Why Clients Want Fewer Suppliers

Briefs used to be about one thing. Now the conversation tends to carry on.

• The requests coming into a single event brief have grown well beyond the event itself

• One partner handling all of it is appealing, but only when that partner is honest about where their own strength ends

• That honesty is the whole idea behind our concierge service

The brief that keeps growing

It used to be that a client came to us for one thing. Film the event. Stream the keynote. Now the conversation tends to carry on well past that. Could we look after the stand as well? What about the screens in reception, or the print, or the badges?

A lot of it comes down to time. The people organising events are busier than ever, and every extra supplier is another contract, another set of invoices and another person to chase the night before the event.

The risk nobody talks about

Having one partner for everything is genuinely appealing, for exactly that reason. Fewer contracts, fewer invoices, one person to call when something changes at short notice.

The risk is what happens when that partner says yes to everything. A production company that takes on signage, print and digital builds just to win the whole brief, without the actual capability behind some of it, will usually get away with it right up until the day itself. That is when it shows.

What concierge actually does differently

Our concierge service exists for exactly this gap, the requests that sit outside a normal event or production brief. Branded merchandise, exhibition stands, print, signage, digital screens and AV, and digital builds like touch screen kiosks and web apps.

What makes it work is that we are upfront about how it operates. There are things we do well ourselves, with our own crews and our own standards behind them. There are things we manage through people we have worked with for years, where the relationship and the quality control are already proven. And occasionally there are things where we will say plainly that someone else would do a better job than us.

Clients seem to value that honesty more than the alternative. They still only have one number to call, but they are not relying on us to be brilliant at everything. They are relying on us to know which is which, and to say so.

Who this is for

If you are planning an event and the brief keeps growing past the production itself, this is built for that moment. One point of contact, clear about what sits where, so nothing falls through the gap between suppliers and nothing gets quietly absorbed by a partner who is not actually set up to do it well.

Let's talk about what a concierge brief could cover for your next event.