Helping Emerson to deliver the message of ‘Transforming Capital Investment with Project Certainty’ to process industries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, HHC Lewis worked with the client to arrange a press conference at the Emerson Global Users Exchange. The event was held in Brussels shortly after the terrorist attacks in the Belgian capital and as a result HHC Lewis had to overcome some testing circumstances to play a vital role in helping to make it a success.
The three-day Exchange, held at the Square Meeting Centre in Brussels in April, provided the opportunity for over 1000 delegates to learn from their peers about extracting the most from their automation investment and for Emerson to describe new opportunities that are emerging and the right approaches to take to ensure improved performance and profitability.
During the Exchange, Emerson launched Project Certainty, an innovative technology and engineering-based approach for improved capital efficiency and more reliable project schedules. With industry data indicating that over 65% of projects greater than $1 billion fail, with budgets exceeded by more than 25% or missing schedules by more than 50%, Emerson is to support the need to eliminate cost, accommodate late changes and reduce complexity to help its customers achieve top quartile project performance.
HHC Lewis was responsible for identifying around 30 of the leading process industry publications, websites and bloggers from around Europe before inviting them and then arranging travel and accommodation for them. Prior to the event, we prepared press kits, which included having press releases translated into several different languages and compiling profiles on Emerson executives and customers who would be presenting.
HHC Lewis was also responsible for liaising with the journalists and looking after their travel arrangements, which proved to be challenging. Three weeks before the Exchange, Brussels Airport was one of the targets in a coordinated series of terrorist attacks in the city, and although the airport reopened just before the Exchange, it was with temporary facilities and a drastically reduced capacity. That led to a number of last-minute changes to journalists’ travel plans, but we ensured that acceptable alternative arrangements were put in place where necessary.
With all the journalists arriving safely in Brussels, HHC Lewis ensured that they were able to get all the information they needed and also to have an enjoyable time. To provide a final twist to the tale, a strike by Brussels air traffic controllers created further disruption to the journalists’ travel arrangements on their day of departure. Now almost fully trained as travel agents, HHC Lewis supported those journalists whose flights were affected.
Despite the challenging circumstances, one editor commented that it was the best Emerson press event he had ever attended.