First Event
First Event
In 2025, First Event made a deliberate shift: from a fast-growing agency to a high-performance business delivering excellence at scale.
After five years of rapid growth, expanding from 27 to over 60 people and transitioning to an employee-owned business, we made a deliberate decision not just to continue growing but to lead. We needed to strengthen the foundations behind our work and build a business that could sustain quality consistently at scale.
As employee-owners, this transformation was collective. Everyone has skin in the game. Everyone shares accountability.
Our innovation was not only about show technology, but about how we work. We embedded shared accountability, clearer ownership, and improved visibility of performance.
By investing in our people, processes, and sustainability strategy, we reshaped how we design and deliver experiences that create lasting, measurable outcomes for our clients.
At the same time, delivery, creativity, and ambition did not slow.
We delivered 205 events globally while increasing gross margin from 29% to 39% and strengthening overall financial performance. Client relationships deepened, with 73% of revenue from existing clients and 94% saying they would work with us again. Satisfaction averaged 8.9/10, with consistent feedback highlighting professionalism and “flawless organisation”.
Sustainability is now embedded in how we design, deliver, and measure events. Our ESG performance is independently benchmarked in the top quartile, generating measurable social value and enabling clients to make more responsible choices.
We strengthened our culture. Employee Net Promoter Score increased from -6 to +35, driven by a culture of ownership, structured development, and transparent leadership. We retained our place on The Sunday Times Best Places to Work list for the third consecutive year. As employee-owners, we demonstrated ambition, innovation, and performance in equal measure. We are not just delivering exceptional events, we have created a stronger, more resilient, and future-ready agency.