SEPTEMBER | ME, MYSELF & I
The future of business has totally
changed. We rebranded our
Millennial 2020 event to be called
FUTR. It’s not about millennials,
but it’s about a millennial attitude.
Everyone’s trying to understand
digital disruption, and get
in the mindset of today and
tomorrow’s consumer, and that
helped the event resonate from
day one, allowing us to attract
experiential brand presences
from the world’s biggest
companies.
Simon
Berger
As consumer and business
audience demands blur, IM2 Group
CEO Simon Berger talks festivals,
mental health, and why experience
is king
The content sells itself. The
biggest consultancies and
organisations in the world have
something in common: they
are all talking about the future
of business. We worked with
the biggest brand on the planet,
Facebook, from the beginning,
and Salesforce, Pepsico and
many more are on board. But
our media partners are talking
about the future too. You’ll find
Forbes, CNBC, The Economist
and the Wall Street Journal to
name a few.
Understanding the visitor is the key to any event. We call FUTR a
‘summit’, but it has all the elements of being a festival, an exhibition
and a conference. The venue is always a key part of our event
experience. Wherever the event takes place (including Singapore,
New York and London) we want it to be central, so people can get
there, but it must have fabulous food, no concessions. The lighting
must be lovely, and the internet must be fantastic. You also have to
get the heating right because this is about creating a home away
from home that people actually want to spend a few days at.
Do we really have to settle for being in a concrete bunker? To
grow your event you sometimes have to use the bigger venues, but
nowadays you need a bit of sexiness too. Curate the floorplan for the
54
building. Don’t just stack it high
and get bad food. The world is
experiential now.
There’s reciprocity of learnings
across many industries, and
the way business leaders
address audiences has
changed dramatically. One
CEO wore a suit to the event,
but decided to change into
skinny jeans when he got
here. We want our visitors to
ask the punchiest questions.
As a CEO, you can answer
these in a certain way, but
you’ll be laughed at if you
don’t answer. Honesty and
transparency are a strong
currency.
We launched Mad World, an
event about mental health,
an issue that effects every
human being on the planet.
Lack of sleep, grieving, illness
etc all contribute. It’s a huge
stigma, and an event such as
this is a great place to address
it. Awareness is becoming
massive now for this issue. Prince Harry, Theresa May and other
prominent figures are talking about it.
The entire UK construction industry had four deaths last year, but
the same industry in the same year had 430 suicides. That was a
wake up call for me. Those who talk to their company need the right
empathy from employers. Everyone needs simple first aid training
on mental health. We live in a mad world, politically, in terms of fear
and stress levels, and it’s getting worse.
It’s all about the visitor now, if we can please them, we know it’s got
legs. If you know who’s coming, it’s very easy to get the content right.
Personalise your content to the event. All you can promise is the
right quality and quantity of footfall.