All right, hello everyone. Welcome to today's webinar. I'm your host, Ryan, and I'm delighted to be back here for another episode of our HeadBox Revenue Series, dedicated to putting revenue into your venue. We're here today at Surveyor's House in the stunning lecture room to bring you a topic we feel is strongly anticipated—winning corporate clients for your venue.

As we know, attracting corporate clients can be a game changer for any venue. These clients often book high-profile events that not only boost revenue but also enhance the venue's reputation. Today, we're going to dive into the strategies that can help your venue stand out and become the go-to choice for corporate clients. We at HeadBox want to help you with strategies to make sure you are fully equipped to become a corporate client magnet and boost your venue’s appeal to business clients.

So, get comfortable. And before we start, if you haven't already, please add any questions you have into the chat. Our team is on hand to answer as many as possible during the session if we have time. As always, we'd love to see where you're tuning in from, so snap a picture of your setup and post it on LinkedIn or Instagram, tagging HeadBox.

To provide insight and expertise on today's discussion, we're fortunate to have two fantastic speakers with us today who bring a wealth of experience and knowledge. First, we have Anna Fenton, Marketing Director at Searcys, known for hosting top-tier corporate events. Hi, Anna, and joining me as well is Matt, Managing Director at CrowdComms. Hello, Matt.

Hello, welcome to you both today, and thanks so much for joining me. I think to start, it’d be great to introduce yourselves, tell us a bit about your background, and about where you work. So, we'll start with you, Anna.

Anna: I look after marketing for Searcys. Searcys is a business which is 177 years old. We started by a ship by connection in 1847. He was a remarkable Victorian visionary entrepreneur. He realized, while working in the Soho area, that there was an opportunity to service the growing middle classes who couldn't afford big kitchen setups in their houses. He moved to London, borrowed a huge amount of money—150 pounds, which was a lot in those days—and set up an events catering business. The rest, as they say, is history. So, Searcys has gone through lots of correlations: royal birthdays, we did some wedding cakes for Queen Victoria's grandchildren that were delivered to St. James's Palace. But on a serious note, Searcys now has over 30 venues, predominantly in London, not forgetting the beautiful Pump Room in Bath—a combination of restaurants, bars, and also some iconic venues. Each one has its own charm, its own story, and that's what we're here to unpack and bring to the market.

Ryan: Lovely, thank you for sharing. I absolutely love the venues in Searcys' portfolio, so glad to have you here today. Matt, hello, how can I compete with that history and food, which is always my favorite part of any event? Never has the technology been someone's favorite, but the food quite often is. But it’s still an important part of the event.

Matt: Yeah, I'm the Managing Director of CrowdComms. We are 30 years old, which in the software world is quite a long time. We focus on full event technology, so we do some virtual business, some hybrid business, but the majority is in-person event technology. So, event registration, we've got these lovely fancy big robots that turn up at venues to get people their badges as well. We've got offices globally—Australia in Sydney, I always quite enjoy doing this—we’ve got Manly in Sydney, which is very fancy, we've got Boston in the U.S., which I adore. We've got an office in Dorset in the south of England, so the head office is in Dorset, despite the fact we've got those glamorous cities as other locations. Great team behind us, really passionate about events, passionate about technology, but I think just as importantly, events people—they understand the stresses that you go through and will be going through when you're delivering your events and have that empathy and understand how to use our technology to at least take some of that pressure away.

Ryan: Thank you very much, Matt, that's great. I've had the pleasure of working with CrowdComms myself, absolutely love it. So, I think to begin here, Anna, I’ll turn to you. How has the demand for corporate event space evolved over the past few years, and how has Searcys adapted to these changes?

Anna: A very good question. It's been a very fast-paced market, for sure. So, we've seen a huge pent-up demand for corporate events in the market in 2022 and 2023. I think we're sort of coming into the new normal. Clearly, there is a lot of discussion—is Thursday the new Friday, or is Friday coming back? And I think we'll continue to debate this in the corporate world. Clearly, we see that there is a lot of thought being put into that by event organizers because it’s just so precious to get those people in the room. Content is important, the experience is very important. So, clearly, there is much more focus on that, that precision choreography at an event. And of course, food and drink plays a big part of that. I think this year will be slightly tougher because, of course, we've all experienced the drop in inquiries due to the election. What we actually see is that those inquiries are coming back, so the phones—or the emails, shall I say—are busier in August than they used to be. So, we're looking at a very strong last quarter of the year, and Christmas is racing ahead. But it is a lot of hard work, for sure.

Ryan: Yeah, we're not seeing as much Christmas yet, and I think that just follows the trend of short lead times that we've seen over the last couple of years. And yeah, it's been really nice to see August bounce back. Venue Performance did a study with just shy of 400 venues that showed their data for the year. January, February, March was following seasonality. April saw a dip, but April we find always sees a dip every year. But it didn't return in May, and then June dropped off a cliff, and that was quite worrying for everybody. But you can attribute that to, yes, the snap general election—that's behind us now. The Euros are over, and it's been really positive to see that. We've worked with Venue Performance, and we've been working at this for a number of years. We were probably one of the first venue portfolios to join. We're out there facing the market at the moment, but of course, you have to be on your PR and due diligence. You have to watch your numbers; you have to think about what's going on.

Anna: It's fantastic, an interesting market.

Ryan: It is, yeah. So, Matt, I guess over to you. How do you see virtual and hybrid interacting with the way corporate clients approach event planning?

Matt: I think when we talk about the pandemic, it was the only choice, wasn't it? And that’s, you know, it was the choice. And so, obviously, all of our clients who were planning their in-person events started doing their virtual events. What we've seen is it’s kind of come back—we've—I think we're settling into what I see happening over the next few years, which is that it is part of the event portfolio, but it's not the biggest part of it. So, revenue from our side is always a good indicator of what events are taking place. About 35 to 40% of our revenue is associated either with a virtual event or with hybrid events. Hybrid is over 20% of that, but the majority is back now in-person, which is, you know, what we want and, you know, what the venues want. It’s what we all want—to meet up, catch up, network, and have some nice food, have a glass of wine—that’s what we really want to do. So, our responsibility now is to facilitate those conversations, let people know what content's taking place at the venue, and allow them to make their wonderful food choices and then turn up at the event and have a great time.

Ryan: Yeah, we had to adapt our entire offering during the pandemic. Everything turned virtual. Coming out of it, there's this pent-up demand you touched on, and I mean, I think that will remain. Events are authentic; it's the authentic experience, as you said. It's the food, it’s being in the room, it’s seeing the speaker. And I guess, how do you engage, or how do you utilize the technology to still ensure that if somebody is joining virtually, they still feel like they're a part of that authentic event experience?

Matt: I think the first bit is to remember the fundamentals of why we're there. You know, what we are is a vehicle for content, as mentioned before. So, let's take the hybrid event as an example. Our responsibility is to make sure if you're watching, you are watching the same content at the same time, from the same person on the stage, but you have the same opportunities to engage with that content. So, you can ask your questions, you can participate in polling, you can give your feedback, you can potentially meet the speakers, you can meet the delegates that are at the event, as well as delegates that are watching from home. So, it’s trying to keep it as simple as possible. I think people overcomplicate it quite often. People were filming these events pre-COVID. The only difference now is that we take that feed, we're putting it into a platform, and if you go onsite, you've got your mobile phone; if you're at home, it's on your desktop. It’s the same platform, the same content. Keep it simple—focus on content, focus on networking. And as a tech company, not trying to be too cocky and trying to put ourselves into things where we don't belong.

You're talking about big drivers that appeal to corporate clients and being able to offer a hybrid element which might drive the sustainability piece for, you know, uh pit Booker. These things are important to consider, and I guess on that point, Anna, what features or amenities does Searcys offer that particularly appeal to corporate clients.

Well, hope we've already touched upon the most beautiful venues with the stories, and I think what we need to do collectively as digital platforms, venues, specialists, is to actually tell the stories. That's why people want to come to unusual venues. So that's the, I think that knowledge, that storytelling is clearly number one. Hope which I'd like to talk about. We have been known as a food business for, you know, almost 100 years, so I think the quality of food and drink, the knowledge, the presentation, the story behind the dish about people, about where it comes from, is so important, and that's what we're hoping makes us stand out. That's what makes people come to us, to our venues, time and again. Of course, the purposeful, kind, attentive service. We use a lot, you know, words around choreographing the service, and I think that's kind of how we want to see an event. It is a performance; it's thoughtful; it's about back of house, front of house talking together; it's about chefs coming out to actually check on people as well as, you know, operations managers; it's about the sales manager handing it back in a nice, appropriate way and then absolutely closing the loop, asking for feedback. So, I think it's this virtuous circle which has to continue with every single event, no matter how big or small.

Yeah, I love that. Events as ballet, you know, as you were saying, as a performance, it's so precious. There isn't a large or small event; it's important for every single organizer, so of course, we have to deliver every single time. You're right, front of house, back of house, production, CrowdComms digital. Yeah, that's, but we're talking about the corporate event experience. You know, it is about that collaboration. So, I think, Matt, how can or so can you speak to how you would collaborate with, you know, a physical venue like one of the ones Searcys offers?

So, I mean, venues are absolutely purchasing our hardware, so they've got like a registration offering, so that's the first thing that people see when they go to an event. You see them register, so we want to showcase your venue. We want to showcase it with registration. When they turn up, they're going to get their badge, and that's the first thing that they're going to see. So there are a number of venues in the UK and globally that are actually purchasing that hardware and software license and running that technology as their own. So that's elevating that experience; it's getting people their badges, sure, that might seem boring, but it's getting them into the event to watch that content. So, that's certainly something that we're doing, but in terms of the pre-event, we're on site with the organizer, we're looking at the venue, we're considering, you know, filming areas with internet quality, where we're putting the machines, and, you know, we're very much part of that journey. You know, we are part of that corporate decision-making process in the same way that you are. I listened to you talk about the people and the theater around it, and that's very much the same with us. It's our responsibility, the people that make the technology work, the people behind the scenes that are listening to people's problems and being able to solve them using technology and supporting that with empathy, just as you do, listening to your problems and trying to come up with solutions.

And every piece is important. I mean, you said badge collection is boring, maybe you'll concede that point, sure, but it is, you know, if you're an event attendee, that's the opening number; that's the first impression. So, it's very important that, you know, the event gets it right, that you get it right, so that they have, you know, a good experience from the hop. So, when they enter the actual dance that, you know, Searcys might provide, they're feeling great about it, they're digging the dance, so to speak.

And this ties into where I want to take it now: strategies you use to build these long-term relationships to ensure repeat corporate bookings. Obviously, there's a lot that goes into an event, so delivering service, what other strategies do you use?

Well, I think it's always about the whole customer journey, whether it's digital touchpoints we do, whether it's online with partners like yourselves, or on social media. LinkedIn is incredibly important in events, I think, as well as pre, during, and also after because that's the platform where lots of event organizers are sharing their experiences, and we need to be cognizant. We need to be absolutely honored to say thank you, to share, and be part of that. So, there is this digital piece which is very important, and I think there is a human element, so you have to be confident in the team delivering your event. I think that's where the post-event call is so important when sales or the PR go to an event organizer afterward, rather than just sort of an online questionnaire, because I think that's what really cements the relationship.

And of course, there are 500 other things we do to really create key accounts. So firstly, we would like the business to stay within Searcys' portfolio, so we've got the sales teams in venues, but we also have a central sales support team, and their job is to guide, direct, and really make sure that that customer experience is as good as it can be. I think that's very important; that's a great one to have. Number two, it's making sure we put product knowledge everywhere because I think we are not only the custodians of the venues, but we also have to be experts in food, drink, gastronomy, etiquette, delivery, so that front of house and sales knowledge is very, very important. There are lots of tools where we're employing, you know, show training, tastings, upsell training, and again, if you inform people about what they're producing, then, of course, what we're doing with love. We are very, very fortunate to have our restaurant portfolio, which means that we can incentivize people, we can send them gifts, we can give them absolutely wonderful, unique moments like Searcys' sparkling wine, and all that really, really matters. I think every little touchpoint matters; it has to be thought through, and it has to be consistent.

Yeah, it's interesting you say that kind of after about because what we see, you know, one of the things that we're being asked to do is join up those physical events, so we're not gap-filling, but we're enabling an event to continue beyond that physical experience, that in-person experience, whether it's video libraries, feedback, discussion forums, and promoting the next one. And the objective is that a client would do, you know, five big events and a webinar in between each one, and engage content to share those moments, reflect on the successes, to learn from those moments and experiences to improve the experience moving forward. But there's a huge amount of that, and it's happening in the big corporates, you know, they're doing more than anyone else, and it seems to be critical for them as part of their common strategy to have an ongoing digital strategy to support those in-person events.

I think events are paramount for content creation, and conversations we're having either with our team members or with our clients or stakeholders, absolutely, and I think just sort of as a sort of glue in between those marketing efforts, for sure.

Yeah, and you can provide them just spectacular insight into that, so I mean you kind of mentioned sort of sentiment surveys; you don't just do that, it is about phone calls, but at the same time, what the corporates do want with these events is they want to know that they've achieved what their objective was. And I really like CrowdComms because you're with the booker, you know, pre, during, and post-event, but it's the during and the post when we're talking about, you know, repeating that business and providing them the data that shows that they've achieved greatness. And you can do it during the event—gamification—you can kind of get raw feedback during the event and post-event by engaging the attendees. Do you want to speak a little bit more to that?

Yeah, I mean like you said, every event is different, and so our approach is going to be different for each event, and I think key to- we talk about repeatability, retention, which I know is an important part of that - is listening.

It's empathy and it's knowledge, you know, those things that you have. Same with us; we want to understand your event and what you are trying to achieve. So the first question we ask is, "What does success look like for you?" Because ultimately, that's what we want to help you deliver. Gamification and incentivizing delegate behavior certainly plays a key part in that. If we look at success as taking a person to a certain stage to a sponsor, then we need to drive that behavior and encourage it. If we're looking to see whether people are engaging with content and understanding it—so if we're doing a big business change with the corporate and we're trying to promote that change in business, we need to have people join us on that journey and make sure we're conveying that effectively.

We can incentivize engagement with questions based around content, quizzes, or networking challenges to meet those business objectives. Gamification is a fun bond because it also enables people to explore a venue. We've had QR codes in various places at venues to encourage people to explore different parts of the venue. For example, I’ve had cones at the bottom of pools on rooftop bars in Barcelona, so you have to dive with goggles to retrieve a cone for points. There are lots of fun things that we incorporate to engage attendees.

We also do venue takeovers, where a whole venue is taken over for a specific event. For example, we had an event for a big publication where people had access to a bar, a reading room, a demonstration room, and a fashion show. Integrating a digital journey with such events adds significant value.

Data is incredibly important, and it needs to be accurate and processed effectively. It's not just about customer satisfaction but also about sustainability. We need to consider the sustainability of the events, suggesting menus or dishes with lower carbon footprints, for instance.

We also focus on social impact. For example, we work with charities like Beyond Food and Hotel School, which help people find employment in hospitality. We employ individuals from these charities and help them integrate into the business, ensuring they're looked after and can truly grow in the industry.

We've discussed data and customer service, and how these are crucial for repeat business and gaining new corporate clients. Let’s touch on some challenges now. When things don’t go right, how does Cersi overcome these challenges?

If issues arise at the start of the journey, such as cutting through the noise to be selected, it's important to work with the right digital platforms and have a strong online presence. Speed of response is crucial; maintaining an open dialogue with the customer is key. Empowering teams to make decisions and fix issues as they arise is vital.

For technology, standing out during the proposal stage is essential. We work hard to ensure our digital footprint is meaningful, presenting our venues effectively through high-quality proposals and imagery. We also focus on creating a positive impact through our proposals, making sure we stand out in a congested market.

Innovation and adaptability are crucial. For example, we use interactive proposals and 3D tours with AI elements to engage potential clients. These features allow clients to visualize their events in our venues and interact with the space virtually.

In terms of trends, data security remains a top priority, particularly for larger corporate clients. VR and AR are becoming more prevalent, providing visual ways to learn and convey messages. Accessibility and inclusivity are also critical, ensuring that all attendees can fully engage with the event platform and technology. Features like neurodiversity options are becoming increasingly important.

ROI is essential; clients want to justify their investment through data. We need to provide clear evidence of engagement and value. Creative impact is also key—events should be memorable and shareable. For instance, we can incorporate personalized touches like logos on chocolates or bespoke dishes inspired by a company’s history.

To sum up, attracting and retaining corporate business involves getting customer service right the first time, crafting a compelling narrative about the venue, and effectively utilizing data. It’s also about ensuring that the event is enjoyable and engaging. Corporate events can be fun and memorable, which can lead to repeat business and positive client relationships.

Thank you both for joining me today. I had a wonderful time, and I hope everyone watching found it insightful. We’ll share this recording of the webinar online this afternoon, so feel free to share it with colleagues, friends, and family. We look forward to seeing you next month. Thank you!