26 October 2020
The Evolution of LCE
Any events planner remembers their first event like it was yesterday – the nerves, the over-planning and the incredible relief when it goes well! As I celebrate 4 years in business, it’s so good to reflect and celebrate how far we have come.
It was April 2017 and we hosted our first LCE event – a conference to promote Bangladesh as an investment destination held at the stunning Langham, London for a leading European hedge fund manager client.
Being one of the top five-star hotels in London, the Langham was an amazing venue and put on a great show with excellent levels of service and top-quality food throughout the day. For the 130 guests attending, it was a business-packed day filled with presentations from a variety of people including leading politicians and successful Bangladeshi business directors, alongside market strategists who offered their insight and expertise about the social and political context of the country, its economic potential, its growing local market and the thriving pharmaceutical sector, among other hot topics.
After a packed day, the guests enjoyed a glass of bubbles while listening to a wonderful jazz trio before taking their seats for a gorgeous dinner.
I am very pleased to say that the day and night went without a hitch and myself and the team worked so hard to make sure it was a seamless, high quality experience for all the guests.
Looking back at this now, especially in the current climate, it seems a million years ago as with the restrictions in place, an event for 130 people seems like a very distant memory. But I do remember everything about it and the organisation that went into it and the valuable lessons that have been the ethos of the success of Lucy Claire Events.
The number one takeout was the fact that preparation is king. As this was our first event, I definitely over-prepared but because we did absolutely everything went to plan, and I still over-prepare to this day! I would much rather spend more time organising, planning and triple checking everything to ensure a seamless event than not and I definitely sleep a lot better having checked and checked some more!
Alongside this, the event really hit home to me the importance of partners and by that, I mean team, suppliers and venues. Successful events never happen because of one person, they are a huge team effort and by choosing the best people to work with as well as nurturing those relationships and getting to know those people and how both they and you work is everything.
I have people in my little black book of contacts that I go back to time and time again as I know they share the same work ethic and attention to detail as me and I trust them to work at the same high level I do. Building this network, I feel, is imperative to a successful business and great events.
In recent times, a big thing for us has been adaption and reacting to the ever-changing events landscape and trying to remain positive and look at what opportunities there are to deliver great events. Even though it is challenging at times, we draw on our years of experience and amazing connections to create memorable and magical events.
The Bangladesh event really taught me the power of emotion in events and that how you make the attendees and participants feel is really important and this is always at the forefront of my mind when planning.
When I look back over the past four years, I have seen the wealth of events, large and small, that we have successfully delivered and how we have grown as a company in both reputation, confidence and delivery but I always am hugely grateful for the lessons I learnt along the way.