Built Environment Events Calendar

Currently, the built environment sector is in overdrive when it comes to the sheer amount of events that you can attend. And yes, many of them are competing for the same audience and even overlap in terms of timngs. It’s a wonder any of us have any time to get any work done. Here are just a few in the next 6 weeks or so.:

Apr 30th - May 1st - Innovation UK, London Olympia

May - Footprint+, Old Billingsgate, London

May - CRETech, Magazine, London

May - UK Construction Week, London ExCeL

May - RIBA London Awards, RIBA, London

May - UKREiiF, Royal Armouries, Leeds

- The BCO National Conference, Birmingham

June - London Festival of Architecture

When it comes to events and conferences, in my 23+ year marketing career I’ve done my fair few. I’m in the unique position of having led PR for my clients exhibiting, leading teams hosting exhibition stands and even running event conference press rooms.

To get the most out of an industry event or exhibition the key thing you need to create is ENERGY and EXCITEMENT. It’s not something that just happens at the show but it’s something you work on in the run up to the event, during it and post event.

Getting ready for UKREiiF 2024

Pre-event preparation for B2B firms

I’m taking it as given that you have an exciting product, service or talk to share. So, this piece will look at the things you can to do to build energy and excitement around your presence.

Raise your social media visibility and be part of the conversation from the start

You need to be part of the social media conversation from the start. So, make sure you start posting and sharing more across all social media channels to build up anticipation.

Find out the show hashtags and tag in the show social media handles into relevant posts when you’re talking about the show. It’s a great way to build rapport with the organisers and for people who are attending the show to be more aware of you.

And there are a million things that you could share including:

When you sign up – “we’re going to be at xx show.”
Share what you’re showing
Say who in your team will be attending – a great way to reconnect with your audience and potentially get early conversations and meetings lined up
Talk about what you’ll be showing – give people a taster of what to expect and why they should make a beeline to you
Maybe run a teaser campaign to create intrigue and excite people about what will be on show
Share links where people can get tickets to attend – the more people at the show who are your supporters and know you, the better.

And don’t forget to always include your stand number so people know where to find you.

Tap into press previews

There will be media partner publications associated with the show so make sure that you make the most of these opportunities. This could be done via the show’s PR firm where you submit your details or something you do directly.

Have a press release ready to go with:

the story and products that you’re sharing
images of the products you’ll be showing high res and downloadable
quotes from your key people that are easy to pull out
A note to editors where you share more about you and your firm
House all of this in a downloadable folder with a link that you can easily share (Google, Dropxbox, OneDrive)

Maximise all promotional opportunities

Are you making the most of all the opportunities that your event fee offers? Things like spotlights on innovative products/services which bring together the best of the best or awards events that run side-by-side with the show or even networking opps at the show.

All these things offer exhibitors a way to amplify your presence so make sure you are maximising your presence. Even if a deadline date has passed – make sure you ask if there’s space/ if they can squeeze you in. Just remember if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Email your existing contacts

We’re all super busy so don’t forget that it’s easy to miss things on social media. Do send out an email to all your existing customers and partners that you’ll be at the show and what you’ll be doing.

It’s a large investment to be an exhibitor so making sure your existing network are aware and know that you’re showing something new is very important. Plus, remember they already know you so are likely to be the first ones to buy from you.

Email banners / website

Add a banner about the show to your email footer including the show, your stand and the key dates and where to sign up. Update your website to show your new products and that you’ll be at the show. And have a way to get in touch to find out more.

At the event, what to do

Encourage user generated content

When a 3rd party shares about you and your product it’s the most powerful type of marketing a business can have. So, offer a great experience on your stand, people staffing your stand should treat everyone as if they’re the most important person in the world and make them feel special. Encourage people to take pictures and to share what they’ve seen.

Keep up momentum on social media

When it comes to social media you want to continue nad build on what you started in the run up to the show. Have a number of posts ready to go throughtout the show and add pictures and additional posts from the show. Again tag the show, use the show hashtags and reshare posts that mention you by others. It’s also polite to DM those people who have shared something about your company and/or products to thank them for attending to build stronger relationships.

Make most of opportunities to connect at show

Drinks launches, industry breakfasts, meet and greets on stand etc. Make sure you’re making the most of the all the opportunities to network at the show.

Do something different

From competition giveaways which funnel visitors to social media, to people doing sketches or mind maps to capture talks – do something creative sketches, competitions, there are lots of ways to attract people to your stand. Make sure you use a variety of things to make you stand out from the crowd.

Post-event follow up

It’s so easy to think once a show has ended, that’s it for marketing activities but really this is where the most important bit comes into play. And anything you can do to get ahead before the show actually starts, will make it far easier to respond once the show is done and you’re quite frankly knackered.

Have post event follow up plan ready before event.

It’s best to figure out what your follow up will be before the show happens so that you can have clear conversations and talk about next steps at the show. Are you sending samples., are you arranging meetings? Will you be booking slots of CPD presentations? Develop your list of follow up offers so that you can funnel people to the right one when you’re talking to them on your stand. Then record it when you zap them at the event.

Compile your post event holding email

Ideally you can get the framework for this before the show so it can go out a day or two after the show as a holding email. This email is a thanks for visiting and we’ll be in touch soon type of email. It gives you time to trawl through all the people you’ve met aand to prioritise which ones to follow up first. This email can include links to the CTA list that you compiled for the show too so people can help themselves.

Post event ROI

It’s good to measure the impact of your work overall so make sure you do a roundup of website traffic, social media traffic, mentions before, during and after the show as well as leads and sales. New relationships and existing relationships that have started as a results of the show. should see spike before during and after make sure you make most of it.

How to get more value out of events resources

Here’s a live that Stacey Meadwell, Emma Drake and me went live to talk about how to make the most of events. You can watch out talk on YouTube by clicking on the play button to the left.

It’s a lively chat and packed full of hints and tips. The film runs for 20 mins.