WESTERN Australia provides a number of attractive opportunies for those hosting corporate events, including the hospitable and relaxed cities of Perth and Fremantle, and the popular regional destinations of Margaret River and Broome.
WESTERN Australia provides a number of attractive opportunies for those hosting corporate events, including the hospitable and relaxed cities of Perth and Fremantle, and the popular regional destinations of Margaret River and Broome.
Combining contemporary lifestyle with Australia's wild and natural beauty, the opportunities for an event management company to use the state as its playground appear limitless.
In August 2007, Ghita Andersen and Sonya Rosbotham wanted to capitalise on that opportunity, and Forumm Events was born.
The partnership began when the two decided to combine their extensive industry experience in event management and public relations while working together on fundraising events for their Rotary club.
Located on Knutsford Street in Fremantle, Forumm Events offers its creativity to medium and large businesses, associations, academia and financial institutions, coordinating all aspects of corporate events including product and project launches, conferences, parties and expos.
However, with the company still in its infancy, Ms Andersen and Ms Rosbotham have found competing with the state's big event managers to be a challenging and timeconsuming exercise.
"This industry is generated by wordof- mouth referrals, which means that we need to connect with the right decision makers," Ms Rosbotham told WA Business News.
"Longer established event businesses often monopolise big business clientele, meaning we can't even get the chance to quote.
"We offer great service at competitive pricing and differentiate our services to stand out, so once they see our proposals, they don't often go elsewhere." However, according to Ms Andersen "getting your foot in the door" and getting decision makers to hear the proposal takes strategic planning and a lot of small talk.
"We aim our marketing at certain areas and we weed out certain businesses, such as businesses that may do events in-house," she said.
"We have to; we can't afford marketing to be wasted if the person we're contacting isn't the one to do the job or doesn't make the decisions.
"It all has to go through a careful process of elimination through a lot of telemarketing.
"The problem is, the bigger companies get called up by clients who seek them out to organise an event.
We have to do all the hard work." Ms Andersen said sacrificing personal time and going to even the smallest company launches was essential for Forumm Events to be competitive.
"If there's an opening we'll go to it," she said.
"It's increasingly difficult to talk to people during work hours and most times you don't even get past reception.
"We run regular networking events to get to know more people in industry, we provide hospitality to potential clients and clearly differentiate our branding and event features.
"Becoming a known brand without a large capital base requires greater strategic focus.
"Getting large businesses to trust that a small company can still deliver what they want for big events can be hard."
