The Event Supplier and Services Association will open the doors to its 2016 conference this week as it welcomes members and delegates back to the Coventry’s Ricoh Arena. ESSA Director Andrew Harrison spoke to the Talking Events podcast about The Conference of Things and what is in store this year. “Sometimes conferences can be quite restrictive if they are billed as a ‘sales’ conference or a ‘marketing’ conference”, said Andrew. “Our membership and our industry is a very broad church, so in many ways, we wanted to create a conference that would attract all people from all levels within the supplier community, and also the venue and organiser community.” With such a clear drive to attract people from the full extent of the events industry, Andrew also explained what has to be considered when taking that approach. “Our biggest worry was that we would not dilute the content in order to make it applicable to the broad audience that is due to attend. Historically at conferences, there’s a lot of peaks and troughs when it comes to the quality of the sessions. For us, we’ve sourced the very best from beginning to end. When it comes to the technical delivery, we’re also planning to do some special things with the lighting and the creative elements as it plays a really big part in how people engage with the content.” Registration for the conference is still available via the ESSA website. The full interview with Andrew Harrison can be listened to in the latest episode of the Talking Events podcast.

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