BESA Launch Inaugural National Conference

16 Nov BESA Launch Inaugural National Conference

CBA Events were delighted to be confirmed as the event management company to support The Building Engineering Service Association (BESA) with their first ever national conference, exhibition and awards ceremony in October.

Objectives:

BESA, who have offices in both central London and Eamont Bridge, Penrith, have run a series of successful regional programmes since their re-branding in 2012, but were yet to roll this out onto a national scale.

After several meetings with BESA and a tendering process, the Cumbria-based event management company were appointed in June this year.

CBA Events’ task was to manage all pre-event, onsite and post event management meaning every aspect of the day was to be designed and implemented by the events team.

Given the short lead time the priority was to agree a date and secure a venue close to BESA’s headquarters in central London. The venue had to comfortably accommodate a main conference for up to 300 delegates, an exhibition for between 20-30 stands, breakout rooms and a private event space for the evening awards ceremony.

Additional challenging factors included the event needing to fall before the end of 2017, avoiding school holidays, after the end of the regional series, on a mid-week date and avoid other industry specific events already established in the calendar.

Solutions:

Sara concentrated on the venue find and quickly identified available venues and hosted site visits with BESA to view the short-list and assess their suitability.  Satisfied that the Park Plaza Riverbank would be able to provide everything we needed, contracts were drawn up.

Jonny headed up the exhibitor and sponsor programme, selling exhibition stand space to relevant businesses and associations as well as sourcing sponsors.

Tim looked after everything technical; designing the set, sound and lighting for the main conference room, breakout sessions and the evening awards event.

In the weeks leading up to the event we supported BESA with the ongoing pre-event management in preparation for the day.  Our on-site team managed the AV and exhibitors as well as making sure all our client’s requirements for the venue were met.  Katie looked after badging pre-event and managed the registration desk with BESA personnel on the day.

Challenges:

The main challenge for the events team was the short four months turn around for being appointed to the event taking place.

Venue availability given the brief, preferred style, location and budget guidelines.  Luckily, we were able to secure several venues for serious consideration, in what is always a busy time in the conference calendar.

The short lead time meant that marketing budgets had already been designated elsewhere so securing exhibitors and sponsors was a challenge.  Despite this, CBA Events sold 21 exhibition spaces and secured four prime sponsors.

Verdict:

Production and Events Director Tim Green finished: “The BESA event was a real success and we received great feedback from our client, the sponsors, exhibitors and delegates. Whilst an inaugural event brings specific challenges, we hope that the momentum will continue to pick up and this event will become established in the UK construction industry’s events calendar.”