Love it or hate it, the opportunity to network and sit down face-to-face with others, whether clients, peers, or colleagues, is invaluable. Over the last 18 months, video conferencing software has done a great job at keeping us connected, but nothing can replace the connection that comes from meeting a person in real life.
Networking is not about just connecting people. It’s about connecting people with people, people with ideas, and people with opportunities.
Richmond Events Marketing Forum UK
The real-life connection of people, ideas, and opportunities is why we love attending the Richmond Events Marketing Forum UK every November! The annual event rolls into The Grove, Hertfordshire, and dozens of Marketing Directors, agencies, and household brands all get together to discuss their dreams and goals for marketing greatness.
After a year off due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Richmond Marketing Forum UK returned to Hertfordshire, where the good and great UK marketing were in attendance. These include many well-known brands such as NSPCC, Havwoods, Papa Johns, HSBC, and Mecca Bingo and exciting innovative businesses such as Osprey Charging Network, Zenus Bank and Utilita.
For Marketing Directors, there is the opportunity to attend talks and workshops and the chance to shop around for agencies for every aspect of the marketing smorgasbord.
As an agency, we get to sit at small round tables in a hall with a dozen other suppliers and have 30-minute meetings with different Marketing Directors. For us, this is a golden opportunity. We’ve attended the Richmond Events Marketing Forum for the past four years, and over this time, we have been face-to-face with some of the biggest and best brands in the world, and we’ve ended up working with several of them.
For us, events like the Marketing Forum are amazing because we know the best marketing results come from getting face-to-face with people. This is because not only are you able to make a genuine connection, but you get to speak to other people about their challenges and learn about their pain points. But it doesn’t end there; you get to demonstrate your problem-solving ability and potentially solve challenges and aid their success.
We know that we have something pretty special to offer marketers who want to succeed, whatever industry or size of business they come from. Our combination of strategic approach, creativity, technical know-how and make-it-happen attitude puts us ahead of the competition. It also means that we are driving success into our clients’ businesses. When we can get in the room and sit down face-to-face with marketers, they understand what this means, how this can benefit them in their roles and bring success to their business. This is why face-to-face connections are so vital in marketing.
Our Managing Director, Gareth Miller, attended the Richmond Marketing Forum UK this year and said:
For us, the marketing forum is an annual opportunity to get together with like-minded marketers, both agency side and in-house. It’s an excellent chance to talk about what’s going on, make new connections and, yes, pick up lots of great opportunities to collaborate on new projects!
Richmond Events is the pioneer of business forums that match delegates and suppliers to generate new business, engage with peers and make new connections. Since launching in 1990, Richmond Events has organised over 700 conferences across a range of professional services such as IT, market research, logistics, human resources, financial services, and marketing.
A few takeaways from the Richmond Marketing Forum
CRM isn’t going anywhere. And the focus on CRM reveals that even the top brands are still struggling to connect the dots between technology, creativity, and marketing. This is interesting to us as an agency offering integrated marketing because it’s what we do best.
Brexit has made things very complicated for many retailers, but it’s also helping level out the playing field for other manufacturing retailers who’ve been looking at new and innovative ways to promote their products.
There is still a lot of pain being caused by the repercussions of Covid-19 and the lockdowns around the world. This has led to a decentralisation of marketing teams and silos being formed in larger businesses. Working with an agency to provide additional, flexible resources and make connections within a business to join the dots internally can be extremely valuable.
One fantastic outcome from this year’s event was meeting the team from Izzy Wheels. We loved hearing their inspirational story, and it was a refreshing wake up call to all those marketeers in the room who’d forgotten the value of purpose and a good origin story, plus how far passion and ambition can take you. Check out this short video about Izzy Wheels and discover how these sisters turned their passion into a brilliant creative business and increased inclusivity in the fashion industry. We can’t wait to see what they do next!
The best marketing results genuinely come from face-to-face connections. You get to learn more about the person you’re meeting with, their brand, and its challenges, which offers you the opportunity to flex your problem-solving muscles and discuss your unique approach to their issues. If you have the chance to attend the Richmond Events Marketing Forum UK next year, we recommend it, maybe we’ll see you there.
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