Engineering and Manufacturing Network

Background 

Engineering and Manufacturing Network (EMN) is a membership organisation dedicated to building and strengthening the engineering and manufacturing community in North East England. 

EMN supports businesses from small scale SMEs to PLCs and its membership base stretches from the Scottish border to North Yorkshire. It helps members to solve problems and overcome challenges, by combining informed signposting and personal introductions with support from a knowledgeable community of businesses and a range of expert affiliate partners – which includes Horizon Works.  

The organisation delivers an extensive events programme which includes workshops and forums, and the annual EMCON engineering and manufacturing showcase.  

Approach 

EMN had announced that EMCON 2023 was to take place at a new venue of Rainton Arena in Houghton-le-Spring on September 14, and was to feature workshops and new exhibitor zones.  

It needed a partner that could support the promotion of exhibitor opportunities at the event, communicate EMCON’s new location and features, and help it to attract visitors from the regional and national engineering and manufacturing communities.  

In addition, the EMN team required support in managing the marketing packages allocated to EMCON 2023’s sponsors, and live social media support at EMCON itself.

Solution  

• PR campaign to promote EMCON 2023, including announcements of new features such as the Meet The Buyer zone, and post-event publicity  
• Social media content and creative assets to build awareness and encourage sign-ups from core audiences 
• Management of LinkedIn advertising campaigns, plus creative assets and content, to promote EMCON 
• Case studies with exhibitors at previous EMCON shows for dissemination in e-marketing and on social media 
• Close support, marketing consultancy and content editing for 11 sponsors  
• Live social media support at EMCON 2023, including content and photography  

Results 

• EMCON 2023 was attended by more than 800 people, exceeding the previous year’s delegate numbers   
• 118 companies from the public and private sectors exhibited at the event – exhibitor spaces sold out several weeks before the event 
• Press coverage was achieved in media outlets including Business Live, Bdaily, Horizon Magazine, North East Times, Machinery Market and Manufacturing and Engineering Magazine  
• The EMCON LinkedIn showcase page gained 452 followers from the start of the campaign in April 2023 until the end of September 2023 – 33% of its total followers started following the page during this period