Eduardo has over 12 years industry experience and was previously Commercial Director at Terra Consultoria de Incentivos for five years and Director of Sales for Groups and Incentives at American Express Travel.

Eduardo stated: “I am delighted to be joining Universal WorldEvents Spain as we move into our second year of operation. The company already has a number of local and international clients and I look forward to developing our relationships further, as well as creating new ones.”

Universal WorldEvents’ Spanish office was established in April 2011 and has quickly developed its presence in the market, running a number of events across different industry sectors. The original team of three full-time staff members has now grown to six with the appointment of Eduardo and the agency anticipates further appointments as the office grows over the coming months.

Andrew Winterburn, Director Europe, commented “Eduardo is well regarded in the Spanish market, we are already seeing the benefits of him joining the Madrid team with a number of recent new business wins. We look forward to the continued growth of the office.”

Click here for Universal WorldEvents’ Spanish website.

The event – Developing Virtual And Hybrid Events For The Events Industry – aims to help businesses develop a dynamic virtual strategy to engage their customers, drive revenue and meet their marketing objectives by integrating virtual events into their business portfolio. Showcasing the latest technological innovations, audience engagement methods and revenue generation streams, the event sets out to help understand the technologies involved in virtual and hybrid events, determine the best way to integrate a virtual element into an existing physical event or Strategic Meetings Management Programme (SMMP) and evaluate cost models to optimise investments in these technologies

Mark will be speaking as part of a panel discussion which will be held at midday on Thursday 8 March at ExCeL London. The session – Understanding The Technologies Behind Making Virtual Events Work – aims to cover:

• The technologies available to deliver virtual events and their efficiency and reliability
• Different streaming, content capture and online networking options
• Deconstructing logistics
• Set-up, software and security
• Making the right choice for your event and your business
• Technology, cost and initial investment – limitations and advantages

Other speakers at the event include representatives from eBay, IBM, Cisco and Haymarket.

You can book your place at the event here.

The Hong Kong office has also undergone a period of growth over the past six months with a number of new appointments and a move to a larger premises with additional space. New staff include Gareth Gallagher (Account Director), Rachel Cheung (Project Manager) and Kaman Ng and Leilani Chan (Project Executives). Gareth was initially seconded to the Hong Kong office at the beginning of the year from the UK office of Universal WorldEvents to implement some of the global accounts. Following a promotion to Account Director Gareth has decided remain in Hong Kong to oversee the operational delivery of the Asian offices events.

In addition to the above appointments, James Thompson (Business Director) has been seconded to Asia. James’s role will be to help develop the Asian office’s existing client list, increase the team further and to concentrate on new client development.

Thompson commented: “The Asian market is going to become increasingly important in the years ahead and it is vital we are able to take advantage of the growing opportunity. We are thrilled at these new business wins, especially as they have come from both our target sector of the pharmaceutical industry as well as new sectors. We look forward to working with our clients to deliver a number of successful and memorable events for the remainder of 2011 and beyond.”

Universal WorldEvents has also recently won an award in the region. The ‘Exceptional Motivational Travel Program, Asia-Pacific’ award was presented to the company at the Site Crystal Awards in October this year.

The new European websites reflect much of the content of the English language version and have also been made specifically relevant to each market.

Since its launch in 2009 in Munich, the German office has gone from strength to strength and now organises events for over ten clients both domestically and internationally, with the original team of three full-time staff members growing to over ten in the past two years.

Universal WorldEvents’ European presence was further strengthened by an office in Rome, Italy, which has now been operational for over 12 months, and an office in Lyon, France, which was established in November 2010.

The most recent office, located in Madrid, was launched in April 2011 and is already running a number of events. The original team of two full-time staff members has grown to five and the agency anticipates further appointments as the office grows over the coming months.

Commenting on the websites, Mark Saxby, Sales and Marketing Director said – “We are delighted to be supporting our European markets in this way. As we grow our global footprint it is very important that we achieve a consistency of our brand and key messages but at the same time it is important we reflect the nuances of the local markets. This is very consistent with our service offer of providing clients with a global reach backed up by a local service.”

The European websites can be found via the following links:

• Spain
• Germany
• France
• Italy

Due to this growth in its European operations, Universal WorldEvents is currently recruiting for the following roles in each of these countries:

• Project Executive
• Project Manager
• Account Manager

Full details about the roles, including job descriptions and how to apply, can be found here.

Hirsute team members Graham McIntosh (Managing Director), Ian Curpen and Prad Mistry (Business Development Managers) set aside their shavers throughout November to support this worthwhile campaign and to raise specific awareness of prostate cancer, one of the biggest threats to mens’ health. The money raised will be directed to programmes run directly by Movember and their partners, The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. Although it has no doubt been a very itchy and slightly embarrassing month for our volunteers, the money raised will no doubt go a long way to offset this!

On Monday November 14, Gavin Houston (Executive Vice-President Americas) will be part of an interactive panel discussing how pharmaceutical meeting management companies will be handling and preparing for the aggregate spend requirements of the Sunshine Act, which is due to start in 2012. Also on the panel will be representatives from Celgene and Novartis. This session starts at 09:45.

On Tuesday November 15, Lisa Thompson (Business Director) will be part of an interactive panel discussing tips for developing and executing compliant, cost-effective and productive international meetings alongside representatives from Merck and Novartis. This session begins at 11:30.

Following a six year history of delivering research-based educational programs and attracting a balanced audience of both planners and suppliers, the 7th Annual Pharmaceutical Meeting Planners’ Summit aims to provide the industry with an intimate and relaxed setting conducive to networking and learning. The focus of the 2011 program moves away from the theoretical and hypothetical to focus on real case study examples of best practices and lessons learned delivered by the industry’s leading experts.

You can click here for more information about the event. If you are planning to attend but have yet to register you can save 15% off the standard price by using registration code P460UNIVERSAL.

The awards for ‘Best Destination Based Experiential Travel Program’ and ‘Exceptional Motivational Travel Program Asia-Pacific’ were awarded for an incentive event held in Kerala, India for a technology client earlier this year. Luke Flett, Universal WorldEvents’ Sales & Marketing Manager, collected the awards alongside Rajeev Kohli, Joint Managing Director of Creative India, who worked closely with Universal WorldEvents’ project team to deliver the event.

Luke said; “We are delighted to win both of these awards. Not only do they showcase our global reach, but – with a large CSR element to this event – they highlight our commitment to giving something back to the host communities in which our events are held. The Site Crystal Awards are particularly pleasing to win as they are adjudicated by our industry peers which is fantastic recognition.”

You can see this, and other winning case studies from the 2011 Site Crystal Awards here.

Piggott, has served Universal WorldEvents parent company United Drug since 1998 in a variety of roles including General Manager of Ashfield Ireland before moving to the US as Director of Operations for Ashfield in 2008.

Graham McIntosh, Managing Director of Universal WorldEvents, said that Piggott was selected based on his leadership track record as well as his strong executive and personal qualities.

“Over the last five years Dan has worked as a member of Universal WorldEvents parent company, United Drug’s ELP (Emerging Leaders Program) and ILP (International Leaders Program),” said McIntosh. “He has a wealth of healthcare experience gained from a number of senior roles involved in providing services to some of the world’s leading healthcare companies. This knowledge and expertise will be of tremendous benefit to both our clients and our staff. I am confident that his leadership, energy and enthusiasm will be a great asset to our US organisation”

Piggott said “Universal WorldEvents is the industry leader in global pharmaceutical meeting planning service. It’s a great honour to join the leadership team and have an opportunity to grow the US and Canadian business, building on over 34 years of success.”

Specialising in the dynamic global healthcare market in which its clients operate the company has just concluded a global review of its operations. One major conclusion of this review is that Universal WorldEvents’ investment in emerging markets remains fundamental to the company’s on-going growth. 

In the UK, the company operates from the Ashfield Group’s flagship head office at Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire, where a £6.5 million pound extension is currently nearing completion, and also from an office in Cleckheaton in West Yorkshire.  Emerging from the review is the possibility of centralising the UK operation to one site, realising benefits from having a team under one roof whilst also enhancing the company’s service to its clients.  As a consequence, the company has announced a proposal to transfer the company’s UK business to the Ashby office.

The company plans to consult all staff about the proposal in the coming weeks. Although it is likely that implementation of this proposal would lead to a small number of job losses at Cleckheaton, it is also envisaged that the vast majority of the Cleckheaton roles would be transferred to Ashby, and that the business would continue to expand in Ashby.

Universal WorldEvents’ UK Country Director, Denise Abbott, commented: “Some staff have already relocated to Ashby and others have asked to relocate.  If this proposal goes ahead and any key staff can’t relocate, we’ll offer remote working in order to retain these individuals. Our first objective will be to maintain a seamless service for our clients as we make the change – our mantra is very much business as usual”. 

Managing Director Graham McIntosh added: “Our aim now is to build on the success of the merger, to streamline and strengthen our business, and to benefit our clients, staff and shareholders. We’re proposing Ashby as our centralised UK office to take advantage of the brand new state-of-the-art extension to our group’s UK head office, which offers a wonderful environment from which to run our business, to welcome clients and to work”. 

The result of the consultation is expected by the end of October.

The dedicated event delivery team comprising eight members of staff based in the UK is branded as the client’s events team and has distinct email addresses and business cards. The team have already delivered 19 events in the first three months of the relationship and have 48 more confirmed throughout the rest of the year.

The Professional Education Director of the company said: “The fact Universal WorldEvents have offices in the major European markets was a key factor in their appointment combined with the team that they were able to put in front of us and the fact that they have a really strong track record of delivering events on a global basis.”

Commenting on the appointment Universal WorldEvents, Sales and Marketing Director, Mark Saxby said: “This is hugely significant for us in terms of the size and scope of the contract. Due to the outsource nature of the contract it has entailed a lot of input from our in-house legal and HR departments and their experience in this area has been invaluable. We have had a large team involved in order to meet all the implementation requirements.”

Graham McIntosh, Managing Director of Universal WorldEvents said: “This is further endorsement of our decision to merge UniversalProcon and WorldEvents earlier in the year. It has given us the critical mass and scale to be able to take on this size of opportunity. Everyone is very excited to be working in partnership with the client and we look forward to delivering highly effective and successful events for them over the years to come.”