The team has been hard at work already this year delivering work including the creation of two customer events and an annual general meeting in April for Newcastle Building Society and the ‘Good to Grow’ event in partnership with North of Tyne Combined Authority in May, with the latter attracting over 150 business leaders to discuss what doing good business really means. Future delivery will include a celebration for adults, children and young people who care for a loved one in partnership with Newcastle Carers, a two-day community conference with No Code North East for makers and platforms to showcase, learn, and play and a series of staff engagement events across 2023/24 with CF Fertilisers. We’ll also be working on a 3-day conference for a national oral and dental research society, taking place in autumn 2024.

We’re also working with teams at Dynamo and Sunderland Software City to bring to life TechNExt, a major new week-long festival created to champion and promote the North East’s blossoming tech sector.

Sustainability and ESG strategy will continue to form a key pillar of our 2023 work as we continue to support ambitious North East businesses across the emerging tech, education, innovation, architecture, healthcare and creative arts sectors.

Our co-founder and director Sarah Thackray said “We are an ambitious agency with a client portfolio which stretches across the whole of the UK. The beginning of 2023 has been incredibly busy as we work towards our ambition of a 25 percent increase in revenue this year and we are delighted to welcome new faces to the team as we continue to achieve our goal.

“Post-pandemic we have seen an increase in clients looking for innovative, modern event solutions to engage with their internal teams and stakeholders. Our rapid growth means that we have scaled our team, bringing in new talent to the agency to cope with the rise in demand. Since the beginning of 2023 we have welcomed two new project co-ordinators, as well as an office manager to support delivery of our busy portfolio.

“Earlier this year we were proud to be awarded the Good Work Pledge from North of Tyne Combined Authority. This award recognises our efforts to be a fair employer, our commitment to staff health and wellbeing and our demonstration of social responsibility in the region. We have some incredible projects in the pipeline this year and these ambitious plans will mean more opportunities for new talent to join the BeaconHouse team. The talent in our regional freelance community is fantastic and we are always looking to speak to resourceful and trusted people to partner with us.”

“The launch of our ESG strategy will form the backbone of our future growth. This action plan includes steps to reduce carbon emissions by 5 per cent year on year, with the aim to be a carbon neutral business by the end of 2027 alongside supply chain engagement, research into sustainably sourcing materials, digital solutions to limit single-use print and staff training to upskill the team on the future of events both in-person and online. The inclusion of financial resilience was important to us as a team, without a robust business model you simply don’t have the capacity, skills or resource to invest back into the wider community. Everything that we have planned works in tandem with our growth plans for the coming years and allows us to support our clients to achieve both their business ambitions, while supporting them to reach their own ESG goals too.”

To register your interest in forthcoming positions please email your CV and cover letter to joinus@beaconhouse-events.co.uk

Organised by regional tech network Dynamo and its partner Sunderland Software City, TechNExt Festival will host events across the North East, with a ‘BIONIC woman’ and a ‘Chief Failure Officer’ among the speakers at the centrepiece conference, and over 40 fringe events taking place from Teesside to Tyneside.

On Wednesday June 21^st the festival Main Stage will host a series of thought-provoking conference talks from leaders in technology and related industries at Sunderland City Hall. The day is being designed to include a range of speakers and disciplines centred on the theme; technology, the future and us. The programme line-up also covers three key sub themes – innovation and humans, technology and ethics, and business, society and people: Getting the balance right.

The world-class line-up for the Main Stage includes ‘Bionic’ Tilly Lockey; Dutch academic and author Paul Iske; computer scientist and founder of the Stemettes Anne-Marie Imafidon; ex-Microsoft executive Dave Coplin; emerging tech trailblazer Nell Watson and Mala Kumar, a global leader in tech for good.

Speaking about the event Dr David Dunn, CEO of both Dynamo and Sunderland Software City said, “Our aim is to bring at least 3,000 attendees together to showcase the vibrancy, excellence and ambition of the north east tech sector. Other areas of the UK already have tech festivals, so it’s about time we had a similar platform to show just how good we are!” he added.

Dynamo Director Sarah Thackray explained: “We’ve had a huge amount of interest in TechNExt since we announced that the festival was taking place and we are looking forward to bringing together people from a wide range of backgrounds to create conversations and discuss the world-class work that is being delivered in the region.

“Our industry dinner in Durham on Tuesday, June 20 has been designed to give attendees a chance to connect with peers, tech entrepreneurs and business leaders across the region. It’ll be a fantastic opportunity to mix and network with leading figures from the regional sector.

“Then on June 21 we will be at City Hall in Sunderland for the TechNExt Main Stage, bringing some brilliant international speakers together. The big social of the festival, the party, will also take place on June 22 also in Newcastle at Revolucion de Cuba, and tickets are available on the website for anyone who would like to come along to any of the events throughout the week.”

As well as the curated key events, TechNExt will feature a vibrant showcase programme of over 40 fringe events, many of which are free to attend. Tech companies and organisations have submitted ideas for the programme which will see them throw their doors open to engage the wider community, and shine a light on the amazing tech we have in this region.

Tech Talent Live, a free, drop in careers event is for anyone keen to learn more about tech careers and the employers in the North East will take place on Thursday 22 June. The aim of this event is to inspire, motivate and inform the next generation of tech and digital talent, as well as showcase our North East employers to anyone looking for a role in the sector. Tech Talent Live offers students, recent graduates, career changers or those new to the tech sector the chance to hear short talks on career options in the region and take part in CV workshops.

Headline sponsors for TechNExt are Digital Catapult, Newcastle Strategic Solutions, Opencast and Sage.

TechNExt is being planned as a Good Festival, with ‘for good’ being a core value of every element of the programme.

Sarah explained: “Delivering a Good Festival means we’re focusing on quality, inclusivity, diversity, accessibility and sustainability. It also means delivering a diverse programme and we aim to make our core events truly accessible, considering those with different protected characteristics and ensuring we meet their needs and make them as welcome as possible.

“We’ve had such a positive response to the Festival, and we’re looking forward to bringing the region’s tech sector together through a week of fantastic events.”

To book tickets, or for more information about TechNExt, go to https://technext.co.uk

The events sector is fast-paced and continuous learning is a huge part of our culture here at BeaconHouse Events. Our monthly ‘HeadSheds’ are designed to give us an opportunity to step out of our comfort zone and learn from external experts, and each other, to make sure we stay ahead of the game for ourselves and our clients. Recently we’ve covered everything from Canva hacks to digital marketing and the future of sustainability; we all really value taking the time to focus on our personal growth through learning, even in the busiest weeks.

Real growth through learning comes when we have the capacity to act on the new information that we have learnt and derive our own ideas from it, rather than simply hearing something new and not adapting based on the new knowledge we have received. We caught up with our team to discover how events can stimulate learning and what they think the key is to creating an environment that cultivates absorbing information and adopting new ideas.

Events create strong cultures

Getting your team together offsite and outside of the day to day can give them a chance to bond, learn from each other and builds a culture of trust, something which is key when you are asking people to discuss new ideas or try different ways of doing things. A team who feel psychologically safe because they have a strong culture will be much more willing to take risks in order to innovate, be more creative and learn from each other to solve problems.

Access to world-class speakers

A conference gives you an opportunity to inspire your team through world-class speakers and ideas that they may not usually have access to or take the time to seek out. We can all get stuck in the echo-chamber of social media, our work places or social groups and choosing a speaker that challenges and inspires your team will have a huge impact on their learning and development. Technology like video dial-ins or hybrid events has shrunk the world when it comes to access to the best speakers from across the globe so think big!

Create space for conversations

Talking about ideas or things we have learnt is a great way to solidify information in our brains. By creating space to discuss an idea or dissect new information we can help to bring it to life and put it in context. When you are designing your event environment it’s important to think about how and where your delegates will interact with each other, and how you can give quieter or more reflective members a chance to be part of the conversation. Think about including discussion points in your event packs to help people learn from each other in a robust and meaningful way – this can be especially helpful if your delegates have never met before!

Remember not everyone learns the same way

Not every delegate will learn in the same way, so its important to take advice from your delegates in advance of the event to understand if a small seminar, lecture or online event would work best for their learning experience. Try and curate a mix of experiences that will allow people to take in and retain what is being discussed – this could be digital ways of interacting with proceedings, an illustrator visually bringing to life key ideas from the conference or an event take away with key learnings to read later.

Take time to reflect

Post-event take time to see if the learning on the day is being put into action back in the ‘real world’. Follow up with a post-event questionnaire, or even a ‘implementation seminar’ to find out what people can remember and what they found most valuable from the experience, this will help you to enhance the learning experience at your next event and increase your overall event value.

At BeaconHouse Events we work closely with our clients to understand the aims of your experience and the desired learning outcomes, so we can pick the speakers that best align with your vision and curate events that support delegates preferred format for learning. For more information and to speak to the team about building a learning based event email info@beaconhouse-events.co.uk or call +44 (0)191 691 3456

Her keen eye for detail and ability to sniff out the next biggest trend means that she is always first with recommendations for the latest office must-trys and keen to come up with fresh, relevant ideas to keep our events ahead of the game.

A keen hiker, Rebekah finds peace and creativity in the great outdoors; so we grabbed a flask and pulled up a camping chair to find out how she scaled her career ladder, what most surprised her most about joining the industry and who her dream client would be (spoiler: we’re going to need our wellies for this one).

Our team has a varied career background – what did your career look like before you joined us?

I studied Surface Design for Fashion and Interiors at the University of Huddersfield and then went on to a Masters in Fashion Textile Practice. My Surface Design degree had a real focus on the whole process, from a creative idea to seeing a product in store, including everything from visual research, material exploration, business management and an understanding of final production – I loved the research and discovering what was shaping our collective consciousness, which led me to work as a Freelance Print Designer for Acorn Conceptual Textiles, a highly successful Textile Design Studio, and an internship with Joanna Feeley and the team at TrendBible. After my internship I stayed at TrendBible for almost 6 years, working my way up to Trend Consultant, where I predominately worked across Homes and Interiors and the Baby & Kids markets, working with clients across the globe. I love seeing a project come together from first concept to finished product and it came to the point in my career when I was ready for a new and exciting challenge, which is when I found my role at BeaconHouse Events.

What first drew you to a career in event management?

When I thought it was time for the next step I started to think about my skills and where I could apply them, and I kept coming back to 3 main things – detail orientated, super organised, and personable– three key skills I would say every event planner needs! Outside of work, I’m the planner in my friendship group, I love to plan trips, seek out the news hotspots for cafes, restaurants and design hubs and I love to see people having a good time. I thought that if I could be a part of creating experiences that make people feel happy, empowered, inspired, and catered for then that would be a good day at work for me.

I also thrive in busyness, thinking on your feet and meeting new people. The fast-paced nature of working in events really excited me, I love being hands on and getting stuck in so the onsite days are something I knew I would really enjoy. From my experience of attending events, whether that’s been a conference / tradeshow for work or a festival, I really felt the power they have to bring people together and a fun way to drive positive change. Events are a great way of getting people together to do some good and I wanted to be part of that.

What skills do you think you need to be a great project coordinator?

You have to be highly organised, have excellent attention to detail and the ability to time manage effectively and multi-task as there are always a lot of different project plates spinning and the odd curve-ball to content with. Events are often a time of high pressure for our clients and one of the key skills has to be strong communication along with the ability to shape and maintain robust relationships built on trust and transparency.

Tell me what a typical day looks like for you

At the moment I am still finding my feet in the business, but I’m so pleased to already be working across a wide range of events and clients. My day-to-day is mostly juggling lots of different tasks, which makes every day different! This could include communicating with vendors, booking travel, report writing, researching into venues or activities, website content, managing supplier and client relationships, client calls, site visits, or a really yummy one and my personal favourite, food tasting. I’m also very proud to be a part of the BeaconHouse marketing and sustainability teams so my internal role consists of supporting and contributing to our planning meetings, helping with strategies and tasks to grow and drive change from within the business.

BeaconHouse offers the opportunity to get involved in ‘Wellbeing Days’, where we can volunteer with causes we care about, and I’m looking forward to getting involved with giving back. The events sector has a reputation for being high-pressure and I’m passionate about starting positive conversations about mental health; I would love to volunteer and offer support to some of the local organisations doing fantastic work in this area and I have plans to become a mental-health first-aider in the future.

What surprised you most when you joined the events sector?

What surprised me the most was how much of the role is office based! A lot of what people associate event planning with is being present at parties or conferences or being out and about meeting venues, but actually that is just the end result of months of hard work behind the scenes.

Seeing months of hard work finally come to life in a really visual way is definitely one of the things that I find most rewarding about the job – and getting to be a part of that experience is even better.

Where can we find you outside of the office?

I love being outside so you can usually find me exploring the North East countryside with my cockapoo Olly. We are incredibly lucky to have so much natural beauty in the region and I love seeking out spaces that are untouched, have good views and where you can hear a pin drop. To me there’s no better feeling of climbing a mountain, no matter how tough it was and seeing the view at the top – just like planning an event really!

What would be a dream client to work with?

It would have to be the National Trust. It would be a dream to create an event that helps to protect our natural environments and to educate people of the benefits of nature for our physical and mental health would be very rewarding. It could include a sponsored walk, talks from organisations and charities such as Mind, Mind over Mountains, or Adventure Therapy and it would have to take place in a gorgeous, natural outdoor setting – though we would have to have a good think about how we got a good wifi connection…