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EuBea Festival 2015: Seville capital of Live Communication. Insights and content from the Festival.
The event, organised by ADC Group and addressed to the world of events and live communication, came to a successful conclusion In Seville. The programme was able to meet every need and its merit was to gather the cream of the community in Europe and satisfy a common necessity for meeting, participation, exchange and sharing opportunities. All of this without forgetting, of course, the EuBea Prize, this year achieving record numbers in its tenth edition.
SEVILLE – more than ever faithful to its mission of providing tools and incentives for the event and live communication community, ADC Group achieved its goal once again.
The second edition of EuBea – The International Festival of Events and Live Communication in Seville was a total success, not only in terms of numbers, but also for the quantity and diversity of the countries represented, from Turkey to Spain to Sweden, and for that winning mix of content, networking opportunities, entertainment and celebration.
Representing the European event community, above all the members of the jury – authoritative representatives of the business world, media and associations – then the event agencies, arrived in Seville to present their projects live to the jury itself, and finally all professionals and partners, who in various capacities work in this industry.
This year the festival was successfully hosted at the Barceló Sevilla Renacimiento, but it was also thanks to the joint work, cooperation and hospitality of the local institutions that the event was made possible.
All were present at the press conference November in Seville, on Wednesday 4th, to welcome ADC Group and EuBea Festival: Antonio Conde, vice president Prodetur; Antonio Muñoz, delegate of Tourism City Council of Seville; Salvador Fernández, director Chamber of Commerce, Manuel Macias, director Seville Congress & Convention Bureau; Arturo Serra, president Seville Congress & Convention Bureau.
Also with them, representatives of the Tourism of Andalusia agency and of the Ministry of Tourism of Andalusia.
The media gave ample space to the Festival (view photo gallery), its high visibility also ensured by the collaboration of the institutions.
For delegates, all moments experienced during their stay in Seville were rich in insights and opportunities to increase their professional knowledge.
But not only: the gathering of such a wide community has allowed the comparison and discussion of topics relating to, across the board, all countries and all those involved in the event supply chain. As a matter of fact, speakers from different fields have pointed out the following main trends:
– The pivotal role of storytelling and the importance of building the creative idea around a story;
– The ‘total’ Involvement of people through multisensory experiences;
– Technological devices as tools to amplify the resonance of the event in a pre and post phase of the event itself;
– The evolution towards entertaining forms of live communication.
All of this, already taking the fundamental premise for granted (and this is good news): the event is a communication tool on par with advertising and other media, which has now entered a phase of maturity and full consciousness.
This was discussed by speakers at Eubea Festival, starting with the distinguished guests who animated the ‘Inspiring’ thematic area: Gillian Ferrabee, director Creative Lab Cirque du Soleil; Jens Oliver Mayer, managing director Germany Jack Morton Worldwide and Amanda Young, Americas Event Leader GE Healthcare.
In particular, Gillian Ferrabee introduced concepts such as the need to entertain the audience, using different elements to shift attention from one point to another and to leverage ‘kinaesthetic recognition’, i.e. the aptitude of an audience to identify with a particular situation or performance.
WATCH THE VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH GILLIAN Ferrabee
Full legitimacy to events and live communication also came from the meeting of European event associations for the creation of a Foundation, named LivecomAlliance.eu, that brings together
all European operators of the industry, therefore also including local associations.
Objective: strengthen the sector through the sharing of information, tools and best practices that can be useful to all, primarily at a local level.
To give the content a broader spectrum, EuBea Festival also wanted to hear the voice of the companies, which, with great sincerity, expressed their views on the most critical elements in their relationships with agencies, too often focused on the spectacular and creative aspects at the expense of results, of logistics and of the most elementary and logical aspects in the organisation of an event.
This was discussed by Amanda Young (GE Healthcare), Nadine Vienne (Nissan Europe) and Rolf Schumann (Skoda Auto), which nonetheless still recognised the valuable role of event agencies as essential communications partners.
Usage of digital data to create engagement in events, ROI measurement, digital technologies, adaptation of an event’s concept to the local realities of each country and the design of events, on the other hand, were the topics discussed by the roundtables, attended by members of companies and agencies in a direct and stimulating encounter.
A more specific study on digital technologies and their application in events was provided by Jonathan Ysaye, country manager Spain and Latam Magency, Andrew Smith, creative director A-Vision and Vicky Godfrey, executive producer Red Karavan, in EuBea Festival’s in-depth session focused on ‘Tools’.
A succession of stimuli and symbolic case histories to demonstrate how technology can enhance the effectiveness of events, provided that its use is consistent and always aimed to broaden the horizons of the imagination.
Finally, to achieve communication objectives and strike the target, there is not only one ingredient, but a mix of soul, strategy and technique.
This was supported, as well as endorsed with data and case histories, by Charles Darby, creative director at NoSuchThing and digital matte painting pioneer, and by Julius Solaris, Editor of Event Manager Blog.
Click HERE to see all 2015 EuBea Festival partners.
Chiara Pozzoli