After a year in the making, Andrea Kohlndorfer, our Strategic Planning Director from the German #BrandwaveTeam reflects on a very successful MTB event she organized with her three friends and business partners last weekend.
Being responsible for all exhibitors, marketing, PR, project management and event preparation, alongside her full on role at Brandwave, Andrea can now happily look back on an event with loads of smiling faces; from the event’s partners, to the MTB industry and of course all of the event goers.
600 visitors, over 40 exhibitors and over 500 active riders took part in our event, including Anna from Brandwave, who took part in a few different riding and skills courses on the Sunday.
2016 is the second year we have put on Flow Gaudi here in Bavaria. Our idea was, to do something new – besides the existing MTB events. An event, where amateur riders could participate, learn skills and have fun, and where the industry has the chance to integrate themselves with their target market – through creative workshops and events. An event, which offers a broad range of sports activities, but also gives the chance to test the newest bikes (Cube, Specialized, Pivot, Intense, Marin, Trek, Nicolai, Yeti), protection (Ion), clothing (Vaude) and shoes (fiveten, Vaude). As well as an evening program with fires, live bands, food and drinks to chill out of the day and make new friends.
Partnering with a riding school, we offered over 200 different courses and workshops, where people could improve their skills in cornering, jumping, trial biking etc. on location as in the near bike park. Besides that, we organized a lot of tours in the region where people could explore the trails in the area and test the newest bikes which were displayed at the expo.
Photo Credits top: Max Rasp, bottom left & bottom right: Adrian Greiter.
Since the success of last year’s event, this year booked out rapidly – almost as soon as we had opened the website ticket sales. Our facebook followers grew quickly as did our levels of interaction…as we told stories of our planning and preparation and shared key information about all of our exhibitors.
Having three media partners on board; the online forum www.mtb-news, and the MTB special interest print magazines “World of Mountainbiking” and “Bikesport” we were able to get an extensive media reach before and after the event. The journalists of our media partners had their own booths which allowed them to represent themselves face to face with their readers and followers.
Photo Credit: Alex Rieber.
Planning and executing a successful event is not without its challenges! Here’s a list of things to remember when creating an event of this scale…
Have the right team: everybody in our team had different skills and this is key. We had two members from a mountainbike riding school to organize the courses and workshops and plan the tours. One person was responsible for catering, and speaking to the local institutions and the set-up of the venue. And of course you need people in your team with the right media and industry contacts.
Pray for good weather: our event was a lot of fun for participants and very successful for exhibitors, but since the weather was not perfect on sunday, some visitors stayed at home. Weather can never be helped but you have to make sure that you are always prepared for all eventualities (especially when organising events in the UK)!
Tell stories: it is very important to consequently tell stories over all channels (social, online, PR, email) to make people aware and pull them into your event. Be sure to interact with your audience and make it fun and exciting.
Get the right media partners: If the press has the chance to get in contact with their readers, it is a win-win situation and you will get a broader media presence.
Collaborate with exhibitors: we got some really nice pieces (bikes, forks, brakes, special interest title subscriptions, supplements) which we put in a raffle for our media partners titles. Some great stories to tell as well as a great chance to display the products of our partnering companies.
Brandwave plans, manages and executes events of all shapes and sizes; from retailer training events, to press-days and larger interactive consumer days. Find out more about out Events Service here.
