Making sponsors the stars at the RCGP annual conference
Challenge
In the post-pandemic world, industry partners increasingly view speaker opportunities and delegate engagement as the holy grail of large scale live events. The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Annual Conference and Exhibition, one of the highest profile medical events in the UK, needed to ensure it stayed ahead of commercial clients’ needs to deliver a dynamic and profitable event.
Solution
Ensuring the success of the event, held each October, is a year-round pre-occupation for the Wonderly commercial team, which relies on a thorough understanding of the sector, excellent key account management and an ongoing relationship with sponsors to grow revenues. The effect of working with Wonderly was immediate – we grew revenue by 40% in the first year of leading commercial sales for the event – but maintaining this trajectory post-pandemic has required a mindset shift to introduce sponsorship and engagement options which deliver in person and virtually, increase the variety of exhibition stand sizes to fit different budgets and types of organisation, broaden the range of sponsorship opportunities (including mini theatres and speaking sessions) and diversify the client base into new areas such as wealth management.
Solution
Ensuring the success of the event, held each October, is a year-round pre-occupation for the Wonderly commercial team, which relies on a thorough understanding of the sector, excellent key account management and an ongoing relationship with sponsors to grow revenues. The effect of working with Wonderly was immediate – we grew revenue by 40% in the first year of leading commercial sales for the event – but maintaining this trajectory post-pandemic has required a mindset shift to introduce sponsorship and engagement options which deliver in person and virtually, increase the variety of exhibition stand sizes to fit different budgets and types of organisation, broaden the range of sponsorship opportunities (including mini theatres and speaking sessions) and diversify the client base into new areas such as wealth management.
Results
Happy sponsors are more likely to rebook – and Wonderly’s focus on customer service and client retention has paid dividends. The 2023 event was more than 15% over budget and for the first time revenues exceeded pre-pandemic levels. But together with the RCGP, we see engaging industry partners as a long-term endeavour – the team is determined to take learnings from the event to refine offerings into the future, and continues to embed itself in the sector to identify further opportunities and ensure this highly talked-about event continues to make headlines.
