The Lombard Roadshows: It’s not just about showing up. It’s about showing up differently.

By Stella Carter

Every two years, I hit the road with Lombard for its regional roadshows. Five regions, three weeks and more than 400 brokers later, this year’s roadshows have left us with something more valuable than a few great events. We’ve walked away with meaningful conversations, stronger connections and real business opportunities.

But this year felt different. And I think there’s a good reason for that.

The purpose of these roadshows has always been about meeting the industry where it is. Connecting with existing business partners, meeting potential new ones and sharing Lombard’s story. Just as importantly, it’s about listening. Understanding what’s happening in the broker market, where the challenges lie, what support is needed and how Lombard, together with its specialist Underwriting Management Agency (UMA) partners, can add real value.

That part hasn’t changed. What did change was how we approached the conversations.

Challenging the familiar

Let’s be honest. Networking events can sometimes follow a familiar pattern. You arrive, catch up with the people you already know, grab something to eat and drink, have a few conversations and head home. Everyone has attended events like these, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that.

But if the intention is to create new connections, uncover opportunities and encourage meaningful conversations between brokers and specialist partners, is the usual format really delivering on that promise?

For this year’s roadshows, we wanted to do things a little differently.

We rethought the way people connected, introducing a more natural, interactive approach that helped take the awkwardness out of starting a conversation. Rather than leaving people to navigate the room themselves, we created opportunities for brokers and UMA partners to get straight to the things that matter: what they do, what they need, where they can help one another and where opportunities might exist that hadn’t been considered before.

The response was overwhelmingly positive. Brokers connected with partners they hadn’t previously engaged with, discovered new areas of expertise and had conversations that may not otherwise have happened. Our UMA partners had more meaningful engagement with the broker market, and brokers had the opportunity to connect with one another, too.

Most importantly, these weren’t just conversations for the sake of networking. They opened the door to follow-up discussions, prospective engagements and tangible business opportunities.

For events that can sometimes be difficult to measure in terms of return on investment, that matters.

Start with people, not the event

So, what made the difference this time around?

I believe it comes down to a constant willingness to listen, learn and improve.

Over time, we’ve paid attention to the feedback received after each engagement. What’s working? What’s missing? What could be easier, more relevant or more valuable for the people in the room? And, perhaps most importantly, how do we make sure that every interaction with Lombard and its UMA partners leaves a positive impression?

It requires challenging the familiar and being prepared to do things differently. Not for the sake of change, but because the needs of the audience should always come first.

That means putting yourself in their shoes. Understanding their pressures, their priorities and what would make their time worthwhile. It means recognising that what works for one audience, or even one region, may not work for another. And it means being willing to adapt rather than simply repeating what was done before because it worked well enough last time.

A little empathy goes a long way. So does paying attention.

At CN&CO, we believe good marketing and communications start with understanding people. But understanding your audience is only the starting point. It’s about being prepared to challenge the familiar, question whether there’s a better way and then actually do things differently.

It’s not simply about delivering an event. It’s about understanding the bigger picture, knowing what you want the engagement to achieve and creating the right environment for that to happen. Sometimes that means taking what has always been done and turning it on its head. Sometimes it’s a small change that makes a big difference to the experience.

Either way, the approach is the same: listen, understand, challenge and improve. And, most importantly, make sure the people at the centre of the experience feel the difference.

More than just a great venue and a good glass of wine

Don’t get me wrong. The venue matters. The food, the wine, the atmosphere and the overall experience all contribute to how people feel about an event. Those details shouldn’t be overlooked.

But they are only part of the picture.

Without a clear understanding of why you’re bringing people together, what you want them to take away and what a successful outcome looks like for everyone involved, you risk delivering just another event.

The why should drive the how. It should shape the format, the experience, the conversations you want to encourage and the opportunities you want to create.

This is something we explored in our recent blog, The Impact of Showing Up: Why Events Matter. Showing up is important. But how you show up, and what you make possible when you do, is what really counts.

The real measure of success

Across five regions, more than 400 brokers and three weeks on the road, this year’s Lombard roadshows reinforced something we believe strongly: when you put people at the centre of the experience, the results can go well beyond the event itself.

The feedback from brokers and UMA partners has been overwhelmingly positive. There has been more engagement, more meaningful interaction and, encouragingly, more real business conversations emerging from the connections made.

Of course, not every conversation will turn into business tomorrow. Relationships take time, and opportunities need nurturing. But creating the conditions for those conversations to happen is an important first step.

For me, that’s the real measure of success. Not simply how many people attended, how beautiful the venue looked or how smoothly the event ran, but whether we made it easier for people to connect, understand one another and see new possibilities.

Perhaps the biggest lesson is that you don’t improve an experience by looking at it from behind the scenes. You improve it by stepping into the shoes of the people experiencing it.

Because doing things differently doesn’t always require a big budget or a radical reinvention. Sometimes, it starts with a simple question: How can we make this more valuable for the people we’re bringing together?

Ask that question often enough, listen carefully to the answers and be prepared to act on them, and you might just find that an event becomes so much more than a date on the calendar. It becomes an opportunity to build relationships, create value and open doors that might otherwise have remained closed.