Top venue finding agency ConferencesGroup, the umbrella brand for Conferences-UK.org.uk, ConferenceVenues.com and CorporateDesk, experienced its busiest month on record in September with 108 more enquiries than last year and revenue up 114%. Aside from improved market conditions, the company has attributed the uplift to a combination of factors implemented as part of their strategic business plan.
Commenting on how the meeting and events industry was hit particularly hard by the economic downturn, Managing Director, Simon Thompson, says: “Businesses cut back on all non-essential costs, including off-site meetings, conferences and corporate travel. We looked at the market and recognised that although there were more limitations, there was still demand, albeit the focus had shifted and the requests were not as extravagant. While everybody else cut their marketing spend, we took a risk and increased ours along with far greater client contact.”
Mr Thompson says he decided to ‘triple’ the amount of client contact to re-establish old relationships and pursue every business opportunity. He also invested heavily in developing bespoke CRM software for better client account management. “With businesses still cautious, it was essential that we not only helped venues to adapt to meet clients’ changing requirements, but demonstrated to our clients that we could offer a service within the constraints of their business’ brief.”
With a record sales month leading into one of the busiest times of year for the conference, meetings and events industry, Mr Thompson says his teams’ ability to successfully adapt to what was a very challenging market has clearly paid off and clients have responded accordingly. “Whilst most companies cut back on advertising during the economic downturn, we did the reverse, we spent more. We also stepped up our activity and made sure we kept in regular contact with every client, even though we knew they would likely not have any business for us. It has paid dividends for our business as our customers now know we want their business more than any other agency. It was a gamble and there were times when I really wasn’t sure whether we were doing the right thing, but it worked!” concludes Thompson.
