Client Case Study 2

Molson Coors Brewing Company National Conference

Client: Molson Coors
Event: Molson Coors Brewing Company National Conference
Group size: 1,200 delegates
Venue: BT Convention Centre Liverpool and ECHO Arena Liverpool (part of ACC Liverpool)
Date: Thursday 4th February 2010

Background
The modern global brewer wanted to revitalise its on-trade beer brands' performance, and needed to educate staff about the strategy and its products.

Molson Coors, the brewing company behind the Carling, Coors and Caffrey's brands, has worked with Involve UK on a number of events. It approached the agency last September ahead of a national conference that would communicate its strategy for 2010 to 1,200 staff.

Brief
Molson Coors' main theme was getting people back into pubs to consume its products in the wake of the rising trend towards drinking at home.

With the brewer aiming to reverse this trend and ignite interest in its product range, the event needed to focus on how it would communicate this strategy to the brand's employees, increase overall profitability across its products and get staff behind the plans. It was also vital that the event celebrated the performance of Molson Coors' products during 2009.  For this to happen, an inspiring venue to host the conference and event needed to be sourced.

Challenges
One of the more testing challenges was finding a suitable venue to stage the event. As well as hosting 1,200 employees, the venue needed to be large enough to accommodate several individual spaces, including seven different break-out "zones" designed to represent areas of growth for the business.

The venue-search took place before the actual event was planned and was a tough process.  Without the content specifics or format for the day Coors had no idea whether they needed one single large space or lots of small break-outs and the gala dinner for 1,200 people was another major event to consider.

Molson Coors required a venue that offered accommodation nearby so that delegates did not have to endure lengthy coach journeys to and from the venue.

The format of the event itself was also important, ensuring that delegates were not just confronted with a series of presentations, but played an active role in the programme.

Execution
ACC Liverpool was selected as the venue, as it satisfied the criteria of a well located centre with accessible accommodation and plenty of space.  It was important that the host venue aligned with the Molson Coors brand and as Carling was the main beer supplier to ACC Liverpool there was an additional link there.
 
The venue also had sufficient space to set up the seven break-out zones, one of which was a life-size pub, in which delegates learned about the brand.

After an opening plenary session welcoming delegates to the event, curtains were drawn back to reveal the rest of the arena floor, featuring a "brand street", including all the brewer's brands. Throughout the course of the day, delegates were able to wander through all seven zones before returning back to the arena where lunch was served by Heathcotes.

An attentive events manager and team were always on hand to ensure any loose ends were picked up.  An hour before dinner the dinner seating plan required reformatting and the main event manager changes this from one format to another and the stewards at every part of the building made sure delegates were guided through the various areas of the venue.

Later, delegates participated in a human orchestra where ‘We will rock you’ was performed using 1,000 beer bottles instead of traditional instruments. It was followed by a specially created nine-course dinner that complemented Molson Coors beers.

Feedback
“I have not been to a venue of comparable size that has ever managed to achieve such a cohesive team of individuals who are genuinely interested in ensuring an event runs successfully.  Everyone from the cleaners, through to security, stewards, operations, sales, technical and events departments, not to forget Heathcotes have worked together to be without doubt the best venue team I have ever had the pleasure to work with.  Please don’t change the fantastic atmosphere and culture that has been created through an incredible team!”
Jon Coventry, Production manager, Involve, for Molson Coors