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Leading medical technology company Smith+Nephew brought their UK, Ireland and Nordic teams to the NEC earlier this year for their annual sales conference, looking forward to their busy year ahead.
The event team, headed up by Sammi Wratten, Account Director at Your Event Solutions, was impressed with the flexible conferencing space at the NEC, working closely with NEC Senior Account Manager Emma Peplow to help tweak requirements to design the perfect event.
Sammi explained: “The flexibility of the space was key for us. We involved the NEC right from the start, finding a space that fits the requirements for our event.
“We wanted to do things a little bit differently this year, increasing to three days and wanting to break off into individual franchises. The flow of the event was really important.”
Sammi realised that a central location with easy access for UK and international teams was intrinsic for the event, hosting 350 people with plenty of easily accessible hotels nearby.
The event quickly gathered momentum, with some last-minute plans being tweaked with Emma’s help which helped elevate the event to new heights.
She continued: “We originally planned to have our meetings in Concourse Suites 1&2, with catering in the Gallery Restaurant, but it became apparent that for this year’s event we required more space.
“Because we wanted to have a setup showcasing cars, we went to Emma to see what else the venue could offer. That’s where she suggested Hall 9 – and worked her magic to get us that space.
“We ended up using that space for catering, cars and expo space - using upstairs for breakout rooms – and we found that combination worked perfectly. Hall 9 was a nice main point over all three days."
On the subject of catering, Smith+Nephew also sourced the popular street food huts from sister venue the Vox, showcasing the benefits of multiple venues on the same campus.
Sammi said: “The whole team was super flexible in sourcing food huts and we also brought in a dancefloor from the Vox. The food stalls really added to the theatre of the event and helped enhance it.
“I’ll be forever grateful for the flexibility and helpfulness of the team and their spaces. It can be a challenge to move 350 people around during an event, but Emma understood our requirements from a site visit and came back with a solution that really worked. We couldn’t have asked for anything better!”
For more details on the NEC’s flexible event spaces, click here.