Good Housekeeping’s Editor-in-Chief, Gaby Huddart, explains why the brand is putting on a full-scale in-person event, and why it’s so important to work with the right partners.

This year, Good Housekeeping UK is celebrating its 100th birthday.

Since its very first issue in 1922, the brand’s mission has been to offer informative, uplifting content, balanced with brilliant advice. As you can imagine, the past century has brought a multitude of challenges across the decades – from WW2 to numerous economic recessions – and our mission has been to create content to fit the times in which our audiences are living. One of the most recent examples of challenging circumstances was, of course, the pandemic. Global uncertainty meant that people were left feeling isolated and confused, so our positive, uplifting content became more important than ever. Print remained successful – as we found that readers were comforted by the familiarity – but we also expanded on our digital platforms, including TikTok, with a view to extending our content to a broader audience.

While that period of isolation saw us extending Good Housekeeping in new ways, we hadn’t engaged with our audience face-to-face in two years. For a brand that puts its readers at the forefront, that felt like an impossibly long time. There’s nothing quite like being able to connect in person, particularly for an audience that has remained so loyal to this brand over so many years. So, with the lockdowns behind us, we made the decision to put on a first-of-its-kind in-person event to celebrate the brand’s 100th anniversary in 2022.

Good Housekeeping Live will be taking place this weekend at the beautiful Carlton House Terrace in Central London. The event will span two days and bring together some of Britain’s best-loved experts across the worlds of food, fiction, finance, and fashion including Davina McCall, Jojo Moyes, Monica Galetti, Dr. Alex George, Kate Mosse, and Nadiya Hussain. Most importantly to us, though, is that it will offer our readers the chance to experience the brand in person, bringing our enduring positivity to life. We’ve been working tirelessly to perfect every detail of the event and our headline sponsor, Dyson, has played an invaluable role in helping bring to life an unforgettable experience for attendees.

Partnerships are not new to the media space, of course, but as readers become more and more engaged with business values, they’re beginning to carry a lot more weight. Good Housekeeping Live is the biggest date on the calendar for the brand and our readers, so our priority was to join forces with a brand that shares a similar mission. Dyson, as a British pioneer of invention, does just that. Much like Good Housekeeping, it has earned its stripes for supporting people with reliable, best-in-class solutions, staying on the front foot with innovation and, most importantly, brightening up British homes. The brand is sponsoring expert-led talks, demonstrations and bringing its innovative and eye-opening Healthy Home AR experience to Carlton House Terrace, which will enrich our guests’ experience no end.

Ultimately, creating something great comes down to careful consideration and solid strategy. Sponsors, whether it be for a campaign or event, bring much more than a cheque and co-branding. Partners signal to your audience what you value today, and where you’re aiming to take things in the future. Once considered a tick-box to get events off the ground, partners now jointly evolve an ecosystem, and help shape the way audiences view brands both on and offline. We feel immensely proud to be working with one of Britain’s most innovative businesses for our centenary celebrations; we are both excited about the future and introducing our audience to what it has in store.