were so popular that we extended these to run for an additional day. Furthermore, we delivered 5 additional fringe events off-site where each department could socialise and network outside of the conference environment.
The delegate journey was very important to us so we created a bespoke app with individual agendas for each department, which also had scanning capabilities so we could track attendance on the day. A large Make Events presence on-site allowed us to deliver effective people management and be on-hand for delegate queries, allowing us to react swiftly to any impromptu changes or requests on-site.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
The feedback received for the event has reaffirmed the ambition that the content and wider agenda was well received, with the messaging and theme for the event hitting the mark. The opportunity to gather the entire business together to align on the strategy for the next FY, while enabling teams to engage, collaborate and enjoy each other’s company under one roof; has provided an effective ROI.
