In October, Abloy gathered their international importers and Finnish retailers in London for two large conferences. SMT's Events and Meetings team managed the practical arrangements, from surveys to meeting technology and from advertising banners to gala hairdos.
- We selected SMT as our event partner, as they were familiar to us and known as a reliable partner. During the bidding phase, we were considering a few other locations in addition to London; SMT provided us with the most comprehensive options concerning all the locations, says Päivikki Nevalainen, Customer service manager, Abloy International Sales. - The good overall package tipped the scales in SMT's favour.
Abloy has been regularly gathering its interest groups together since 1987. The domestic retailers are gathered each year, and the foreign importers every two years. This time, the meetings for two different interest groups were arranged on two consecutive days in London. The events are used to launch new products, provide product training, increase product knowledge, reinforce Abloy's common activity model among the different parties, promote sales, and create suitable conditions for networking, which is always important.
In the end, Abloy decided on the familiar London as the venue of the meeting. - London is an easy location for events and meetings, says Event Manager Raija Räty, the event's representative from SMT. - London offers good flight connections for visitors from different parts of the world. A wide selection of venues and additional services is available, and the service is great.
Both of the large meetings offered different seminars, product trainings and launches, common dinners, and an additional programme for the companions. SMT managed the meeting arrangements from start to finish: it surveyed and reserved suitable meeting and dinner locations, sourced the meeting technology, accommodation, transport and trips at the location, printed the advertising banners on site, and even set up a hairdresser's appointment for the ladies before the gala dinner. SMT's reliable partner in London made it easy to assemble the programme and to coordinate the event, both in advance and on location.
Abloy used the on-site service, which meant that Raija Räty was on site during the entire event and a couple of days before it to supervise that the preparations were proceeding on schedule, distribute name tags, and manage other errands and questions that arose.
Prior to the event, SMT's event management tools were used for managing the participants. This allowed the organisers to collect all of the necessary and important information about the participants. SMT also collectively managed the flights for the domestic resellers and Abloy's employees.
- As SMT was running all the errands, we at Abloy could focus on what we do best, says Helena Toivanen, Coordinator for Technical Customer Training at Abloy. She coordinated the domestic meeting. - Abloy was responsible for the event's factual content, speakers, material preparation, and programme guidelines. We also arranged our own feedback survey at the site, even though we could have used SMT's event management tool for that, as well.
Large events always require someone to hold all the strings. During the days of the meeting, Raija had to answer countless small questions from the different service providers. - When you reserve the on-site service, you will always have a project manager from SMT on location to arrange the event, from start to finish. This frees up your personnel to fully focus on the event, Raija reminds us.
The events have now been successfully completed, and Raija, Päivikki and Helena have reviewed the feedback and successes. SMT's partner from London also flew to Joensuu to attend the feedback meeting. – Both events were fantastic successes, and we want to give special thanks to Ville Mineur from Pacific World, SMT's partner, for the flexible and excellent service and all the benefits that local contacts provided us, Helena and Päivikki both say.
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Abloy Oy is one of the leading manufacturers of locks, locking systems and architectural hardware, the world’s leading developer of products in the field of electromechanical locking technology, and a pioneer in tumbler cylinder technology.
ABLOY carries a global high security brand image reflecting its unique technology that creates a solid base for our success in international markets as well as in our home market. Finland has 150 authorised ABLOY lock resellers. Our export customers are served in over 70 countries by our international network of sales offices and importers.
Abloy Oy is part of the ASSA ABLOY group that is listed in the Stockholm stock exchange. ASSA ABLOY is the global leader in door opening solutions, dedicated to satisfying end-user needs for security, safety, and convenience.