The Conundrum

Meet Katya, Head of PR at The Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers, the trade association guiding the resurgence of the British watchmaking sector.

Katya was responsible for organising British Watchmakers’ Day, the biggest watch show in the UK, bringing together hundreds of British watchmakers and shakers for the very first time.

With 1,300 visitors coming from all over the world (some as far as Costa Rica), the British Watchmaker’s inaugural event was ambitious in size and scale (good job there are no shortage of scales on a Clownfish 😉).

Katya had spent 4 months organising and scrutinising every tiny detail from the venue, catering and hotels to PR, marketing guests lists, media partners and security. So everything would run like clockwork.

The only thing missing was event production.

Katya needed someone who cared about her event as much as she did and who was as excited as she was. She needed an event management company she could trust to bring the venue to life on the day (that was us by the way) so she could enjoy the event too.

I felt that at last someone cared about our show as much as we did, about every small detail of production.

Katya Audsley, Alliance of British Watchmakers

The Solution

The event was oversold (go Katya and team) so we got creative with timing(!) and worked out a way to stagger arrivals and departures so everyone could attend.

The event deets:

• A flagship 7×4 metre LED video wall for a “wow” inducing entrance piece.
• Outdoor branding using branded pillars.  
• Event lighting and event sound. 
• Event branding. 
• Exhibitor stands, banners and power. 
• 9 metre welcome banner with VIP entrance carpet. 
• Branded registration desk (which we also staffed and managed).
• Event furniture: premium seating and coffee table areas, right down to the table cloths and lamps.

Although we started out as an AV partner, we soon became the British Watchmakers’ ‘sole’ supplier for event production. We even sourced glass cabinets for all the watches.

Clownfish literally became our own team while working on our event. Alasdair and the whole team have an incredible attention to detail and everything was just perfect.

Katya Audsley, Alliance of British Watchmakers

Katya wanted to make sure everyone could get in and out of the venue quickly, so we offered 5 members of our events team to run ‘front-of-house’ so the entry and exit experience was as slick and seamless as the rest of Katya’s event.

The Outcome

The fact that visitors were queuing up from 5am to get in, is a testament to Katya’s skills as an event organiser. And everything on the day went swimmingly well too. We got there extra early to set everything up and when Katya walked in, she could see that everything was ready. In fact, she was so happy she gave us an enormous hug (and we believe hugs = happy clients).

Clownfish say on their website that “if you’re doing something, you should make it abso-blimmin-lutely brilliant”. And they absolutely do! What an incredible company, team, management…everything.

Katya Audsley, Alliance of British Watchmakers

The British Watchmakers team were so happy, they’ve already booked us to organise the production for the next one. 

If you’re looking for an event company, save your time on meetings, briefings and collecting proposals from others and just go with Clownfish!

Katya Audsley, Alliance of British Watchmakers