The ‘Think Cleaner and become Greener’ exhibition

Abstract

The company ‘Events for Us’ has been achieving much success over the past three years in operation and has quickly moved up the ladder in the business world. Catering for every event need and running innovative exhibitions throughout Ireland, Sharon Kiely hopes that the ‘Think Cleaner and become Greener’ exhibition will be one of many events that will define her business and help showcase the future broadened potential of her firm. Boasting highly qualified management staff alongside her event crew Miss Kiely possesses a strong competitive advantage in the market place. The exhibition itself is based solely on Eco-friendly products which help sustain the environment, while the installation of these products facilitates the average home owner by lowering their costs. The event will take place in the Limerick Race Course and comprise of two days in January. The target market for this type of event is twofold as exhibitors are needed to make the event happen and the public is essential in order to make the occasion viable. For this reason primary research was carried out for each sector in the form of a questionnaire. The exhibitor questionnaire being sent through email attaining twenty responses in total and the public questionnaire hand distributed throughout the Mid-West region achieving one hundred and fifty responses in total. A strong marketing campaign was devised for this event, having the occasion broadcasted on local radio stations as well as in local newspapers. Posters were designed and two thousand were posted around the three locations to attract more guests to the exhibition. Due to the strong marketing campaign put in place and as ticket prices is only €5 Miss Kiely is expecting a turnout of at least five hundred people per day, therefore one thousand over the two days in operation. The main competition for this type of exhibition is found in Dublin with the Ideal Home Show hosting an annual eco-expo. This event is a huge success and this year the firm have seen such a rise in the number of home owners who want to extend their existing house rather than moving that the organisers have decided to host the very first ‘Extend Expo’ in order to cater for the new interest. There are also many other close competitors to this event so of which are: the Eco Expo in Cork, a Construct Ireland for Sustainable Future and there is also a Plan Expo Green Conference in the convention centre in Dublin. A detailed operations section has been developed which includes the pre-event, live event and post-event. This has proven very straight forward for Miss Kiely and her devoted staff as a plan in set out one month in advance of the event. This provides the staff with enough time to get to know the running order of the event before it occurs. After all the tables, chairs and back boards are in place the exhibitors set up their own stands leaving the event crew time to deal with other issues such as car parks, clock rooms and delivery points. The financial side has proven that this event is viable and the accounts which back this up can be seen later in the paper through the gross profit being produced each year. Due to the fact that the books show a very positive future for this event it is proposed to extend in its second year of running to showcase two weekends instead of the initial one.