PROFESSIONAL EVENTS THE SECC


Impressing the IT crowd


Transforming the SECC with street food, camouflage and giant cones


BY KEVIN O’SULLIVAN V


ersatility is the key to making the SECC a great venue, according to one planner whose event started off modestly but


within a few short years has grown into a show with production values to rival some of the biggest inter- national technology conferences in the world. Joan Serafini, of Equator Events,


runs the 360D gathering at the Glasgow venue on behalf of Scottish Enterprise’s Interactive Scotland programme. It is aimed squarely at Scotland’s fast-growing digital and creative technologies industry, and has seen the likes of global tech giants Buzzfeed, LinkedIn and Scot- land’s very own FanDuel deliver keynote speeches to industry. Te event has been running


for six years, and was created by Interactive Scotland, which has witnessed the annual gathering become a fixture on the UK digital circuit. Serafini was contracted by In-


teractive Scotland to run the event three years ago, and for the first two years used the SECC’s Lomond Auditorium as the main speak- ers’ auditorium. Tat changed in 2015 with the creative input of Phil Smith, whose production manage- ment credentials have seen him work with the likes of the Royal Albert Hall and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. For last September’s event, Smith


had the idea of creating an audi- torium within Hall 2 of the SECC for 360D, creating the illusion of a smaller space, which was quite a feat. Serafini adds: “Phil is the driving


force behind all the creative ideas – and what he did looked visually stunning, but it was also purposeful. “Hall 2 is large but very adaptable


and it actually looked pretty full with the way we did the breakout areas. It was a good flow,” says


Production values were at the heart of the digital 360D event


Serafini, an events industry veteran who once worked as the Private Secretary for former First Ministers Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell. “And that’s the beauty of the


SECC,” she adds. “It’s got areas to suit everybody – they can go from 100 to 150 up to thousands. It’s a good size and you can quite eas- ily design the space in a way that makes it look different or unique for the event you are running.” Te SECC was chosen as the ven-


ue for 360D last year after six other venues across the country were discounted, including locations in Edinburgh. However Serafini insists it was not a case of ‘we’ve done it there before, we might as well do it there again’. “Tere is a process of due dili-


gence to go through,” she explains. “It’s public money and the empha- sis has to be on value, but also the requirements of the event have to be deliverable. Once I had com- pleted a report back to Interactive Scotland and the project manager at Scottish Enterprise, they all agreed that the SECC gave us what we needed to deliver the event in the style that we wanted to.”


30 | EVENTSBASE | MARCH 2016


She adds: “It was basically a


blank canvas; there’s no restric- tions in the venue, no massive pillars you’ve got to walk round, the staff are extremely helpful, have the technical knowhow, and the events team and caterers are great. Everybody knew what we were trying to achieve and they knew the standards expected.” Te digital technologies com-


munity are also a discerning bunch. When you look at lavish interna- tional events such as Mobile World Congress or CES, the emphasis is always on ‘trend’.


SO, AS WELL as having top speak- ers from the industry, last year’s 360D featured giant polystyrene logos, which became a magnet for selfie hunters, and also cone- shaped columns covered in white army camouflage, lit with LED uplighters. Caterers Levy Restaurants UK


also came up with a streetfood menu featuring cuisine from across the world. “It really was supercool,” adds


Serafini. “Hall 2 was entirely given over to breakout and workshop


areas with the auditorium area in the middle. It had that outdoor but indoor feel “We used tents for the workshop


sessions the year before, which was another ingenious use of the space, and this was just another step up from that.” She added: “Te flexibility of the


SECC helped us to create that look and feel that we wanted – people were likening it to the big events overseas. In fact people said it was more stylish – in some of the big global gatherings you just have a bog-standard conference facility but because of the height of the ceilings in the SECC, and the ability to play with the space they have, it made it easier for us to have the imagina- tion to do something different for delegates. “As a venue I’ve always said it’s a


great venue; there are other good venues in Scotland but they all had limitations for us and what we wanted to achieve for the 360D event,” says Serafini. “But the SECC does allow you the


freedom to use your imagination and create something unique for the client.”


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