Housing 2024: Highlights from Our First Ever Exhibition!
Back in June 2024, Team GES proudly exhibited at Housing 2024 for the very first time and what an incredible experience it was!
Check out some of our videos below!
Held at the iconic Manchester Central Convention Complex, Housing is one of the biggest events in the industry’s calendar, bringing together thousands of housing professionals, councils, housing associations, suppliers, and industry leaders from all across the UK. As first-timers, we were super excited (and VERY nervous) to showcase our free void energy management service to the sector, especially having already partnered with 120+ registered social landlords nationwide.
Getting Ready for Our Housing 2024 Debut
We arrived in Manchester on the Monday afternoon with a van full of goodies, exhibition materials, and plenty of plants borrowed from the office to help bring our stand to life! After meeting with the stand builders – the wonderful Unique Exhibitions – to finalise our setup, we headed off for an early night ahead of three very busy days!
Bright and early on the Tuesday morning, we were at the venue after a lovely breakfast, ready to welcome visitors to our stand and introduce them to the benefits of our Void Energy Management service. One of the biggest highlights of the whole event was getting the chance to meet so many fantastic people face-to-face, including existing contacts, supporters, and completely new organisations discovering our service for the very first time.
What really surprised us was how many housing professionals did not even realise that a service like this existed for empty properties, especially one completely free of charge. It was incredibly rewarding to spread awareness of how we help voids and lettings teams save huge amounts of staff time, money, and effort by taking all the stress and most of admin out of the void process.
Showcasing Our Void Energy Management Service
Throughout the event, we spoke with a huge range of professionals who were keen to learn more about how our service helps organisations save time, money, and unnecessary admin during the void property process.
Our fully managed service supports landlords and housing providers by helping to:
- Manage utility suppliers during void periods
- Reduce unnecessary standing charges
- Handle meter issues and appointments
- Minimise administrative burden for housing teams
- Improve efficiency across the void process
With 20+ years of experience in the energy industry, our team understands the challenges housing providers face and work hard to make void energy management as simple and stress-free as possible.
As a profit-for-purpose company, sustainability is also at the heart of what we do. All profits from Green Energy Switch are gift-aided to environmental charity PECT, helping to fund environmental projects and positive community impact initiatives. Wherever possible, we switch void properties managed through our service onto green electricity tariffs, helping housing providers reduce both emissions and environmental impact during the void period.
What really resonated with visitors at Housing 2024 was that our service does not just deliver operational and financial benefits, it also supports organisations working towards their wider sustainability and ESG goals.
Want to see the real impact our service is making? Read our latest results blog to discover how we helped registered social landlords save over £2 million combined last year through our Void Energy Management service, alongside thousands of staff hours and significant standing charge savings.
A Stand That Reflected Our Values
Over the three days, we were absolutely delighted to receive tonnes of compliments on our stand design, which featured clean white branding, wooden panelling, and of course, a living wall, something we felt perfectly reflected our company values, particularly sustainability, which is at the heart of everything we do. As our first ever major exhibition, it was an amazing opportunity to connect with so many brilliant, like-minded organisations and individuals who are just as passionate about sustainability and positive change within the housing sector as we are.
What made it even more special was later being recognised by the prestigious Building and Facilities News as one of the top 3 exhibitors from the event. As you can imagine, this was a huge honour, and we are just so glad our stand and team made such an impact. You can read the issue here on page 22.
Networking, Inspiration and… the Dulux Dog!
Although the conference days were long and tiring, they were also incredibly rewarding. We had the opportunity to build valuable new connections, share ideas with other organisations across the sector, and explore the many innovative stands and exhibitors around the venue.
One unexpected highlight? Meeting the famous Dulux Dog in person, although sadly we did not manage to get a photo!
We also ran daily champagne prize draws at our stand, which added a bit of extra fun across the event and gave us even more opportunities to connect with visitors.
Thank You to Everyone Who Visited Us
Housing 2024 was a huge milestone for Green Energy Switch as our first ever exhibition event, and we could not have asked for a better experience.
The event gave us the chance to raise awareness of our Void Energy Management service, connect with organisations across the housing sector, and gain valuable insight into the challenges and innovations shaping the industry.
A huge thank you to everybody who visited our stand, spoke with the team, entered our competitions, or followed our journey on social media. You helped make our debut exhibition a real success.
We cannot wait for the next one!
ABOUT US
Green Energy Switch (GES) delivers a broad range of energy services across the UK; specialising in working with social landlords and local authorities. Established in 2006, GES is a subsidiary of environmental charity PECT. We gift-aid any profits to PECT to help fund their vital work. In doing so, we are the lead sponsor of their Forest project. So far over 131,000 trees have been planted, equating to a remarkable reduction of over 1,300 tonnes of carbon emission.
