In Spring 2018, the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) commissioned Speakeasy to event manage the 2018 SMAS National Manufacturing Conference – the only manufacturing conference of its kind in Scotland, taking place just once every two years.
Designed to raise ambitions, productivity and a wider understanding of Industry 4.0 among Scottish manufacturers, the conference featured a stellar line-up including First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and manufacturing heavyweights, Tom Williams, COO at Airbus and Juergen Maier, CEO at Siemens.
Facilitated throughout by ex-Scotland Today presenter, Angus Simpson, the packed programme included panel discussions, industry-led workshops featuring some of Scotland’s most successful manufacturing companies and a networking Gala Dinner.
As a publicly funded event, sponsorship and exhibition income was key and we achieved major sponsor partnerships with leading organisations including the AFRC and HVM Catapult and a ‘sold out’ exhibition which included international companies such as Rockwell Automation, Tente and IFM Electronic.
One of our client’s main objectives was to achieve 400 senior manufacturing delegates on the day from across Scotland’s diverse manufacturing sector. Using our wide network of Scottish manufacturing contacts – from industry through to manufacturing support organisations such as Construction Scotland, Scotland Food & Drink and Scottish Bakers – we achieved the full 400 delegates and had to close registration early due to unprecedented demand. Delegates included CEOs, Managing Directors and Operations Directors from across engineering, manufacturing, food & drink, life sciences, oil & gas, construction, electronics and aerospace.
As part of our promotional campaign, we contacted over 120 stakeholders to enlist their help, securing event listings, social media support and e-bulletin inclusions with organisations including the ADS Group, OGIC, KTN, HVM Catapult, Oil & Gas UK and Scottish Engineering.
