Former MCI account director Stephen Morton-Prior has started up a new event management company and DMC, Clearwater Events.
Morton-Prior – who has 15 years of agency experience – has worked for American Express, W&O Events and most recently MCI. He said he felt now was the right time to go it alone and start up the Birmingham-based agency and DMC last month.
He said: “I feel the industry is a little stale, we seem to focus a lot on processes and not the actual creative delivery of the event. My idea is to create something a little bit different – it’s about glamour and sophistication mixed with clever process, technology and marketing strategy.”
The fully bonded-agency - which will initially focus on targeting media, automotive and West Midlands-based clients - has been set up as a virtual operation in Birmingham and is also working with Meet Birmingham to offer DMC services. Clearwater Events has also partnered with social media marketing company, Bareface Media to offer clients web marketing and social media campaigns.
“We really want to build our business quickly, and getting onboard with Birmingham which is a creative melting point and low cost hub is great for that,” said Morton-Prior.
Morton-Prior and joint director Jonathan Harrold, who is a business psychologist, plan to recruit a team of two event managers as they build up the business.
“One of our unique selling points is social media and how we apply this to our events – we will start by using technology for the conferences and events we do. We really are embracing Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and bespoke solutions designed in partnership with Bareface Media. Our key objective is to create online communities for specific events, working similar to Facebook. Clients are looking for something different and captivating for their delegates and our objective is to offer new ways to exchange ideas, motivate and of course inspire.”
He added that as the website grows, the company is going to develop an innovative viral marketing campaign through the introduction of ‘Venue Finding Vera’, Clearwater's ‘sassy’ event manager. As part of the campaign, Vera will be hosting her own blog as well as conducting venue finds.
Pictured: Stephen Morton-Prior
