The Professionalisation Of RecFest

If RecFest UK felt different this year, that was because it was meant to.

Two years ago, we decided it was time to make a choice: is this a party or a business event?

If we're being honest with ourselves, in 2023, after the Knebworth show, we had to look ourselves in the mirror and come to the conclusion that we'd veered too far towards the party side and lost sight of the business side.

A change in direction was needed.

We launched an internal project creatively titled "The Professionalisation Of RecFest".

How do we maintain the celebration, but not overshadow the fact that at it's core, RecFest is a B2B event?

You see, RecFest is a strange beast; it looks like a festival, monetises as a tradeshow, boasts top-end content of a £1500 a ticket high-end conference and has an emotional anchor to its audience of something more akin to Burning Man or Comic-Con. This is not your usual B2B event, and because of that, we didn't have a script to follow.

Luckily for us, in the same year, we launched our U.S. show, which gave us the perfect opportunity to course correct from day one in Nashville and readdress that balance. A fresh start. Our first event in Nashville was a huge success, but felt very different to the UK. It was very much business first and everything else second. Being honest, the party side was really kept to Broadway post-show, which gave the audience the day to heavily focus on the content, team building and connections.

2 years later, and this year the UK felt very similar.

So here's how we made that left turn:

Communications and Engagement

We made a deliberate effort to align our communications to create the right balance between business conversations, exhibitor engagement, team bonding, and celebration.

When we looked at the data, it showed that 80% of attendees come specifically to discover and invest in new technologies and services. Previously, we’d leaned heavily into the celebratory side within marketing, but we knew we weren’t fully reflecting what our audience was actually there for. So, we shifted our messaging to match.

The Decision to Scale Back on Alcohol

Let's call it how it is: RecFest is a festival! However, in recent years we've reduced the amount of available alcohol in the field, and that's had a significant impact in making the event feel more professional and inclusive. To be clear: when the clock hits six and the bands start playing, the celebration is what it's all about! The shift simply meant the right energy in the right moments.

Enhancing Professionalism and Content Quality

We massively scaled up our focus on one-to-one meetings, this year facilitating 15x more completed meetings than 2024. These weren't just quick chats; they were tailored, high-quality connections between buyers and vendors that actually moved the needle.

On stage, we raised the bar too. World-class speakers like Rory Sutherland and Katie Piper packed out the tents and brought incredible energy and insight. Every session was heavily curated and purposeful, making sure the story stayed on point. You may have seen a lot of posts saying their biggest takeaway from RF was that AI is here, but the industry is still very human-centric. That was the connected story of RecFest this year.

So what has that meant for the results? Well it's early to say but;

• Our NPS score is up YOY, with only one detractor out of the event feedback surveys so far. That could obviously change, but from my experience, if someone's got a gripe with the event, they're usually one of the first to complete the survey.
• 90% of exhibitors rebooked their stands for 2026 before the event had finished. In the world of events, rebookings are a key metric and considered the lifeblood of trade shows. 90% is considered fantastic in any industry.
• Unfortunately, we're still to find a tool that measures LinkedIn mentions and # tracking accurately, with the team spending a lot of their weekend searching through social, event sentiment seems to be extremely positive.

So it feels like we've hit the sweet spot and the plan now is to stay the course, as this iteration of RF seems to be the one most valued by delegates and exhibitors alike. More of the same in Nashville in October.

A huge thank you to everyone who made RecFest UK what it was this year. Much love. 🙏