Imbibe Live London: 1-2-1 Meetings

 Challenge: Overcome the challenge of doing 'serious business' on a show floor dominated by alcohol tastings and a party atmosphere.

Action: Implemented an app allowing pre-scheduled and impromptu meetings, supported by concierge in a networking lounge away from the show floor.

Result: Allowed monitoring of meetings attendance and support to meetings no-shows through the concierge service.

The Imbibe Event is for the alcohol "on-trade", allowing brands and suppliers to restaurants, bars and pubs serving alcoholic drinks to meet with the owners, managers and staff of the establishments. There is much focus on tastings, and the event has a reputation for being very sociable, more so as the day progresses. The challenge for the event team was to ensure that in such a vibrant and convivial atmosphere that serious business meetings could still take place for the VIP buyers at the event.

In collaboration with the Event team and the RXUK Digital Team, I scoped the Grip App, which was supported by the creation of a networking lounge. Through the App you could get suggestions of who to meet, and either pre-schedule meetings before the event, or arrange meetings on the fly as you browsed the event. The App enabled you to meet on the Exhibitors stand, or book a table in the meetings lounge.

The project was a success in that it enabled the target audience to have meetings off the show floor, and also allowed the concierge managing the lounge to monitor the meeting attendance rate and interview users for feedback. It also suited the demographic and the nature of the audience:

“Grip was the ideal solution to introduce both an app and a matchmaking solution to the young and mobile Imbibe Live audience. We needed a solution which would work easily through their phones, especially as due to the nature of their jobs they are not at their desks very often.”

Sonja Van Praag, Publishing & Events Director, Imbibe