A big thankyou to all delegates at the CIPD 2014 event in Manchester last week (5th & 6th November) that stopped by our coconut shy stand! Thank you all for your great photo sharing on Twitter, too.
@involve_uk pic.twitter.com/WRDqJ1FD0k
— Angus Crockett (@photgus) November 5, 2014
Every year, CIPD put on a networking event, with the sole purpose of sharing learning and knowledge between professionals in the HR and communications communities. There was a great turn out again this year, with each organisation putting up striking stalls and exhibitions to engage delegates.
Roll Up! Roll Up! The INVOLVE Coconut Shy
This year, we wanted to exhibit in a way that got delegates actively involved with our offering. It was important that our stall facilitated in-depth conversations around delegates’ business objectives and challenges, as opposed to hearing a sales pitch and collecting a leaflet they’ll forget about in a week!
We decided that the best way to engage delegates with our offering was to centre our stall around our favourite three-letter word – yes, you’ve guessed it – FUN! We went for a fairground coconut shy concept, replacing coconuts with balls of the typical ‘change challenges’ that we are helping our current clients with – Engage, Vision, Values, Culture & Brand.
Depending on initial conversations when approaching our stand, we then encouraged delegates to ‘smash their key challenges,’ or simply hit the challenge that they were most interested in. We had a popcorn giveaway containing our business card for all delegates, though offered surplus popcorn prizes for successfully hitting the balls off the stands.
Focused on hitting those #EmployeeEngagement & #ChangeComms targets at our funfair stand! #CIPD14 @CIPD_Events pic.twitter.com/FNxdIE3R6g — INVOLVE (@involve_uk) November 5, 2014
What Did We Take From CIPD ’14?
Unsurprisingly, we found that most of the delegates aimed at the ‘Values’ ball (aggressively!) We had a lot of interesting conversations around the ‘value in values’ and how successfully embedding them is a prerequisite to achieving the desired company culture, internal brand and ultimate bottom line business impact. We learnt that a lot of companies are still finding it particularly difficult to engage Gen-Y and remote workers and break down internal silos. We were also reminded just how much the delegates love a little healthy competition and free food!
How Did The Attendees Respond?
@CIPD @involve_uk This is probably the best-looking stand I’ve seen so far! Love it. #CIPD14 — Ashley Andrews (@Ashley_Activia) November 5, 2014
Passing delegates were intrigued by the eye catching, involving and fun nature of our stall’s theme, sparking a lot of great conversations about what we do at INVOLVE and their own respective company’s current objectives and challenges. Everybody really got into the fun and energetic spirit of the game, and even became super competitive with their colleagues! Many commented on how collaborative, co-creative and participative they found the experience.
Having fun with the chaps @involve_uk pic.twitter.com/pwGFEGjd5h — Amanda Arrowsmith (@Pontecarloblue) November 5, 2014
We have received a lot of positive feedback, both verbally and through social media. We hope that our stall was illustrative of our company values, and demonstrated how we use fun and energy to involve our clients in their change programs.
Would you like to know more about our work? Please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
A big thanks to CIPD for hosting the event again this year, we always find it to be a really valuable way to network and engage delegates with our mission.