We spoke to Taylex Group Founder, Karl Clark, about how suppliers can provide a simple and fuss free experience.
Taylex Group is a design and production company with over 16 years of experience, specialising in exhibitions, events, interiors, and environments. Taylex started as a general contractor, and over the years has developed into a production house that works with agencies, exhibition stand contractors, and direct clients. It is the official supplier to the NEC group, with a presence at the NEC and ICC in Birmingham to support exhibitors.
We asked Karl about the importance of communication between suppliers and venues when planning for an event: “It’s all about engagement with people, not so much customer engagement, just the connection between two people,” says Karl. “If COVID’s taught us anything, sitting on a Teams call with 25 people on it isn’t anywhere near as good as standing in a room with people; being face-to-face is what it’s all about.
“The main thing that I always have in the back of my mind is that it’s about partnerships, the events and exhibitions industry has notoriously been very traditional where people didn’t share things that they’d done or problems that they’d had and how they solved them. We’re coming out the back of the old traditional ways – people are starting to adopt being able to share – whether it be how they overcame an issue, or a supplier that helped them do this, which is great!”
Using the latest innovations in technology isn’t always necessary for your event: “People always say they want to do something wow, they want to use AI and all the latest technology. But to me it’s often about keeping it simple and using tried and tested methods. There are so many new products on the market, you have to make sure whatever you use is fit for purpose for your event. There’s no point in including the latest technology if it doesn’t fit your brand or message.”
Rigorous planning ahead of the build is the key to a successful project, as Karl explains: “Thankfully health and safety has come a long way in the industry.
It used to be when building old-school and traditional exhibition stands, there wasn’t really a lot in place, you just had to make it look like the picture you were given and did that by doing whatever you wanted. Nowadays, people need to plan the build of their events before they actually get there. In all the planning you do beforehand, you need to know at each point where you’re at during the build process and find solutions if you’re not where you should be. When people don’t do that, that’s when it becomes complicated. The planning beforehand is the most important thing.”
Of course, with shorter lead times and increased client expectations, planning often has to be done on a time-crunch, demanding creative solutions: “You need to pre-empt as much of the build as possible, you can’t just go in blind, and using structures is a great way to do this. Structures used to be frowned upon back in the day, if you used it as an exhibitor, it wasn’t seen as high end. Nowadays, some of these systems, such as beMatrix, have been innovating for the last ten years. People need to start looking at those methods and how they can apply them to their current processes.”
Offering advice for those that are new to the events world, Karl said: “You need to stand fast and say, ‘I know I’ve got a quality product, so my price is my price.’ What I found in the early days is that lowering the price so we were making virtually no money didn’t help anyone or anything. I would say making sure you stick to this is one of the biggest things as a business owner.”