2023 for Hippo Events kicked off with a bang with Alex Jany joining our team. Below we’ve asked her a series of questions – some interesting, some random – for you to get to know her more! Why did you want to work in events? Events is a way to make a person’s day better, whether that’d be through a great venue, food or even just a smiling face! This, along with the sense of accomplishment you feel when an event has gone successfully after all the time and effort you put in – there is no better feeling! What skills do you bring to Hippo Events? I hope to be able to bring my background and un ..read more

Conversations and awareness around events and the trends we are seeing in a post-pandemic world have become more prevalent in recent months. Where are we seeing our industry go? What are we seeing shifts towards? What will future events look like? In this months Blog we share with you the exciting trends we expect to see at the forefront throughout 2023 and beyond. Sustainability Sustainability is on the rise again and 2023 will be no different, and I for one am pleased to see that. Reducing the carbon footprint of your event can be achieved through many different actions. Reducing physica ..read more

The UK is in the middle of a cost of living crises with energy price hikes higher than most have seen in their lifetime and inflation rates at their highest for over 40+ years. As we brace ourselves for a difficult Winter ahead, event planners should expect further price increased across the board heading into 2023. A report entitled ‘2023 Global Business Travel Forecast’ was published by CWT and the Global Business Travel Association, which estimates that the average cost-per-attendees in 2022 was 25% higher than 2019 levels, and will rise a further 7% in 2023. The huge pent up demand in th ..read more

Picture this, you spend six months planning your biggest event of the year and the day comes and things start to go wrong. Sometimes, no matter how well organised or planned an event is, unforeseen problems can arise. How you respond to these issues directly influences how successful your event will be. We all want everything to go perfectly. However, events have a lot of variables and with Murphy’s law, anything has the potential to go wrong. Odds are there will be a few bumps along the way, no matter how prepared you are. It could be something as small as the table centres arriving a bit ..read more

Internal events or meetings are crucial to a company’s success. Whether a small weekly team meeting or a big annual company conference, internal events are your perfect chance to affect company culture, perception and leadership. On the whole, internal meetings tend to be undervalued and underutilised. Almost 64% of survey respondents in a recent EventMB report agreed that internal events help retain employees. 92% of respondents to a Verizon survey admitted that meetings are, in fact, an excellent opportunity to contribute and a key factor in their job satisfaction. With this in mind, it’s ..read more

This month’s Blog is a little different. Normally we dutifully publish blogs once a month to help our clients by discussing important elements of the events industry and providing hints, tips and advice on all things events. This month we thought we’d do something different and our Director, Steve Catling, is writing about why he loves the events industry so much. Over to you Steve… Long-hours, high stress and little sleep. Most people would run a mile if that was part of their job description, but I personally love it. In fact, I thrive off it, and the reason is because I absolutely love wh ..read more

As we always say at Hippo, an event doesn’t conclude after the last delegate leaves. It’s easy to forget the post-event debrief and its importance. Post-event debriefs are a vital step in analysis and feedback. Taking an objective view of the event, both in terms of the pre-event and on-site stages, it’s important to look at both the events strengths and weaknesses to ensure learnings are had and to streamline the event for the next time around. Honest and accurate feedback allows you to make better decisions about each event that you organise. A debrief produces a concrete list of what work ..read more

There are so many industry specific terms, acronyms and language that exists in the events world. Like every industry it can be hard to follow. We’re here to help explain. On our website we provide our clients with a few downloadable files to help you with your event planning. These can be found here and are free to download. With that in mind we thought we would publish our Event Terms Glossary this month to help you with anything you don’t already know! 1/2 Day DDR Same as a DDR, lasting only half a day, and only one or two tea/coffee breaks. 24-hour rate A quoted rate to include: a three c ..read more

Hologram technology allows presenters to “beam in” with lifelike 3D effects — in real time. However, with equipment costs extremely high, widespread use may still be some time off, if at all. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Princess Leia programmed an R2-D2 droid with a holographic message for retired Jedi, Obi Wan Kenobi. It was blue, it was grainy, it was far from perfect, but it was oh so sci-fi. That was in 1977 and hologram technology has come a long way since then. In fact, it is already available and business conferences may widely implement it in the coming years. It can al ..read more

Venue sourcing and selection is one of the biggest decisions an event organiser can make with regard to the success of their event. Almost every industry has some type of ‘deal breakers’ – those tell-tale signs that make you run away from a particular product, service or vendor. The events industry is no different. In fact, choosing a venue is so important that no amount of amazing content, catering or entertainment can make up for a poor venue choice. Our venue finds commence with extensive venue research whereby we draw up a list of potential venues, based on the criteria in the detailed br ..read more