Post-Event-Report-TVSE-2016.Pdf
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Table of Contents 1. Summary Building on 2015 New for 2016 Event Programme Key Findings 1.1 Organisation 1.2 Marketing 1.3 Venue 1.4 Hospitality 1.5 Format 2. Representative and Exhibitor Feedback 2.1 Did you achieve your objective? 2.2 Ratings of event quality 2.3 Attendance at the Tees Valley Skills Event 2017 2.4 Exhibitor Comments 4. Conclusions and Recommendations 4.1 Recommendations for Tees Valley Skills Event 2017 Appendix One – Representative evaluation form Appendix Two – Exhibitor evaluation form Summary Following the success of the 2015 Tees Valley Skills event, the fifth annual event took place on Tuesday 20th September 2016 at Teesside University’s Olympia building. This report is based on the results from a survey that was emailed out to exhibitors after the event and those who accompanied visitors (school/ college/ learning provider staff) at the 2016 Tees Valley Skills event. For the purpose of this report those who accompanied the visitors (young people) will be referred to as “representatives”. The response received from exhibitors and representatives has been extremely positive and it is clear that exhibitors were successful in promoting the wide range of learning and employment prospects available to young people in Tees Valley. On the exhibitor side of the event, a total of 61 organisations were represented across 70 exhibition stands and on the visitor side of the event 1,855 young people, representatives and general visitors attended which included school and college students and individuals not engaged in employment, education or training. 26% of exhibitors and 48% of representatives responded to the survey. (Appendix’ 1 & 2 include copies of these questionnaires). The survey revealed that 94% of exhibitors and 100% of representatives achieved their objective by attending the event, a fundamental indicator of success. Key Outcomes 70 exhibitor stands (of which 61 were individual organisations) exhibited at the Tees Valley Skills Event 2016 1695 young people from schools/colleges and learning provider establishments attended the event. (An increase of 294 young people from the 2015 event) 130 schools /college and learning provider staff members attended the event (Representatives) (An increase of 33 school /college and learning provider staff members from the 2015 event) 100% of exhibitors and 100% of representatives reported they would attend the Tees Valley Skills Event 2017. Building on 2015 Following changes to a number of features at the 2015 event, we replicated these for the 2016 event. These features included: Timing of the event day; 9.00am until 15.30pm for visitors. Format of the exhibition; Exhibition space areas were organised into “Zones” e.g Employer Zone/ CEIAG Hub Zone, Learning Provider Zone and University Zone. Refreshments; A designated catering area was available on the first floor of the building in the “teachers’ lounge” to avoid hot drinks in the main room. Pre event set up; Exhibitors set up their exhibition stands the evening before the event. Pre event lesson plan; Schools/ colleges/ learning providers were issued the pre event lesson plan before the summer break in order for students to be prepped prior to the event. Reimbursement of Transport costs; Transport reimbursement was still available at this year’s event however we did keep it at the 2015 reduced rate of 50%. Venue; The event took place again at Teesside University in the Olympia Building and was free of charge due to Teesside University been the Venue Sponsor for the event. Partnership; Following the success of the partnership working to deliver last year’s event with Nybep, Teesside University and Tees Valley Learning Provider Network, we again maintained this working group to deliver the 2016 event. Welcome session; All young people attending the event were taken to a lecture theatre, welcomed to the event by Teesside University Student Ambassadors and watched the video of the 2015 Tees Valley Skills Event. The video was played to make students aware of what to expect from the event. Due to timing and the logistics of moving visitors across the campus, we did cancel the welcome sessions after the first cohort of visitors arrived. This did work well as we were able to brief visitors outside the Olympia Building. However for the next event, the format of the welcome session will be looked at as the welcome sessions provide time to ensure visitors can exit the event without congestion occurring at the entrance and exit points. New for 2016 Changes were made to the exhibitor packages following evaluation feedback from last year’s event. Some of the exhibitors at the previous event wanted more space and tables than their package allowed them. In order to resolve this issue for this year’s event, the changes made to the packages included detailing the specific table sizes that would be included in the packages. Exhibition packages were offered at a choice of two price options: Tees Valley Standard Exhibition package Cost: £250 plus VAT to include: o 4ft table with room for a pop up stand, chairs and electrics package. o Stand can accommodate hands on “have a go “interactive activity if applicable. o Company Logo on event website. o Company Logo in the event guide. o Free WIFI for devices. o Tea and Coffee throughout the day. Tees Valley Premium Exhibition package Cost: £350 plus VAT to include: o 6ft table with room for a pop up stand, chairs and electrics package. o Stand can accommodate hands on “have a go “interactive activity. o Company name, logo and website address on event website and on marketing collateral and event social media. o 50 word bio and Company Logo on the event guide. o Free WIFI for devices. o Tea and Coffee throughout the day Over the previous year’s events we have tried to capture visitor’s feedback through various mediums including tablet device competitions and questionnaires. For this year’s event we kept it simple and asked visitors to write their views on the event on tables covered in banqueting role. The visitors really engaged with this activity and it proved an easy yet effective way of gaining feedback. Feedback included: “The event is fun and educational” (Anonymous) “Exquisite activities that everyone can be interested in” (Joshua) “So many interesting careers” (Ashleigh) “Very beneficial” (Anonymous) “A great opportunity to think about where to go after leaving school” (Jack) “It has helped me decide what I want to do in the future” (Abigail) "Lots of opportunities to choose from” (Anonymous) The Tees Valley Skills event always takes place in the first term of the new academic year. Traditionally the event has taken place in November, however due to a change of venue for 2015, the event took place in December to meet the needs of the Universities academic timetable. For the 2016 event we had to hold the event in September due to the Universities availability. As a result of this we included onto the representative evaluation form, the option for representatives to state their preference for the month they would prefer the event to be held. 77% stated September 2017 23% stated December 2017 We will therefore look to hold the 2017 event September 2017. Event Programme The event programme for the day was as followed: Time Activity 8.00am Exhibitor registration, networking and refreshments 8.45am Housekeeping and H & S briefing to all exhibitors 09.00am Exhibition open 10.00am Dyke House College, Outwood Academy Acklam*, Macmillan Academy 11.00am Red House School, St. Patrick's Catholic College, Education Village (Haughton Academy) 12.00pm Trinity Catholic College*, Hartlepool PRU, Carmel College*, Nacro, Egglescliffe School, High Tunstall College of Science 13.00pm Sacred Heart Secondary Academy, Manor Community Academy, Acklam Grange School, Thornaby Academy, Huntcliff, Darlington School of Mathematics and Science, Hurworth School 14.00pm Nunthorpe Academy, Red House School, All Saints Academy 15.30pm Exhibition closes *These schools/ colleges were originally booked on to attend the event but cancelled prior to the event taking place. The cancellation of these schools/ colleges resulted in 440 students not attending. Key Findings All representatives and exhibitors were invited to complete a feedback evaluation form. 48% of representatives and 26% of exhibitors responded to the survey Post event feedback shows a high satisfaction level across the board for both representatives and exhibitors. The statistics below illustrate the event’s success: 70 exhibitor stands (of which 61 were individual organisations) exhibited at the Tees Valley Skills Event 2016 1695 young people from schools/colleges and learning provider establishments attended the event. (An increase of 294 young people from the 2015 event) 130 schools/college and learning provider staff members attended the event (Representatives) (An increase of 33 schools/college and learning provider staff members from the 2015 event) 100% of representatives and 94% of exhibitors achieved their main objective in attending the event 100% of representatives reported the quality of exhibition stands as excellent or good 100% of exhibitors rated the overall organisation as excellent or good 92% of representatives rated pre-event communication as excellent or good 100% of exhibitors would exhibit at the Tees Valley Skills Event 2017 100% of representatives would attend the Tees Valley Skills Event 2017 1.1 Organisation From TVCA’s point of view, the organisation was assisted greatly by the lead time. This enabled TVCA, Nybep, Teesside University and TVLPN to secure the majority of exhibitor bookings well in advance aiding the planning process. Regular progress meetings with all partners also helped to add structure to the managing of the event, ensuring nothing was missed and that all parties were integral in event decisions. 1.2 Marketing Promotion of the event was done predominantly through email and social media.