Nice day for a Royal Wedding...

Speaking as someone who once strained filter coffee through a pair of stockings belonging to a friend’s wedding outfit, (it seemed a good idea in the absence of a coffee percolator), I wasn’t that concerned with the finer details of Kate Middleton’s dress on her big day.

My take on the Royal Wedding was how London, as a city, would perform, hosting the first major event in a series which, over the next 18 months, will include the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Games.

With an estimated two billion worldwide television viewers and one million spectators on the streets of the UK capital, the day went off seamlessly well.

Even the sun shone, despite every weather report predicting rain.

And if that minor miracle wasn’t enough, there was also a ‘Good Service’ reported throughout the day on every London Underground line. I know!

As the world witnessed the wedding guests arriving at Westminster Abbey, I was mingling with the crowds in St James’s Park, taking photos which I hope capture the colour and character of the day.

My base was the London Media Centre at St Ermin’s Hotel.

The four-star hotel next to St James’s Park has just re-opened following a £30m refurbishment and it’s looking really smart…. not as smart as David Beckham in his wedding clobber mind, but well worth checking out nonetheless...

Events and hospitality are aiding economic recovery

On 10 March, my article on the value of corporate hospitality and events appeared on the centre pages of the Times newspaper. Published in conjunction with Raconteur Media, I am now able to post it here, in its original form, with kind permissions.

If you would like to access the entire supplement with two further articles by me, please click here.


The UK’s events and hospitality industry is a major contributor to the domestic economy. Its tentacles extend into areas of retail, tourism, sport and leisure and its extensive supply chain consists of catering, farming, floristry, logistics, production, venue management, entertainment, staffing, accommodation and many other small-to-medium sized British businesses.

According to a lobbying body called the Business Visits and Events Partnership (BVEP), the core of the sector is worth £36.1billion to the country’s wealth.

The BVEP is chaired by Michael Hirst, OBE. He says: “It’s a vibrant part of the visitor economy but also has an active role in the creative industries, trade development and in encouraging cultural appreciation.”

The conference and business events market on its own contributes £18.8billion. This includes spend at venues and in the wider destination by delegates and organisers before, during and after an event.

Industry association Eventia arrived at this figure after conducting its 2010 UK Events Market Trends Survey. The annual survey is based on data supplied by 403 venues from across the UK. Further key findings show that 94 million people attended an estimated 1.32 million events in 2009 and that hotels currently hold the majority (61 per cent) of all business events in Britain.

The BVEP calculates that, exhibitions, conferences, meetings, corporate hospitality and incentive travel, together form an economic contribution of £30.3billion. The remaining £5.8billion is made up from sports events (£2.3billion), music events (£1.4billion), festivals and cultural events (£1.1billion), plus other outdoor events (£1billion).

All these event types contribute significantly to tourism, creative enterprise, trade and export development, as well as to the exchange of information and knowledge and to community cohesion. By bolting on the hospitality sector’s far reaching services such as restaurants, contract catering, hotels and other accommodation providers, consultancy Oxford Economics estimates that the overall economic impact could be closer to £46billion.

Mike Kershaw, chairman of event services firm the Concerto Group says: “Events are one of the most efficient means of keeping money within the UK economy. Retail spend has maybe a three or four-time multiplier before it leaves the country. But spending money on an event will see transactions multiply along a more extensive and predominantly British supply chain. With 20 per cent VAT on every transaction heading back into government coffers, plus the amount of people being kept in employment, the hospitality and events industry should be championed, when instead it is often thought of as frivolous.”

In an independent study carried out last year on behalf of the British Hospitality Association (BHA) - a trade body, which includes event management within its representation - Oxford Economics determined that the wider hospitality and events industry directly contributes 2.44 million jobs and another 675,000 jobs through multiplier effects along the supply chain. Two-thirds of these multiplier jobs involve the manufacture of food, beverages and tobacco, agriculture and business services.

The BVEP says that there are some 550,000 people employed by more than 25,000 businesses with a core remit to stage or supply events. These businesses include event management agencies, venues, suppliers and destination management companies.
“The sector is resilient and events provide real recreational and motivational opportunities for communities,” says Hirst. “During the recession for example, whilst corporate meetings inevitably fell back in line with lower levels of business activity, attendance at UK festivals, sporting, cultural and music events grew by up to 20 per cent.”

The BHA states that, with the wider total of 2.44 million jobs representing around 8 per cent of total employment, this makes the hospitality economy the UK’s fifth biggest industry in employment terms. It places it ahead of other broad sectors such as financial services, transport and construction, and gives it a similar scale to education.

Like the BVEP, the BHA is also focused on forming closer links with government, in order to achieve a shared goal of sustainable economic growth.

“Given the right framework, there is real opportunity for hospitality economy jobs in Britain to rise to 2.76 million by 2015 and 3.09 million jobs by 2020,” says BHA chief executive Ufi Ibrahim. “Hospitality and events create jobs at local level and impact upon regional regeneration schemes. At a time when the Government’s spending review has lead to redundancies and job losses, here is an industry that really can make a difference.”

At the end of last year, the BHA put forward a partnership proposal to government, which asks for, amongst other things, a permanent cross-cabinet committee for hospitality and tourism.

Ibrahim says: “Our fragmented industry is affected by policy decisions taken across many government departments. By engaging senior cabinet ministers, this will help to ensure that the decisions of individual departments do not hinder David Cameron’s pledge to make Britain one of the top five tourist destinations in the world as well as the industry’s potential contribution to job creation across the UK.”

In June 2010, the opening of the UK capital’s International Convention Centre, the ICC London ExCeL immediately created 1,000 new jobs in this regeneration area of east London.

The venue’s director of conferences and events James Rees anticipates that a further 3,200 local jobs will be created as a knock-on effect of the ICC by the end of this year.

“The build represented a private investment of £165million but the projected economic benefit stands at £1.6billion by the end of 2011,” he says.

Both the ICC London ExCeL and the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in the heart of Westminster work closely with convention bureau Visit London to pitch for large international congresses, which bring delegates to the UK capital from all over the world.

Ernest Vincent, chief executive of the QEII Conference Centre estimates his venue contributes around £200million a year to the visitor economy.

“The role events play in the development of the tourism industry needs much more recognition and encouragement. It can readily be one of the engines to rebalance our national economy,” he says.

But it’s not just purpose -built venues that rely on the full impact of event spend. Visitor attractions, heritage venues, museums, art galleries, stadia and a host of other dual-use facilities all depend heavily on the business of events.

The Concerto Group’s Kershaw says: “Where would London’s museums be without the revenue generated from holding corporate and private events? At the Government’s door with cap-in-hand, that’s where. The business model for hotels doesn’t stack up with beds alone. They all need conference and banqueting business to survive. And I don’t believe there is a single restaurant in London that could exist without hosting corporate dining and events.”

Kershaw’s claims are backed up by Lisa Hatswell, the corporate sales manager of the EDF Energy London Eye and chair of marketing consortium, Unique Venues of London (UVL).

She says: “Our 73 members collectively generated £68million from events held in 2010. With a mixture of charities, free public attractions and heritage sites, many rely on a secondary events revenue stream to maintain their architecturally renowned buildings, grounds or exhibits.”

Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Palace, the Victoria & Albert Museum and ZSL London Zoo are all UVL members.

Charlotte Winship is events manager at Kensington Palace, which is managed by independent charity Historic Royal Palaces. She says: “In hiring venues like ours, clients are providing valuable support to the conservation of our country’s heritage. We receive no government or Crown funding and therefore rely on income derived from visitors, donors and venue hire. All revenue received from venue hire directly contributes to the conservation of Kensington Palace.”

Next year, events and hospitality will play a major role in the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It’s reassuring to know that not only does Britain already have a gold medal-standard industry, but that its impact is driving the country’s economic recovery as well.

Life's a beach at Rosa's

London Restaurant Festival gets underway on Monday 4th October. During its two-week stint, there's some 250 restaurants throughout the UK capital offering Festival Menus for as little as £10. To book a festival menu, just visit the LRF website. This week I went along to one of the participating restaurants in Soho to continue my series of Street Level blogs and report on a Thai evening at Rosa's.

Street Level: Life's a beach at Rosa's
The best nights out are often those that produce the unexpected. Catching up with an old friend over Thai food in the heart of Soho was always going to result in stories of surprising and often salacious gossip. What I really didn’t expect however, was to discover some of the best Thai cuisine in London from a restaurant I must have walked past a thousand times and never acknowledged was there.

What’s even more surprising is that Rosa’s doesn’t exactly blend into the Dean Street brickwork. Its bright red frontage is hard to miss when you’re actually looking for it. Even on this cold and rainy evening, in-the-know diners sat outside under the awning, no doubt drinking green teas whilst watching the Old Compton Street characters and chaos unfold.

On opening the bright red door, you half expect a bell overhead to ring akin to an old curiosity shop but instead, you enter a modern Thai family eatery, designed to resemble a Phuket beach hut. Wooden benches upstairs are made for sharing and the wooden wall paneling has interspersed coat hooks or rather, hooks to hang your towel on if this really was a beach hut on a Thai island.

After ushering my guest onto the bench and taking my seat on the wooden stool opposite, we order a bottle of red before I head downstairs to dry myself off after getting caught in the torrential downpour outside. The basement is a darker, more mood-driven bar dining area and the toilets are communal, adding to the rustic ambience Rosa’s sets out to create.

Back upstairs, and I discover we’d been moved to a more intimate wooden booth towards the back of the restaurant. These booths should be requested when booking in order to keep confidences private and to allow greater room to spread out the Thai delicacies as they arrive.

For starters, we shared a mouthwatering deep fried soft shell crab topped with thai herbs, shallots and spicy fresh chilli sauce and a Som Tam papaya salad with prawns. It may have been the beach hut surroundings, but we both opted for more seafood with coconut rice as our main course.

I went for grilled squid, pan fried tiger prawns and scallops stir fried with mixed spices and yellow chilli. My guest ordered a thai chilli seafood mousse, baked in half a butternut squash which, when served, looked more like a tropical cocktail than a main course but tasted divine.

Thailand is known as the ‘Land of Smiles’ and our waiting staff didn’t disappoint, maintaining friendly fast service without interrupting the flow of our conversation.

When we left, the rain outside no longer mattered. We could have been in a tropical monsoon as we’d just dined on Thai seafood which I was more than happy to believe had been line-caught fresh from the pier at the front of our Phuket beach hut.

Rosa’s is running a Festival Menu as part of this year’s London Restaurant Festival.

Street Level: A series of restaurant reviews

A slight decline in the regularity of blog posts on here can be somewhat explained by the fact that I've been busy blogging for the London Restaurant Festival, which takes place across the UK capital next month.

Part of my role is to post restaurant reviews, which for someone who has never professed to being a food critic, seemed at first a little daunting. Fortunately however, the job doesn't call for an in-depth critique (I'll leave that up to the Evening Standard's Fay Maschler, the festival's creator). I simply have to experience each restaurant and produce a creative write-up from a 'Street Level' perspective, thereby showcasing the restaurant's offer to the public.

I thought I'd share with you three such write-ups, not only as an overdue way to update my blog but also to highly recommend three top London restaurants. I hope you enjoy reading my recommendations and for updates on next month's festival, join the Facebook page or visit the website.

Street level: An invitation to Sam’s place
It’s not often that I venture from zone two for an evening’s dining out experience. But when Sam Harrison, the man who partnered with Rick Stein to open Sam’s Brasserie in Chiswick, invited my guest and I to dinner at the duo’s second eatery in Balham, we headed for the gateway to the south.

Harrison’s has been around since October 2007. On occasion I have spent a lazy Sunday afternoon nursing a bottle of red with Balham friends in its relaxed bar. But I’ve never graduated to the 90-cover restaurant, taken my seat underneath the circular brown lampshades and perused the simple menu of classic brasserie-style dishes with a modern twist – until now.

I should point out here that Sam Harrison didn’t actually join us for dinner. If he had have done, we probably would have tried harder to stifle our giggles when my guest asked our waitress what type of bread we were being offered and received the polite friendly reply ‘brown’. She did redeem herself however by explaining to my australian friend what kind of fish sea bream is and the fact that a poussin is a young chicken, without feeling the need to add the rather gruesome fact that it has to be younger than 28 days at slaughter to be classed as such.

For starters, we opted for the sharing platter but added a side order of chilli and garlic grilled squid because you can always tell the quality of a restaurant’s food by the texture of its squid (it obviously helps to eat a lot of squid at various different restaurants to aid the comparison).

The sharing platter was furnished with morsels of buffalo mozzarella, cheese croquettes, pâté and other butcher’s delights, served with flat bread (we resisted the urge to ask again what type of bread this was although the answer would have been both accurate and just as funny).

I’m pleased to report that the squid was tasty and succulent and went extremely well with a mid-priced Argentinian Malbec. It’s also pleasing to report that tap water was regularly topped up throughout our meal and the service was always friendly, attentive but non-intrusive.

For our main course, I couldn’t resist choosing from the Harrison’s Classics section of the menu. I opted for the aged Scottish rib-eye steak which came beautifully presented on a butcher’s board with fries in a pot and bearnaise sauce in a small pan on the side. To me, this choice was in keeping with the relaxed picking and dipping nature of our meal and the steak was cooked to perfection.

My guest experienced her first taste of english sea bream and enjoyed it. I’m sure though she was eying up the amazing looking cheeseburgers delivered to our adjacent table with envy. She consoled herself by giving in far too quickly when our waitress suggested ordering the hot chocolate fondant for dessert. The 15 minute baking time this pudding takes is well worth it but unfortunately it just wasn’t enough time for either of us to have found enough extra room to fully enjoy it. Full to bursting we were both forced to admit defeat and decided to walk the long way back to the tube, determined to return again another day and finish that goddess among desserts.

Street Level: An evening with Andrew Edmunds
I spend far too much money on eating out. It’s one of the inconvenient pleasures of living in a city with 50 Michelin-starred restaurants and hundreds of secret hideaway eateries just waiting to be discovered and then savoured.

Despite a constant urge to try out new places however, I always find myself returning to one of my favourite Soho establishments, Andrew Edmunds on Lexington Street.

Admittedly, Andrew Edmunds receives most of my custom during the winter months. It’s somewhere familiar to escape the drizzle and swap the falling temperatures for the warm dark glow of intimate candle-lit tables, plain white tablecloths, great British food and an extensive red wine list. I wasn’t entirely convinced therefore that I’d made the right choice when, on one of the warmest days of the summer so far, I reached for the phone and booked a table for two downstairs at this charming gourmet bolt-hole.

Maybe I opted for a table downstairs so we could pretend that the balmy summer’s evening unfolding on the street outside was actually a dark winter’s night as we swapped stories over a naked flame and drank a 2006 mid-priced bottle of Argentinian red.

Actually, the real reason I requested downstairs is because that’s where my preferred table is located (the only restaurant where I actually know which table I prefer). Tonight, table 22, side on to all the other diners so that you’re not distracted by their food choices or over-heard snippets of conversation, was available and ours for three straight hours.

My starter choice was the same starter I always go for at this home away from home diner – Dressed Crab (superb). After our very amiable Kiwi waitress Katy had joked about the hand-written menu and then translated the hieroglyphics, my guest went for Lincolnshire asparagus vinaigrette with thin slices of Pecorino cheese.

For main, I went for the Calasparra risotto with squid, mussels, prawns, clams, chorizo and langoustine whilst my guest plumped for the poached wild sea trout, accompanied by Jersey Royals and a watercress mayonnaise. I had definitely plumped for the more flavoursome dish as my seafood arrived infused with chili and was extremely satisfying with just the right amount of heat. The trout looked a tad boring but I was assured that it tasted very nice.

I rarely go for dessert but was quite happy to sip my expresso whilst my guest pondered long and hard over whether to have the peach and almond tart. With no decision reached and a cursory look round to see that most of our fellow diners had departed as it was approaching 11pm, I requested the bill and inspected the damage.

Our meal for two, with wine, coffee and 12.5% service charge came to a very reasonable £79. It was only after the tab was settled that Katy returned to our table with a slice of peach and almond tart and two forks. “There’s only two slices left and I know you were tempted so you have this one and I’m going to save the final slice as a treat for when I finish my shift,” our waitress said with a smile.

It’s service like that which will keep me returning to Andrew Edmunds all year round and sets London’s restaurants apart, in my view, from those anywhere else in the world.

Street Level: Circus has come to town
It’s easy to walk straight past Circus on Endell Street, Covent Garden, if you’re not paying attention. There’s no big top entrance, or street entertainers juggling or hula hooping outside. In fact, there’s nothing to betray the entertainment that awaits within, only a polite doorman who ensures you have the correct destination and bids you a pleasant evening as you enter a short corridor with a cloakroom at the far end, guarding the main doors to the restaurant and cocktail bar.

Since opening in January 2010, I’ve walked through those main doors on two other occasions. My guest for this particular evening had never seen what lies beyond the cloakroom. Her interest was immediately peaked by the Californian-sounding model attendant who took our coats and led us through to the main dining area with its catwalk showpiece table that doubles up as a performance stage.

Aware that the circus-style performances wouldn’t begin until after 8pm, I encouraged a visit to the bar before we settled down to eat. Circus’ bar cocktail list is designed by Henry Besant and the Worldwide Cocktail Club – the team responsible for the bars at Bungalow 8 and Notting Hill’s The Lonsdale. It’s a short but encyclopedic menu of cocktails from which my companion chose a Kumquat & Almond Caipirinha. Unable to decide, I asked the barman to surprise me with a bourbon-based creation. I already knew my drink would taste amazing however it was created so the requested surprise must have been its bright pink coloration when poured into a martini glass.

For dinner, I had the special of marinated steak in a tiger prawn and chorizo dressing whilst she opted for the cajun sea bass (I would have opted for the highly recommended 24 hour slow roasted beef short ribs if the special hadn’t changed my mind). For starters we shared baby squid and chicken and prawn satay skewers. The Circus menu is Pan-American (just like almost all the staff) and, just as on both my previous visits, the baby squid and steaks are divine perfection.

The first indication that a performer is about to take to the stage is the open kitchen’s shutters going down along with the lights. If you’ve timed your food order correctly this will coincide with the end of each course. If not, then it’s a straight choice between melt-in-the-mouth steak in the dark or an aerialist, performing on a hoop above the catwalk table.

On each of my previous visits the performances have been different so you never know what to expect. On my first mid-week visit, we stayed all night and witnessed the acts grow ever-more burlesque as the evening draws on. This time however was a Friday night and the DJ was playing more to the bar crowd than the diners who wished to talk. So after a hula-hoop girl, a fire-dancer and the aerialist, we settled the bill, saved our vocal chords and made our escape.

Thankfully, with Circus now catering for weekday and weekend brunch menus and quieter mid-week sittings, there are better times to plan a visit to ensure you get the full performance and dining experience in Covent Garden’s unique cabaret restaurant. The popularity of this particular Circus has ensured that it’s not about to leave town any time soon.

Summer Eventia sets new standard in Glasgow

Over the past eight months, I've been working with Eventia to pull together the speaker programme for their annual conference, aimed at professionals working in the events, destination management, conference and incentive travel sectors.

The Eventia Summer Conference took place at the Glasgow SECC from 4-6 July and, I'm chuffed to say, has been widely hailed as the best of its five-year history. The programme was split into two days, with the economy acting as a major theme for day one and brand communication forming the key trend for day two.

Speakers included Dr Dominic Swords who gave an insightful and relaxed keynote on the current and future economic landscape; Andrew Barke from Google who presented the power of YouTube as a marketing tool for brands and, Claire Smith from the Vancouver Convention Centre who gave a fascinating account of what happened behind the scenes during the Winter Olympics and the lessons businesses should apply to London in 2012 and Glasgow in 2014 during the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

Every single one of the speakers over the two-days of Summer Eventia performed to the highest standards and I'm exceptionally grateful to all of them for dedicating so much time and energy.

If you missed the 2010 Summer Eventia, next year's conference will be held in Cardiff and is sure to raise its game again in order to beat the standard set by all those involved this year. For highlights of the Glasgow event, check out the video by DRP Group embedded below. Highlights from the 2010 Summer Eventia can also be found on YouTube here or on the Eventia website here.

What I did on St George's Day

Apparently, it was more by luck than judgement that the inaugural British Inspiration Awards fell on St George’s Day. No matter, as this new set of awards were such a success that an annual event is surely now on the cards and deserves its place in the diary alongside England's Patron Saint.

The brains behind the idea for a set of awards celebrating the best of the UK’s creative, artistic and scientific talent is the UK managing director of Nintendo, David Yarnton and Simon Harvey, managing director of Barrington Harvey Public Relations.

I confess, I’ve been to many an awards ceremony in my time and seen far too many fail to live up to expectations due to poor production, an unprepared host or dire catering. Before walking through the wrought iron gates of the Brewery, I maybe feared the worst, that this event wouldn’t have the pulling power in its first year to attract the people it was looking to celebrate and it could just be a very nice lunch, with lots of ‘sorry they couldn’t be here’ acceptance speeches at one of London’s leading events venues.

I’m glad to say how wrong I was (apart from the bit about a nice lunch. An imaginative menu of blackened salmon, welsh lamb followed by ring cake and huge portions - apparently a trademark of the Brewery’s event catering).

The British Inspiration Awards not only attracted 350 paying guests but it also saw Philip Schofiled, Ant & Dec, Michael Eavis, Elisabeth Murdoch and host Richard Madeley tread the red carpet. Entertainment came from the pipes and drums of the Welsh Guards, hip hop dance troop the Smash Bro’z, the Graffiti Kings and Sheffield indie rockers Reverand and The Makers.

The set and stage was a far higher quality than one would imagine for a debut event, mainly because someone had had the vision to recycle it over two consecutive events (possibly the real reason for the date decider). And if anyone is looking for a professional host, edgier that his onscreen persona and surprisingly funny, then I’d happily recommend Richard Madeley.

As for the winners, well, Philip Schofield collected a design award on behalf of Sir Terence Conran, Matthew Bourne collected his award in person for his contribution to the arts and Ant & Dec presented a special recognition award to Glastonbury festival creator Michael Eavis.

Other winners included Elisabeth Murdoch (Television), Nick Park (Film), Sir George Martin (Music), Alexander McQueen (Fashion), Sir James Dyson (Innovation & Industry), Baroness Susan Greenfield (Science & Technology) and Ian Livingstone (Interactive Entertainment).

Congratulations to everyone involved for an excellent idea in support of some worthwhile charities. I know where I’d like to be celebrating England’s dragon-slayer next year.

Photos by Rick Bronks.

Integrating Social Media into Conferencing & Events

Last week, I gave an after-lunch talk to marketing and events professionals, hosted by the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. The feedback was positive so I thought I'd post some of the key insights and tips on a couple of events industry blog sites. The posts have since been tweeted and re-tweeted so many times, I must have struck a positive chord with event planners. So, I've decided to post my talk highlights one more time, here... I hope you find it useful.

My talk went something like this…

I firmly believe that online marketing and communication channels such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and FlickR are enabling event planners, venues and suppliers to develop longer-term interaction with event attendees.

These online tools are allowing us to grow the conference or event beyond the physical and to keep people talking about their experiences and our event content long after the last delegate has left the building.

Social Media is nothing short of a communications revolution. It’s a means to amplify our messaging, build community, gather feedback in real time, ask questions of our audiences, research our markets and gain business referrals from our new online friends and followers.

One-way marketing messages, whereby a newsletter or piece of email marketing is sent out from an email address that says DO NOT REPLY are becoming obsolete. The communications revolution is all about Conversations, User Generated Content and Interacting with the online community.

We can no longer control what is said online by people attending our events so we need to understand how to engage with the conversations that are already happening, build loyalty amongst followers and provide good Social Media Value.

So I’m just going to give you a few tips on how to start thinking about integrating Social Media into your marketing or event strategies.

If you’re not using Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, the best way to understand their benefits is simply to start using them socially. Once you get to grips with the simple mechanics of growing online conversation, such as Hashtags, Fan Pages, Tiny URLs, TwitPics etc, you can then start to see how it can be applied to your every-day business or event planning needs.

When integrating Social Media into Event strategies, consider how it can be used to engage with delegates or attendees at an earlier stage. A lot of exhibitions now use Twitter as a free marketing tool to communicate the latest confirmed speaker, or encourage registration sign-ups. But what about creating user groups on LinkedIn or Facebook and crowd sourcing what topics delegates wish to hear about or allowing them to vote on panelists, or even something as simple as the theme of the gala dinner. By engaging your audience at an earlier stage, you will secure their buy-in and reduce the number of no-shows or drop-outs.

Every event has a website but, by creating multiple event pages across different online streams you’ll be casting your net wider and enhancing your search engine optimization at the same time. This is especially true if you then link your blog, Facebook Fan Page, YouTube Channel and LinkedIn discussion group back to your website.

In the run up to the event, launch Twitter competitions awarding free registration or tickets. A simple way to do this is just to ask people on Twitter to Re-Tweet a chosen message. A winner can be then drawn from the pile of Re-tweets that appear in your @Replies Folder. This is a good way to track the reach of your marketing messages across Twitter and to see who is willing to engage with the event. Maybe you can reward the most loyal advocates in some other way at a later date.

During the event, launch a HashTag on Twitter and encourage people to use it so that attendees and remote watchers can follow what’s happening. Putting a HashTag before a word simply creates a link to a new page. This page then shows the full conversation stream of everyone who has used that chosen HashTag – enabling a simple way to follow a particular conversation subject.

If you then stage an unofficial Tweet up (networking event for people engaged with Twitter), it’s a good way to spread the word of your chosen HashTag and get likely content creators motivated and excited.

Broadcasting the conversations that people are hash-tagging, by running a live stream on a big screen on the main stage at your event, is perhaps a risk too far. Human nature dictates that somebody at some point will publish something offensive. But, why not use smaller screens in seminar rooms to help facilitate real-time Q&A sessions whilst the speaker is presenting?

You’ll find that some audience members will be able to answer the questions before the speaker does. If this is deemed too distracting for the speaker then technology offered by companies such as Crystal Interactive allow audience members to text in questions during the presentation, which are stored and can then be shown on screen and answered during an allotted Q&A slot.

Your aim with Social Media should be, to spread as widely as possible, content generated, either for the event by those directly involved, or by participants, advocates and remote watchers.

There’s so many web-based applications available to allow you to stream video, share speaker presentations, merge all Hash-tagged Tweets into PDF documents, create graphs and charts to measure the Return on the Objective of HashTags, launch user generated photo galleries, broadcast audio and so much more.

If you’re not doing any of these things, just think how much more engaging your events could be – if only you’d invested the time in discovering what free Social Media can do for you.