The very first Techtrade Yorkshire exhibition was held on Thursday 8th September at Elland Road, Leeds and we were there amongst the many exhibitors at the event. Not only were we exhibiting (at Stand 5) but it was also the official launch of Big Screen Social where we got to see it in action for the first time ever!
The exhibition space was a maze of pods and stalls with 3 seminar areas as well as a large communal networking and dining area in the centre of the activity. We were located next to The Press Room which was organised by the lovely ladies at Scriba PR. Speakers form across the day visited the Press Room to be interviewed by the guys from First Frame Productions who were putting together a video about the event. It was very interesting to watch across the day!
Our friend Mr John Steel Photography was “doing his thing”, capturing the excitement of the event through his camera lens. Thanks to John we have these fab photos to illustrate the blog post!
The biggest thing for us that day was finally seeing our brand new product and service Big Screen Social live and working for the first time (thanks to Dave Pullig from Delicious Media). Big Screen Social was programmed to display tweets that included #TY16 which was the official event hashtag.
What makes Big Screen Social different from other Twitter Wall programmes? Well, when we were originally looking to use an existing Twitter Wall platform, we found that the majority of them were text based and boring. We eventually found one which was more visual but unfortunately (after many emails to ask them about licensing for multiple events) they didn’t get back to us. So, with this in mind, Janet decided we should develop our own and ensure it was heavily visual as to naturally encourage people to tweet and engage with the event hashtag!
Esther was also managing the Techtrade Yorkshire Twitter account for the day. She was consistently tweeting on behalf of the event across the day and specifically engaged with the event sponsors, exhibitors and speakers to ensure they were featured on the Twitter Wall by using #TY16 in the tweets. Esther also took a variety of photos to use on the social media, documenting the events and using them to illustrate the tweets.
Big Screen Social was located in the networking area which naturally caught people’s attention and encouraged people to get tweeting! We could see people across the day watching for their tweets to display and photos to pop up on the screen! Thanks to Fastsigns Leeds who loaned us the screen for the day.
The Twitter Wall was so successful at creating the digital buzz that #TY16 was “trending in Leeds” by the afternoon! This meant that so many people were using the event hashtag that Twitter acknowledged a trend around the same location, Leeds!
The event was well attended, well organised and professionally managed. We thoroughly enjoyed the day and would recommend Techtrade Yorkshire for next year! If you are in the technical industry, this is an event to keep your eye on! There were over 300 decision-makers who attended as delegates. Although the footfall wasn’t massive, the quality of the contacts and leads we gained from Techtrade Yorkshire was the best we’ve ever had at an exhibition. Well done to Chrissie and her Team from Mooncas for organising such a successful event!
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