On 10 September, I swapped the wedding fayre environment for something rather different: the North Essex Business Expo at Charter Hall in Colchester.
I was there exhibiting Richard Symes Magic, but this wasn’t really about standing behind a table waiting for someone to book a magician.
It was about getting out into the Essex business community, meeting people, making connections and starting to understand where close-up magic fits into the corporate events world.
And it was quite different from the wedding shows I’m used to.
A different kind of event
The North Essex Business Expo is a large business networking and exhibition event, hosted by Networking Essex at Charter Hall.
It brings together businesses from a huge range of sectors, which was one of the things I was looking forward to.
The event is also supported by the North Essex Economic Board, or NEEB, which brings together local authorities across North Essex to support economic growth, businesses and skills development in the area.
North Essex Economic Board (NEEB)
For me, the interesting part was experiencing this type of business event from the other side of the table.
At a wedding fayre, people are usually there because they’re actively looking for suppliers. They might be comparing photographers, venues, florists or entertainment and thinking about what they want to book for their wedding.
The North Essex Business Expo was different.
People weren’t necessarily looking to buy anything from me that day. They were there to meet people and that changed the whole dynamic.
What does a magician actually take to a business expo?
My stand was fairly simple.
I had a banner, an iPad showing images from previous events, business cards, leaflets and some examples of the framed playing-card pieces I create for occasions such as milestones and retirements.
And, of course, I had a packet of playing cards.
Rather than explaining what close-up magic at a corporate event might look like, I have the unique ability to perform magic for the people who stopped at the stand.
That meant a lot of card magic throughout the day. Most of it was for people who walked past, noticed what was happening and stopped to see what I was doing. One routine I performed involved two people using playing cards and writing messages to each other.
I particularly liked that in this environment because it wasn’t just someone watching me perform a trick. Two people were actually doing something together. Quite often, they’d only just met. And suddenly they had something to talk about.
Meeting a very mixed group of Essex businesses
One of the best things about the expo was the variety of people I met.
There were businesses involved in venues, marketing, professional services and recruitment, alongside people working in areas I wouldn’t normally come across. I even ended up talking to someone involved in self-defence instruction and people working with charities.
That’s one of the advantages of a large Essex business networking event. You don’t necessarily know who you’re going to meet before you arrive. I also made some useful connections with people involved in local venues and their marketing teams, which is particularly relevant to me.
I’m looking to develop the corporate side of the business alongside weddings, so getting to know venues, event professionals and other people involved in organising events is something I want to continue doing. I also connected with a lot of people on LinkedIn after meeting them at the event.
Not every conversation needs to turn into a booking.
Sometimes it’s simply the beginning of a relationship.