2020: The Year Ahead

We caught up with Inconnection's Client Services Director, Adele Woods, to talk industry trends, sustainability and the events industry, and Inconnection's plans for the year ahead... 

Hi Adele! 2019 was an unforgettable year at Inconnection - are you looking forward to 2020?

2019 was incredible, a record year for the agency. We significantly grew our team and revenues while delivering outstanding experiences for clients. The highlights for me must be the EMEA conferences we delivered, our launch events for Marks & Spencer and the London Comedy Lunch, all of which are services we're best known for. 

With such a great year behind us we've really hit the ground running for 2020 - there's so much to look forward to!

Can you tell us about some of what's coming up?

It's a huge mixture really, with everything from global conferences to incentives and corporate hospitality. 

We're continuing to work with long standing clients, delivering some events for the fifth and sixth time in many cases which is always great. We've also taken on some new clients in 2019 so I'm looking forward to developing those relationships with our accounts team - we're placing a huge focus on client services in 2020. 

For the operations team, creativity and imagination is massively important. We're always looking to add inspiration, excitement and a touch of the unexpected. It's all about creating memories that matter for our clients!

We've been talking a lot about sustainability too, can you tell us more about that?

We're moving into 2020 with a keen eye on sustainability, which is an issue close to our hearts. Social consciousness matters to our clients and attendees more than ever so we've been looking at ways we can reduce the impact Inconnection events have on the environment. 

It's about putting sustainability at the front end of the planning process so we can reduce things like attendee travel, the use of single-use plastic, and we've been looking into how we can better plan for and manage food waste which is a particularly big problem for the event industry. 

It's our job to make sure we're working for our clients in this area - we know how important CSR is for businesses globally and we want to do our bit to help our clients achieve their own sustainability goals for 2020. 

What do you think the other big trends are going to be for the events industry in 2020?

There's been an emerging trend over the past couple of years for unique, 'quirky' experiences that capture the imagination of attendees. We're expecting this to be even more prominent in 2020, with more emphasis on unusual venues and even reframing large, conference-style events as experiences. 

We call it the power of the unique experience and it's something that's always been a focus for us with our clients - we're always looking to create memories that matter and this is another great way of doing that. 

Another trend we've seen in the wider marketing industry is an increased need for results and quantifiable ROI. In 2019, we developed MEMDEX which is our measurement index designed to quantify the impact and benchmark the performance of events. It measures how memorable an event was to its attendees so our clients can accurately assess the effectiveness of their events-based marketing. 

In 2020, we're officially rolling this out to all our clients and we can't wait to talk more about it. Watch this space!

Innovation was clearly a big focus of 2019 - what's new for 2020?

In 2020 we're expanding our service offering further, with a new luxury travel and private events service called Bespoke. It draws on our experience as a corporate events agency to deliver a personalised service to individuals, whether it's a honeymoon, a private party or money-can't-buy hospitality. 

It's designed to be exclusive so don't expect to hear about it on or blog and social media but if you'd like to find out more, we'd love to talk to you about it. Get in touch.

And the agency continues to grow...

Yes definitely, last year's focus was on expanding our specialist operations team headed up by Senior Operations Manager, Jenny, and this year we're focusing on client services and growing our accounts team. 

We've taken on two new Account Directors this year already; Victoria who's got a great events and travel background to head up Bespoke and the incentive area of the business, and James who has joined Emma on the conferences and events side. 

Any final thoughts?

2019 was fantastic, we saw incredible growth within the company and delivered some of our best events for clients yet. 2020 promises to be even better, as we continue to develop relationships, creatively innovate and deliver unforgettable experiences that drive results for our clients.