National Service Remembrance event

This event, held at the National Memorial Arboretum near Burton-upon-Trent, was a remembrance service to mark 60 years since the abolishment of National Service.

Present were many veterans who had served who, prior to the service, enjoyed an afternoon tea – all of which was caught on camera by the BBC.

It was a huge event where Princess Anne dropped in, joining numerous military dignitaries.

The Royal British Legion have their own events team who did the majority of the planning but we had a team of five present to assist – a partnership which we are proud to have enjoyed for more than a decade.

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Objectives

Our main tasks were to build a website for the event and to ensure everyone was registered to attend.

With more than 900 delegates, it was a huge task and was probably one of the most difficult we have ever done.

With many delegates in their 80s and 90s, many didn’t have email addresses. We had to contact so many people over the phone and then register them as they didn’t have computers. Although it was challenging it was also wonderful to hear their amazing stories of their national service over the phone! Delegate admin is usually about answering emails, so this was very different!

Solution

On arrival, through Cvent we had the on arrival app. When everyone registered they received a QR code. For many this was not ideal. That was a learning curve for RBL. They wanted all the technology which was great but it didn’t quite work for this event due to so many of the attendees limited digital knowledge.

The big part of this event for us was picking up the phone, speaking to delegates. Talking them through registration. Some of the emails I got afterwards with messages of thanks was lovely to get.

Many people were inviting members of family so we had to plan for this too. A lot of the delegates were not as mobile as they once were so we had to sort out parking and specialist arrival requests, things like pulling up near the entrance.

Results

‍In the lead up it was a challenge but on the day it went really smoothly. There were some people who arrived who had not registered but we quickly got them sorted by hopping onto to Cvent – there was a 10% contingency for delegates who had not registered.

RBL use the Arboretum venue a lot. They do things a certain way and we went in with a fresh pair of eyes and we had thoughts of utilising different spaces.

So we worked with them and changed things around a little bit to improve the flow of delegates upon their arrival. This was changed on the day. Historically we have had a really good relationship with RBL. It is nice really as they are like friends, rather than clients. They are a nice bunch of people and take on board things we suggest. It’s a good dynamic which explains why we have worked with them for so long.