Founded by Liz Sinclair, Director of esp recruitment, The Eventice has been running since 2011 in London and has since been launched in Dubai in 2013. This year, Identity Group was selected as one of the three businesses offering the winning students a job at their company.

DAY 1

The first day of the competition took place at the ArcelorMittal Orbit at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The 17 Eventices were greeted by Liz Palmer which was followed by a short presentation from company employers – Identity Group, Easyfairs and Bluehat. Identity spoke about its exciting role of Trainee Project Manager on offer to the winning student and our growing events division along with our increasing portfolio of clients including Google, Apple, Eurotunnel, ITV, Dell and Warner Bros.

After the presentations, the Eventices had four minute speed interviews with Identity’s Operations Director Paul Fitzpatrick and Senior Project Manager Alicia Parris which gave the Eventices an opportunity to sell themselves and get to know us.

Towards the end of the day 1, the Eventices were tasked with producing a promotional video around the Olympic Park aimed at a particular group within the events industry. The group split into two to film the reasons why companies would want to use the Olympic Park for a corporate day out.

DAY 2

The Eventices headed to the School of Wok and started by presenting their finished videos – complete with voice-overs and a soundtrack. Paul and Alicia were really impressed with the videos and commented on their high quality with one group coming out on top with a really impressive video and presentation.

The next task titled ‘Operation China Town’ required the Eventices to create a tasting menu for a specific event. Each team were given a list of unusual ingredients and then challenged to go and obtain them at the cheapest price. After the groups were taught how to cook the dishes by the chef, the lucky judges then got to sample the food and mentioned the wontons being especially tasty! In the afternoon, the Eventices headed to Confex where Identity was appearing as an exhibitor and speaking on the International Panel.

The next tasks entitled ‘Essence of Excellence’ and ‘Eventice Twitter Takeover’ were run simultaneously with the teams swapping after an hour. The ‘Essence of Excellence’ task required the Eventices to create a new perfume by mixing different scents and then designing the packaging, label and bottle. While one group experimented with smells and design, the other took on the ‘Eventice Twitter Takeover’ task and worked with the social media team at Confex. The group was assigned an area of Confex and asked to “hunt out the news” from exhibitors. This included asking the various exhibitors why there were at Confex and tweeting about their product and stand. This proved to be a valuable exercise in digital marketing and demonstrated the power of creating a buzz around exhibitions with social media.

Following further tasks including the groups designing an exhibition stand and being asked to debate on topics including Brexit and online privacy – Identity then had to decide which two students candidates to take through to the final day.

DAY 3

With Alicia heading off to Dusseldorf to deliver an exhibition stand at Euroshop, Managing Director Michael Gietzen stepped in to interview the final two candidates alongside Paul. The final presentations took place in front of approximately 100 people at Confex, including Projects Director Rob Gietzen. After much deliberation, the final decision was made and the position of Trainee Project Manager was offered to Carianne de Konig. Carianne was delighted to accept the position and starts this year after her final exams. We look forward to her joining the team!