Hello there… Patrick Botell, Head of Event Management BMW Group Northern Europé. Patrick is one of five finalists in the Event Manager of the Year 2020 award in the Business to Employee category. We at Eventeffect asked him some questions about who he is and how he works.
Who are you and what do you work with?
I am originally from the UK and have been living in Sigtuna for the last 10 years. My wife Madelaine is Swedish and we have a son Noah who is 11years old. My biggest passion is football, I am a huge Manchester United fan. I also enjoy to play golf. I am responsible for all events and sponsorships for BMW in the Northern Europe region.
Can you name any events / events that you have worked with in recent years?
In Sweden, Stockholm Marathon, Biathlon World Championships in Östersund, E car Expo Gothenburg , Dealer Conferences, Drive in Summer Bio Stockholm to name but a few.
Feel free to tell us a little more about something you are extra proud of?
I am super proud of the events we did in Gothenburg. We combined a Dealer conference with a closed room experience at the E car expo and had an amazing stand with a very cool concept car on display for the public to enjoy. It was an exhausting few days with all events running in parallel but well worth all the effort.
5. What do you experience as the biggest challenge internally in the organization for your role?
The biggest challenge for me is to secure the right budget for an event. I believe that as we are a premium brand , we have to deliver a premium experience for our customers. This means that I must have the necessary budget to do so.
Do you usually set the purpose and goals for your events? Do you measure in any way?
I set purpose and goals for every event that we do. There are three main objectives for our events. Brand awareness, Marketing consents and inviting our customers to test drive our fantastic cars. We measure the amount of test drives, the number of people who give us permission to market to them as examples.
Do you handle the entire production yourself, or do you bring in help from professional suppliers?
We outsource the entire production to our event agency Lepacte.
How do you work with sustainability and CSR at your events?
Sustainability is of the highest importance for our events at BMW. For example we do not use plastic water bottles, we promote our electric vehicles when doing shuttle services. As far as it is possible we use materials for staging that are recyclable. Also we always try to invest in things for our events that can be used a number of times rather than produce new items every time.
How do you work with innovation to develop your events?
BMW is one of the most innovative companies in the world. Therefore, we have a lot of innovations that we can use at our events. For example we created a real life example of our digital assistant in the car and named her JOY , which is of course at the heart of everything we do at BMW.
What do you experience as the biggest challenge for 2021?
COVID 19 will be the biggest challenge for me next year. However, as we have proved this year, it is still possible to put on events during a pandemic as long as you take the necessary precautions.
Om utmärkelsen Årets Eventchef:
Målsättningen är att lyfta fram individer på köparsidan som agerar professionellt, är kunniga, modiga, öppna och framgångsrika.
Utmärkelsen kommer att delas ut årligen inom fem kategorier, med start 2020. Bakom utmärkelsen står den oberoende bransch- och nyhetssajten Eventeffect.se. På sajten nominerar byråmedarbetare, branschfolk och kollegor sina kandidater.
Redaktionen på eventeffect.se sammanställer alla nomineringar och utifrån de ledord som juryn tidigare fastställt, presenteras fem finalister per kategori för den välmeriterade och erfarna juryn från branschen som slutligen väljer ut vinnarna. Vinnarna av utmärkelsen presenteras på Eventeffect.se den 15 december kl. 08.00.
Årets Eventchef: Juryn för 2020:
Anna Bauer, Business Director – Scandinavian XPO
Fredric Holmgren, CEO – Bright Group
Hansi Sundström, VD – Workman Event
Karin Karlsson, Programchef – Malmö Live
Kerstin Öhman, Owner – BSC
Mikael Jansson, CEO – Fairlink
Niclas Mellbin, CEO – Realise
Niklas Söderberg, Verksamhetschef – SES
Rasmus Fursäter, Sales Manager på Stockholm Live
Patrick Walldén vd för Bang Agency och Brand Arena Nordic Group
Patrik Eriksson, VD – Imponera
Sabina Jonsson, CEO – Sabina Consulting
Sofi Franzén, VD – Eventyr
Stellan Eriksson, Managing Director – MCI
