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Event organisers have nerves of steel
There’s so much to get right – and so much that can go wrong. Not to mention multiple deadlines, logistics, budgets, marketing, sponsorships and people to manage.
This is something we’ve witnessed first-hand taking our mobile coffee bars to hundreds of conferences, events and trade shows each year. But, after running our first ever own-hosted exhibition stand last month, we have a renewed sense of admiration for exhibitors!
The Barista at Confex
We had a very busy couple of days at this year’s International Confex, held at Olympia London. It was our first ever exhibition stand as The Barista, where we weren’t attending on the behalf of a client.
It was a fantastic two days! Here’s what we learned…
Talking maintaining quality and the role of events suppliers
The events industry has grown massively in recent years, with increases in technology and fewer barriers to entry resulting in an influx of new services and suppliers. From the many event organisers we spoke with, it was reassuring to hear that quality is still the leading priority.
Industry professionals talked to us about their desire to find the best, most reliable, event suppliers around. And in a highly competitive marketplace, this isn’t always straightforward.
To us, striving to be the best supplier we can be means delivering quality, consistency and constantly looking for ways to improve the customer experience.
When it comes to quality, we’re firm believers that the proof is in the pudding. That’s why we arrived armed with talented baristas serving our signature blend, Northern Espresso. This enabled visitors to sample the star of the show for themselves – our freshly prepared speciality coffee.
Launching our lead capture platform
Another talking point on stand was the introduction of our latest service, SmartServe. SmartServe is a new online platform we’re currently developing. It’s a way of digitally capturing a visitor’s coffee order, while gathering their contact details and even canvassing opinion in the process.
Having the right technology at events can save a huge amount of time and hassle, as well as helping to increase ROI. This is precisely the idea behind SmartServe. We’ve always delivered a service that goes beyond coffee, providing adding value for our customers – the app is the next logical step.
Psst… Keep your eyes peeled for more information about SmartServe in the coming months!
Friendly faces, old and new
It was great to see so many familiar faces and catch up with clients. But it was also fantastic meeting plenty of new event professionals. We spent time listening to the challenges they face when finding the right suppliers and talked to them about how our processes make our service reliable and seamless from start to finish.
We’ve always said that if you’re serving coffee at an event, it has to be exceptional. It has to be coffee that reflects the quality of your brand. It’s our hope that attending large industry events like Confex will help us reach even more high-quality brands to match our services with.
Matthew Carr, Operations Director at the Barista, said:
“Confex was an amazing opportunity for us to showcase our services amongst some of the best in the business. We had our Northern Espresso in the hopper attracting people to the stand for a coffee and plenty of people actively searching for high-end suppliers. Lots of visitors wanted to discuss their upcoming events with us and the only issue we had was that the stand wasn’t big enough to fit them all on at times!”
If we saw you at Confex, say hey! And if you didn’t get the chance to speak with us, feel free to get in touch by emailing hello@thebarista.co.uk or calling 0845 257 5900