Hemköp pop-up store

A complete Hemköp store inside Uppsala Konsert & Kongress? Sure, why not, thought the events agency and presented the concept for the annual meeting of Hemköp management.

“Of course, it sounded quite crazy but the project manager at the events agency had a clear picture of it, ” remembers UKK project manager, Lotta. We met this events agency during a client activity that we had organised with Stora Möten, they have the twelve biggest conference facilities in the country. We were being shown pictures and talking as usual and then he had the idea of a pop-up pop into his head. So we arranged a meeting a few weeks later, he came here and went around and had a look and was pretty quiet. I asked his assistant who was with him about it, who said “he usually does this – it’s a good sign.”

And as the wheels were spinning, it turned out that yes, it was possible to accommodate both a fully-fledged store and a dinner for 500 people.

“The whole of Hall D was transformed with fruit and flower counters, rows of freezers and carrier bags”

“It was like a real Hemköp store, the whole of Hall D was transformed with fruit and flower counters, rows of freezers and carrier bags. The purpose of the event was to present new products internally, area managers and sales managers from different stores were invited so they could see what was new and discuss producst them and try them. Then there was also a gala dinner on the last night and we changed the venue and had a sit-down dinner.

Parts of the store stayed where they were during the dinner but a stage was set up at another place in the venue so it could be used in two directions. While the guests were having a pre-dinner drink on level 6, we pulled the curtains and refurnished the venue. It was an exciting take on it,” laughs Lotta.

The event lasted for two days and required a long rig time, but this was no ordinary event.

“What was also special was that there were so many goods,” says Lotta. “The leftovers were actually given to the Uppsala Stadsmission charity afterwards, so they went somewhere sensible and it gained a lot of attention and was widely written about.”

However, the fact that the Hemköp store would be built in Uppsala was not obvious from the start. Instead, Lotta says that dawned on the event project manager when he realized how well situated UKK is for events drawing delegates from all over the country.

– He hadn’t considered us earlier, and it is oftentimes when we say that we are close to Arlanda airport that people realize it, as you aren’t really thinking about how close to Arlanda we actually are. “Oh, it’s easy to get there too.”