Matalan Leadership Conference

Date: September 11 2018

Location: ACC Liverpool

Client: Matalan

Delegates: 500

Objectives

The Matalan Leadership Conference is a biannual event which enables senior managers from its head office, logistics and retail stores around the country to join together to discuss the organisation’s performance, company strategy and vision as well as a look ahead to its busiest trading period in the run-up to Christmas. 

Format

Delegates registered in the galleria of the convention centre and the main plenary, exhibition, catering and catwalk all took place in hall two of the convention centre, part of the ACC Liverpool campus.  The hall was separated into different sections so that all of the space could be used effectively for different aspects of the day.

New products formed part of the exhibition along with a focus on colleagues and the company values. Plus for that added fun factor there was a giant snow globe for colleagues to have their photo taken in.

The event included a plenary and break-out sessions in the morning.  A selection of Matalan employees then formed a choir for an afternoon performance, led by a former patient of Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and accompanied by Alder Hey staff.  This was to support Matalan’s fundraising campaign in aid of the Liverpool hospital, with the choir performing their version of the S Club 7 hit Reach for the Stars.  The performance was followed by a high energy catwalk show to reveal the latest fashion collections to delegates.  

Celebrities who took part in the day included singer Peter Andre and Jessica Wright, star of The Only Way is Essex, who are both ambassadors for the brand and regularly feature on Matalan’s online style chat show ‘The Show’.

Production was provided by Vision Events Manchester, supported by ACC Liverpool’s in-house production team. 

Catering included a delegate lunch and the one-day event culminated in the evening with a drinks reception.  

Challenges

One of the challenges was to ensure that all the different aspects of the event could take place all under one roof, without the difficulty of moving delegates to syndicate rooms which would add additional time onto the already packed agenda.  This was achieved thanks to the flexibility of ACC Liverpool which was configured so that catering, exhibition, plenary and the catwalk could all take place in one hall which was divided into several different areas.

Verdict

Nikki Rice, communications and engagement manager at Matalan, said: “The objective for this event was to engage the entire head office, logistics and store management teams before gearing up for our busiest time of year – Christmas - in addition to gaining a greater understanding of our strategic objectives for the coming months and into 2019.  

“ACC Liverpool was the ideal venue choice for us due to its central location, flexibility of space and choice of catering available. The fantastic support from the on-site events team made using a new venue for the first time a lot less stressful.”