Liz Clark’s Sunday Thought’s 19.01.20

One Thousand Today! – Few people could make this comment. Indeed there are few sites with daily posts who achieve this milestone.

LizianEvents News is a successful information platform. At the moment, the average readership is two hundred and fifty people each day: and on the run-up to shows or for special announcements we can see as many a seven hundred visitors to the daily news. I am proud of these statistics, and there is no doubting the numbers will grow over next year.

LEN’s first article was a simple announcement on the 5th of April 2017 that we’d taken on some of Annie’s venues. Twenty-eight people read the second article on its first day. It has been read over eight hundred times in the past thirty-two months. What is interesting is my sentiments at the time. The post is a manifesto for the future.

A Few Images From an Archive of Thousands…

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New Brush Sweeps Clean

It is an old saying, and the sentiment has some merit. Although in truth it is flawed, an old brush will sweep the yard as well as a new one. I listened to the statement last week, and I compared the sentiment to my role as MD of LizianEvents. My feeling is, as the brush ages, the sweeper learns to use it with more skill. It is the ability to learn to use tools and expertise which impress. My forte is computers, lists, organisation and communication; these are the tools of my trade and success is the objective of my endeavours.

I spent many years marketing air freight, if you want to be part of competitive business, try the airlines. When you think about the cheapness of air fairs, remember the cargo in the cargo hold is where the airline makes its money. It is the way of many businesses; the product is one small part of the infrastructure, which makes the sale possible.

Airline managers soon learn about customer satisfaction and hard work. On the administration side of each flight, everything from fuel to freight weight is assessed, every penny counts. And for all of the effort put into each flight, it is the crew which are the ambassadors. During a long-haul flight, cabin crew walk many miles and have to deal with excellent and bad travellers, they are human, and self-control has to be a priority. A multi-million-pound advertising campaign comes to nought the moment a member of the aircrew blows a fuse. The customer pays the bills – whether it is freight or passenger it makes little difference, the key is understanding the delicate relationship balance.

For the safety of every flight, a few firm rules have to be followed, and anyone who breaks just one suffers a substantial penalty. When rules are established, accepted and understood, all will benefit. It is the same with society; the rules are made to help the majority, not the minority and anyone who decides to shift the parameters are, in truth showing little regard for other people in the community.

I am under no illusion, exhibitors (although Ian and I feel we need to move away from the word exhibitors – we think a community-based organisation would work well) attending a LizianEvent show are my customers. I provide a service, and if it excels, I will prosper. I respect all those I work with; the arrangement has to be mutual because, without excellent exhibitors, the business fails. The relationship has to be reciprocal and transparent; there can be no room for doubt. I once worked in a PLC where the management complained about the company. They were bringing it to its knees until a new CEO entered the arena. Within three months he removed the moaners and those who would not move on. One year later, the top sales executives were earning bonuses higher than their salaries. Consensual dedication to the objective is essential, as is understanding why difficult changes have to be made.

When parameters are changed, the reasoning requires explanation. Let us go back a few years, at one time the MBS circuit was small and dominated by a few organisers. I assume profits were excellent, and expansion seemed to be a smart business practice. The weight of organising multiple events means extra staff and overheads. Once the organiser has to travel, the promotion becomes expensive, and the inevitable occurred, a desperate need for new stands and higher fees. As the prices of positions increased, exhibitors looked for more products to supplement the increased fees. Before long, there was little separation between stalls, resulting in many specialist retailers having their margins reduced. It became a vicious circle, and the problem was entirely due to the stall price. The escalation has become a source of discontent. As the organisers increase the table cost, so the exhibitors’ margins fall, and eventually, they drop out of the loop. Sometimes we have to be brave, and I decided to lower the stand fees to give the exhibitor a chance of making a profit. To cover every hundred-pound cost, an exhibitor may have to turn over two hundred pounds or more. I understand the problem and the only option is to lower the stand fee and give the retailer a chance.

The health of a show is in the quality of exhibitors and the service offered to the visitors. As the circle of expansion became a circle of defeat; both visitor and exhibitor became exhausted with the situation, the shows began to slip, and we know many of you are still reeling from oversubscribed and under-attended shows.

My feeling is this: with three excellent venues; sixty-first class exhibitors who take possession of the ethos of the event; we will prosper. With a massive marketing interaction, we will become known for quality and integrity. I am not interested in going far from the Nottingham base (I will explain my logic with Cheltenham in another post) I am determined to build a large and dedicated visitor attendance. Please work with me, share this post, share our promotions, become prosperous and make LizianEvents your events. I feel the sentiment is too ‘Celebrate Life – Become a Well Being’. Is it better to attend one successful event or five, which make a loss? I do not need a map of Great Britain on the website. I need one unseen word ~ Success. I do not want to impress with an alphabet of venues. I need us to be associated with another name; ‘Prestige.’

Liz Clark

If you are a LizianEvents Exhibitor, you can contribute to this WordPress Blog. Send your essays, and a few Jpegs and Ian will do the rest!

I like the sentiment ‘Celebrate Life – Become a Well Being’

See You Soon

After reading the article thirty-two months later, the feeling is, we have achieved many of the precepts. None could argue we not have made great strides in changing the way small shows are perceived. Many others have followed our lead. I recently reviewed Ian’s extensive collection of screenshots of other’s websites (from how they looked nearly three years ago to how they look today): he indicted the timeline of changes consistently follow LizianEvents media pages! This alone evidence’s our influence on the changes made over the last thirty-two months.

Of course, we could not have anticipated our partnership with Barrie John. Therefore our catalogue of shows has grown beyond the initial plan. Indeed we will announce two new Pure Spirit Show dates with one new venue in the next few days. And we will push out the Pure Spirit brand boundaries during 2021. We see eight countrywide 2021 Pure Spirit Shows as achievable, and possibly twelve Pure Spirit Shows in 2022.

Moving away from Well Being and Pure Spirit, we are organising the ‘Creativity Connected’ show at the end of July. Interest in this event is growing from both exhibitor and Visitor viewpoints. The idea of mixing the many facets of art and creativity under one roof has sparked interest in many people. When the plan is mentioned, eyes light up. Creativity Connected will enjoy a massive promotion campaign beginning in February. The page is now updated and contains further exhibitor and visitor information.

Our iTunes podcast site is enjoying immense popularity with over 40 programmes available for review. We enjoy hundred’s of downloads each month. This edition to our promotional network can be of great advantage to Community Members who wish to promote their work. The short interview which we made last week and was published yesterday is testament to the quality and potential of LizianEvents Podcasts.

So we are 1000 articles old! I wonder what progress we can announce when we become 2000?

See You Soon

Liz

 Liz Clark – MD LizianEvents Ltd