Finning CAT at Hillhead 2016

Hillhead is the biggest event of it’s kind in the world. Situated within a working quarry it allows exhibitors to put their equipment through it’s paces within a live quarry environment.

Nest have been working with Finning CAT for the past 6 years and were again asked to deliver a professional, experiential environment for Finning CAT to demonstrate it’s latest range of equipment and supporting technologies.

Along with live and static displays of new equipment, Finning was also launching ‘Our Promise’; part of a new customer charter which makes a series of key commitments as part of Finning’s focus on delivering a consistent, positive customer experience.

The challenge to Nest was to create a space where Finning could communicate ‘Our Promise’, showcase new technologies, create a space for meetings and also a platform to watch the live machine demonstrations. We also needed to ensure that we didn’t alienate historical clients with too much focus on ‘tech’.

Our solution was a large 2 tier structure with terraces. The ground floor had a relaxed cafe feel and plenty of visibility and natural light to be able to view the static machine displays.

The space included demonstration technology such as virtual reality headsets which demonstrated new machinery and put the participant into the cabin of new machines and large interactive touchscreen walls. There were also several interactive zones, a specific zone for the new customer charter and a demo area showcasing their new ‘Redbird’ drone technology.

The first floor was invite only and had a distinctly different feel to the ground floor. Designed as a hospitality lounge the first floor included a working kitchen, self service coffee area and large plasma screens. The space also led out to a 1st floor terrace with the perfect view of the live machine demonstrations at the quarry face.

Customers could be greeted at the entrance to the booth via an outdoor reception area and led through the entire customer journey – from machine demo’s through informal discussions over a coffee to lunch and more in depth meetings on the VIP floor.

The overall structure was wrapped in a dynamic graphic with simple, clear messaging: ‘Connecting you to smarter solutions’.