Launching a brand new event is a strange mix of excitement and blind faith. You know exactly what you want it to become, but when you are asking other people to support it for the first time, you are asking them to believe in something that does not have a track record yet.... AND on top of this.. we re an activewear brand.
That has been one of the biggest things behind Show Up North.
We had a vision...
We knew we wanted to create something ambitious in the North East. A weekend that brought women together through fitness, wellbeing, confidence, experiences and connection, but without making it feel like you had to already belong in those spaces to take part. We wanted a programme that felt varied, fun and interesting, where somebody could come for a run, try something completely new, spend time with friends, discover local businesses or simply have a weekend that felt different.
What we did not have was a previous year to point to.
There were no photographs from the last event, no attendance figures from year one, no case study showing exactly what a business would get from supporting us. The businesses that came on board had to look at the idea, look at where we wanted to take it and decide that they wanted to be part of building it.
Square One Law were one of the first businesses to do exactly that.
Coming on board as our main supporter gave Show Up North a huge amount of credibility at a really important stage. More than that, they understood that the event was never just about filling a timetable with classes. The bigger ambition is to create something that becomes part of the North East calendar, brings people into Newcastle, supports women and creates opportunities for local businesses and organisations to be part of something positive.
That belief matters enormously when you are building year one.
Silent Disco King also backed the event in a big way and have helped us create some of the parts of the weekend that give Show Up North its personality. They have supported the Friday night programme, helped make the silent disco possible and come on board across the event rather than treating it as a simple supplier relationship. For a first year event, having partners willing to get involved, solve problems and help create the experience makes a massive difference.
HYCO Drinks joined as our hydration partner and immediately felt like a brilliant fit for what we were building. They are a North East female founded brand, they understood the audience and they were happy to do more than simply put product on a table. Their involvement in the Saturday morning Hydration Rave and around our outdoor sessions has helped us turn what could have been fairly standard parts of an event into something much more memorable and social.
SCOTT Sports came on board to support our outdoor programme, including the Confidence Mile and Friday evening run and walk. That part of the weekend was important to us because Show Up North was always meant to extend beyond the walls of the venue. We wanted people out in Newcastle, using the city, taking part in something that felt accessible and giving people another route into the weekend if a packed studio or class did not feel like their starting point. Having a brand like SCOTT support that idea helped us make it happen properly.
We have also been incredibly lucky to have SKIN CLUB®️ join us as a founding supporter. Alice understood the vision early on and saw the opportunity to be part of something from the beginning rather than waiting to see what happened first. That willingness to support a new event, particularly from another female founded business with confidence at the heart of what they do, has meant a lot.
What has stood out most across all of these partnerships is that they have not felt transactional.
The best conversations have been with people who have understood why we are doing this and have immediately started thinking about how they can contribute, how they can make something better or how they can help us create an experience that people will remember.
That is exactly what we wanted from the businesses around Show Up North.
Year one has involved a lot of learning, a lot of problem solving and a lot of building things from scratch. The support from Square One Law, Silent Disco King, HYCO Drinks, SCOTT Sports and SKIN CLUB®️ has allowed us to make the event bigger, better and more ambitious than it could have been without them.
It has also shown us something important for the future.
There are businesses in the North East and beyond that want to support events with purpose, back female founders, invest in their communities and get involved in ideas before they are completely proven.
That is what these businesses have done.
They have backed the first Show Up North, but they have also backed what we think it can become.
And for that, we are incredibly grateful.
