CHALLENGES
Following on from two successful editions, we once again partnered with tech giant Matillion to produce their annual Super All Hands event, a three-day conference, with over 500 delegates and partners from two key Matillion sites coming together. As we were bringing their attendees to a familiar venue, and with a familiar format, our challenge was to create an event that felt original, delivered engaging and informative content, and still had the element of surprise.
In addition we had to ensure guests had plenty to do outside of conference hours, and as ever, finish with an amazing party to thank the team for the efforts over the previous 12 months.
SOLUTIONS
As with previous iterations of the event, we transformed Manchester Central into a Matillion Hub. Large scale print throughout the venue, creative use of digital screens, an impactful expo hall, and stunning stages created the perfect setting for the impressive volume of messaging that needed to be relayed to the Matillion team.
Matillion CEO Matthew Scullion, various board level and upper management level team members took to the stages across various conference rooms, delivering vital, engaging information via a mix of keynote speeches and interactive sessions. As a treat for attendees, Jake Humphrey brought his High Performance podcast style interview to the stage, firstly for a chat with Matthew, before introducing the surprise keynote speaker – Bear Grylls, who wowed the audience for an hour, including inviting guests to dine on maggots for breakfast!
The Matillion Expo returned with over 40 exhibitors, an awards ceremony, numerous off-site fringe activities, and the return of Dave’s Quiz (minus Dave!)
Lastly, as always, Matillioners are thrown an amazing party to thank them for all their efforts, and this year’s theme went retro, with guests treated to a full suite of classic arcade games, dodgems, UV mini golf, on-stage karaoke and more. The most amazing way to end an incredible three days.
Every department at Make Events played a part in delivering this impressive event. With each element, there was an emphasis on engaging content, 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. A large Make Events presence on-site allowed us to deliver this seamlessly, being there for all queries, and to afford us the luxury of making any and every last-minute change and addition onsite.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
The feedback received was overwhelmingly positive. The keynote speeches, breakouts and expos are vital sessions for Matillion to align their teams for the upcoming year, and each went incredibly smoothly. The theme really lent itself to the message that the Exec Team wanted to share with the wider business, with whom it was amazing to have all under one roof to celebrate their successes together. This event has laid the foundation for another incredible event in 2025.
“I wanted to take a few moments to say what an incredible job you all did last week. I imagine it’s hard enough to reinvent a space for a third consecutive year and make it feel new, fresh and exciting for those who have attended before and you really, really did! You know I am a massive Make Events fan already and I’ve always been impressed by your ability to make something feel so inline with our business and people, but to transfer that into something on the scale of last week is nothing short of amazing!
I had so many more people pull me during the week to wax lyrical about your team than anything else by some distance! Which means you lot managed to upstage Bear Grylls, Jake Humphrey and even me! We all appreciate what you all did for us last week! THANK YOU!”
John Nardone
Senior Director of Talent Development, Matillion
