Frankfurt, May 19 2014 – 80 corporate buyers from 20 industry sectors and with a combined annual meetings and events spend of $180 million gathered at Frankfurt’s Villa Kennedy for the second Exclusively Corporate @IMEX.
The group, which included buyers from 21 countries, took part in an extensive education and networking programme, which kicked off with a short introduction by Patrick Delaney and Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partners of SoolNua and members of the IMEX facilitation team. The pair described the day’s two educational themes – creativity and compliance -which were chosen by the delegates themselves, as a conundrum.
“Today’s programme is designed to show you how to manage this catch-22; this apparent conflict between being more creative and free in planning meetings and events while staying ‘safe’ and within regulatory bounds,” they said.
Following a short video designed to showcase the city of London and the services offered by keynote sponsors London’s official Convention Bureau, London & Partners, the delegates enjoyed a highly personal and frank keynote presentation by Michelle Mone, OBE. Mone is one of the top three female entrepreneurs in the UK and owner and co-founder of the Ultimo designer lingerie brand.
Mone described her childhood in Glasgow, Scotland, as humble. She, her parents and sister shared one bedroom and the house had no bathroom. “Nevertheless”, she said, “from the age of 10 I knew I wanted to start a business and nothing was going to stop me. I began with a paper-round and by the age of 11 I had 17 teenagers working for me. Family illness meant I had to leave school early with no qualifications…I had to go out and look for work. Even then I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur but I just hadn’t found that ‘lightbulb’ idea at that early stage,” she revealed.
Mone, who donated her fee to the Children With Cancer charity, urged her audience to remember that creativity is driven by having less money, not more. “In the early days of Ultimo I organised a stunt on London’s Oxford Street which cost us just £500. The press coverage that followed was worth £54 million. That single event spread the word about our brand all over the world. It was a turning point for Ultimo and we never looked back after that,” she said.
Following Mone’s frank keynote, the buyers who included Chief Operating Officers, Global Procurement Managers, Heads of Corporate Events, Event Managers, Marketing Managers and more broke into two groups to hear a choice of education sessions. “Interactive Media and Engagement: A Conference Case Study” was led by Luann Edwards, Strategic Communications Consultant for FM Global. Running concurrently was a session co-presented by Jeff Leggett, Meeting Manager for Co-Operators Insurance and Board Member of the Financial & Corporate Planners Association, and Padriac Gilliagan, Managing Partner of SoolNura and co-facilitator for Exclusively Corporate @IMEX.
At the same time, a private meeting was convened for the most senior executives present, which was facilitated by Terri Breining, President of the Breining Group and Kimberly Meyer, President of Meetings Analytics.
After “Better Events on Tighter Budgets” by Charlie Heavey, Environment Manager for Innocent Drinks and “Regulatory Compliance – A Meetings & Events Game Changer?” by Mark Handforth, Director of Compliant Venues, the buyers were invited to round off the day by sharing ideas and questions in a facilitated World Café session.
Commenting on the event, Carina Bauer, IMEX Group CEO said: “The feedback from today was excellent. The programme and the quality of speakers and the debates that followed were all widely appreciated by the corporate buyers and senior executives. Exclusively Corporate has fast established itself as a valuable and popular part of the preshow IMEX education programme and, of course, the fact that it brings 80 or more corporate buyers into the trade show from day one is extremely important to our exhibitors.” Exclusively Corporate was kindly supported by London & Partners, Villa Kennedy, Raffles, Fairmont, Swissotel, Dubai Convention & Events Bureau and Experient together with CDMX – Mexico and Cyprus Convention Bureau.
