Partner Article

Bdaily explores R&B Group

In this series of interviews, Bdaily will dip into the world of events and production business, R&B Group. This first installment is a chat with operations manager Bryan Skipsey, who tells us about his role, and the ever-changing nature of the events industry.

“The general day to day parts of my role are still evolving. At the moment I’m dealing with a lot of live enquiries and becoming involved in the project side of things. I also look after the booking of our equipment, as there’s a lot more to making it work than simply organising a database.”

The live event management industry has been impacted by the downturn, however Bryan says the flow of work for R&B Group has picked up, and the company are now expanding into new markets.

“We’re busier than ever. There’s bigger, more varied jobs, whereas before there was more penny-pinching.

“It also seems that more work is coming to us from outside of the region. People seem to be willing to use organisations outside of their immediate area, which is encouraging.”

Bryan has been involved in a number of high-profile events, co-ordinating the extensive range of kit that R&B Group need to make each project run smoothly, as well as looking staff.

“Recently we’ve just completed the Chartered Institute of Housing conference at Manchester, which around 800 delegates attended. We had audio visual equipment across 12 to 14 areas of the event, so there plenty to keep on top of there.

“Upcoming, we have the RIBA Sterling prize for architecture, which is televised, so that will present other challenges.”

Innovation is key to the R&B Group service offering, as Bryan details some of the technological advances that are being incorporated into event set-ups; improving connectivity and drawing increased participation from delegates.

“We’ve got Twitter streams on live screens, and provide speakers with iPads so they can interact with audience, live on stage. Of course, the Twitter streams require monitoring and managing as they go live. In other situations, we’ve used interactive voting systems - at a recent event nearly every session involved this.”

As the live event field develops at rapid pace, Bryan reaffirms that R&B Group are keen to continue building the delivery of their services, to continue as an attractive proposition for organisations looking to stage events.

“It’s an industry that’s always evolving, and we introduce these ideas all the time to develop our services, and make it a better experience.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .