Absolutely. We work with teams at all stages, from early-stage launches to global portfolios. The shape of the partnership scales to match: sometimes it’s a short sprint to unblock a specific issue, sometimes it’s a longer project, or an ongoing role on your team as part of a fractional leadership engagement.

We’re pretty flexible, so we’re happy to start off with something small so you can get a feel for us and scale up later down the line if you like what we do and feel like you’re getting value.

We’re headquartered in the UK, but we work with clients around the world.

Most of our projects are delivered remotely, with periodic in-person working sessions where it makes sense.

We’re big believers in face-to-face (that’s why we’re all in this industry, after all!) so for medium to large projects we do prefer to get together with you in real life at least once, usually for a project kick-off. We find it helps to start us off on the right foot and feel like part of your team more quickly.

We specialise in growth, turnaround and launch work for B2B event portfolios — anything that touches strategy, positioning, product design, team structure or event delivery. If you’re unsure whether your problem fits (or what the problem actually is!), get in touch anyway and we’ll have a chat. We’ll often recommend a short diagnostic project first so we can really get under the skin of your brand, customers, team etc, and offer guidance about where we can be most useful to you.

Once we’ve had an initial call and agreed scope with you, we can usually start within two to four weeks, depending on our availability and the complexity of the project.

Then the booster rockets go on!

You can probably guess the answer to this one: as long as a piece of string.

Every project is different and will require a different mix of resource and time to deliver, so the cost to work with us varies a lot.

What we can commit to with regard to pricing is absolute transparency. We’ll agree a clear scope of work with you, as well as a fixed or phased fee, before any work begins so you know exactly what you’re signing up for. We don’t do hidden extras.

Absolutely. Most of our work is collaborative and it’s pretty unusual for us to complete a project without quite a lot of dialogue with the team working on the event(s). Generally we work hand-in-hand with the existing leadership team.

We’re probably most useful when you think of us as an extension of your team, with access to the same systems they use on a day-to-day basis. This gives us the best visibility into the status quo and the best chance of spotting opportunities for improvement and growth.

Fractional leadership means bringing in an experienced C-level professional (for example a COO, CFO or CPO) on a part-time or interim basis. It gives you senior-level clarity and direction without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.

It’s especially useful for growing event organisers or portfolios that have hit a ceiling, need structure between hires, or want to test a new senior role before recruiting permanently.

It’s very different from a traditional consultancy or agency engagement. A fractional leader is someone who will actually sit within your org chart, albeit not on a full-time schedule. You get the benefit of embedded leadership that solves problems from the inside, not just advice from the outside.

It’s a very popular model for high-growth companies in the startup/tech world who need the expertise and reputational clout of a senior head, but aren’t yet at the stage of wanting to commit to a big, expensive full-time hire. It’s the perfect fit for high-potential events businesses too.

Learn more about fractional leadership.

Yes, we can - when it makes sense. Most of our work is strategic and hands-on, and that can extend right through to full event delivery or launch.

In these scenarios, we would usually expect the brief to include upskilling your existing team and/or helping you to hire, so that once the event is firing on all cylinders your team can take it and run with it.

That’s fine. Lots of our clients start with a diagnostic session or a short-term advisory sprint before committing to a bigger piece of work.

This gives us the chance to take a look under the hood and see where the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of your organisation and your event(s) lie, so we can help work out where we could make the most impact for you if you want to move forward with a subsequent engagement together. If not, you’ll still walk away with a clear map of where you are and where to go next.

And when you’re ready to push go, we’ll be there.

Just get on a call. You’ll know.

In all seriousness, we think you’ll get a feel for who we are and how we work pretty quickly. We’re the best match for teams who value doing things properly - who care about building quality products, making their customers happy and standing out from the crowd. We’re probably not the right fit for anyone looking for quick hacky fixes or carbon-copies of other shows. Don’t get us wrong - we’ve got plenty of tricks up our sleeves from our long tenure in the industry and we like to go fast! And we’ll always bring the best-in-class examples with us from the other shows we’ve worked on. But our goal is to help you build a stable, powerful, differentiated base for growth.

If that’s what you’re after, we’re in.

Not right now, at least, not in the traditional sense.

For Real isn’t a big corporate machine with open headcount or layers of hierarchy. We build small, brilliant teams around each project, which means we’re always on the lookout for exceptional collaborators rather than permanent roles.

If you’re an experienced events professional who cares about doing things properly, and you like the sound of how we work, think about joining our Collective. That’s where we connect with like-minded specialists for future projects, and we’d love to hear from you.