8th October 2018. It’s Monday morning and I find myself on the western side of the M25, heading for the M40. Destination NEC Birmingham and the Fleet Live show, which is on for the next two days. The back seats are down and the car’s loaded with boxes of literature and, of all things, a courtroom witness dock, made to measure so that it would slide in to the back of the car without catching on anything.
It’s the culmination of a few months’ work for ACES Marketing, project managing the presence at the show for three clients: Anthony Jones Insurance Brokers, DAC Beachcroft and TTS 360. We’ve managed the whole piece: from the social media campaign, the advert for the show guide, the marketing collateral and free giveaways to the presentation and film for the stand and the design and build of the stand itself. We even designed and built the courtroom dock, which will be taking centre stage on the stand.
The theme of the stand is around what happens in the event of a serious road traffic accident. It’s hard hitting stuff, deliberately so, designed to stop fleet managers in their tracks and make them think about the implications of such an event occurring to a vehicle within their own business.
The drive to the NEC is remarkably clear and I arrive in good time. Parking amongst the trucks in the loading area for the hall, I locate the stand (which is still in its undressed state), unload the car, roll up my sleeves (literally) and get to work organising the chaos. After a couple of hours or so of heavy lifting the event manager from DAC Beachcroft arrives on the scene. I welcome her with open arms! With two of us sorting it out it doesn’t take long to finish set up, despite the technology’s best efforts to sabotage things. Fortunately, our IT team soon fix the problem and we have the film and slide show running on a loop.
Time to retire to the hotel for a well earned Gin and Tonic, dinner and a debrief with the Managing Director of Anthony Jones.
The following morning I arrive at the stand early to put the film on, set out the literature and run through the day’s events with the representatives from the three businesses who will be manning the stand over the next two days. I stay until lunchtime, making sure that everything is running smoothly and everyone is happy. Only then do I say my goodbyes and start the drive home. The clients all love the stand and that’s my job done. The rest is down to them.
And the dock? That went back to DAC Beachcroft, who plan to use it for future events.
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