Oxera approached Marketforce because they were looking for a partner to whom they could outsource the logistical management of their events, comprising subscription special interest groups, training courses and issue-based seminars.
The 8 special interest groups consist of directors and senior management within the Transport and Utilities sectors, who meet to discuss strategic issues on a quarterly basis. Marketforce is responsible for confirming outside speakers, marketing the groups to potential new members, soliciting feedback from group members in order to maintain customer satisfaction, handling renewals and collecting membership fees, and all logistical aspects of the group meetings and annual dinners.
For the training courses, Marketforce is responsible for marketing strategy, in particular building the attendance from certain industry areas and from overseas delegates, in order to support Oxera's business development aims. Marketforce also runs all the logistical aspects of these residential courses, which are between 2 and 5 days long, including supplier liaison and managing the budgets.
For the seminars, Marketforce is responsible for researching programme ideas, confirming outside speakers, marketing strategy and project management of the events. These range from small-scale issue-based seminars such as the Profitability Forum in 2005, which brought together senior competition lawyers to discuss this important area, to large-scale conferences such as the annual Future of Infrastructure Regulation conference, which has a panel of high-profile speakers from across the Utilities, Transport and Infrastructure Finance sectors.
Marketforce has been running Oxera's events since March 2004, and during this time has supported Oxera as a partner in implementing their comprehensive rebranding, and communicating changes to their communications strategy, including their new website and online publication.
