See what some of our previous Sponsors had to say about sponsoring 10th Annual World Food Technology & Innovation Forum 2012:

What were the key drivers for Entheo to participate in the event?

We see the role of HR as growing in importance in how businesses can stimulate creativity and innovation in their businesses. Developing the skills and capabilities to innovate as a core competence, capability and leadership skill, is central to the future success of companies. We wanted to sponsor the HR Summit to find out the degree to which this is on the HR agenda, and the challenges that HR professionals have in promoting innovation within their roles.

What was it that made you choose this event over others?

Having attended the Supply Chain WTG Summit in Dusseldorf in April 2008, I was very impressed with the set up and organisation of the event.  Having attended many conferences in my time I have often found them wanting, either too weak on content or not enough time for genuine networking.  WTG provides both.

What is it about the event that you like?

The organisation and planning was seamless, the account management first class, the calibre of delegates and conversations were superb.  There was a lot of enthusiasm in the air and the physical design of the space was well thought through.

What were the key outcomes following the summit?

For us it is all about generating new relationships and seeing the degree to which HR, as a function, will take the mantle of innovation into their businesses.  Our hope is that we generate interest and new projects as well as solidify the Entheo brand as a forerunner in this space.

What was the key driver behind your decision to participate in the event?

Prior to the Summit, Knowledge Advisors’ business came predominantly from the USA, so we were looking to make a real impact on the European Market.  There are very few competitors within talent and learning measurement for us in Europe, so it was identified as being key to the growth of our business.

We were very impressed by the seniority of the delegates and what an obvious fit it was for us in who we were looking to meet.  Being able to meet so many of these key contacts in the course of one event was a key driver for us.

What did you enjoy most about the event?

We enjoyed an almost American level of service from our account manager, and look forward to working closely with him, and WTG in the future.

What were the key outcomes following the Summit?

We made some very good contacts with very relevant people during the scheduled one to one meetings, and have since made several follow ups.  We were delighted to make additional contacts from passing traffic, and delegates who had specifically sought us out. 

We actually received one purchase order on site, and a second within a week of getting back to the office, reducing our sales cycle from 6 months to 2 weeks!  The value of this event has spoken for itself, which is why we booked onsite to return to the 2010 event as HCM Lead sponsor.  This will enable us to position ourselves more fully as thought leaders in the European market, and to speak on the main conference programme.

What was the key driver behind your decision to participate in the event?

The nature of the event, the quality of delegates that attended and the opportunity to pre-plan meetings with relevant delegates prior to the summit all contributed to our decision to participate. The summit also provided a platform for us to further promote OC Tanner by way of inclusion of ‘Chester Elton’ one of the keynote speakers at the summit.

What did you get out of attending the Summit?

For OC Tanner, the Summit provided us with a host of fantastic opportunities to engage and interact with delegates and decision makers from a broad spectrum of industries in a relaxed conducive environment. We took advantage of a well organised event, from co-ordination of the various 20 minute formal meetings, to the more social lunch and dinner events. One of the highlights was the very useful ‘spotme’ technology, this provided us with even more opportunities to meet with delegates we may under normal circumstances not have had the chance to meet. The success of an event can only be determined by what follows and for us the contacts we made at the Summit have provided us with many opportunities and created a fantastic platform for 2009.

Candidate Manager is one of a small number of truly International Talent Management Software solution providers.  Delivering software as a service, Candidate Manager proactively works with clients to bring direct talent to their business at a vastly reduced cost.

What were the key drivers for you to participate in the event?

We first attended the Annual Summit several years ago and we found then that the quality of strategic decision makers attending the summit was such that our investment was quickly recovered and  we forged several new relationships whilst also improving existing partnerships.

We have attended the event every year since and our experience improves year on year as our network grows.  The event is instrumental, year on year,  in assisting us to achieve our corporate objectives.

What was it that made you choose this event over others?

The delegates attend in vast numbers because of the qulaity and value of the various speakers, workshops and suppliers available to meet with.  The delegates we meet are open and honest about their requirements and we are able to convert these opportunities post the event.

Having attended several HR events both in the UK and across Europe I am yet to find an event that parallels the networking opportunities and return on investment offered by the WTG HR Directors Summit.

What is it about the event that you like?

The professionalism of the World Trade Group and consistent level of assistance both at the summit and through-out the year really stands out.  The event organisation and support before during and after the event are exceptional enabling suppliers to maximise all opportunities.

The pre-scheduled one-to-one meeting format, where we are given control of qualifying our itinerary directly with the prospect before the summit, has proved itself to be an efficient tool for generating genuine new business opportunities.

What were the key outcomes following the summit?

A large number of genuine opportunities to close new business sales, a wider network of fellow suppliers and a fantastic start to 2009.  Even in this increasingly difficult economic market, the WTG were able to bring to us key decision makers with genuine needs and intent.

We all anticipate that 2009 will get harder before it gets easier, in this global economic situation it was this year, and will be again next year, even more crucial that we engage proactively, face-to-face, with potential customers allowing us to demonstrate the heightened relevance of our applicant tracking, talent management and restructuring solutions.

I can not recommend the HR Directors Summit run by the World Trade Group more highly to anyone focused on winning new business.

What was the key driver behind your decision to participate in the event?

The Summit was aimed at Senior HR Professionals from across Europe, and allowed for good networking opportunities amongst this group: Workshops, presentations, face-to-face meetings, hosted lunches, the evening meal and coffee breaks were all structured to encourage networking and to share best practice with others.

What did you get out of attending the Summit?

Oakridge Training and Consulting specialise in working very closely with clients to identify and address specific Leadership, Coaching and Team Effectiveness.  Our approach to working with our clients is built upon integrity and excellence, which leads to strong and long lasting relationships.  As such, we benefited from the opportunities to meet people face-to-face so that we could listen to their requirements and establish contacts with businesses at an informal level.

WTG helped in facilitating the set up of meetings with specific clients, and we were pleased that a large number of these had been requested by the clients themselves.  We are now looking forward to several meetings with our newly established contacts.

What were the key drivers for attending the event?
Lead generation and relationship building were our priorities.  In this marketplace, it is more important than ever to get in front of the decision makers in potential client companies.  Our focus on developing teams and harnessing talent requires us to be very bespoke in our approach and we place great emphasis on building strong and lasting relationships with all of our clients.  This is obviously far better achieved when we have had a chance to actually meet the companies in question, therefore, the format of this event, with its prescheduled meetings and networking opportunities appealed to us.

What did you think of the event itself?
We have experienced similar events in the past, and we were looking for an event that met with all of our requirements, which previous events had not. This was our first experience of the WTG model and we were pleasantly surprised by the service level, which exceeded our expectations. 

The process for preparing the pre-scheduled meetings was well thought out and well communicated.  We were encouraged to take ownership of the selection process very early, enabling us to thoroughly prepare for the clients we really wanted to meet.  We took full advantage of the prior contact phase, which maximised our opportunities with the clients we met on the day.

We made an encouraging number of other contacts at the event, during the networking periods.  Several of these contacts proved to be interesting for follow up purposes.

What were the outcomes of the event?
The event exceeded our objectives, hence why we are happy to be testimonial.  We have made a really viable number of new contacts, and have several follow up meetings in the diary already. We plan to use the 2010 event to continue to develop the Clear Thinking brand.  

What was the key driver behind your decision to participate in the event?

The delegate list was very impressive – the number of qualified decision makers that we could see in one place meant that the networking was going to be very useful to us.  In addition, the package we took included pre-scheduled meetings and the prior contact facility allowed us to ascertain their precise needs in advance of the meeting.

What did you get out of attending the Summit?

Investors in People is the leading standard in relation to business development through people. We already have strong links into organisations, whether it is companies in the FTSE 100, large clients, the SME market or the third sector.  However, we felt that  WTG provided us with a platform through which to make contact with delegates whom we either had not yet met, or who we did not know were looking to improve their commitment to business improvement through Investors in People.  As a result of attending in 2008, we were able to develop relationships and work with companies with whom we may not otherwise have been able to share our expertise. We hope that our follow up work with delegates from the 2009 conference will also provide useful activity going forward.

Key driver to attend:

After attending the Event in 2008, we were again looking forward to the prospect of meeting representatives from major blue chip companies face to face. The package that we chose, allowed us to match our areas of expertise to the needs of the delegates prior to the Event. This enabled us to speak with some very senior HR Directors and decision makers before the Event. This was fundamental to us establishing rapport with the delegates before meeting them, as well as providing us with further time in which to find out more about their current specific leadership needs.

What we got out of attending the summit:

We had the opportunity to deliver a workshop on one of our most proven and well regarded leadership solutions; building ‘Elite Management Teams’ to a broad range of companies who covered many sectors and area of expertise.  We also had some encouraging discussions with representatives from a number of companies and as we continue to follow these leads up, the early indications are positive. Thanks to the Event we are now looking forward to delivering our sustainable leadership solutions to some new high profile clients.

What was the key driver for attending the event?

Our objective was to meet and engage with “hard to reach” senior level HR and Training personnel from large organisations.

What did you get out of the event?
This was an extremely successful event for us. We made a large number of contacts in the course of the two days, including a couple of delegates where we had not been successful in our efforts to date. Face to face contacts made at the HR Summit in Birmingham enabled Talent Training (UK) LLP to begin positive dialogue.

In the weeks immediately following the event, we have confirmed follow up meetings with several of the key contacts we made at the event and we look forward to developing our business as a result. We are confident that the event will have paid for itself by the time we return in 2010.