On Wednesday 16th November 2016 Social Progress were amongst 100 exhibitors at Venturefest Yorkshire 2016. Janet and Esther had the opportunity to chat to delegates and fellow exhibitors about social media training and also showcase Big Screen Social.
The event which welcomed over 900 registered delegates was located at York Racecourse and covered over 4 floors of the venue! The day was jam-packed with seminars, activities and events and there was a consistent flow of delegates who came to the Social Progress stand to find out more about social media training.
We set up our stand slightly differently to usual; we requested two tall tables which we placed at either end of the stall and we left the table uncovered). These may not sound like massive changes but they really did make a difference. We received more engagement through the way we displayed our yellow typewriter and the “Social Media Explained” Blackboard. These were talking points which brought people into our space and were great conversation starters. We also took a monitor to display Big Screen Social on so that we could demonstrate it at our stand.
The organisers of Venturefest Yorkshire (Make It York) purchased a Self-Service License to use Big Screen Social across the day to encourage delegates, exhibitors and speakers to interact with the official event hashtag #VFYorkshire. They hired in two 80 inch TV Screens to display the Twitter Wall on and placed them in busy / networking areas where they were clearly visible. The visual and creative nature of Big Screen Social naturally encouraged people to get involved with the hashtag…
There were so many highlights to the event including the people we met – it may not have been the busiest exhibition we’ve been at but the quality of the contacts we made was definitely worthwhile! It was also awesome to see Big Screen Social being displayed on 80 inch TV Screens (which are BIG!) and to also see people’s excitement when they understood the concept of the Twitter Wall!
We received really positive feedback about Big Screen Social and the icing on the cake was when we found out that “#VFYorkshire was Trending Topic on Wednesday 16 for 9 hours in United Kingdom” on Twitter! This is another example of how Big Screen Social has successfully encouraged more digital engagement at an event and created that digital buzz!
We feel that there are a few key points as to why this was a success:
1) The screens were BIG and clearly placed in busy / networking areas
2) The organisers included a note in the event programme to remind attendees to tweet using the event hashtag #VFYorkshire and they also used their twitter account to encourage engagement with the official event hashtag
Overall, we thought it was an awesome event and we’re so glad we were a part of it!
P.s. They even had this funky inflatable (yes, really!) furniture from a company called TaDah Furniture Hire! How cool are these?
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