First Recruitment Agency Expo in Birmingham gets more than one thousand visitors

Anna Scott

A total of 1,500 visitors attended the inaugural Recruitment Agency Expo North held in Birmingham on 2-3 October. The first event of its kind outside London, the free Expo brought together hundreds of recruitment agency owners, managers and senior executives with suppliers of specialist products and services to recruitment agencies.

“It is vital for a business to engage with its customers and this event provided the perfect platform for us to liaise with both potential and
existing clients,” said managing director of Recruitive, Richard Clarke.

“The expo also presented us with the opportunity to build new mutually beneficial partnerships which will add value to our client service offering.”

Clarke confirmed that Recruitive would exhibit again, adding: “The show exceeded all expectations in terms of the number of new contacts made, the number of prospective, existing clients and suppliers that we engaged with during the event, not to mention the tremendous amount of publicity both online and offline received as a result of attending the show.”

The extensive seminar programme was also extremely successful, with standing room only at many of the sessions. Particularly popular were ‘Your Reputation – how to create a brand – and how to keep it’, presented by Stephanie King, senior account manager at Blue Sky PR, and ‘A Crash Course in Twitter for Recruiters’, given by Jonathan Campbell, CEO of Social Talent.

In the Training Zone (pictured), visitors had the chance to attend informal and interactive sessions on a range of subjects including neuro-linguistic
programming, Linked In and search engine optimisation. The sessions attracted large audiences, in particular, ‘Overcoming Candidate
Objectives’ by Warren Kemp, managing director of Recruitment Matters, and ‘How proactive is the sales culture in your business’, presented by James Osborne, co-director of Innergy & Elite Recruitment Network.

“The workshops offered a valuable source of information to all in the recruitment industry and the many recruitment suppliers gave the agencies the opportunity ‘to try before you buy’,” said Liz Longman, managing director of TEAM.

TEAM received over 100 new inquires and many people had commented to her on how refreshing it was to talk to other industry professionals.

“Having an expo in both London and now Birmingham has proved to be a very worthwhile event that seems now to be a regular feature in the recruiters calendar,” she added.Organisers Bluewater Events worked closely with senior recruitment figures to come up with the programme that included more than 50 exhibitors, 28 seminars and 14 training sessions. Such was its success that the Recruitment Agency Expo North 2014 will be held again next year at the NEC on 1-2 October.

Its sister event, Recruitment Agency Expo will be held in London on 25-26 February 2014. To register for either event, visit http://recruitmentagencyexpo.com/.