December 2018
all that we had been asked for from both our
professional and public members and we did it
by delivering an event that was notably “buzzy”
with a busy exhibition floor, packed sessions
and excellent feedback from our attendees,
with 93% rating the programme Excellent/
Good and a spectacular 98% rating the
conference organisation Excellent/Good.”
A dedicated exhibition was open only to
those companies who promote their products
to a lay audience. This had the dual benefit of
opening up an additional revenue stream for
Diabetes UK and also providing exhibitors
with a new opportunity to engage with
some of their most well-informed potential
customers.
There was a dedicated primary care stream
within the main conference targeting generalist
front-line HCPs wanting to develop skills
needed to support patients with diabetes.
Case study
Delegate impact
Not only did this provide a “stepping-stone”
into advanced diabetes education for these
delegates, it also attracted an additional 100
primary care delegates to the conference. This
is a key target audience for the majority of
sponsors and exhibitors, so it also added value.
Having events-within-an event led to a
more complex marketing plan inevitably.
Dolan’s team fully embraced digital
marketing, creating a comprehensive digital
communications campaign signposting
respective audiences to the appropriate event.
Dolan says the impact of the Insider
session, in particular, was profound.
“Attendees told us the event was ‘life-
changing’ for them, they felt valued by the
charity, they felt more positive about the
future living with diabetes and excited about
the research that had been presented.
17
Speaker Impact
“The impact was not just felt by the
delegates. The speakers at the event, all
prominent researchers, scientists and medics
with many years’ experience attending and
speaking at conferences told us that the
event had been massively inspiring and
speaking to the people most affected by
their work, engaging with them during the
breaks and hearing about the impact of new
findings on their lives was both a humbling
and incredibly motivating experience for
them.
“For the Events team, the impact was
great… The organisation has begun to
understand what we do and why we do
it – which is the holy grail for an in-house
PCO. This year more than any other, we felt
like the entire organisation was with us as we
delivered our flagship event.”