Case study – EuroSkills Budapest 2018
Case study – EuroSkills Budapest 2018
Date: 26-28 September 2018
Client: Worldskills Europe, Hungarian Chamber of Commerce
Attendees: 1000 competitors, experts, jury; 100.000 spectators
Venue: Hall A, B, C, D, G and F and all other areas of HUNGEXPO
EuroSkills 2018 Budapest is the European
Championship of Skills the biggest biennial vocational event in Europe
where young professionals under 25 compete in all the main industrial
areas represented in six groups – Creative Arts and Fashion,
Manufacturing and Engineering Technology, Transportation and Logistics,
Information and Communication Technology, Social and Personal Services,
and Construction and Building Technology. The participants arrive form
the 28 member countries of WorldSkills Europe the owner of the
competition in order to find out who is the most talented in the
continent in such skills bricklayers thorough bakers to electrical
installation technicians.
Objectives, planning and execution
Organizing this event was a huge opportunity to prove the importance of
the quality of vocational education and the importance of skills in
achieving economic growth. The huge attention that comes with organizing
such an event gave the perfect opportunity to bring together leaders of
government, education, business and industry and use this event as a
catalyst for further transformation of the vocational training in
Hungary and to attract considerably more students in the future.
37 workshops were to be set up and turned into professional and high
level production areas for 3-4 days and then turned off again. All
skills have special industry regulations, health and safety regulations
and rules how professionals can work in correct conditions.
The competitions took place in five event halls in 180-1600sqm size competition areas totalling 40thousand square meters in Hall A, D, G and F.
The conferences took place in two meeting rooms 100pax and 280pax in Hall B. The exhibition totalled 6000 square meters with 45 exhibitors –sponsors, member countries and government bodies. Two thirds of the stands were custom design, the rest were shell scheme.
There was a 2600 square meter restaurant tent where 1300 guests were served at the same time. In addition 20 organisers’ offices, 3 VIP rooms and a 5600sqm storage hall was also provided.
The build up period started 9 days before the first competition day. Before the event was opened for the public two test days were carried out, so build up had to be completed in 7 days.
The competition at HUNGEXPO was open to the public, after a
pre-registration, the visit was free of charge. Daily visitor numbers
reached 30-35k totalling 100k attendees in three days.
Transportation challenges, visitor flow – To be able to
raise the number of visitors transportation was organized for the
students from the countryside. That meant that the daily number of
visitor buses were around 300 that reached the site every day. Special
traffic restrictions and road closures had to be implemented to achieve
as quick and effective flow of traffic as possible. Because of the high
number of vehicles, the allocation of bus stops and the coordination of
visistors arriving by train also required on-site management and
coordination.
The goal of the communication and PR campaign was
twofold: to raise awareness in Hungary about the EuroSkills competition
and to engage the young generation towards vocational skills.
The primary target was elementary and secondary school audience,
including students, their parents, and teachers who have an influence on
the younger generation’s career choices.
The campaign included:
– national campaign (outdoor, television, print)
– online campaign
– social media
– PR in the above
Innovation and creativity
The owner of the competition WorldSkills Europe has an inner quality
assurance system that is used during such type of events. The system has
two parts: technical preparedness and participation experience.
The biggest challenge of these type of events is technical preparedness,
because everything has to be on site and functioning by the time
participants arrives, there are no second chances. Since the equipment
was provided just in time and mostly by sponsors with such variety it is
extremely difficult to carry this out.
All workshop is monitored daily in terms of preparedness and
functionality, with 3 different statuses: red – big issue, yellow –
small issue, green – no issue. Unprecedented in this events there were
no other status given out but green, thanks to the committed partners
and the excellent built up services.
Increased visitor experience: TRY A SKILL areas
The main industrial areas were represented in six groups – Creative Arts
and Fashion, Manufacturing and Engineering Technology, Transportation
and Logistics, Information and Communication Technology, Social and
Personal Services, and Construction and Building Technology. In order to
increase the visitor experience, and engage the youngsters special
career orientation „islands” were created near the 37 competition areas
where it was possible to try the basic activities that are typical in
the skill. Overall 29 different Try a Skill workshops were built up and
operated to represent 33 skills (from joinery to hairdressing) all
across the whole competition area.
Effectiveness and results
The event overall was highly praised and successful according to both
visitor and both participant feedback, truly setting up new standards to
the next organizers.
The event summary in figures:
9 SET UP, 3 EVENT DAYS
28 COUNTRIES REPRESENTED
37 SKILLS, 40,000SQM WORKSHOP AREAS
525 COMPETITORS
470 EXPERTS AND JURY
60 000 M2 AREA FOR THE COMPETITION, AND SUPPORTING EVENTS (CONFERENCE, EXHIBITION, CATERING)
29 TRY A SKILL AREAS
700 VOLUNTEERS (with a 95% turn up rate)
350 MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES (approx. 100 more than the previous event)
85 320 INDIVIDUAL VISITORS (approx. 11.000 more than previous event)
8 224 CEREMONY SPECTATORS (approx. 1.500 more than previous event)
250 PARTICIPANTS AT THE CONFERENCE PROGRAM (free of charge but registration required, full house which is unique)
Media interest
In total, 261 international an 98 Hungarian media representatives
pre-registered to cover the EuroSkills Budapest 2018 competition.
Including its opening and closing ceremonies and the side events, the
competition received 542 media coverage.
UPDATE: Euroskills Budapest 2018, HUNGEXPO’s biggest event last year wins Silver Prize at the ‘Oscar gala of events’, Global Eventex Awards.
The winners were announced on March 26, 2019, and in the Educational Event category, EuroSkills Budapest 2018 won an outstanding second place. The Global Eventex Awards is one of the largest international event competions that have been awarded the most outstanding events since 2009 in six different categories. In 2018, a total of 331 events were nominated in 42 subcategories, from over 80 countries worldwide.
„We are proud that Hungexpo was the host and organizing partner of EuroSkills Budapest”- said Gábor Ganczer, CEO. After four years of preliminary work, hundreds of people were working to bring this great prestige event to a success. This was the largest event of all our international hosted events, and it was a great success.” added Mr Ganczer.
