In an increasingly digital world, where virtual interactions dominate our daily lives, the value of face-to-face connections cannot be underestimated. With its ability to bring people together in a shared space, events are powerful opportunities for us all to engage, create memorable experiences and drive personal and professional growth.
Building Authentic Connections
Unlike traditional marketing channels, events provide you with good old fashioned ‘work the room’ opportunities. Events also attract a diverse range of attendees, providing you with the opportunity to meet a range of different contacts, not only to generate sales leads but to create wider opportunities.
When it comes to building authentic connections at an event, here are some suggestions to help facilitate interactions and get the most from your attendance:
Business Cards
Yes, it seems obvious, but the classic schoolboy error is to show up with no cards. Show that you are prepared and interested in maintaining a connection beyond the event with professionally designed and branded cards.
Pro Tip:Embrace the shift from paper business cards to digital. With digital business cards, you instantly share your contact information. Tap your card against a smartphone and share your contact details. It can act as an ice breaker or as a memorable way to bring your conversation to a close. Check out TAPiTAG.
Research and Familiarize
Take the time to research and understand the companies who are attending and the services they offer. This knowledge allows you to identify potential partnerships or check in with better-known competitors. Create a plan for who you want to speak to and consider getting in touch before the event, to get some pre-agreed meetings in the diary.
Harness Social Media
Make sure people know you are going to be there. Share your attendance on your personal LinkedIn page and if you’re only there for a limited time then make that clear.
Pro Tip: Look for the official event hashtag and use it. Usually, you can find them on the organizer’s website or social media. By using the event hashtag, you will ensure that your post will be at the heart of the conversation around the event, allowing you to interact with like-minded attendees. Boost your reach!
Conversation Starters
Not everyone is confident to dive straight into conversations. Prepare some industry questions to help you initiate conversations. Engaging conversation starters can help break the ice and foster deeper discussions. Alternatively, kick-off by asking them to tap your new digital business card on their phone!
Show your expertise
Before the event, demonstrate your expertise by providing value. Share relevant content such as blogs, reviews, interviews, or industry podcasts highlighting your knowledge and making it clear what people can talk to you about. By positioning yourself as a thought leader and sharing valuable insights, you establish credibility and generate interest.
Company attendance
if your company are exhibiting then be familiar with what’s being presented. Speak to the stand organisers and ensure you’re familiar with what your company are doing, and focusing on, at the show. If you work for a larger organisation, then see who is attending from other offices or locations and build your internal network as well as your external one.
Event marketing still presents a unique opportunity to build authentic connections in an increasingly digital landscape. By activating some of these suggestions you can untap the potential of event marketing and forge lasting connections that go beyond the event itself.
It’s February 24th, 2018. 15 or so minutes have passed since the full-time whistle sounded at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland. Rangers have beaten Hearts 2-0 in the Scottish Premiership and 50,000 supporters are filtering out of Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland. Their chants are just about audible from my position outside the Hearts dressing room, located just a few meters away from the famous marble staircase that dominates the entrance hall of the old Ibrox brick stand.
In my right hand: A teamsheet listing the names of the Hearts players who featured in the match. In hushed voices, me and my colleague Phil go through the unenviable process of deciding which players we should feed to the media for the post-match debrief. Then there’s the small matter of waiting for the manager to emerge from the dressing room and what brief to give him before he enters a press room packed with TV cameras and reporters, all keen to get his thoughts on a defeat.
Then there’s the small matter of having to actually convince the players to speak to the media. Trust me, when they’ve just been booed off by thousands of supporters, it’s the last thing they want to do. In my role as Head of Marketing, it’s my job to tell them they need to do it. Some get creative and sneak out the back door, others opt for the element of surprise and burst out, seamlessly transitioning into a sprint down the corridor to avoid you. On more than one occasion, I’ve had to clamber on to the team bus and drag them players off it.
On this afternoon, however, the familiar game of cat and mouse was interrupted by a text message from my wife Lee: “I think my contractions have started.”
I know it’s at least a one-hour drive home. Plus it’ll take at least 20 minutes to get out of the car park due to the crowds. At this point, I’m willing to put the kit man up for media duties if it means getting out of there quickly.
Thankfully, the door swings open. The manager, Craig Levein, emerges.
He stops, sighs and nods. It’s dejected football manager language for: Let’s get media over and done with.
My colleague Phil blurts out: “Sven’s wife’s about to go into labour.”
Mr Levein nods. “I’ll be quick.”
True to his word, we were out of there in no time and I was able to whisk Lee off to the hospital for the birth of my first son, Isak.
Football has been such a big part of my life, both privately and professionally, that it was almost inevitable that I find myself in a football setting at the start of such a big life moment. Secondly, the arrival of Isak – and later my daughter Emilia – is one of the key reasons why I find myself here at Project Neon today.
I’m Sven and, if you’re still with me after that mammoth intro, you may be interested to know that I’m the Team Lead here at Project Neon. I work with the team across all our clients, and together we ensure we deliver a first-class marketing and communications service.
My journey here, to borrow a phrase from Bilbo Baggins, has a bit of a ‘There and back again’ feel to it.
Born in Edinburgh to a Scottish father and Norwegian mother, I moved to Stavanger at an early age and grew up here in the Norwegian oil capital. In short, I had a fantastic childhood. As a kid of the 80s, I got to grow up in a world without social media: It was friends, outdoor play, football, Nintendo 64 and MTV Europe as the default background soundtrack to my homework.
Aged 15, me and my family left the fjords behind in favour of the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Calgary, the oil boomtown in Western Canada, was to be my home for the next four years as I completed high school and spent my winters on the world class ski slopes of the Rockies, a mere one-hour drive from the house. Leaving your friends and school behind at 15 is tough but it turned out to be a life experience that I wouldn’t change for the world.
A return home soon beckoned, albeit this time to my other home – Edinburgh. Four years of journalism studies at Edinburgh Napier University followed. In June 2009, I found myself holding a degree – but with no real desire to be a journalist!
I soon bid farewell to my colleagues at Biddy Mulligans Irish Bar (a great bunch of colleagues, might I add – so much so that I ended up marrying one of them.) My first step was a role with a media monitoring company. Now, this was old school media monitoring: We got every local print newspaper in Scotland delivered to us every week and, armed with a list of client names and key words, we would sit at a desk with a highlighter and pick out every mention of them – or topics they were interested in. Next, we’d manually scan in every page, upload and tag to an online system and then send to the client as part of a weekly monitoring report. It was tedious and tiresome, but if nothing else, it greatly improved my reading speed and eye for detail!
A few years as a Content Creator at a Marketing Agency followed before, in 2015, my part-time role with Heart of Midlothian Football Club turned into a full-time position as Digital Media Executive.
What followed was an 8-year rollercoaster. I eventually moved up to a Head of Marketing role, leading on everything from Season Ticket campaigns to the design process behind selecting new kits, managing our full digital media output, producing social media content, arranging and running press conferences, leading fan experience initiatives and – oh, the small matter of editing the 68-page magazine we published for every home game. It was long hours and no weekends – and no shortage of travelling. Mainly around Scotland, mind you – but there was the odd perk. Playing in European competitions meant first class travel: Private airport terminals, private luxury planes and police escorts through the streets of Istanbul, to name but a few.
I learned a lot. Not least the importance of protecting the legacy and values of a brand – in this case, 150-year-old football club. People change banks, cars, jobs, partners – even gender! But you never change your football team. It’s a sense of belonging and for many, it’s part of their identity. We had supporters living across the street from the stadium, and ones living in in far flung places around the world – it was our job to keep them connected to one of their big passions in life.
I also got to experience football during Covid. Every game was played in front of an empty stadium. We even pumped fake crowd noise through the speakers in order to add some atmosphere (it ended up sounding like static whale song). It was a bizarre, downright depressing year – with cardboard cut-outs of fans jotted around the stadium. You could hear every kick of the ball, every word exchanged between players. And when a goal was scored – which would typically prompt the stadium to erupt with noise – there was silence bar a few muted cheers from the players.– for several months, we were limited to 1 hour of outdoor time per day (beyond your garden). A strange time to live through – and thankfully one my kids won’t remember.
That neatly brings me back to my children. Scotland was great for us, however, I always had a desire to return to Stavanger. And with my wife being from Shetland (basically halfway between Scotland and Norway), she was also more than keen to explore life in the Nordics. There are few places in the world that can rival Norway when it comes to standard of living and raising a family, so we made the decision to put the wheels in motion for a move.
Thankfully, a door opened itself at Project Neon and I returned home, family in tow, in May 2023 – almost 22 years to the day that I left for Canada. I have family here and, thanks to the power of MSN Messenger in those early 2000s, I’ve never lost touch with my old network of friends over here – we’re as close now as we were in those early days crowded round a TV for a 4-way game of GoldenEye on the N64.
The past 12 months have been a learning curve, going from football to working for an agency with deep roots in the Oil and Gas industry. It’s been fascinating so far and, surrounded by a great team, I’m excited for what lies ahead.
Plus, I still have my beloved Viking FK for my football fix…
Hi, my name is Steinar, and I am Senior Communications Manager at Project Neon. I’m here to ensure that our clients are visible in the media, driving communication initiatives and help positioning companies where they want to be in the industry conversation and public perception.
Thinking back, I can easily determine that reading was the gateway to the communications profession. And in many ways, literature has informed my lifetime career choices as I have had a distinctly non-linear career path, from journalism to bookseller and IT project manager and back to communications.
As a kid, the school library was my secret paradise. An expat kid in Africa and Asia, I was painfully shy and slow in making friends. As we normally did not get together with other children on the weekdays, I spent a lot of time reading in the library. It was all children’s adventure series of course, stuff you just devour at a certain age. I am still teased by family for being spotted in gym class on the football field, calmly reading a book some distance behind the opposing team’s goal…
In my teens, I discovered two other passions that have defined my career: Photography and computers. While many people are more into the technical side of these subjects, I cared deeply about what I could create with a camera or a computer. Diving into film photography (at that time) and basic computer coding, I really enjoyed the creative side of making images or code that fulfilled a purpose.
My first published story was in the inflight magazine for Thai Airways, a whimsical account of a train ride in Myanmar. A thrill, but not a livelihood. I found that at a small local paper in Northern Norway. The job was all-round journalist/photographer, and the paper was known for investing as little as possible in a young staff willing to work long hours. I loved it, and I learned every aspect of local journalism. Other media jobs followed, but after 10 years in the media landscape in Norway had shifted a lot.
Then, one night, I was out drinking beer with a photographer buddy.
At a neighbouring table, I picked up a conversation on a local bookstore that was for sale. Rushing home, I broke the news to my wife, also a journalist. Three weeks later, we signed the contract and became the owners of a 125-year-old bookstore, straight out of “Notting Hill”. Less the beautiful movie stars, of course.
A typical choice for restless me, where the unknown beckons and I follow the Pippi Longstocking motto: “I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do it.” But being a business owner is a whole world of different challenges. Suddenly, you’re the one in charge and can make all the decisions, and just as suddenly you are responsible for a whole lot more money and financial commitments than you used to be.
But the fun parts outweigh the serious bits. I used my computer knowledge to start Norway’s third internet bookseller from our kitchen table. We invited authors to do readings and special appearances, we had bun bonanzas to serve customers some days, and we had kids coming in with their parents to find just the right first book they would be able to read on their own. I loved opening the shop, pausing on the front step to look up and down the pedestrian street, smell the crisp seaside air and wonder what the day would bring.
My interest for the benefits computers bring, as later has morphed into a professional stint as an IT project manager for an international IT consultancy. I have my views of the downsides of digital in many arenas, but I am proud to have worked on a host of digitalization tools that make public services more accessible and help businesses profit. As usual, my digital focus is on the benefits of the tools rather than the technology itself.
This is also something I bring to communications management. I prefer to cut through the fluff and highlight the benefits of an initiative or technology in practical terms and what it does for the people and companies using them.
But sitting at a computer is not what I prefer to do outside office hours. I enjoy being physically active, preferably outdoors, either on a racing or offroad bike, or rock climbing and hiking. I also do quite a bit of DIY and redecoration work, along with some finer woodworking and cabinetry in my workshop. Add an extended family and interests for photography, international news and literature to this mix, and you can appreciate that life is busy! I do occasionally hit the couch, but end up being bored after an hour.
If you had told the younger me, fresh out of musicology studies fifteen years ago, that I’d end up in Norway working for a marketing & comms agency specializing in energy, I’d have laughed you out of the room.
Hi, I’m Valentina, an Italian ex-pianist and musicologist, now the proud mother of three-year-old little dragon. Back in 2021 I decided to move to this beautiful corner of the world to live out my dream of embracing the Nordic lifestyle.
So, from Music and musicology (If you’re wondering what the heck is musicology, look here!) to marketing & comms – how that happened?
My first significant job after finishing my studies was with one of the top grand and concert piano producers in the world. I started as an assistant in their marketing & comms office, eventually moving to their showroom in the heart of Milan, Italy. There, I managed events, brand initiatives and collaborated with institutions, theatres, municipalities but also handled the website content, social media channels, and external communications. It was an incredible experience, working within the arts and music sphere, and meeting talented artists from around the globe.
For various reasons, I decided to leave that “dream job” and switch industry. I then worked for two major international cosmetics companies in their communications, events, and marketing teams. These roles significantly bolstered my expertise in comms, digital marketing, and social media. As a communications coordinator, I was involved in regional strategy, marketing & comms planning, organizing large events, and collaborating with colleagues from the US, IMED and EMEA regions. I learned invaluable lessons from my managers (one in particular!), especially about the difference between leadership and mere bossing. True leaders, I discovered, are indeed a rare find.
My last job before Project Neon was with a company headquartered in the USA, which allowed me to work from home and move to Norway. Balancing professional and personal life in a new country with a one-year-old child was tough, and I felt completely lost. I needed to find myself again, which led me to find a job here and eventually to Project Neon.
Starting with ONS ‘22, I had a lot to learn about the oil and gas industry’s technologies, but I thrive on challenges. The international team at Project Neon, with their diverse backgrounds, provided a rich learning environment. I began as a Digital Marketing & Events Coordinator and eventually moved up to Key Account Manager, always overseeing marketing and communications.
At Project Neon, I maintain key client relationships, develop social media strategies (especially on LinkedIn), write copy, manage social media campaigns, oversee website content, and project manage events and exhibitions, including my “baby”—as Laura calls it—our own event series, Neon Nights. I like collaborating with the team to help clients achieve their goals, but what I enjoy most is being a problem solver. Whether marketing a product or service, understanding the client’s target market and crafting compelling messages is essential. It requires a lot of digging, researching, and learning.
Working in an agency is a constant source of inspiration, with different clients, projects, and problems to solve. It keeps my creativity on its toes. I hold myself and my work to very high standards, always striving to deliver the best solutions for our clients.
These high standards also apply to my personal life. I’m a quality-over-quantity kind of person, valuing a few good friends over many acquaintances. I’m very social but open up completely only with the right people. And yes, the music you listen to can indeed be a deal-breaker for our friendship. Jokes aside, in my younger years I used to be a hardcore punk-emo scenester in Italy, hanging out with friends who knew every niche record label by heart. I still have trouble relating to people who just listen to whatever’s on the radio.
Aside from music, I love going to the cinema, watching movies and TV series, and reading books. Lately, I’ve been diving into ancient Greek philosophy. If I had the time and energy, I’d love to get a degree in philosophy. The term “philosophy” means “love of wisdom,” and ever since high school, I’ve been fascinated by the reasoning behind each philosopher’s thoughts. Exploring the meaning of existence and the limits of human knowledge is endlessly intriguing to me.
And what better way to reflect on life’s big questions than by taking a walk-through Norway’s breathtaking landscapes? The beauty of this country offers the perfect backdrop for deep contemplation or simply embracing the moment. And that’s life—at its core, a tapestry of simple yet unforgettable moments and experiences that shape who you are.
