On the 7th and 8th of November 2023, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) brought together 3,500 delegates from across the voluntary sector for an in-person event - ‘The Gathering’ - at the EICC, and in its online counterpart, The Gathering Extra. 

ITS FIRST large-scale in-person event since February 2020, SCVO wanted to ensure ‘The Gathering’ came back with a bang. The largest free voluntary event in the UK, SCVO envisioned an event that would enable people working across the voluntary sector to network and learn from each other - all in an accessible, inclusive environment that promotes sustainability.

SCVO’s Event Manager, Alex Thomson, explains what factors made The Gathering such a success.

Putting flexibility first 

“There are other venues which can accommodate … but the beauty of the EICC is the flexibility and the room options available.”

Bringing together such a large number of people, the SCVO wanted a centrally located, well-connected venue with lots of options. With a packed programme of 70 different workshops and seminars, plus 75 different exhibitors across the two-day event, the SCVO were drawn to the variety of spaces at the EICC, and how these can be facilitated according to each event. 

“There are other venues which can accommodate the capacity requirements, but the beauty of the EICC is the flexibility and the room options available”, says Alex. “There’s the Sidlaw Auditorium, the Pentland Suite and the 24 individual event rooms, which all worked really well together with our programme. 

“For example, when we're programme planning, we knew that our Meet the First Minister event would be in the Pentland suite, and that we could fill it with 600 people, while some of the smaller, more niche workshops or seminars could take place in the smaller rooms.”

Meeting the event’s needs 

SCVO wanted to prioritise accessibility, inclusivity and diversity at The Gathering, as well as being mindful of the event’s environmental impact, so they worked closely with the EICC to ensure the event met these particular needs.

“The venue team was always available to provide directions and to generally ensure that everyone felt comfortable, could see and hear each session, and that they had a positive experience.”

“We communicated with a lot of delegates and the venue in the run-up to the event to ensure we could meet any accessibility needs, and to provide materials or presentations in advance”, says Alex. ‘We then worked with the EICC to ensure that wheelchair or walking stick users knew where the lifts were. The venue team was always available to provide directions and to generally ensure that everyone felt comfortable, could see and hear each session, and that they had a positive experience.

“We also wanted to make sure that the event speakers reflected our diverse sector, and that the panels included those with lived experience diversity too. The EICC were really good at supporting us with these goals.”

“We had great feedback from delegates on the recorded sessions, and we could not fault the tech team at the EICC. Everything ran so seamlessly for us, and it saved me and the team a huge headache!”

The EICC’s technological capabilities helped to build on The Gathering’s inclusivity practices. There’s an Induction Loop located in the Pentland Auditorium to create an accessible space for those who are hard of hearing. The team at the EICC also set up cameras in each suite to record 27 sessions over the two days for The Gathering Extra, the online version of the conference. This allowed delegates who couldn’t make it along in-person, perhaps due to financial, mobility or health issues to have access to the full conference.

“We had about 75 concurrent sessions, so there was a lot of choice on the programme. To be able to provide the recorded sessions that people could watch later meant that they didn’t have to miss out on anything,” says Alex. “We had great feedback from delegates on the recorded sessions, and we could not fault the tech team at the EICC. Everything ran so seamlessly for us, and it saved me and the team a huge headache!”

Finally, SCVO wanted to ensure they were hosting The Gathering in an environmentally-friendly way. In addition to vegetarian-only catering, the EICC assisted the SCVO in ensuring single use plastics were limited, and that delegates were encouraged to bring their own drinks containers. The EICC also provided QR codes to share catering information digitally to reduce paper waste. 

Success through collaboration 

“The team were absolutely superb at explaining the capacities and functionality of each room. We worked with the events team to help with programme plannning, and the catering team to create the vegetarian menu.”

Alex and his team at the SCVO worked directly with EICC to organise the running of the conference - from essential conference programming to finer details specific to the voluntary sector.

“The team were absolutely superb at explaining the capacities and functionality of each room. We worked with the events team to help with programme plannning, and the catering team to create the vegetarian menu.”

SCVO worked with an event planner at the EICC to organise elements of the conference including signage and security for speakers - including Scotland’s First Minister. “Having the operations team and the security team there just to reassure us that everything was going to run smoothly for the First Minister’s arrival was really good. I was really happy with the work the team put in in the run-up to the event.” 

The event’s takeaway

As the first large-scale event SCVO has held since before the pandemic, it was important for the team to hold an event that brought existing and new sector members together in a positive, welcoming environment. “We wanted people to feel engaged, to learn and network and to form new working relationships - and we feel like we achieved that,” says Alex. 

“The feedback we got from delegates was great. From the welcome they received at the door to the helpfulness of the cloakroom staff, the efficiency and friendliness of the whole team really put people at ease.

“You don't know what people have come from to get there, and it’s quite daunting to come into a large event. Experiencing a friendly reception really helped to make people feel comfortable. It really made the event.” 

Event feedback

The Gathering 2023 was a resounding success, with lots of positive feedback from partners and attendees alike. Some of the responses included: