Leigh Gillen Events

Ok, so we can't all be at the top of our game every single day right? Sometimes you feel stuck, overwhelmed or simply uninspired. The pressure to work at optimal levels, continuously innovating and keeping a multitude of stakeholders happy can be difficult and stressful. Maybe the thought of creating an event or raising sponsorship or doing a brand activation just fills you with dread? Or maybe you're just looking to create a bit more wow for your project. If you have ever met me, you know how much I love my work! I have spent my entire career collaborating with the most inspirational professionals, helping them to gain clarity, creativity & consistency in their quest for excellence. 📋 One to one creative consultancy 💡 Bespoke workshops for you and your team 📜 Event coaching & masterclass 💰 Sponsorship campaigns ⚡ Brand activations & storytelling 💎 End to end event management from idea to execution & beyond Drop me an email to leigh@leighgillenevents.ie or visit www.leighgillenevents.ie if you'd like to chat about any of the offerings above or some of the challenges outlined in the video below #events #branding #sponsorship #eventstrategy #eventdesign #consultation #workshops #masterclass #brandactivation #brandstorytelling #sponsorshipcampaign #eventprofs

Last Friday, our Leigh Gillen Chair of Marketing Institute Ireland Cork attended the inspiring Cork Business Association Better Building Awards at Kingsley Hotel. The event celebrated the care behind Cork’s built heritage and the integration of new developments enhancing the city’s vibrancy. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees for their achievements in sustainability, innovation, and community impact! 🎉 Susana Marambio, Aaron Mansworth FIHI, Rob Horgan, & Honore Kamegni Network Ireland Cork

What a night indeed 🌟🔥🥁🌺 An absolute honour and privilege to help the Cork Branch Irish Hotels Federation and Irish Hotels Federation bring this event to life! What a nice change to serve the hoteliers for once as they so diligently serve and look after us all on a daily basis. And what a show of support from a plethora of willing sponsors, who clearly feel the same! Great to catch up with so many of my friends and colleagues on the night, roll on 2025 🙏 Dafydd Lewis Ciaran Fitzgerald Eoghan Murphy Jing Reilly Greg Sheehan Evander Brennan MIHI Joe Kennedy Michael Magner Breffne (Costello) McKenna Ettienne van Vrede Norina O'Callaghan Eoghan Hedderman Finola Twomey Aaron Mansworth FIHI Conor Healy ★Naoimh Frawley★ Carmel Lonergan Steve Cox Roger Russell

Very informative event on Powering AI/Unlocking the Power of AI today hosted by Cork Chamber and Dell Technologies with excellent panellists from Dassault Systèmes Giyst and Johnson Controls ably mc’d by Emmet Ryan Controls and policies are so vital in the implementation of AI for business, so probably best to get those in place before you delve in! Well done to the excellent speakers who made it sound so easy!! Kevin O'Leary Neil Bowden Avril Power and James Callanan 👏🏻

And that takes us nicely into brand. So what is a brand then? It’s been said that your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Of course there’s more to it than that but simply put, it’s your reputation and the perception of your company in peoples hearts and minds. Do you know your company story? How do you tell the story of your brand? What makes it compelling? How do you stand out? If you can answer these questions without hesitation, then you’ve nailed it!! If you haven’t quite nailed it and you’d like to learn a bit more, stay “tuned” over the next few days while we talk about brand storytelling and effective brand activation. See you soon…👋🏻 #events #brand #sponsorship #eventstrategy #brandstorytelling #brandactivation #leighgillenevents www.leighgillenevents.ie

So the Event Design is really the look and feel of your space, your venue, your event room. It’s the first impression your guests will have so make sure to bring your brand colours all the way through with lighting. Think about stage backdrops, screens, signage, centrepieces & seating. Each element of your event should feel consistent, so that your guests always feel included in the overall event, even if it’s a breakout session in a different room or space. Colour, lighting and the event theme where possible should be throughout your entire event space. You should also think about the design and flow of the floor plan for your guests – are they moving from room to room? Is it easy to get in and out of exhibition spaces? Can they access breakouts easily, is it well signposted? Always a good idea to journey map the day yourself before you design the layout, you don’t want to find there’s a block or an access issue at anytime which might affect your guests getting from A to B. #events #branding #sponsorship #eventdesign #leighgillenevents

Event execution - so, at this stage of the game, you’ll be constantly communicating, refining and tweaking almost every tool in your event admin kit. Now more than ever, you will need a strong event critical path, production schedule, event plan and/or running order. Make sure you brief everyone in advance of the day itself and even on the day, to make sure that what’s in your head is committed to paper or at least verbally communicated. Imagine if you weren’t there? Could the show go on without you? If the answer is yes then you have successfully communicated your vision and can apply that learning to your next event. Best of luck with it! You can always give us a shout at @leighgillenevents if you need any help. Next up..Branding! #events #branding #sponsorship #eventstrategy #eventdesign #eventexecution #leighgillenevents

Event Strategy Part 3 So we’ve outlined what a strong Event Strategy can do for your organisation, what’s involved and ultimately what the benefits are of this investment. It’s important to ensure that you have all of the resources that you need in the early stages of your Event Strategy work, which could be anything from: People (planning, co-ordinating, driving the strategy forward) Finance/Sponsorship (underwriting the costs of execution as well as activation and promotion) Technology (event, data, insights, analytics) Don’t worry if you don’t have the exact right technology set up yet – you can trial different software until you find the one that meets your needs and there are some great apps out there to help you with bookings, attendee analytics, feedback and customer insights, as well as those can capture engagement data from your event. #events #branding #sponsorship #eventstrategy #leighgillenevents

Event Strategy Part 2 As we talked about the last time, your Event Strategy is so much more than just an Event Calendar, it is a well-thought out roadmap of your entire event strategy, aligning all events with your overarching company goals and objectives. So, before you start building your event strategy, have a think about the some things that will feed into it such as: Your organisational goals for the year What events don’t align and what events are missing? How many events and activities will happen throughout the year? What types of events will be in your plan ie trade show, conference, thought leadership, employee engagement, product launch? What is the purpose of each event? Do you have the resources to run all of the events in your calendar? That includes time, people, finance as well as the supporting technology and skills? What event tools could be used to enhance your event as well as gather vital data? Putting the time into your strategy will ultimately save you time on the other side, as well as protecting your investment. #events #branding #sponsorship #eventstrategy #leighgillenevents