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 Company: Royal College of Nursing, London, United Kingdom
Company Description: The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is a trade union and professional body with over 400,000 members throughout the UK and internationally, at all levels of nursing, from first year students to executive board level. We are the largest health care specific union in the UK.
Nomination Category: Live Event Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Tradeshow or Convention
Nomination Title: Royal College of Nursing Congress and Exhibition 2009: Counting on Care
The date on which this nominated production was presented:
10-14 May 2009
Briefly describe the nominated event's communications objectives and how it met those objectives (up to 500 words). After this description, provide URLs to online photographs, video clips, press clippings, etc. that will portray the event for the judges. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is a trade union and professional body with
over 400,000 members throughout the UK and internationally, at all levels of
nursing, from first year students, to executive board level.
RCN Congress and Exhibition is a FREE annual event with debates, exhibition and
a fringe programme of accredited professional events, attracting those wishing
to inform the RCN agenda and influence nursing and health policies through
lively debate.
In 2009 Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Conservative Leader David Cameron and the
Government’s Dignity Ambassador Sir Michael Parkinson spoke, ensuring excellent
media coverage and demonstrating that nursing and the RCN is high on the
political agenda.
The Congress element of the event is a requirement of our Royal Charter, giving
members the opportunity to influence the future direction of the RCN and debate
key nursing issues, on which the RCN will lobby government in the future. Not
all members want to debate, so the event is also an opportunity for members and
the wider nursing community to come together to network and learn through the
exhibition, fringe and social programmes.
The target for the event was to increase attendance by 5% - this would ensure
that the membership was well represented at the event. In addition the Congress
Exhibition is an income generating activity for the RCN. This income is then
used to provide products and services for members in the future. Income from
Congress normally equates to 15% of the total income for the RCN (excluding
membership subscriptions).
To enhance the exhibition experience that supplemented the Congress debates we
offered the following:
- big screens with live feeds so delegates and exhibitors could watch
debates from the main auditorium
- relaxation and refreshment areas where they could network and recharge
- fitness equipment as part of the ‘Fit for Congress’ programme, which
encouraged delegates to ‘get fit for congress and fit for practice’
- sponsored seminars added value by providing free accredited learning,
and allowing exhibitors to network with delegates and influence seminar content
To ensure that members unable to attend in person could still see what was
happening at the event, there were live and recorded feeds available of the
main auditorium events, including the politicians and keynote speakers.
http://www.rcn.org.uk/congress2009
Our results
The event was a success due to the following
- Total event attendance was up by 62% from 2008 (5,943 attendees), with
exhibitor only delegates increasing by 113%. This far exceeded expectations and
attendance targets.
- 74.8% of attendees rated the exhibition excellent or good
- There were 15 new exhibitors attending in 2009. 52 of the 2009
exhibitors (48%) have re-booked for 2010 so far
- 95.6% of the exhibition income target was met which was seen as a
success in the difficult current economic climate
- Hi-def online feeds of the Congress debates and speeches were viewed
28,000 times during the 5 day period, with over 10,000 viewing the archived
material on Brown, Cameron and Parkinson in the month following the event.
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