Anyone who wants to know anything in the field of marketing, communication, social media and tech soon ends up on Frankwatching.com. On the versatile platform, dozens of articles, infographics and videos are posted daily by hundreds of different experts. Since 2013, it has gone a step further and also shares its knowledge at live events. We speak to Alieke Ingerman, product manager Events, about their biggest event at Jaarbeurs.
You’re assigned your own contact person who’s fully up to speed on everything. That builds a rapport and makes working together a real pleasure. So we’re keen to hold our new events at Jaarbeurs as well.Alieke Ingerman, Events Product Manager at Frankwatching
'A live event will always be the way to really connect.'
Offline knowledge sharing
An online platform that chooses to share knowledge offline; at first glance, this seems an illogical choice, but according to Ingerman, it’s all about the experience. ‘You can share an enormous amount of knowledge online, but in terms of experience, you can achieve just that little bit more with a live event. There are some great tools like chatting and video calls, but speaking to each other face to face is still different.’
Media Plaza Conference Centre: ideal for a large plenary session
Last February, Jaarbeurs Media Plaza conference centre was packed to capacity for Frankwatching’s biggest event: SocialToday. The event is entirely dedicated to social media and everything that goes with it. Frankwatching deliberately chose Media Plaza. Ingerman: ‘We usually use either Media Plaza or Supernova. The venue depends on the type of event. Supernova, for example, is well suited to an event with various partners and stands. Media Plaza, on the other hand, has a large plenary hall (the Polar) where we can brief a large number of visitors at the same time. This event had around 650 visitors, which is why we chose Media Plaza.’
With a variety of tracks and topics, as well as interesting keynote speeches, visitors to SocialToday were able to draw inspiration from the speakers. The keynote speeches took place in the Polar conference hall and were attended by all visitors at the same time. In addition, visitors were able to choose which expert sessions they wanted to attend on the day itself. Ingerman: ‘We have a theme, but the programme is very diverse. For example, we had:
- Expert sessions on business videos
- Influencer marketing
- Photographing with your smartphone
- The influence of psychology on social media.
Our goal is for a visitor to be able to start working on their own the next day.
Between keynotes and sessions, people could get inspired in the foyer. We had decorated it in a festival style with all kinds of fun things to do with social media. For example, there was a photobooth where you could make a gif and share it online. And that was done en masse.'
That Frankwatching's events are a resounding success is no secret: the event sold out in no time. Partly thanks to the positive response, the organisation decided to expand its event portfolio from four to eight events a year. Ingerman: 'Over the years, we have kept developing ourselves with live events. By now, demand is so high and we have a good sense of what is needed. So we are going to organise multiple events where we want to address specific topics.'
‘Our visitors come from all over; from Texel, but also from Belgium. Utrecht is therefore ideally situated.’
Ingerman decided to organise all these events at Jaarbeurs as well. 'Jaarbeurs is a fantastic location. Our visitors come from everywhere; from Texel, but also from Belgium. Utrecht has an ideal location. Jaarbeurs has excellent parking facilities and you are close to the railway station. Jaarbeurs 's venues are also so large that we can offer good solutions in view of the current one-and-a-half-meter society. We can also adapt and expand our programme, because we have years of experience with virtual events, such as webinars. We also really like the contact with Jaarbeurs. You get your own contact person who knows everything about everything. That creates a bond and makes the cooperation very nice. So we like to hold our new events in Jaarbeurs as well.'
Jaarbeurs has several conference centres available, each with its own style. Whether you go for the luxurious feel of the Beatrix Theatre, the modern feel of Supernova or Media Plaza or the classic Juliana: Jaarbeurs will arrange it for you.
