Key Learnings from the PPA Leadership Summit Live Events Think Tank moderated by Affino and AgriBriefing

Affino once more partnered with AgriBriefing, to focus on the recently-launched LAMMA 365 website and digital platform - in order to showcase and debate the topic ’Digitising, Diversifying and Adding Value to Live Events’.

This was in many ways a repeat performance for Marjan Askins, Digital and Technology Lead at AgriBriefing, of her superb presentation at the Affino Innovation Briefing event (Login required) - with a tighter focus around the live events.

We had an impressive panel of key Media Industry Executives assembled for the Think Tank, and there was an open and lively discussion. The two moderators were Affino CEO Markus Karlsson alongside Marjan.

Here are some of the key topics raised and debated during the 75 minute Think Tank session:

The starting point was a brief presentation and walkthrough from Marjan of the innovative Lamma 365 experience, and how it is driving 365 days a year engagement with the LAMMA audience. She covered a host of innovations, what worked, what’s being worked on, and it was an excellent catalyst for a great conversation.

Key aspects of the Lamma 365 presentation included:

• Agricultural Vehicles and Machinery Reviews and News
• Selectable Machinery Comparisons
• Combination of Event, Print and Digital Propositions
• Incorporating quality Videos and Podcasts
• Interest Based Sector Overviews
• Dealer Listing with Post Code Locator and "Book a Test Drive" function
• Loyalty Scheme with Rewards
• My Library, My Interests, and full Profile management
• Focused Searches
• Commercial Partnerships

And here is the top-line executive summary of some of the key outcomes:

• This was a great conversation and debate with lots of free sharing of insights by all active participants. There was also good participation from nearly all members in the virtual room.
• Marjan started by introducing the Lamma 365 initiative at AgriBriefing, the driving forces, the opportunity, the resources already in place, and the host of commercial opportunities presented for the brand.
• This opened up an exploration of how far organisations should take event brand diversification, and what’s the risk to reward ratio for different brands.
• There was a deep discussion around pricing of digital only, hybrid and live events, once all three are going to be in place later this year. Many strategies are actively being explored.
• There are also going to be a number of approaches to video / audio recording and sharing from these events. There was a very open conversation around the opportunities and costs associated with bringing these to live events.
• The structure of the future events, and exclusives or live and digital aspects was also a key talking point.
• One thing that everyone agreed on was that Zoom and similar solutions driving digital aspects of events are here to stay, and it will be a question / challenge how best those are evolved over the coming months and years.

Note that the main reference AgriBriefing Presentation PDF that was used during the Think Tank is related to this article.

Those that attended the Affino Innovation Briefing will likely have picked up most of what they need from this earlier source materials while there are some slight nuances to the new presentation - while it largely remains the same in many ways.

Many thanks to Marjan for supporting Affino during the session - we could not have done this without her participation.