Future Ports: Wales Vision

Freshwater worked with Associated British Ports to stage a virtual event in October 2021 to launch a new vision for the future development of its five ports in south Wales. Featuring high-profile keynote speakers and leading industry experts, the event combined a general debate around the need for decarbonisation of industry, energy and logistics with a detailed look at the role ports could play in the realisation of key objectives and market opportunities.

Following a detailed master planning process, Associated British Ports developed a ‘White Paper’ that set out a future vision for its five south Wales ports. Freshwater was commissioned to design, promote and deliver an event to engage national and regional stakeholders and communicate key messages about the potential for future port development across the region.

Freshwater worked closely with ABP’s marketing team to design a bespoke event programme and secure several high-profile contributors, including the Welsh Government Minister for Climate Change, Julie James MS and Simon Hart MP, Secretary of State for Wales.

Freshwater built a dedicated online platform to promote the event, allow users to register and provide access to live and on-demand content. The bi-lingual platform included a detailed programme, biographies of keynote speakers and panellists and an online ‘networking’ zone that allowed registered delegates to ask questions and strike up conversations with each other.

The Freshwater team developed a cross-channel marketing plan to drive awareness and registrations for the event, using PR and media releases, email marketing and targeted advertising on LinkedIn. We also created a stakeholder toolkit, containing social media messaging and graphics, allowing key partners and contributors to share information about the event within their networks.

Freshwater held technical sessions with every speaker and panellist to ensure talks and interactive sessions were delivered smoothly. ABP’s Wales Ports: Future Vision White Paper was uploaded to the platform on the day of the event, along with other useful information relating to the future development and operation of ABP’s ports in south Wales.

• A total of 1,751 users viewed the ABP event site, of which 452 went on to register as delegates.
• Email (42%) and paid for social media (23%) delivered the majority of website traffic. LinkedIn advertising delivered 305 clicks at a CTR of 0.51% (outperforming industry standard of 0.39%). The adverts also received 99 likes and eight shares on LinkedIn.
• Media coverage included Wales Business Insider, Freight Business Journal, Commercial News Media and UK-Ports online.
• On the day of the event, over 50% of registered delegates (233) logged on to view the live content (versus an industry average of >30% for a free event), while on-demand content on the portal was accessed 66 times, following the event.
• 100% of attendees who completed the post-event survey reported that they found the event content useful.