GREENHOUSE 2023 – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
GREENHOUSE 2023: Marketing & Sales for Entrepreneurs is Jersey’s first dedicated Marketing & sales conference, which this year took place in a rather fancy potato packing factory and wrapped up with the after-party at ROJOs.
157 businesses joined us for GREENHOUSE 2023 and this article shares what went well, what didn’t, and what we’re going to do better in 2024!
What is GREENHOUSE?
GREENHOUSE is a community which exists to create spaces and events where businesses can learn, grow, and thrive.
We do this through our yearly conference, free monthly networking, free monthly marketing & sales clinics in our Facebook Group and regular social events like our upcoming Christmas party!
Ink Blot Creative hosts GREENHOUSE as a way to give back to our local community.
What did everyone think overall?
With 5 speakers, 7 panellists, 10 suppliers, 4 team members and many helpers along the way, GREENHOUSE 2023 was a labour of love for many!
157 businesses attended and 25 filled in our feedback survey. We also had a lot of anecdotal feedback through social media and to the team on the day.
We asked:
On a scale of 1 to 5, how likely are you to recommend GREENHOUSE to a friend?
Our average Score was 4.5
23 people scored the event 4 or 5 out of 5 with two people scoring 3 out of 5.
Overall people seemed to have a great time, and most would recommend GREENHOUSE to a friend.
I’m not going to lie, getting feedback can be hard, because no matter how many raving social posts you see and pats on the back you get, you always fixate on the one review that thinks we didn’t hit the mark or the one bit of feedback that feels personal.
GREENHOUSE has been my pet project since 2021 – until the event itself it is just me beavering away on the sofa. But this year I asked one of our lovely team to collate the feedback so I could be objective and make sure we implement changes that are needed – and a big learning for me is that GREENHOUSE needs a proper team behind it going forward!
I was apprehensive before attending Greenhouse 2023, but it was brilliant, so much so I bought a ticket for 2024 after the first session. All the presenters were world class. Looking forward to next year. - Stephen McAlister - Sabre Advisory Limited
The speakers
I never want to put someone on stage at GREENHOUSE just because I think they might be a draw or because they pop up on an agent's website.
Our speakers are pros at what they do, nice people and I have personally interacted with them and their content before booking them.
I wanted a spread of topics this year and a mix of energies from the speakers, and I was over the moon with what they delivered.
We asked:
Which of our speakers did you find most engaging?
Which of our speakers did you find most informative?
And we got a real mix of responses across all of our speakers – this is a good thing as we know that different people resonated with different speakers for different reasons.
This event really over-delivered on all its promises. The Whole event was planned and ran so smoothly at every stage. The Keynote speakers were varied, and all presented an amazing presentation with really tangible takeaways for our business marketing strategy. I can't wait to attend GH2024 - Lawrence Slatter-Buesnel, DGR Slatter Decorators LTD
So, what did we learn and what will we do differently next time?
The venue
Our venue was awesome, and people loved the vibe, but a few things could definitely be improved.
Abi Overland did an insane job of styling the space (thanks to Alex, Jody, Harry & Macaila for helping us with the set up!) And a number of people commented on how great the sound quality was during the day – a hard thing to do in a giant metal factory space.
But, the internet connection was wobbly, the chairs were a bit hard after 7 hours and we needed more tea and coffee
We’ve had 2 great years at the potato factory, but it is time for a change to keep it fresh for our attendees. And we will probably need more space!
GREENHOUSE 2024 is at a new venue – the Freedom Centre (old Odeon building) and these are all easy fixes we will make sure don’t crop up next year.
The vibe
A great event - having not been to anything similar before, it was friendly and ideal for meeting and discovering other local businesses and connecting with people. Speakers were great and subjects covered were really helpful. - Matt - Jersey Fine Tea
We always want to create a welcoming vibe at GREENHOUSE, and we got lots of wonderful feedback about the general atmosphere.
We try very hard to create a community that is both supportive of one another and ambitious, and I am pleased that our community comes from a mix of backgrounds and demographics.
We factor in an hour of networking before the day starts, a long lunch to get to know each other and the after-party, but we also know that next year we need more breaks and more opportunities for connection.
We condensed our event format from two days down to one this year after taking on board previous feedback, but I hadn’t considered just how much info we would be sharing and the need to break it up a bit more for our attendees!
Next year we will have more breaks, and also a breakout session to break up the day and allow the attendees to connect with more people.
The after-party was also a hit with lots of people staying until the wee hours of the morning! Our welcome drinks included a non-alcoholic option, but we did get feedback that the venue didn’t have a very good non-alcoholic selection behind the bar – something we will look into for next year.
I think the AF options should be available at the after party, too - and maybe some GF options for 'breakfast' ahead of the event? Honestly, though - SUCH a great event!
We also had a gap between the event and the after party which were in quite different locations, meaning some people were left hanging around until the after-party kicked off – I definitely dropped the ball on this one and we have a plan for this next year for those that want a buffer in between!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Overall, I am really proud of GREENHOUSE 2023, but I know we can do better.
I always say that an event lives or dies by its content. It can look amazing, have great marketing, and feel fancy, but if the content the speakers share is rubbish, you haven’t hit the mark.
I can, hand on heart, say that the content we shared this year was top-notch. And that is definitely something we want to keep improving on.
Our venue looked fab and worked really well, but there were some issues that hopefully we can address at our new venue next year to make the experience a bit smoother for our attendees.
We will also be trying a slightly different format with breakout sessions and more breaks so that everyone can relax into the day a bit more.
Ultimately, this event is for our attendees, and if they keep needing it, I will keep creating it. In the 3 days following GREENHOUSE 2023, we sold over 20% of our tickets for 2024 – I hope this means that overall, we’re on to a good thing.
Head to www.greenhouse.je to join the waitlist for 2024 today.
Such a great experience from start to finish. If you’re wondering if you should go, do it! You will 100% leave with ideas you will be itching to put into action. - Roar Creatives
