Solar & Storage Live UK, organised by Terrapinn, will be hopeful to take home an EN Award for the Trade Show Over 10,000 SQM category. The show is dedicated to solar energy and battery storage. Attracting over 14,000 visitors and 550 exhibitors, it is one of the biggest trade shows in the UK. Solar & Storage Live has been recognised for its 2024 UK edition which took place in September at the NEC in Birmingham.
EN speaks to Rebecca Sloan, general manager for Solar & Storage Live UK, to find out more about the EN Awards hopeful.
We ask Sloan what the key to Solar & Storage Live’s success was: “Sales was a massive part of it. We are lucky we have been in a booming sector the last few years. We put a lot of focus last year on our sales strategy, our rebook campaign and splitting sales into portfolios made a big difference. We also did a lot of recruitment into the team”.
Solar & Storage Live are closely tied to the sector it serves. The show works closely with trade bodies for renewable energy who also contribute to the show itself.
“We have a deep strategic partnership with Solar Energy UK which is the trade body in the renewable energy space”, Sloan explains, “we put a lot of effort into that partnership, we work with them to develop the show to make sure it meets the needs of the visitors.”
Sloan also tells us how content has become an integral part of the show and its success: “We focus heavily on features and content of the show so we can drive visitor registration and keep people on site for as long as possible. For example, we have the European solar games where people install solar panels live on roofs and compete against each other on site. The focus [for show content] is getting people to come and getting people to stay”.
As Solar & Storage Live is an event dedicated to renewable, namely solar, energy, naturally sustainability becomes a big part of the planning, operations and lasting impact of the event.
Sloan adds: “Sustainability is not only important for Terrapinn as a company but also, in our show, for our sponsors and exhibitors. We do event sustainability plans for every event we do. We have a framework in Terrapinn where we get points for different activities and actions we take around the show – every event has to reach a minimum of 15 points. You can get points for monitoring and tracking emissions, encouraging sustainable travel to the shows and supporting local initiatives.
We make sure we don’t put anything in our marketing that we can’t back up and ensure we don’t exaggerate. We want to be transparent of where we’re at and what we’re trying to do.”
As we approach 28 March and one of the biggest nights of celebration in the events industry, Rebecca Sloan and her Solar & Storage Live team will hope to take home a trophy. The awards act as recognition for the hard work behind events.
“The big driver for us for team morale” Sloan says about the awards, “it is a point in the year where they can be rewarded for all their hard work not just from us but from the rest of the industry. It is a really nice celebration of all the efforts of the team regardless on whether we win or not.”
