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'Lyreco Annual Sales Conference & Exhibition 2009' At the beginning of 2008, a concept was formulated. A concept that would change Lyreco Sales Conventions forever…
For the 7th consecutive year, Comtec were charged with providing an exciting, informative and engaging 2-day sales conference for over 800 sales professionals for Lyreco. Lyreco in the UK is a fully owned operating subsidiary of the Lyreco Group – a family owned office supplies group, which has operations throughout Europe, Canada, Asia and Australia.
The theme chosen for the 2009 conference was “Back to the Future”. In the current economic climate, the key messages that the delegates needed to take away from the conference were that in order to ensure a successful future they would need to go back to basics, and get the basics right, from the very beginning. With the Managing Director cast as Marty McFly, the Field Sales Director as Doc Brown and the Marketing Director as George McFly – this sales convention was certainly fun and entertaining, but how did we communicate the key messages?
A variety of methods were utilised to engage the audience with the presentations and ensure that the delegates absorbed the ideas. The Comtec team undertook extensive pre-event filming to recreate parts of the film, “Back to the Future”. Although we imitated many of the scenes from the film, we also created our own messages that fit well with the Lyreco brief. The videos were then used to further illustrate points that were made in the presentations.
The iconic DeLorean, which was used for time travel in “Back to the Future”, was a key medium through which to convey Lyreco’s ideas. We used the infamous car in the videos to go back to the 1920’s to see how a stationery company would have operated, then we fast-forwarded to the future for a snapshot of how the Lyreco of 2015 would succeed in its field. The DeLorean not only featured heavily in the videos but was also present, on stage during the convention itself to carry the message through to the delegates.
The team that filmed the videos also edited them and worked closely with the Lyreco team to ensure that all key concepts and ideas were communicated. The same team then spent many hours in Comtec’s own edit suite, putting after-effects onto the film and using 3D modelling to make the films as realistic and believable as possible. With all of Comtec’s services being under one roof, our clients benefit from working with the same team from concept to completion.
We also used a tried-and-tested audience response system to encourage the delegates to connect with the presenters and the messages being conveyed. Delegates were split into regions (South-east region, North-West region etc.) and were then given keypads and asked a series of questions based around the marketing presentation. The results of each question, i.e. a percentage breakdown of each answer, were then shown on screen and the winning region took away a small prize.
The 2009 Lyreco Sales Convention was held at the Liverpool ACC – a fantastic, purpose built venue that provided great facilities and massive scope for what we wanted to achieve. The venue, being one we had not yet worked in, provided us with lots of new and exciting challenges – none of which proved too much for our experienced technical team.
There were also 7 breakout sessions that took place over the 2 days. Again Comtec managed these sessions, which ranged from product workshops to corporate sales presentations.
Lyreco also entrusted Comtec with organising and building a 43-stand supplier exhibition in the ACC’s massive Exhibition Hall, as well as an Oscars themed Gala Dinner for 800 delegates. The exhibition was a massive success. Both delegates and exhibitors alike found the exhibition to be a great learning and networking experience and with a slightly changed format from previous years, Lyreco are confident that we will have another great turnout in 2010.
During the Convention, Comtec produced an Awards Ceremony for the VLP’s – Very Lyreco People. This ceremony celebrated the achievements of some of the most innovative people at Lyreco. There were 39 awards in total and the ceremony was a huge success, with great audience engagement and a lot of very happy winners!
This incredible Sales Convention was brought to a close with a traditional Chinese Lion Dance to launch the next VLP sales incentive scheme. The winners from the 2010 Convention will benefit from a magical trip around the Far East – all courtesy of Lyreco.
The culture within Lyreco is focused very much on 4 key values:
“Passion, excellence, professionalism and respect” – something, which we believe Comtec reflects in every facet of our work, not just for Lyreco, but for you too. As the event organiser for Lyreco put it “I couldn’t have done it without Comtec” – can you?
