The Access Group

“A massive thank you for everything you’ve done to make this event a success. I’ve had so much positive feedback so far and your work has really made a difference.”

The objective:

Access was in need of support from an agency who could work well with a range of stakeholders and were able to project manage a large scale event with a tight turnaround.

We had previously worked with the key stakeholder in a different role and had been recommended by a supplier of Access’ based on our attention to detail and project management skillset.

Having already started the planning for their event, with 6 weeks until the event, Access asked us to take the lead for this project to make sure key objectives were met.

How it was done:

The event concept was to invite employees to a one-day company conference. The morning session was split into 10 separate agendas relevant for each business function some of which were onsite and others offsite.

The afternoon session bought together all business functions for the full company update followed by a key part of the event – an evening full of fun and entertainment.

We came into this project six weeks out from the event and were tasked with managing a core project team of six, where we needed to ensure the event was bought in on time, and on budget. As part of the pre-event project management we were responsible for managing the critical path of timelines to ensure key milestones were met. We also managed the budget to understand the full anticipated event costing.

It was important that each member of the team was aware what their role was, it’s importance to the delivery of the event and understood that we were there to support them to deliver a successful event.

The Outcome:

Onsite, we faced the challenge of moving 1000 delegates, split into 10 functions, across the university campus where the event was running over three buildings.  We also had five different entertainment acts to manage each with their own rider.

The event was spread over the three buildings on the campus so we needed a strong event management team to manage the delegate movements. We had a team of 20 on site that we managed over the course of the event and pulled together a full staff briefing document to support them with detailed roles and responsibilities for each crew member.