FIRST

You can hand FIRST a whole event, from content and stage design to venue sourcing and attendee management, or bring its specialists into your own events team for a fixed programme. The agency publishes both models and backs them with conference, roadshow and fan experience work for clients including Swift, Shopify and Indeed. Its London office is at Axe and Bottle Court, Newcomen Street, SE1, one of five offices alongside New York, Los Angeles, Dublin and Singapore.

Services

You can buy one discipline or the full chain, because FIRST’s services page splits its offer into five groups.

• Content: concept development, content strategy, presentation content, and video production, design and editing.
• Creative: creative strategy and direction, copywriting, experience design, graphic and 3D design, motion graphics and UX design.
• Digital Technology: experiential technology, audio visual, technical direction, broadcast, streaming and hybrid, event apps and platforms, and web development.
• Management & Delivery: planning, production, venue sourcing, attendee management, speaker services, financial roadshow management and sustainability consultation.
• Data & Insights: market research, measurement, KPI analysis, change management and advisory sessions.

If you already run events in house, FIRST Embedded Solutions places its staff inside your team as an outsourced meetings management model, a model the agency says it has run for over 15 years. A separate data and AI team, FIONA, offers spend views, live dashboards and ROI measurement across your other agencies too.

Sectors and clients

You can expect a team used to senior corporate audiences. FIRST names financial services, technology, media, aerospace, healthcare and professional services as its sectors, and its modern slavery statement adds consumer electronics, automotive and the non-profit sector. Named clients on its case-study pages include Swift, Shopify, Indeed, LG, AOL and Sands China.

Recent work

You can judge the scale it handles from these projects. All figures are the agency’s own.

• Sibos 2022 for Swift: a four-day hybrid conference at RAI Amsterdam, organised on six months’ lead time against the usual twelve. FIRST reports over 10,000 registered participants, 550+ speakers, 220+ exhibitors and 15% lower CO2 emissions, plus gold, silver and bronze at the 2023 Eventex Awards.
• Shopify Unite 2022: three two-day developer events on three continents within two months, including London at Tobacco Dock, with 350+ attendees at each.
• Indeed FutureWorks 2025: an HR leaders’ conference where the expo was rebuilt as six problem-led zones and a broadcast studio served online viewers. FIRST says 41% of in-person attendees took a 30-minute product walkthrough and virtual attendance rose 45% year on year.
• NBA China Games Retail District for Sands Shoppes Macao: a five-day fan and retail zone where FIRST managed the build and on-site delivery.

Company

You contract with an established group. FIRST says it has told brand stories for over 30 years, and Companies House shows the parent named in its statements, First Protocol Group Limited (03250913), incorporated on 17 September 1996 and registered at the London address. The sustainability statement puts the headquarters in New York and the team at more than 800 people, and says FIRST is part of the Encore family of companies. It targets net zero by 2050, a 45% cut in scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, and takes part in Net Zero Carbon Events. No minimum project size or rates are published.

What to ask before you appoint them

• Would your UK event be run from the London office, or by a team in another of the five offices?
• For an embedded team, what notice period and staffing levels does FIRST propose, and who manages those people day to day?
• Venue sourcing is listed as a service. Does FIRST take commission from the venues it books for you?
• Can FIONA report your results across your other suppliers, and is that priced separately?
• Which Encore companies, if any, would supply AV or production on your event?
• Will you get an emissions report for your own event, given the published target covers the company?

Related on Events Review

• Event production and brand experience agencies
• Conference venues in London
• Live Group, another London agency to compare
• Principal. Global Events, a London agency running events abroad
• Identity, a London experience agency
• Strata, a London agency with delegate and production services
• The questions that make agency proposals comparable
• Attendance is a count, not the whole result

Sources: firstagency.com, services, Embedded Solutions, case studies, sustainability statement, modern slavery statement, contact and offices and Companies House, checked 5 November 2026.