How We Helped to Organise the First Dorset Growth Fest
THE BRIEF
SBPR was tasked with helping to coordinate the first ever Dorset Growth Fest event alongside Dorset Growth Hub. The brief was to create an engaging, informative event that celebrated business growth and showcased the success stories of key business figures, sharing their knowledge and advice on growing a successful business.
THE CHALLENGE
The challenge was to ensure that the room was full of targeted attendees that were all seeking to grow their businesses and currently had around 5 – 10 employees. The event needed relevant and successful business owners as speakers with engaging stories and tips on business operation that the audience could learn from in order to make their attendance worthwhile. So how did SBPR make this happen?
THE SOLUTION
The SBPR team researched and sourced inspirational national speakers and successful local business owners to make presentations and host engaging workshops for those attending on the day. With each speaker specialising within different sectors, the Dorset Growth Fest was able to showcase and champion the importance of every aspect in a successful business model through HR, recruitment, finance, PR, marketing and more.
We created an engaging social media strategy and website copy for the Dorset Growth Hub and consistently informed our key audiences by posting regular updates on the event and using enticing content to maintain interest.
In addition to our social media plans, the SBPR team sent out targeted invitations to key business owners across the county and followed up personally to secure attendance. We compiled an announcement press release and pitched the story to relevant regional and business specialist media contacts and being a first of the region, we made sure the story had a strong news hook to make editorial press.
To maximise our potential media coverage, SBPR sourced a photographer to take press shots which were then issued alongside the post event release for a strategic second bite of the media cherry. Event itineraries were created to ensure the smooth running of the event on the day and we even sourced local goods for the table centre pieces for guests to take home with them!
THE OUTCOME
Sunny Bird PR secured 13 pieces of coverage for the Dorset Growth Fest that ranged from print and online to specialist business media, which in total reached over 404,000 readers. If the same space was bought in advertising this would have cost over £12,000!
Each piece included Dorset Growth Fest’s key messaging as well as backlinks and brand mentions for the Dorset Growth Hub.