Creative communications group DRPG showcased new technology at its annual Bigtalk event, with 150 clients from across
Europe attending at its Worcestershire HQ.
Now
in its sixth year, Bigtalk is the group’s flagship thought leadership
event where industry leaders and expert practitioners from DRPG, its
brands, partners and suppliers shared the latest trends, new discoveries, and
best practices to boost its clients’ communications performance.
After two years of virtual and hybrid
solutions to the brand’s thought leadership offering, Bigtalk is back in
its original live format. This year, DRPG homed in on a
performance-boosting theme, following on from the West Midland’s legacy of the
Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games this summer, of which DRPG was its official event services provider. The programme incorporated paralleled
sporting and business themes into the keynote presentations, workshops and
interactive sessions, hosted by experts from the industry and the DRPG
team.
The day kicked-off with an industry
positioning of two halves, from DRPG’s head of insight and innovation
Callum Gill, who explained the importance of data-driven customer experience
and personalisation. Following this, director of campaign Sara Lyddy and creative director James Nam looked at the value of an omnichannel approach and
tailoring for different audiences.
Delegates from both internal and
external communications roles continued their afternoon attending performance
zone workshops and coaching sessions, chosen by them in their bespoke agendas,
ensuring the content was relevant to their fields.
DRPG partnered with Creative Technology and Holoplot to
showcase a world-first for their industry. Combining Ghostframe AV technology
to distribute content from a single LED screen with Holoplot’s 3D audio
beamforming technology to steer audio and target down to just one individual in
certain environments. The
blended technology demonstrated the possibility to seamlessly deliver four
presentations in multiple languages from one stage and presenter at the same
time.
Nick Fagan, creative technologist at DRPG said: “We’re really excited at the possibilities in spotlighting audio
and visual for live and virtual event audiences, from catering for delegates
who do not speak the language of the event they are at, but also those with
additional audio needs. This means a non-intrusive, but highly personalised
welcome for the delegate, showing them that the event values their presence as
an individual and is willing to invest in technology that adds to their
over-all experience.”
Bigtalk’s
programme permits delegates to claim Chartered Institute of Personnel
Development (CIPD) points for attending. The day’s agenda culminated with dedicated time to give something back,
as DRPG teamed up with Lightbulb Teams to guide the audience in
constructing 20 prosthetic hands from scratch that will later be fitted to a
recipient, either child or adult, in a developing country that has lost a limb.
The evening’s sustainable dinner
included a guided menu by chef Graham Brookes, who explained how each course
used only Worcestershire-sourced food as well as local accompanying wines,
cocktails and mocktails. The sporting theme continued into the evening with
Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist and Team England boxer
Delicious Orie providing the after-dinner talk.
Dale Parmenter, CEO of DRPG, said: “It was brilliant we were able to showcase some of the incredible
technology that we’ll be seeing in the future event and comms landscape. Our
clients got hands-on with realistic metaverse solutions and innovations that
increase inclusivity in events and experiences.
“The aim of our Bigtalk event this
year was to provide our clients with insights on the most important topics
right now, and to help the creative and comms industry grow in a period of such
rapid change. It’s great to get the vast array of industries together to
discuss the commonalities and shared experiences to learn from and move forward
collectively.”
