A good event, something for everyone, and a fantastic turn out over both days. Well done to the event organisers and all of the staff involved!
Highs and Lows
There were a large number of Suppliers present at the event eager to talk and demonstrate new versions of their CRM’s. It’s always really interesting to have the opportunity to see them all in one place and to be able to compare functionality, look and feel of the CRM’s. It can, however, be rather daunting if you are approaching to purchase for the first time; we met a number of startups who were well and truly spoilt for choice.
The main meeting area was a hive of activity and discussion throughout both days and was a fantastic place to meet and network. My only complaint was that it was continually rammed and I saw a number of attendees having to sit around the outside of the floor plan. Maybe the events organisers could give some thought to more seating hubs around the room as these would definitely get used and would again be a great place to network.
Did anyone find the App this year?? That was a great tool to have last year, keeping me informed as to who I’d visited and which theatres my seminars were in. There didn’t seem to be one this year which I think was unfortunately, a missed trick.
Hit or Miss?
There were a good number of seminars delivered over the two days, covering some diverse and interesting topics. Some were full to capacity especially on Day 1 which was a really busy day at the event in general, but I did manage to take in a few inbetween chatting with all of the suppliers and familiar faces. Steve Beckitt, Founder of SourceBreaker gave a great, if short insight into The Power of Search, highlighting best search practises and other ways to approach searching on Linkedin or other Social media, Staying with Linkedin, Julia Doherty of Green Umbrella Marketing gave an engaging and useful talk on the Secrets that Linkedin Does Not Want You to Know. Both of these were extremely insighful for any recruiters in the audience and we at INEO certainly enjoyed them too.
Probably one of the most popular and pertinent seminars was given by Victoria Roythorne, Head of Compliance at Outsource UK on the ‘Countdown to GDPR. With the May deadline looming it was hard not to notice a number of anxious attendees, frantically note taking and queuing afterwards for more information. Victoria laid out the details of the legislation clearly and concisely and gave some really good practical advice to becoming GDPR compliant. As she pointed out, there is still time to get your systems and business GDPR ready, but you really do need to get the ball rolling…SOON!! If you want to see how prepared you are (or not as the case may be) please do take a minute to complete our free GDPR Questionaire.
How to get noticed….
It’s always interesting to see the approaches that are taken to get your attention at events like these and there were certainly several of those this year which definitely worth a mention; the lovely folk at Zeel Solutions proved hard to resist visiting with their crowd pleasing Pick and Mix Sweet stand, Centralus with their futuristic message board and bar style seating were proving popular, and the matching outfits of the Sirenum team were very hard to miss. The INEO prize for a crowd drawing stands however, goes to what has become a staple for the vent at the Broadbean cocktail bar!! Congratulations, What better way to entice the crowds in to discuss new services than over a completely delicious and well deserved French House Gin Cocktail.
Anyway, look out for us at the next events.. We’ll be the ones in lairy INEO yellow shirts, dishing out cocktails and sweets so do make sure you come and say hello!