2Heads return to Vegas with Airbus, Bombardier, Rolls-Royce, CAE and Vista for the annual NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition.
The highlight of the US business jet world and the home for the National Business Aviation Association’s annual convention, NBAA gathers the best of the jet industry together under the Las Vegas sunshine.
The large-scale event took over the Las Vegas Convention Center and Henderson Executive Airport, and welcomed 25,000 professionals, each one a decision maker, buyer or a influential personnel from companies at the heart of business aviation.
Hosting these professionals during one of aviation’s busiest conventions is always a challenge. 2Heads partnered with Airbus, Bombardier, Rolls-Royce, CAE and Vista to create branded enviroments that stood out from the rest and adhered to five key event principles:
- Use technology to narrate products and services
- Create natural networking for qualified buyers
- Reinforce existing relationships
- Get critical business done for the year ahead
- Generate platforms for industry leaders
From chalets to statics, exhibitions to meeting spaces, 2Heads created environments that sustained each brand’s unique vision and demands from NBAA. Event technology focused on sound and touch to explain current and future capabilities while branded homes provided the luxury and comfort synonymous with business aviation.
If you would be interested in learning more about our award-winning experiences and events, please contact us here.
The 2Heads UK team are all smiles, and maybe a few achy knees, after completing the Three Peaks Challenge, scaling the heights of Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, and Snowdon.
With months of planning and training, we couldn’t be happier with the outcome. The support and the outstanding donations have been overwhelming. We’re delighted to have raised over £10,000 for our three charities Freely Fruity, Young Minds and Great Ormond Street.
So what were the challenges?
Despite all the training, nothing can prepare you for the real thing. The biggest challenges were not only three highest mountains in the UK but the limited hours of sleep, endless service station sandwiches and the aches and pains made worse by a total of 16 hours of driving from Scotland to England to Wales and then back to the office!
Starting at 06:00 in Fort William, Scotland, the adventure began. Our 19 walkers were quickly strung out in smaller groups up and down the 1345m peak, ending with a range of finish times from 3 hours 40 minutes to 10 hours. The team quickly realised this adventure wasn’t going to be straight forward.
The second climb, Scafell Pike, was a different challenge with an immediate uphill struggle and river crossing to negotiate. At this stage the fellowship had split into two groups with the first 12 walkers completing the climb despite low visibility and gale force winds (well it was July!) just as night fell. Our second brave group, a few hours behind on the journey down from Scotland, began their climb in pitch blackness and declining weather conditions, completed the climb in just under 5 hours and got on the road to join the first group over in Wales.
As the challenge came to a close on Mt Snowdon, the team were at varying levels of breaking point but one by one made their way to the top of Wales to reach the third and final summit of the Three Peaks once again in a grey windy whirlwind. A truly epic adventure and one the team won’t forget in a hurry, even if they wanted to.
What kept the team going?
Our Project Coordinator Lauren felt that teamwork was the key. “Motivation from the team was a big factor in getting us all across the line. Everyone had their own individual areas where they excelled and equally their challenges. Quickly learning what peoples strengths and weaknesses were and being able to adapt to help specific people when they needed it was the best way to all stay motivated.” Teamwork makes the dreamwork, as they say.
Overall, the team found the experience to be hugely rewarding and are so thankful for all the support that’s been given. Our 2D Designer Michael is already super keen to get back on those mountains “I would absolutely do it again! Despite the challenges I really enjoyed the whole experience and kind of missed it as soon as I got home.” Others may feel differently, but we love the spirit, Michael!
A MASSIVE well done to our 2Heads UK team for completing their Three Peaks Challenge and raising a huge amount for our charities. What will the next adventure be? Stay tuned.
We’re delighted to welcome 13 awesome new starters to the 2Heads family
In our 40th year of trading and our most successful year on record across each of our global offices, we’re delighted to be welcoming 13 new recruits across a multitude of agency functions and locations.
Here’s the first of the batch – welcome aboard guys – we can’t wait to see the impact you’ll make for our clients!
Adam Goldie – Business Development Manager, Global
With a background in organizing B2B events, Adam is no stranger to working with award shows, exhibitions, and exhibitions. Some of these experiences include organising high profile events with the likes of Clarion, Centaur Media and DMG. Adam will take charge of conducting new business and add to our already incredible client list. Next time you’re at a show, keep an eye out for Adam. He’s a friendly face you won’t want to miss!
Moyah Merola – Office Manager, London
Undoubtedly, it is safe to say that Moyah understands the importance of making sure everything runs smoothly. With her extensive experience in owning and operating two successful restaurants and her own small events business, Moyah brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our team. We’re so happy to have Moyah onboard and hopefully we can get the coffee machine fixed!
Rav Saundh – Marketing Executive, Global
Rav has a comprehensive skill set in Media Production, Social Media and Digital Marketing making Rav a perfect fit for 2Heads. In her new role, Rav will be the face of 2Heads across all social platforms, representing our brand with her unique creative style. We can’t wait to see her magic unfold! Who knows, with Rav onboard, we might just become the next big sensation on TikTok!
Tasnima Shah – Project Manager, London
Tasnima graduated from the University of Greenwich with a degree in Events Management and then went on to start her career as a freelance Event Coordinator. Excitingly, Tasnima has already dipped her toe in her first 2Heads event at Royal Ascot 2023!
Libby Penny – Junior Project Manager, London
Recently graduating from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Events Management, Libby kickstarted her career in the hustle and bustle of London at an events agency. This helped Libby pick up her core experience in the industry. Libby is looking forward to getting involved within a collaborative, team-focused culture with the opportunity to learn and grow her skills working on some inspiring brand experiences.
Danielle Ferreira – Project Accountant, London
We are happy to have Danielle as our newest addition to the finance team in London. Previously, Danielle worked as a finance business partner but don’t let the serious job title fool you. Danielle adds a vibrant and bubbly personality to the office, making every day a little brighter. With her extensive financial experience and infectious positivity, Danielle is already proving an incredible asset to our team.
Michael Thompson – Creative Lead, London
Michael has extensive experience in the events industry in career spanning over 20 years. Starting life as an art worker led Michael on to bigger and greater things including winning awards for GSMA-CONNECTED CITY at Mobile World Congress. Nothing excites Michael more about being at 2Heads than working closely within in a creative team producing magic together in the world of brand experiences. Welcome to the team Michael!
If you want to be part a dynamic work environment that nurtures creativity and fosters personal and professional growth, then apply today on our Join Us page: https://www.2heads.com/jobs-in-events/
Belden and 2Heads celebrate the launch of historic fourth Belden Customer Innovation Center with grand opening event.
2Heads are inordinately proud of our four year journey with Belden, the leading global supplier of network infrastructure and digitization solutions. The flagship of our partnership has been the Customer Innovation Centers, also known as CICs, Belden’s newest methods of delivering value to customers through experience.
Utilising the very best of our experience designers, 2Heads designed and created a series of international spaces where solutions can be crafted and validated onsite. Debuting in Stuttgart, the CIC has subsequently opened in Santa Clara and Shanghai before returning home to Chicago, Illinois. The new Chicago center provides an ecosystem for Belden customers to co-innovate with sales and product engineers to develop, test, document, and validate proven solutions that drive efficiency, security and innovation.
To commemorate the opening, an exclusive event celebrating the newly commissioned Customer Innovation Center was held on May 4th and marked a return of the company to its roots. The location in America’s heartland holds special historical significance for the company as it was founded by Joseph C. Belden in Chicago in 1902. The original Belden home office was located on the top floor of a five-story building at 116-118 Michigan Street in Chicago’s Loop district and the event brought together customers, partners and Belden leaders to showcase Belden’s capabilities.
“We are thrilled to open the doors of our flagship Customer Innovation Center and return to the great city of Chicago,” said Andries Boone, Managing Director, Solutions Delivery at Belden. “This milestone is so much more than a facility opening, it represents the future of Belden and our commitment to collaborating, driving innovation and building solutions with our customers. We are looking forward to welcoming guests for many years to come.”
Belden and 2Heads have used a vendor-agnostic approach to provide best-in-class experiences that transform ideas into solutions, empowering companies to feel secure and maintain focus on their business objectives. The Belden CIC model was developed in partnership to address key business goals and outcomes that encompass various areas of customers’ operations.
Later this year, following the opening of the Chicago location, Belden plans to launch a Customer Innovation Center in Bangalore, India. If you would like to know more about how we partner with brands to create immersive hubs for product experience, please contact us.
In the first year of the 2Heads Charter Charity, the 2Heads team are taking on the three highest peaks of the UK to raise funds for our 2023 charities; Freely Fruity, YoungMinds and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.
SPONSOR US NOW – https://www.givewheel.com/fundraising/866/2heads-three-peaks-challenge/
As we enter the middle of our Charity year, the 2Heads team are gearing up for our two big summer fund-raising activities; the Dorney Lake 5k, 10k and half marathon, and the 24 Hour Three Peaks Challenge.
Both events are worthy challenges; for those 2Headers pounding the streets in preparation for July’s run around Dorney Lake and for those hikers hitting the hills every week, climbing these precious kilometers.
And why are we doing it?
At 2Heads, we recognise just how fortunate we are, and how all too easy it is to take the lives we lead for granted. We all face difficulties in our day to day life; from here in the office to back at home. However, we also realise that there are those facing far more difficult lives and it is our hope that by setting ourselves these challenges, we can raise funds that make a change.
And we are certainly challenging ourselves …
For our flagship fun raising event, we are taking on the National Three Peaks Challenge within a time pressured 24 hours. This means climbing the three highest peaks of Scotland, England and Wales, AND driving between each peak within a 24 hour time window.
The support from 2Heads has been overwhelming with twenty of the team involved in achieving this huge goal. Setting off at 5am on the morning of Friday 28th July, the team will scale the 10 mile ascent of Ben Nevis in Scotland first.
They then pile into two vans to rest while we drive them down to the Lake District for the tougher climb up and down Scafell Pike, England’s highest peak which does involve a fair amount of walking in the dark.
Onwards they will push to scale Snowdonia’s Llanberis path, a climb of 9 miles and a chance to meet the 24 hour challenge and watch the sun rise on the Welsh countryside.
Why is it important we raise funds?
This herculean effort from the team is to raise as much money for three charities close to our heart.
Young Minds are the UK’s leading charity fighting for children and young people’s mental health. They want to see a world where no young person feels alone with their mental health, and all young people get the mental health support they need, when they need it, no matter what. Find out more about the work they’re doing and what they’re trying to achieve here.
Freely Fruity are a local community charity co-founded by our Design Director Ryan Simpson. Their vision is to provide food to people and wildlife through planting fruit trees and bushes in local communities. Beyond sustenance, there is the added benefit the trees would directly reduce carbon emissions and lower the carbon footprint of shop bought fruit.
Great Ormond Street Hospital need little introduction. Every day, young lives hang in the balance as patients, families and staff battle the most complex illnesses. Their greatest hope is GOSH where every day, the brightest minds come together to achieve pioneering medical breakthroughs that change the lives of thousands of children – and change the world.
Please sponsor our amazing team as they take on this challenge and help make a change today. CLICK HERE.
The cancelation of E3 sent reverberations through the gaming events community and when the industry’s leading press EventMarketer asked 2Heads for commentary, it got us thinking on what’s next for gaming brands.
We spoke to our Strategy Director Bertie Ager and Dan Hall, Business Director, about how to pivot in the wake of this critical shift.
It’s no big secret that E3 attendance numbers have been declining since before the pandemic. Nonetheless the last-minute cancelation of this bold, dynamic show is a of huge consternation to the industry… and hopefully a wake up.
Since 2017, E3 has been shifting from an all-encompassing industry event to a public convention and showcase; an event which could be covered from home without the cost of attendance. That is the demographic attendees Xbox, Nintendo, and non-attendees like Sony and EA both want to attract; the online ‘gamer’.
There is a lot of commentary about how some of the big guns backed out in previous years, and how the industry is reliant on three or four companies for success but we believe the failure of E3 and the subsequent rise from the ashes of gaming shows comes from creating events that ‘fit’ better with what a gaming brand does.
Gaming brands launch and update games constantly, so maybe the cost of putting one large exhibition experiences doesn’t make sense anymore. A rigid tradeshow approach doesn’t help an industry that relies on getting ‘playable code’ ready in time. Imagine it – the studio is late by one week and the whole focus for E3 fails.
We would suggest a different model for the gaming industry that’s more decentralised and focuses on regional attractions. Gaming is an industry focused on creating virtual worlds with limitless possibilities and tradeshows haven’t changed in a century, so maybe a new approach is due; one that connects that values innovation even more than experience.
E3 went digital in 2021 with some success, and though this was in response to the pandemic, there is a strong argument for E3 to return as a hybrid event. For organisers to give the event an online presence but in a meaningful way. What if we gave the gamers and players control and a share of voice with eyeballs on their channels through the likes of Twitch etc? Imagine using activations to switch focus from developers and manufacturers to the following and reach of their fans – this is an influencer industry after all.
We would create events that would leverage the millions of ‘views, likes and shares’ of a streamer’s content, to reimagine games launches and big announcements in a language that connects with this new order. It can be done, look at ComiCon, WonderCon, AnimeExpo – they’re as popular as ever because they are cool for fans, but even they’ve yet to discover the nirvana of hybrid events that create a true virtual counterpart to the live event.
If E3 and the gaming industry do adopt a hybrid approach, we would recommend that it is, by its nature, content driven. The content can still be used regardless of the event and if it has currency; features new footage, gets fans closer to the game they love, gives them access to development, then it will definitely be attractive to fans who live for gaming 24/7. Create FOMO and gift loyal fans with experience they want; let them meet sponsored e-athletes for free and then exhibitors can still engage with the audience who would have been attending E3, but on their own terms.
Subscribed to EventMarketer? Read the full article here.
Interested in fan-focused events and content-driven experiences, give us a call or contact us here.
2Heads take time out of creating events to attend Marlow’s Pub in the Park, supporting the local food and music festival
At 2Heads, we believe in the work-life balance. And though we love putting on events the world over, it is nice to have some time out to enjoy a festival too.
Pub in the Park, founded by celebrity chef and personality Tom Kerridge, launched in 2017 and has taken the country by storm with its unique mixture of pop-up pub food, amazing live music and local food supplier stores.
As a local events industry, 2Heads is proud to support Pub in the Park and hold our spring social here every year. Though not all of the team could be here as many were travelling overseas for different campaigns, it was great to get the agency together and celebrate all things wonderful about events.
If you would be interested in joining our fun, vibrant and growing team, please contact us here.
Andrew Ager | Strategy Director | 2Heads Global
There has been a lot of chatter coming out from industry gatherings over the last few weeks – yes SXSW I am talking about you – about the rise of AI and its role in marketing. If we are to believe everything that was said, then in a few years we will all be augmented by technology incapable of individual thought and acquiescing to algorithms in our efforts to engage with audiences and influence consumer behaviours.
Future gazing is all well and good, but I think as an industry we are all trying too hard in the pursuit of the next big thing.
The power of experiential marketing in my mind is its ability to connect with people on an emotional level.
There is no other channel that can match it for pure engagement.
If an individual chooses to spend time engaging with a brand experience, be it pop-up retail, fully immersive showcase, brand pavilion, event, or everything in between, then we are already half-way to nirvana. Yes, their experience needs to be compelling, it needs to have utility, be arresting and thought provoking, it should inspire and entertain, it should elevate the brand and create advocacy, but it also needs to speak to them as humans.
And that isn’t going to happen if the experience is designed by computer.
It has to be imbued with emotion, it needs to spark something in the mind and tug at the old heart strings.
So that’s why I am starting a campaign, a rallying cry to our industry if you will, Made By Humans.
Think of it as a kite mark for our species.
Illuminating insights from a real person about real people.
Top notch creative from artists, magicians, writers, designers, entertainers not generated by ChatGP.
Craftsmanship, production and high-end delivery from the makers, shifters and doers who bring the vison of the creative to life.
Let’s remember, we are in the business of crafting human connections, and for that to be successful, then we need to ensure we don’t lose the humanity in our experience, by all means integrate technology, champion innovation, and create the sticky content that helps tell the story, but let’s make sure it’s the folks that get up every morning and do-the-do that are creating the show, not the machines!
Airbus and Airbus Corporate Helicopters (ACH) return to Atlanta for Heli-Expo, the world’s largest vertical aviation event.
2Heads and Airbus Helicopters return to Atlanta, Georgia for HAI Heli-Expo 2023, creating a sensation at the rotorcraft industry’s largest event.
The March 7-9 event welcomed over 14,000 industry professionals to discover and discuss the very latest in in vertical aviation. At the heart of the 600+ exhibits, Airbus took center stage with their open plan showcase of cutting-edge range of helicopters.
Partnering with 2Heads for the fifth time since 2018, Airbus required an arena-style environment that introduced guests to the efficiences of the single- and twin-engine Airbus rotorcraft family. Event technology focused on sound and touch to explain current and future capabilities while digital content illustrated tomorrow’s innovations for urban air mobility.
HAI Heli-Expo audiences were introduced to the H160 Energy Sector helicopter through vignettes that explained this innovative helicopter’s reduced fuel consumption and quieter operation. Guests enjoyed the ACH130 Aston Martin Edition with it’s sleek balance of power and elegance synonymous with the sports-car manufacturer.
The liveried H145 HEMS for emergency medical services and H125 Law enforcement helicopter’s also put in an appearance at the show with important buyers given the low down on the full range of mission equipment. The star of the show however might arguably be the CityAirbus NextGen, their four seater vVTOL prototype, an emphatic symbol of Airbus‘s commitment to the application of electric power in sustainable urban air mobility.
If you would be interested in learning more about our award-winning experiences and events, please contact us here.
2Heads land three important nominations for this year’s Campaign Experience Awards
Campaign is the world’s leading business media magazine serving the marketing, advertising and media communities with valuable news and insights.
In recent years, Campaign has championed the new breed of creative brand-builder – the people who are disrupting and re-shaping our industry and pushing the boundaries of experiential marketing.
Every year the Campaign Experience Awards recognise and celebrate the continuous innovations of the brand experience and event sector with nominations hotly contested.
2Heads were thrilled to recieve three nominations this year with both Bombardier and Disney recognised for Best Exhibition Experience for 2023 and Bombardier again given the nod by judges for Best Sustainable Experience for their eco-conscious event at EBACE.
The Campaign Awards will be handed out during a special Gala dinner at the Londoner Hotel on Thursday 30th March and we wish all the nominees the best of luck.
Read about the Campaign Experience Awards and take a look at the complete list of honorees here.
