Making the most out of your time at UKREiiF - Marketing & BD Special

Large conferences are an important investment of both time and money, so what can your business do to get the maximum return from the opportunity?

If you’re prepping for UKREiiF and not quite sure how you should be tackling it from a marketing and business development perspective, well, you’re in luck!

Ayo Abbas and I held a very special webinar with none other than UKREiiF MD Nathan Spencer about how you can get the most out of your time at the conference.

Find Ayo Abbas on LinkedIn - Ayo Abbas

Find Nathan Spencer on LinkedIn - Nathan Spencer

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Transcript

[00:03.2]

Hello, everyone. So, thank you so much for joining us. So, I'm Ayo Abbas. I am a marketing consultant. I run my own agency called I Forgot that, which is Abbas Marketing and I do marketing for built environment firms.

[00:19.8]

And I've also got a podcast called the Built Environment Marketing Show. So, yeah, I talk a lot about marketing and I'm joined today by Jeremy. Do you want to introduce yourself, Jeremy? Yes. Thank you, Ayo, and thank you for arranging this again. So, I'm Jeremy Brim. I lead Growth Ignition.

[00:36.4]

We help with the transformation of B2B B2G firms in how they grow. So market research, business planning, cam capture, bidding, all of that kind of stuff. And I have a podcast called the Red Review that's all about winning work. So it's great to be here today.

[00:51.4]

Thank you. And thank you for tuning in. Yeah. And if you're watching us live, which I hope some of you are, if you can put in the comments, May I guess if you're going to UK Reef, what you're looking to get out of it. And we'll have a look in the comments and see. And see what.

[01:07.1]

See what's going on there. And today we are joined by somebody who's propped up by coffee, as he said this morning, Nathan Spencer, who is the MD of UK Reef. And he's got his copy coffee cup there. Thank you for joining us. Thank you very much. Yes, it's definitely coffee.

[01:23.1]

It's nothing harder, I promise.

[01:28.2]

So, Nathan, how are things? Yes, we're just getting ready to start building, which is really weird to say, sort of four weeks out, but, yeah, our operations team is in kind of full mode. The content programme team are sort of finalising all the programme, etc.

[01:44.3]

So hectic, but really good. Yeah, Cool. So, Jeremy, do you want to intro the session? Yeah. So, A.O. and I are friends, we work together on some stuff and we were talking a couple of months ago about how we work with a number of clients and how some clients are really good at preparing for conferences.

[02:04.2]

And particularly, you know, UK Reef has become the marquee event in the construction infrastructure investment world. It's really quite important that we get the best out of it. And because we've got some clients last year. AO and I had a coffee last year and it was quite apparent some people were just.

[02:20.6]

We were just talking with Nathan earlier about, before we came on, about how people just sort of wander around bumping into people and stuff. And it's really quite important that people get the most out of this event because it only happens Once a year we've got two or three days depending on how long you're, you're staying and, and want to be involved.

[02:39.5]

And so obviously Nathan and the gang are really geared towards return on investment because they want people to come around every year and we want our clients and our friends to get the best out of it too. So this session came about because we just wanted to help people Prep. You know, A.O.

[02:55.3]

and I were talking the other day that actually we're probably almost a year late and Nathan, we were going to say we should do a wash up session actually after UK Reef almost kind of, you know, you're a year away from next year. What should you be doing now as well as what have we learned? Because some of this you do need some quite, you know, Leeds gets very busy as a city and we'll, we'll come to that.

[03:16.8]

But certainly, you know we're, we're about a month away now, aren't we? Yeah, all very excited, beginning to build the stuff. What should you do now is kind of the agenda today to make sure we get the most out of this time together with our community because it's, it's really precious actually in this day and age and it's a fantastic event but we got to get the best out of it.

[03:37.3]

It's the purpose of today. So if you've got any questions for Nathan or Jeremy and I, if you want to put those in the comments as well and we'll come to them as we're going to go through the session. I guess let's start off with where are we currently Nathan? What's the numbers?

[03:52.9]

How are you doing? How's it all going? Yeah, just over 30,000 so pretty much where we were last year, four weeks ago. That's how we naturally see the flow go. So yeah, on target for around 16,000 delegates.

[04:09.3]

The positive thing from our end is the delegate split. This is in our KPIs as business in terms of all of the team. We have a big focus on it of making sure that 40% of the people attending are what we class as clients. That needs to be public sector government investors, developers, occupiers.

[04:28.2]

So we're driven percent of that 60,000 are clients. The 60% will then be wider architect firms, you know your lawyers, your marketing experts and so forth. The ones who make up and help bring the projects to fruition.

[04:43.5]

So yeah, looking really strong. There's more pavilions this year. We've grown, we've got pavilions floating on the water this year which is pretty Cool. How did you do that? Is it like. Jesus, like, you know, you make stuff float on water. Is that not you?

[04:59.9]

Exactly, no. Yeah, we've got, we've got four or five people who just stand there and sort of keep it whole and then every couple of hours we'll switch rounds and someone else can hold it up. You know that, that was a. We saw some in Liverpool actually floating on the water for something else kind of some activation and we thought, yeah, you know, that'd be great to have Operation Segment done.

[05:22.2]

Incredible to actually pull it, pull it off because it is quite a difficult task to do. But actually it's pretty solid. You know, there's no movement between it. It holds, you know, a thousand people on it. So yeah, we've grown quite a lot in that respect and we've, we've listened to feedback as well.

[05:39.5]

You know, we've, we've got a lot more meeting spaces this year. We're going to do a video of that in the next coming days of where those are on site. There's a lot more improvement in wayfinding, WI fi, water stations, mobile phone charging stations, the whole lot.

[05:55.0]

We've invested a lot more this year into the customer experience on site, which I'm sure is going to be. Welcome to Payal. Okay, so go on, go on, Jeremy. So I was just going to say, Nathan, you've had some additional investment or change of ownership in the, in the last year since last time and so it sounds like that spurred you on in terms of how you can grow.

[06:15.8]

What, how's that kind of helped you and what's the journey been like this year? Yeah, I think we went through an acquisition period in June, July with a company called infopro who are a global organisation, four or five thousand staff.

[06:35.2]

In actual fact, there's been not much change internally. I think internally we've had a bit of a change within the senior management structure of how it runs and it just means that I think our vision of where it's going, I suppose effectively it's my vision of where it's going is a little bit more focused on customer experience.

[06:53.4]

So therefore we've invested more into it. The organisation who's acquired us is actually quite hands off. It's our business, we run it, we decide the strategic direction of what we do at UK Reef, but also the growth of the business. So yeah, they do have expertise in running events.

[07:10.7]

They actually run one that's quite similar to UK Reef in France called Simi. But they're quite clear that the UK operation runs Pretty much on its own. So yeah, it's some nice synergies though, with kind of shared practise. A couple of organisations like Barber Abi are owned by infopro Digital.

[07:29.6]

Barber Abi is, I think historically it's been quite a good lead generation tool for supply chain, but it's moving very much into sort of data insights and guiding the industry and highlighting sort of trends and whatnot ahead of time. So, yeah, some good synergies, but pretty much it's.

[07:47.2]

It's UK Reef, running UK Reef at the moment. Which is. Which is what? So what other new kind of new things are coming, are coming into the show this year? So I know there's like new formats as well, isn't there? And there's more. It's not, it's not, I'm going to say, not just panels, but you know what I mean. So there's lots of different types of things you can be doing. Yeah.

[08:04.6]

So naturally we've had a lot more pavilions and therefore there's going to be a lot more focus on, you know, within those pavilions. Yes, you have panels but you also have networking and workshops and whatever else. So new locations. London have got their own dedicated pavilion this year, so have people like Liverpool, South Yorkshire, Scotland, you know, people who haven't had one previously.

[08:25.6]

So therefore there's going to be a lot more opportunity to engage with those regions

[08:43.4]

outside of that, make sure that the agenda has more networking opportunities. We say this with our. Where there'll be a different focus on a different sector, a lot more workshop activity.

[08:59.2]

From a DNI perspective as well, we've paid for a fair few coach loads of college students to attend on different days with different workshops on different topics. So, yeah, there's a load happening. But the key thing was trying to diversify the content.

[09:15.9]

We don't want. Panel, Panel, Panel, yeah. So trying to get our partners to be a bit more creative in some of the content that they're taking that's taking place on site that from our end is directly into that client side of things.

[09:33.3]

And this will come into the PT element as well that we're talking about. We know that councils, government, developers and investors want to connect with each other. So one of the things that we do is facilitation sessions. We do them by speed dating style events in a private room and we also do private brunches, lunches, breakfasts, where we put 10 councils in a room with investors, developers and occupiers who want to invest and develop in those areas.

[09:58.0]

They're the Kind. We know what they want to do, so therefore we put it on for them. Because we're focused very heavily on that client side, making sure that works, because that's what brings investment and regeneration and makes it actually happen on the ground. And, and those types of things are what I would say others should be looking at coming to UK reefing.

[10:16.7]

What do I really want to get out of it and run something that. That directly is aligned to that. Nathan. Sorry, Nathan. I'm just saying we're having a bit of issue with your line breaking up a bit. It might be that we switch your camera off and you just talk, but let's see how it goes.

[10:33.9]

Okay, we'll let you know if it keeps happening. Yeah, yeah, but, but, but, Nathan, let's. Let's see if we can carry on with it. So are those opportunities still open now? We're a month away. I recognise you guys are really busy in build and the rest of it, but are those opportunities still open for people to engage with you at the centre to create those opportunities?

[10:54.9]

Or is it a next year thing now, do you think? Yeah, it's. It's both. It's. It depends on how defined, you know, what you want to do. So things like you want to run a roundtable focused on a certain sector. That's actually really easy for us to put together because there's so many people who want to be talking and being engaged.

[11:12.1]

You know, those types of things are quite easy to do. If you want to do something that's really bespoke, then, yes, slightly more difficult. But, yeah, I'd say if you're trying to rush it into the next two weeks or three weeks, then you probably need to review what you're doing in terms of your marketing strategy.

[11:29.9]

Longer term. Yes, maybe do something this year, but use that as a learning curve for next year. Be a lot more planned out because you could do something in two weeks, but you'd rather have 6, 8, 12 weeks to do it. Definitely you want the lead time, the lead times, how you make the most out of it, really, isn't it?

[11:46.3]

So if you have got a ticket and you're coming in a couple of weeks time and what sort of things should you be looking at doing now? So you're literally, what, four weeks out? What sort of tips would you give to people for that? Yeah, I suppose the key bit is really deciding why you're coming. I'm sure loads of people know why, but sometimes it's really fluffy.

[12:03.8]

Yeah, I'm there to meet new people. There to do this. I've been to so many events where I speak to people and they just don't really have a clear direction of why they're going. So from my side, why you're going, as a starting point, who do you want to meet? And then you need to curate your programme around that.

[12:21.9]

I don't go to events usually for thought leadership. You know, I have a content and programme team who are brilliant at putting together a structure around what, what the event talking points are. And I would go for networking. So on the, on the website, on the mobile app, there's an opportunity to filter it by networking.

[12:40.6]

And I would be looking at. Right, so I'm into networking events. What can I go to? I can have breakfast with Muse, the developer. I can go and have lunch with, you know, London and meet all of the London boroughs who are in attendance. I can go to a. You know, those are the types of things that I would be looking to do.

[12:56.5]

Who do I want to meet? And. And if there's speakers that you want to meet, I'd almost be looking at, do you need to sit there for the whole thing? And if you do, actually a great opportunity to be asking questions. You need to be front row, you need to be asking questions, you need to be engaged. It's worth an hour of your time listening to a panel discussion if you're going for, for that one question and engagement with the speaker.

[13:17.2]

But likewise, you might be going because you want the thought leadership element. And therefore I'd be. Again, it's. It's going on that website and the mobile app and creating what your programme looks like. Again, filter it by sector housing, make sure that you really delve into it and use the filterable options because that will tell you exactly what's of interest to you and leave space for plenty of kind of chance meetings, bumping into others, because that's what events like UK Reefer all about.

[13:47.8]

But I would, I would say, Nathan, because I've been doing that for myself actually. I started that project looking at the data, attendees list, looking at the app you released the other day. And there's so much. It's so vast because there's so many people going and, you know, I'm with you, I'm.

[14:03.6]

I'm there for the networking, really. But I have to say, on day one, for me, for my, my type of work, there are some fantastic talks, actually, that I'm going to go to. I don't, I don't normally go to that many talks. I'm normally in it for the. If I'm honest.

[14:18.8]

But you know, there are actually some really good talks, so. But it will take you ages to work through the agenda and figure out, even if you filter it, there's so much going on that it might take you a day to plan your conference, but it's imperative that you do because you won't be able to do it on the hoof when you're there because it's too busy, there's too much going on.

[14:39.2]

So for anyone, I would say, who's attending, even if you've just bought yourself a ticket and it's your first year and you're sort of speculatively going to see what it was about, like me last year, this year you've got to have a plan. So it should map back, of course, to your business plan and key targets, key clients, sectors and sub sectors you need to understand and people you want to network with.

[15:01.9]

So use that filtering to do that. But you need to be snipers, not infantry. You can't just wander around the field. You've got to be quite targeted with this. And it will take you half a day at least to figure out your game plan. So I would say block out that half a day or a day between now and definitely the week before and get your game plan together because you can start to reach out to people.

[15:22.9]

The. The old WhatsApp stuff can kick off, but I would do that next week, to be honest. And you've just launched your new app this week, haven't you? Which I have downloaded. It's really good. How long did that take to develop? Yes, we have indeed. This is the beauty of the new parent business.

[15:41.5]

They actually own a. Because they have a big events business in France, they also own a mobile and website, events based effectively and events management system. I. I cannot kind of describe how difficult I found other event management platforms to kind of get little kind of things done.

[16:02.1]

The customer service side, I'm sure it's not just because they're part of our company, but they're blooming brilliant. Like genuinely the speed of things, we were like, oh, we want this bespoke a day late. Yeah. So there's a lot of changes that are coming that we're going to build into it.

[16:18.6]

One of the things which isn't on there yet is you'll have the opportunity to upload your photo and any photos that are taken across the event will pick your face upon AI and alert you if any photos are taken that you're in. Is that a good thing? That'll be really useful for speaking opportunities and whatnot.

[16:37.6]

Are you sure? For panels, I promise. You don't have to. You don't have to. I probably won't. You get it where sometimes people are kind of like they're clicking through all the. Yeah, because we have thousands of photos at the end of the event.

[16:53.1]

But the idea is that it will alert people straight away to say, right, you know, you're speaking on a panel, you want a professional photo straight away rather than one that's been taken in the back of a room on an Android or something. So lots of improvements that are coming down the line with it.

[17:09.1]

But, yeah, this year it's, it's an app. Next year it'll be even, even bigger and better, isn't it? We all live on our mobile phone, so it makes a lot more sense to kind of have that and to be walking around and like you say, I think especially before an event, it's like, you know, having, you know on your mobile phone who you're going to be chatting to, setting up those connections, having people's numbers.

[17:28.4]

Because that's what's really handy when you're actually at the show, isn't it? It's kind of like you just have a. Put in a quick call and you do all of that kind of stuff because it does get really busy and big. And I think it's just that kind of. Any of that prep you can do beforehand is also really, really useful as well. Sorry.

[17:46.4]

Just one thing is, it is a great opportunity, though, because the thing I found last year in my prep for it and reaching out to people is they are there and they haven't got anything better to do. Their calendar is. The calendar is open. Yeah. Having coffees with people.

[18:01.5]

So, you know, my biggest client in the last 12 months, I secured at UK Reef last year and it was because I sent them a message on the run up. Would be great to catch a coffee with you. It would have been really hard to arrange a coffee with them. Wherever they were in the country, they've got a big national role to pin them down.

[18:18.6]

To be in the same place as me at the same time would be really hard. But we were both going to be there. I've managed to get a slot and, you know, it's been a great journey. So, you know, if you get, if you get a bit of a plan, people are there. Okay. Yeah.

[18:33.8]

And that's it. I mean, for example, I've had, you know, when I've literally sat down on the bench and spoken to somebody randomly and Then that turned into, you know, a relationship offline. We started chatting and all of that kind of stuff. So I do think those kind of serendipitous moments as well. Unplanned moments are also there as well.

[18:50.1]

And I think it's just being open to the conversation because you never know who you're talking to. And I think that's one of my big takeaways is that. And that's. That's generally why I go. But I like talking to people all the time anyway, but.

[19:05.5]

So we got some comments. So we had Ema Strong, who obviously is a fellow marketer, saying it's too big of an event to not have a purpose and strategy to attend. Plus people get booked up well in advance if you want to arrange meetings. So I think some of that is. Is true. So that planning part that Jeremy said is quite important.

[19:23.2]

We've got Harriet from Gleeds is saying she's not attending, but managing the presence of others on behalf of GLEDs. So I'm looking to get some insights on what to do in this session. What else? We've got one about will the WI FI network cope with all of this, with the app, etc.

[19:43.3]

Nathan, I. I found, you know, the signal was quite good last year just on the affordable 4G, but it sounds like they've up the game with that. Yeah, I mean, the choice of me having some Internet connectivity issues now when. When we're talking about WI fi.

[20:01.1]

Yes, yes, we have. We've actually invested in partnership with the Royal Armouries in a. In WI fi that will cover the whole event and we've also. We did some testing on it last year and it will be utilised this year.

[20:17.9]

WI fi kind of. I don't know how you describe it, but they utilise the areas like Glastonbury where it amplifies it across large. Because one of the issues here, we need to have WI fi working to scan people into all of the tents and pavilions, but some of the areas, because you've got buildings in and around, it's not one open space like a big field.

[20:40.0]

We did some testing on it last year. The operations team have led on it and the WI fi sponsored by Greystar is going to be all. All up and running and. Yeah, it should be fine. I can't guarantee. If something.

[20:55.8]

Something happens, it should be fine. Yes. Anyway, Lorraine is going to come for you. If it's not, I'm scared. Joke on the comment around, kind of the.

[21:12.2]

The strategy. One of the most difficult things, I think, is these really big organisations which come with, really with. With so many different hats. So I know someone from stantech, sorry, my comments mentioned, because what. What they've done really, really great.

[21:27.9]

They've taken a space and they're running different round tables, let's say four round tables on a day on different topics. You know, they might be doing one of data centres and one on utilities and one on this. The. The audience is there for a bit of everything and when you're a larger organisation, that's when I think you need real help, expertise wise to go.

[21:46.5]

Right, how do we approach this not just as a business but actually with all of these departmental areas in it. You've got regional departments, you've got different sort of sectors. Infrastructure, you've got. Yeah, maybe transport and infrastructure, maybe you've got regeneration, maybe you've got logistics and that's the.

[22:04.0]

That's one of the most difficult things I think, is actually trying to get your coverage or the right. The right way of working without sending, yeah, a thousand people of your staff down to the event. So, yeah, that's one of those. Huge cost as well. But also I guess it's that people having.

[22:19.1]

Using their own calendars to kind of touch base on. If you're the infrastructure lead, then you have that whole infrastructure calendar that you're going for on behalf of that organisation, isn't it? So you're different people and the people you're sending, you just need to make sure they're the right people and that they're tapping into that kind of streams that you've now done, which are a lot easier to navigate because I think that that's a huge thing because otherwise you're right, it's so many different kind of hats you could be wearing, especially as large organisations, that's quite difficult.

[22:44.6]

But it's got a map back to their business plan and key targets per sector. It's kind of our, our game AO, in terms of your Dream 100 list, as it were, you know, so we're not here for just fun, although it is quite a fun event and it's lovely to network with people we know, but it's actually very important that your people are going and talking to the people you need to know, not just the people that they know already, because it's the.

[23:09.2]

It's the clients that have got programmes of work off into the future in this kind of landscape or potentially hellscape after the spending review of what's coming. You know, it's. It's going to be interesting how who you need to target for what? And within your lens of, you know, you should probably think about your perfect client lens, you know, who are the types of clients and any other stakeholders upstream that we actually make money with and enjoy working with and, you know, make sure you focus on talking to them as a priority and which ones have got projects or types of work that's in our sweet spot.

[23:41.3]

So you're not just talking to randoms that have got stuff that's way out of your comfort zone. Yeah. Because you'll probably screw that up and make a loss. You need to try and figure out what your list of contacts are that you need to make that are the ones you need to know that are good to work with, with the types of opportunities that are good for your business because you won't have time to just talk to, you know, target anyone.

[24:02.0]

It needs to be a really focused activity. How are you finding the sentiment of the market at the moment, Nathan? Positive. I think we've come through particularly the housing side because there's been this big ridiculous number of 1.5 million homes.

[24:19.1]

And whether we can achieve it or not, from what I'm hearing within government, it's just really kind of revitalised the department for formally levelling up. Now back to the Ministry of Housing. There seems to be a real positivity in the market. We've data captured through registration period what the current feeling is in the market and when we've looked at it from an investor slash developer side of things, they are feeling it's something ridiculous and, and to take this as a, as kind of a small point because all the data isn't in yet, but it's something like 92% of investors and developers feel either neutral or more positive about the market than they did this time last year.

[25:04.0]

I think it's something like of that some of them are neutral. I think it's like 42% worth more positive. So from an investor developer side, it feels as if the market is coming in right. There's kind of this new government, you know, it's going to be a prolonged period of sort of stability now over the next four or five years where they should be unless anything massive goes wrong.

[25:27.4]

Their messaging should be similar throughout that. Yeah, it seems to be positive from what we're seeing. You just need those projects Dexter, come and actually, actually come delivered. I liked what the government did.

[25:43.1]

As soon as they got overturned some decisions, you know, quickly brought forward some data centres that had been rejected. They overturned those decisions and put them in the ground. Simulate as well. Projects that were there ready to go that had been rejected quickly brought back forward planning given.

[26:01.4]

Let's go ahead, get us moving and building. So yeah, I don't know if you're feeling similar from, from your networks you obviously know quite a lot of people in, in the field but yeah, from my end it seems to be very positive. Yeah, I think so. I mean obviously aligned with that, Nathan.

[26:18.6]

You know the government is pulling the trigger on stuff that isn't their money like Heathrow etc. They're quite, quite happy to push stuff on that they're not paying for A lot more. More? Yeah, more of my clients and we're obviously interested. You know, I saw a piece by Mike Reader, my good friend who's now an MP and is speaking at the conference.

[26:39.5]

I'm chairing one of the panels for you guys with, with Mike speaking, I saw a article that he did about one of the big London projects. The tunnel thing, wasn't it? That's private money in effect. PPP silver.

[26:54.7]

There's going to be a lot of that. Yeah, Silver Towers, there's lots of that kind of noise. But the, the stuff that is related to actual government money. You know, we're kind of waiting for the spending review in June or maybe July or whenever it's going to come. You guys would know better than me. So the, the builders that are more public sector reliant, there's lots of, and the consultants too.

[27:15.8]

There's lots of stuff that they can see. The fruit in the orchard but it's not ripe yet was the way that someone put it to me. It's just out of reach and I think that's, that's an important point because at the moment I'm kind of, especially because I guess people, I deal with other marketing and the BD side more than anything else and I think there is still hesitancy in, in firms at the moment because you know, stuff's on the horizon but it's not landed which is quite hard and I think I, I think to keep, to keep remaining positive.

[27:40.9]

But it's, it's nice that developers who are kind of more front end are starting to see the change and are more positive. But yeah, has that trickled down to the kind of wider design teams? I, I, I would question I think is probably where I'm seeing stuff at the moment. Yeah, I think it's one of those peaks and troughs things. So it's, it's really heartening to hear that feedback Nathan actually because it does mean, it does mean it's coming.

[28:01.5]

You know a friend of mine who I would respect in these things was a recruitment owns a recruitment business was kind of saying that like a bit like 2008 you kind of get a difficult year and then it rocket ships out out the back of it. And so I suspect the investors developers are ahead of the game looking at that in 12 months time.

[28:19.1]

It's just the rest of it are caught in that slight lull. But it's. It's good to hear it's coming so that's. That's good to hear. So it's even more important that this year at the UK Reef we're talking to the right people that when the spending review happens and some stuff starts to come free and the government makes some more moves, we'll be ready to catch the stuff that falls.

[28:39.6]

And what things are you. What are the standout things you're looking forward to seeing at the show? Nathan, what are the big talks? Where should we be? I really want to see the west is politics again because they were so good. I didn't see last year but the year before. The rest is politics is back with let's relate bring them every year which is.

[28:57.7]

Which is really cool for us to have. So we've got. There's a massive announcement being made on the Monday evening which is a bit secretive at the moment but we hope that that will have senior ministerial kind of presence of some form.

[29:15.3]

We have the new towns task force which I find is really. Yeah some really exciting activity within space. They're primarily there on. On the Tuesday we'd have seen on our TV screens a new science Minister.

[29:31.8]

We'd have seen our TV screens through Covid all the time is there championing the science and Oxford Cambridge corridor. I think that's going to have a real big talking point at this year's event with everything that's happening around that sector. One of them that I love, Regeneration Brainery, the charity partner for UK Reef they're doing a DJ battle on the Wednesday night with the mayors which is really cool.

[29:58.6]

So people are Andy Burnham battling against Ben Houchen, the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley. I think those are the really fun things which I think you need in this sort of setting where you know who'd imagine that you go to an important tour about the new town's task force and you know a potential project that's being brought forward and then the next minute you're doing karaoke with the Thames Thames estuary.

[30:23.4]

It's a really cool kind of mix of networking and Thought leadership and the right connections being made in different spaces. Yeah, you need a bit of fun value within these types of environments. That's where friendships are made and those kind of things lead to lead to business really.

[30:42.8]

So yeah, there's, there's lots happening. There's a couple of major projects being announced. Some of them have had a seed from UK Reef. So again we've captured through the, through the registration period deals which have been done through UK Reef.

[31:00.7]

We're totaling about 2 billion of either investment or development projects that have been kind of put together and are just awaiting that investment to be landed. So yeah, we've got a couple of those being announced actually at the event of projects which have come forward through the event.

[31:17.5]

So looking forward to, to hearing those as well. But there's a bit of everything, isn't it? That's the great thing about this. You know, everyone else would say something different about what they're looking forward to the most. So, so yeah, I, I and that, that is the thing, isn't it? There is YouTube. That's it.

[31:33.1]

Hearing you two speak, you're, you're hosting or speaking on panels as well. I'm in London. I'm in the London Pavilion. The London where I don't know why I've gone and forgotten which one I'm on. I think it's infrastructure. I do love infrastructure. Yeah.

[31:48.4]

It's the Wednesday morning. I've got, I think looking forward to it. But no. So in terms of if someone's coming for the first time, is there any particular advice you would give them? So never been gonna show up in Leeds on the Tuesday morning.

[32:03.7]

Anything that you think. Actually this is what I would do. When you first get there, check the weather forecast. Good point. You don't. It's gonna be fine. Yeah. I mean wayfinding, you need to do that prep which we talked about earlier.

[32:20.0]

You need to know why you're going and, and who you want to do and what. So really you need to be that prepped out. We've got the map. We've tried to make it a little bit more like a theme park style where you can go in and it's kind of zoned and it's a bit more obvious as to where things are. I.

[32:35.8]

Even when I go to places like Mipin, even though I've been to Mipin before, I still go in the day before to walk around to try to just gauge where everything is. I genuinely think it's really important just to just to see the site. Whether you can Attend early or not. Just try to get a gauge from the map as to what.

[32:53.4]

Where everything is. And when I structure my programme for any event, I know how long it's going to take to walk between this place and that place. Because you could book something that's in the city centre. The city centre. Some of it's 20 minutes walk away. You don't want to be going to something in Wellington Place in the middle of the conference because then you have to make your way there and then make your way back and you've lost an hour.

[33:14.2]

So, yeah, it's just be as planned as possible. It's. It's as obvious as that, unfortunately. It's. But it does take time to do that. But you'll save time and make more familiarisation is a good point because I familiarised on the Monday last year and it helped me so much because I.

[33:30.4]

I actually didn't get lost. And I think. I think that's the thing is. You're right, it does make it a lot easier, that's for sure. If you can walk around first and just get. Get the lay of the land. Yeah. 100. And I suppose a key bit, because a lot of people will be wanting to have coffees and meetings.

[33:45.7]

We're going to put up a video in the next. Within the next week about meeting spaces because it's quite difficult because we haven't got a pub on site. It's quite difficult to say, right, here's where to meet. We're going to try and make it really clear as to what spaces are available because they're the places that you need to put in the diary.

[34:01.8]

You know, don't be. Because there's not that many cafes and restaurants outside the walls of the event. They're in the walls of the event. So we've made sure that we've opened up several more kind of cafe or meeting areas to be able to go and have those chats. And yeah, hopefully the sun's out and you can stand outside and enjoy some of the sun, but if it's not, there's going to be those inside areas to congregate, which is quite important and they're great for those chance meetings as well.

[34:27.9]

You know, if you arrange to have a meeting with somebody, know someone else in that room and yeah, they're a great little networking bits which. Which come with these events. Brilliant. If anyone else who's watching has got any more questions, please do put them in the comments. Have you got anything you wanted to add, Jeremy?

[34:43.5]

Forgot your name. Oh, thanks, mate. No, I don't think so. I think. I think that's all perfectly sensible. Should we leave? It's been, it's been a day or a week or a quarter, hasn't it? Mate, we've been busy, so let's, let's segue, shall we?

[35:02.4]

Ayo into the before, during and after bit. We're lucky Nathan's sticking around for this bit. He can chip in. But what's. What, what. So building on what Nathan said there. So I mean, like, like we said, setting the strategy and why you're going, the kind of clear objectives, I think is one of the things and I think the other thing you can really do is like research who's attending.

[35:22.8]

So we've got the delegates directory now you've got the app really actually go through and thinking, right, actually, for example, you know, if you're looking to connect with developers in London, you know, you can search for that, can't you? And you can actually look for those people and, and I think start to kind of build that out in a much more kind of granular way.

[35:39.3]

I think for me that's one of the things that people can really start to do beforehand. And also, I think there is also the thing about LinkedIn, that post of I'm going to UK reef, do you want to meet, reach out for coffee, what days are you going? And using all those kind of channels to kind of flag that you're going to be there. And I think it's that whole thing of just making people aware and you will have people who reach out and go, if you're going, you know, can we meet you for coffee?

[36:00.8]

And all that kind of stuff. So just using all the channels that are kind of at your disposal. There is, of course, we've not touched on the fringe stuff or the evening stuff, have we? Because there's actually as much of that as there is inside the fence during the day. So, you know, it's worth it.

[36:17.2]

Nathan and the gang do a great job of giving you a list of all of the different events that have been made aware of that you can grab a place at. Drink Drinks events and things like that. There's a few of them that are closed loops for a particular audience, but there's quite a lot there actually that you can get a place at and you'll end up flitting across the city.

[36:34.9]

Your step count will be good. You'll end up sort of what you'll get, you'll know leads inside and out. Certainly last year it was, you know, I did all Right. On the old step count. So you, you'll, you'll be able to get quite a hectic calendar of, you know, half an hour at this drinks and half an hour of that one and all of that kind of stuff.

[36:55.0]

So it's well worth again prepping who's doing what, trying to prioritise because obviously you'll get clashes and so. And again, as a team, if there's more than one of you going, which there probably will be, how do you divide and conquer who's going to go to which drinks thing? Because there will be lots of clashes.

[37:11.3]

It's only a three day do two evenings. Maybe you'll get there Monday night. But a lot of the stuff is Tuesday and Wednesday, late afternoon and evening. So in, in that regard. So what's the plan? How are you gonna divide and conquer? To get the best out of that as well would be good advice.

[37:28.8]

Yeah. Is there anything you want to add on the before prep, Nathan? On the. Particularly on the print stuff? Yeah, I agree in terms of. Yeah, divide and conquer. I find myself booking onto again. I'm probably using here more of a mitten kind of head because a UK reef.

[37:48.9]

I, I'm a little bit more fluid. But yeah, I would be looking to join everyone for half an hour, go in there working. But I, I'm going for a. I know what my purpose is. My purpose to. I hate networking, but I have in my head, I'm kind of like, right, I'm going in there to meet as many people as possible and I will.

[38:05.1]

So that's your goal? Yeah, really quickly. I will go in, I'll speak to 15 people, I'll have two minute conversations with all and keep making a reason to continue moving on. And then I'll move to the next event and the next event. Can I ask you a question on that?

[38:20.5]

How do you move on from a conversation? I tell them why I'm there. It's really clear. Unless it's a good conversation. Unless if I don't need,

[38:33.1]

oh, he's just gone. He's moved on. He's moved on.

[38:42.2]

I'll pick it up for him. So. Yes. No, I think he's right that you're just honest with people. Everyone knows why they're there. Yeah. And so, you know, make your excuses. I need to go and I've got this list of people I need to go and meet or things I need to go and do and you know, make your, your exit because you kind of do need to stay on the move with this stuff.

[39:03.9]

What do you do ao. Do you get, do you do business cards? I do do business cards. So I, I do business cards but I also do QR codes. So like on LinkedIn for example, on the LinkedIn app. Hello.

[39:18.9]

On the LinkedIn app, for example, you can, you know, if you click on the search bar you get the QR code coming up. I find that works really, really well. So I ever do that or I've got physical business cards or alternatively I will make a note in my phone like met such and such.

[39:35.0]

This is what I need to do to follow up. Do you know what I mean? Because my memory is rubbish and I always kind of forget stuff. So there's like three different ways depending on what I need to do. But I try and keep notes as well because yeah, I just won't remember. And so you said, you said something, you said something quite quickly there, which is actually a really top tip.

[39:52.5]

So on the LinkedIn app on your phone, yeah if you put tap into the search bar at the top, there's a, there's a little QR code looking thing that appears. If you click on that, it presents a QR code that people can then scan with their phone and it will automatically link them with you.

[40:10.1]

So that's quite, quite a useful tool. It's a really useful one and especially when you're out and about, I find. But I think how can you connect? Can you connect on your app, Nathan you. Yeah, you can kind of ask to connect with someone and message them and then I think it sends them an email.

[40:30.2]

It needs them to really engage with it. It's less like a LinkedIn where it's a bit more of a real prompt. Yeah, I would. In fairness the target directory is. I think it's great but actually I'm one of those where I triple message. I would be. I'd message them on the directory, I'd message them on LinkedIn, I'd email them.

[40:48.2]

I'd be doing all three. But that's cause I'm quite defined with. I probably know that I want to meet 40 people. Therefore I'm very definitely find and what I want to get out of it. You are a chief networker. I'm like good on you. No, because I have to admit my networking approach, I am a bit like this might surprise you but I don't actually love networking.

[41:08.5]

It does leave me knackered afterwards. I actually prefer online. Right. So for me I actually go into an event and I think if I have three decent conversations that's fine. And I, I always Say I set my bar quite low because that's how you get me there because otherwise I wouldn't go.

[41:23.5]

So I think, you know, and it's just, it's just managing your energy as to what you can do and I think, yeah, you're, there's different ways of doing it, but it's just finding the way that works for you. Yeah, I always find a percent. I try to figure out a percentage. So for example, for mipin this year, I ended up not going due to some, some family issues.

[41:41.1]

But my aim was to meet international delegates because I wanted some of them to come from an, I thought leadership perspective. How are their cities? So we have actually landed some because I, I had to cancel mipin, but therefore we've brought them over into teams meetings and it's worked out that we've, we've attracted some of them anyway.

[41:58.1]

But so yeah, I would be. I literally had 40 people that I wanted to meet. That was it the UK market, the team attended that anyway. And it's UK roof, people are talking about it. It's not a big thing for us. Yeah, I, I LinkedIn message them, I contact them and then if they hadn't replied, I followed up, I messaged other people and then I signed up to drink receptions that, that I'd have turned up to if I had have ended up going to mipin and even if I wasn't invited, I'd have tried to turn up to them because that's why I, I, if that's why I'm going, there's no point me going to a drinks reception, an Irish bar to meet people I know.

[42:37.0]

If my aim is to meet international and if I'm not invited, try and get in a room. I, I genuinely, I don't think you get turned away from rooms very often if things are invite only if you just turn up and pretend you should be there. They tend to, if I'm honest, we have said this before,

[42:57.7]

just pretend you belong there. I'm really not sure you were meant to say that, mate, but we'll let. You said it before. He said this before. I'm always like, oh my gosh. But no, it's having, it's, it's knowing why you're there and I think, yeah, and not shying away from it.

[43:15.1]

It's like literally you're here to meet people in this sector to do this because you want to do business. Right? Yeah. Right. So how do we start those conversations or what should we have prepped? I mean, in our notes, you'd Kindly built something here for us around elevator pitch. But one of the things, you know, these sorts of events, you can have endless people sort of trying to network that you don't need to talk to.

[43:36.8]

So it's as much about sifting and politely moving on. But when you do end up being engaged with someone who's not, you know, you're not right for us to talk to. One of the things I really notice is quite often because. Because I'm kind of trying to understand them, they just kind of blurt at you.

[43:54.2]

They're. They're sort of preformed proposition. It's kind of like we do this really well. And it's like, well, that's. That's nice. But. So I think you need, in the back of your mind, you know, obviously what your business does and what value it creates for its clients or its customers.

[44:11.0]

You know, a proposition in the back of your mind. But you don't go in there on transmit. You should be going in with two ears, one mouth in that, listening in that kind of ratio. So it's about what are your opening questions that start a conversation? And then you can seed into that, responses to, you know, so if you can ask some questions about not just the weather and the usual sort of stuff and how you're finding the event, but what's.

[44:34.7]

What's the top three things that your top one or two things that you're. That's keeping you awake at night at the moment. What's the stuff that's. You're finding a challenge with your business or in your market and that might start a conversation and then you're. You can find some alignment and take the conversation from there.

[44:50.9]

Because you really shouldn't go into these conversations on a sort of hard transmit. Is my. Is my view. It needs to be a bit more consultative and that does require a bit of thought and practise before you go bowling yourself into these things, I would say. But also, I think it's more. It's conversations, right?

[45:06.9]

And I think. And it's also curiosity in conversations and being interested in people and. And also you don't know where that kind of connection is going to take you. So I think because, I mean, as a marketing person, quite often people just run away from me, like, if I'm honest, you know.

[45:22.1]

Well, they do, right? Not just me. It's not. It's not because you're a marketing person, damn it. That's why I'm single. No, but like. But no, but it is that thing, right, where you kind of have to be. But also you, that could be a bit naive because you might not know who my network is, you know.

[45:39.1]

So I think you've kind of got to go in there and actually treat everyone with respect, like, and just be curious and still have a conversation. Because I do think there is that balance, isn't there? Of you've got your, you know, what you're doing. And I have to admit some of the worst networking things I go to are when you go in, it's the hard people are literally just working the room and it's just really cold.

[45:58.6]

Which isn't how you do it, Nathan. I'm not saying that, but you know what I mean. So I think there is that balance as well. You know, I'm giving you that. But there is that thing where I just think it's actually just being honest and curious and having conversations and. And a lot of it is about taking it offline afterwards and that follow up, isn't it?

[46:17.8]

So that segues beautifully because I was going to raise the point of follow up because obviously the event's lovely and it's great to hang out with your industry for three days. But what. So what, what's next? And so you need to go prepared with some sort of container for the leads and the conversations.

[46:37.0]

Whether you're smart enough to have a CRM platform like a Dynamics or a Salesforce and you plug stuff straight in, you know, new contacts and then hopefully you have some sort of reporting module out of it where you can understand what the group of people that attended have found and what we should do about that.

[46:55.5]

That, you know, what's the next step? But certainly even if it's just that you have an Apple Note on your phone or whatever and make those notes, but the key bit is you should put in your calendar for the day after and then the week after following up with people. Email.

[47:11.5]

Great to meet you. I said I'd share this document with you. Here's that benchmarking data. Can we grab a coffee? What's the next step? It's about starting a conversation and moment building momentum because it is so, so easy for even the biggest, most well organised organisations to have an army of people at these things.

[47:31.2]

And then actually in terms of the real ROI out the back of it, you know, they actually carry on a conversation with people they're already talking to. But what's. What's the next. What's the next step and what's the. Can we get some traction? So it should be part of your funnel.

[47:47.4]

You know, this is A key activity in your market, marketing plan and events plan that's part of your wider funnel of activity towards delivering against your business plan. And so it should map back to that. There may well be new prospects and leads we pick up from it.

[48:03.7]

But a lot of the conversations should actually map back to the funnel that you're after already. But I think there's also, that action is important. But I think there's also that thing where you can kind of turn around and I always say do a lot of your follow up prep beforehand. So I actually have the emails ready to go like make it as easy as possible because like three days at a show is a lot and you end up knackered.

[48:24.3]

Right. So, so that's why I kind of say in some ways you actually I do a lot of like the draught emails and all of that stuff is ready to go, especially when I'm working with clients. And it's just like, then when you get back it's just, you fill in this, you fill in the blanks here and you know, and you can just get on and do all of that stuff. Have you got any tips on like making it easier, Nathan?

[48:44.2]

Not really. I'm making it easy. I think my side is I always Follow up on LinkedIn as soon as all the business cards or when I've talked to them in person, I always connect on LinkedIn because then it's, it's there and done and I always try to have, if I've got a target list of who I wanted to meet, there'd always be something that I want to follow up about.

[49:04.2]

Yeah. So I'd be less around kind of okay, you know, let's meet up and have coffee. So for example, my prep for UK Reef's already ongoing because we run something called Leaders Group which is like a monthly event that takes place, a membership thing all year round. The next one that we're hosting after UK Reef is around coastal communities because a member of Parliament is wanting to create an all parliamentary group focused on regenerating coastal communities.

[49:30.6]

So we've got an event booked in the House of Commons. So I've got A list of 10 councils or developers that I know might be interested in coastal communities that I can invite. So my follow up is already in my mind. If I need to meet, my follow up is why? And I suppose this is then the question back to you is, yeah, how do you.

[49:47.7]

Because what I see sometimes is people will do a panel or they'll do a roundtable discussion and then there's not Much nothing comes of it. There's no post event marketing. If it was me, I'd be looking at publishing some form of rapport with them or I'd be looking at.

[50:03.0]

Actually, if I did a panel, should we then organise the roundtable in our office for. Yeah, three months later, whatever it might be. So, yeah, more, more. Flick back to you. What would you advise from your clients in terms of if they're doing panels or round tables or what?

[50:18.0]

I mean, in an IG world record that panel, like professionally, if you can. That is what I would do because you can. Then it could turn into a podcast, you can flip it into a live. You could use as a webinar, you know what I mean? So ideally, if you can, if you. And there's still time four weeks away, I would say record it professionally.

[50:35.2]

If that's not possible, you could do as simple as even sometimes I will just use my mobile phone and put it on record so I've got all the audio. And then I would take that audio and put it into Otter, which will give me a full transcript and that will be for an hour's talk.

[50:50.2]

You are talking and you know that's probably four or five blog posts there in itself that you can then use. Post event. You can, you can do what you like with that. And I think that's the bit that people don't do. And I think especially with such a busy, rich show like UK Reef, there is going to be stuff that we want to see that we can't make right.

[51:09.7]

So I think it's like thinking about all these people that wanted to see this piece of content. How else can I use it? And I think as an industry will put so much work into the show itself, but not necessarily how we can use that content and repurpose it going forward.

[51:24.8]

And I think for me that is what I would do if I was running a pavilion. I would turn around and I would probably say look for the themes running across or everything you've got from the, from the event. You know, you could do things where you just take comments from the audience. You know, some of those questions, they could be posts.

[51:41.3]

And I think there's lots of. And lots of kind of different rich ways that you can kind of, you know, use that content or even just rerun it. You could rerun it online as a webinar next week, you know, and that. I think people don't necessarily do that and think, oh no, it's just for this one show. And it's like, that's a Huge investment for three days.

[51:57.4]

So how else can you really, really spin that content out and I think continue that conversation And I think that's what people always forget and that's why people aren't necessarily getting the value that they should out of these events. So for me, that whole kind of repurposing, how else can we use this content, that story, how can we take the content to the next level?

[52:15.4]

So you might turn around and say actually that was a really good discussion. The follow on discussion would be this, we could reinvite people, right? And so I think there's a lot people can do but I just don't think people think in that way. Yeah, they don't. It's a great build. So I have this marketing consultant who works with me called AO and what she, what she'd tell me to do is exactly that, but just to, just to build on it.

[52:41.2]

So yes, record it ideally in video, create some content, but I'd bake that into a micro site. Micro site of your website. Or get yourself a little squarespace site with a, an attached URL and create some thought leadership out the back of it.

[52:56.3]

Like you say, have you gone targeted. Targeted to the people in your opportunities for bidding next year, etc. Because there will be lots of people in your target list that were not at UK Reef and so being able to share that thought leadership with them, but getting them to click through the email back to your micro site.

[53:21.9]

You can then track the IP addresses of who's looked at your micro site and understand the intent. I was going to say actually. And also you could do. Which is. This is actually a good tip is on the back. What Jeremy's just said is actually LinkedIn now do for leadership ads.

[53:37.2]

So if you do a post on a particular topic link to thought leadership, what you can do is actually go in and you can put money behind that post and you could target it at job titles, certain types of organisations, all of that kind of stuff. And you could do that and that cost you a couple hundred quid but you could actually hit the people that you really want to hit with that, with that content.

[53:57.1]

So I think there's lots you can do, but I don't think people necessarily see it in that way. Yeah, my marketing consultant told me to do that as well. It sounds like she knows what she's talking about. Very good.

[54:13.1]

So one of the things I throw in as well is making sure that if your marketing strategy to me you should kind of have it in 12 months in advance of knowing the types of things that you're going to jump onto at least a bit of a roundabout.

[54:28.3]

If you're. You. You don't have thought leadership or content that's around there. So if. If it was me and actually I had a campaign in two months time that was around sustainability, there's no reason why UK Re, you can't be just getting an iPhone out and getting some videos of people who are at the event who are thought leaders and getting them to give their views that you can then use in similar types of.

[54:47.0]

Yeah, you need to be a bit more sort of. Don't just think about what you're doing at that event in one little roundtable or panel, but think about how UK Reef can be structured around the whole thing. We try and do it well in advance of. On the Monday at UK Reef, we have interviews in certain areas where I'm talking about this is happening in this room behind us.

[55:07.9]

I know that that video is not going to come out for six months but yeah, we've got that in the pipeline knowing that when it's going to be used, we've got content for it. So it's planning, basically. It's a planning framework for. Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah. Make sure that you. You and utilise marketers who are creative, get different ideas because, yeah, if you're just doing one type and if you just look at your internal team, you'll always come up with similar ideas.

[55:31.1]

So, yeah, push out and. And get some. Some thought leadership from other marketeers out there as to what you could be doing. Absolutely. I've made a note of that one. My marketing consultant could have told me about that. It's a great point, Nathan. Thank you. She's not that good.

[55:50.5]

Danielle said we've had a lot of success with a series of private roundtables around Essential Theme New Communities, which we've then produced content for our website and our social media. You really can take one thing and flip it to use in so many ways. And. And I think as well, I think it's that whole compounding sounding effect when you start to flip it.

[56:06.8]

That story grows and grows and it gets a lot more traction and it really does kind of. It goes into people's minds a lot more and I think that's where people kind of don't realise. It's like, actually it's worth saying that same thing in different ways, multiple ways, multiple times, all the time. Yeah, has to be.

[56:22.3]

So I'm conscious of time. We're down to our final three minutes, so we should. We've had a good. Yeah, we've covered tonnes of ground. Thank you. And thank you for everyone who's also commented as well. Where do we find you, Jeremy?

[56:39.5]

LinkedIn. Jeremy Brim growth ignition on LinkedIn is connect up, follow me and all that kind of stuff and then I'll relentlessly pump videos to you that some of which might be useful because I've got this marketing consultant who helps me do it. And Nathan, where do we find you apart from hidden under your desk trying to get some sleep?

[57:01.6]

I think. I think he's lost us. I think I did go. I don't know you there. Yeah, don't worry, we know where to find Nathan. He's a Nathan Spencer UK reef. He's running around quite a lot. And you can find me, obviously on LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn.

[57:16.8]

IO Abbas. And also. Yeah, yeah, find me on LinkedIn is probably the easiest way. What's your podcast again, Ayo? The Built Environment Marketing show, where I'm going to be repurposing this episode, that's for sure, so that people can kind of have some hints and tips and.

[57:32.5]

Yeah. Thank you everyone who's tuned in for the live. Thank you for joining us. Have a great rest of the day, everyone. Thank you. Awesome. I'll end the stream. Thank you. Bye. Thank you, Nathan. Thanks, Bye.