Ali, how did you get into the events industry?
I studied Media at the University of East London and left wanting to pursue a television career. I joined various production-based companies that assigned freelancers to several television and film location jobs. I was assigned to a shoot called ”Open Doors” where I met Mr Riseman, our co-founder, and was invited to come in and help rearrange the editing suite in the big group offices in Princedale Road, and as they say, the rest is history.
What has the event team been up to recently?
In the last two months, we’ve delivered successful events in Istanbul, Zurich and a little closer to home in Manchester. In the last week alone, the team have been out in Ghana and France conducting site visits for upcoming events in Q3 & Q4. big group deliver 4 – 6 events monthly, anywhere from 48 to over 60 throughout the calendar year. The Events team come from different events backgrounds specialising in exhibitions, sponsorship activation, conferences, incentive travel and large-scale corporate social functions. All of this means we’re built for success and can lean on each other’s expertise.
What have been the highlights of your Event Management career so far?
I have been fortunate to have worked on some incredible events worldwide, including Football Festivals on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, to the BRITs and Olivier Awards with Mastercard. I have worked on high-level incentive trips, corporate functions in Washington DC and across Europe, and conferences in some of the world’s most beautiful destinations from Jordan to Barbados. It is tough to pinpoint one event because each one represents something different to me.
I started at big group when there were 25 people in the building; there are now over 170 spread out across London, Amsterdam and Bath. It has been extraordinary to witness the transformation over the years and it’s nice to see that the events team is busier than ever!
The Events team has a busy calendar year-round; what’s the key to keeping on top of multiple events? A well-structured team with a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities is essential when running multiple campaigns. big group’s multi-specialist offering allows us to build specialist project teams across different parts of the business in accordance with the brief. Once the team has been created, roles and responsibilities are assigned by the project lead so everyone knows exactly what is expected of them; this enables the business to successfully run multiple campaigns side by side.
What are some ways the event space and partner requests have evolved over the last 10 years, and what are the driving factors behind these changes?
The event space and partner requests have definitely evolved, with lifestyle trends playing a pivotal role in shaping this transformation. An example is our growing concern about how we fuel our bodies and where our food comes from. These
considerations are now very common, and for any event with a catering element, our suppliers can tell us exactly where our food is sourced from and deal with any dietary requirements our clients might have. I don’t think some dietary requirements I see today existed 10 years ago!
Another key area of change is sustainability, which is now at the forefront of every event planner’s mind. Some of the questions revolve around carbon consumption and mitigation, including what branding materials we use and how they will be repurposed and reused again.
At big group we are proud to have made considerable strides in this field, achieving carbon neutrality through a robust environmental management system that reduces our carbon impact and a programme of offsetting.
Before we begin work on an event, we produce carbon impact assessments for our clients; these mini-reports highlight the event’s carbon footprint and allow the clients to make informed choices around sustainability.
Covid was a big disrupter of the events space; what trends have you noticed post-covid?
Covid allowed the industry to hit the ”reset” button and explore and evaluate what is important to us as events professionals. It was a moment in time where, quite literally everything stood still, and it certainly encouraged me to think differently about how I approach events.
Virtual events meant all event organisers started to acquire new skills on how to run an online event, almost becoming producers overnight. As the world slowly opened back up, we saw the rise of hybrid events where venue capacity became slightly irrelevant as we had the option to offer the best of both worlds by being onsite and remote attendees. big group delivered well over 100 virtual/hybrid events that ranged from team-building exercises to a live music gig with an international recording artist. I think everyone that worked on those events can honestly say they learnt something new and took something positive away from it.
The pandemic taught us new ways of working but, more importantly, underlined that we are social animals and have deeper needs. Yes, it is nice to conveniently dial into an event on the odd occasion, but nine times out of ten, people want to see each other and experience something together- that will never change.
I have touched on this already, but it made us re-evaluate our event output, and how we can make better decisions as organisers to try and help the environment. This will not happen overnight, but the industry is now taking this much more seriously.