What to expect at the Expo

Jo Faragher

After a successful first year, the Recruitment Agency Expo will be bigger and better when it opens next week. Here’s a look at what you can expect from the only national industry event for recruitment.

Last year, the Recruitment Agency Expo was a sell-out success, with more than 2,000 visitors including recruitment agency owners, directors, managers and consultants. Now back for its second year, it aims to be a forum for the industry to get together, learn about developments, share new ideas and network.

Along with around more than 100 exhibitor stands at London’s prestigious Olympia venue, this year delegates can expect a packed seminar programme on key issues such as social media, legal obligations and training. Over the two-day exhibition, these free seminars will focus on recent developments in the industry, emerging technologies and ways you can grow your business.

Nav Mann, managing director of Expo organisers Bluewater events, says: “Last year it was very much about people turning up to see if it was relevant to them; this year the people who did are coming back again. From the registrations we’ve received so far, it seems that even more of the visitors are in senior, decision-making roles.”

The organisers have forged strong partnerships with senior recruitment figures and industry bodies to ensure that the programme provides something useful for its audience of senior decision-makers.

“We’ve been working hard with the various trade associations to produce a variety of relevant content. We set up a steering committee to make sure that the content of our seminar programme was spot on,” says Mann. “We’ve also learned from last year what the most popular topics tend to be, and what are the most talked about sections of the industry, such as social media. It’s totally free and we’re delivering a comprehensive programme over two days, covering virtually every aspect of recruitment.”

He adds that, before setting up the Expo last year, there was nothing on a national exhibition scale for the recruitment industry. “I discovered that, while there were lots of smaller events and industry forums taking place, it was quite fragmented. I wanted to do something that encompassed everyone, nationally.”

One of the main attractions of the Recruitment Agency Expo will be keynote presentations from well-respected industry figures. On the first day visitors will be able to hear an introduction from Kevin Green, chief executive of the REC, followed by some insights from Ann Swain, CEO of industry body APSCo on how recruiters can engage better with customers.

Some of the key themes of the seminar programme are legal compliance (with sessions on the Agency Workers Regulations and contractor legislation, for example), and reputation (from marketing your agency to finding what your unique selling points are).

In the social media space, delegates will be able to attend seminars hosted by the visionary blogger and recruitment specialist Bill Boorman, as well as pick up tips on how to make profitable use of social media channels. Last year, many of these presentations were standing room only, demonstrating the popularity of the issues.

“This year we’re taking on a new part of the venue, a 400-seat auditorium which will be used for the social recruitment strand of the show. The size of this theatre reflects the interest in that theme,” says Nav Mann.

Recognising that a key concern for agency owners and managers is training consultants to be effective and engaged, there will be a range of free, targeted seminars on offer on all aspects of recruitment – from how owners and managers can improve their consultants’ conversion ratios, to justifying your fees.

There will also be plenty of opportunity for networking – new to the Expo this year is a designated networking area. Around two-thirds of those attending are expected to be CEO, managing director level or agency-owners – so you can guarantee high-level discussions with people who share your ambitions and concerns.  Around three-quarters make the final purchasing decisions in their company.

Tracey Barrett, who runs recruitment PR company BlueSky, believes the networking aspect was a highlight for delegates last year. “The footfall on both days of the exhibition was really impressive,” she says. “And because of the seminar programme and the training zone, there’s a great range of subject matter experts around as well as the visitors themselves, so the networking opportunities are first rate.”

Azmat Mohammed, director general of the Institute of Recruiters, thoroughly enjoyed his time at the Expo last year, and is looking forward to meeting with old and new contacts at the event in February. He says: “No-one in the industry has done an event like this before. You can bump into everyone you’ve heard of, but perhaps haven’t had the chance to meet.”

It can be hard to justify spending time out of the office when you want to be driving revenue growth and winning new clients, but Recruitment Agency Expo will help to give you the tools and the insights to make your business even more successful.

Look here for more details of keynotes, seminars and networking opportunities.