03/2017

QHotels’ Event Profs Panel joined forces with the HBAA in its latest roundtable event, to discuss the industry’s big issues and outline potential solutions for the future. 

The event, which was held in February at QHotels’ Chesford Grange, brought the HBAA’s Executive Director Juliet Price together with young event professionals on the QHotels panel, to start addressing the concerns high on their agenda, raised in previous panel roundtables.

The result was a series of potential solutions for event organisations, professionals and business leaders to consider, which QHotels hopes will now help shape the future of events by encouraging discussion, debate and involvement across the industry.

The issues addressed fell into three main categories: tackling industry perceptions, attracting new talent and nurturing and developing event professionals.

The solutions highlighted by the panel included:

• Lobbying for a professional body with ‘Chartered Institute’ status
• Highlighting role models with a spotlight on transferrable skills

• Creating a careers hub for the events industry
• Banishing unpaid internships & improving placement schemes

• Improving the perception of apprenticeships

QHotels is now calling for organisations and individuals to join in the discussion and debate, as the group addresses each category throughout the year and explores the solutions outlined in more detail.

Events professionals can get involved or offer their suggestions by emailing qhotels@aberfield.com or tweeting @QHotels.  

QHotels’ Director of Marketing, Claire Rowland, said: “The purpose of the Event Profs Panel was to give the new generation of event professionals a voice to help shape the future of events and having the HBAA join the discussion is hugely significant in driving change.

“We are now working closely with the HBAA to discuss how we can progress these suggestions and are encouraging other industry influencers to get involved.”

Juliet Price, Executive Director of the HBAA, commented: “It’s incredibly important that as an industry we’re listening to the younger generation of professionals and doing all we can to develop our future stars.  Whilst we’re already doing a lot to address these issues and looking at ways that the HBAA can support the panel’s suggestions, we hope the findings will help industry leaders, event professionals, agencies and corporates and groups to take action too.”

Event profs with less than five years’ experience in events and interested in having their say can join the QHotels panel by emailing their contact information to qhotels@aberfield.com. 

Warwick Conferences, the collection of meeting venues based on the University of Warwick campus, took its new, fully serviced catering van on the road to London recently to showcase its award-winning food offer to event bookers.

As part of the London road trip, the van took pride of place on the Warwick Conferences stand at International Confex, which took place 1 – 2 March at Olympia London. This was the first time an exhibiting conference venue had utilised a van as the focal point of their stand at the show. As well as offering complimentary tea, coffees, brownies and champagne, the team were on-hand to provide visitors with a flavour of the new approach to food now on offer as part of Warwick Conferences’ refreshed and improved offering.

In addition to this, it was an opportunity to speak with visitors and potential clients about how the van can add a unique element to all kinds of events that are taking place up and down the country.

Rachael Bartlett, Head of Sales and Marketing at Warwick Conferences, said: “This was the first time we had utilised the van for a specific industry event and we are delighted with the response we had. The van proved to be a hit at Confex with visitors keen to hear about the new investment and how it could be used as part of their upcoming events, as well our new approach to food and service delivery. We’ve already received over £200k worth of enquiries with considerable interest generated in both the van and our newest venue, The Slate.”

The catering van also made an appearance at Battersea Evolution on the evening of Friday 3 March as part of the M&IT Awards. Situated outside the entrance, the van was a welcome sight providing complimentary bacon rolls and tea, coffee and water to attendees from 10pm – 2am as they left the venue following the awards event.

Rachael adds: “Our activation at the M&IT Awards was the perfect opportunity for us to raise awareness of not just the fact that the van can be hired for events, but that we can also now go directly to clients to give them a flavour of the Warwick Conferences experience and our award-winning catering. In recent weeks we have visited clients including ArrangeMY Group in Worcester and Capita in Swindon.

“The inclusion of the van as part of our stand at Confex and the activation at the M&IT awards have both gone a long way in raising awareness of our new offering, as well as generating genuine excitement around what we can make possible at Warwick Conferences.” 

Warwick Conferences is celebrating another year of success at the Meetings & Incentive Travel (M&IT) Awards 2017, after picking up the Silver award for Best Academic Venue.

The collection of meeting venues based on the University of Warwick campus was awarded the Silver award in a category which also featured Imago, Oxford University, Robinson College Cambridge, The Moller Centre and the University of Manchester Conferences and Venues.

Warwick Conferences was also shortlisted in the Best UK Management Training Centre and Best Value for Money Conference Venue categories.

The awards are solely voted for by event organisers and readers of M&IT magazine with this year’s ceremony taking place at Battersea Evolution and attended by more than 1,000 meetings and events professionals to reward excellence in service.

Rachael Bartlett, Head of Sales and Marketing at Warwick Conferences, says: “We are proud to have won the Silver award for Best Academic Venue at this year’s M&IT Awards. We have enjoyed considerable success at the M&IT Awards over the years and put this down to the incredible hard work and dedication of our venue team, as well as the high-quality product we are able to offer to our customers.

“It is an honour to receive this award, especially as it is voted for by our customers who have first-hand experience of our facilities. Our entire team is committed to going above and beyond in the service they offer, so it is particularly rewarding to know that our customers recognise and appreciate this service.

“We are looking forward to another successful year ahead with our customers now able to reap the rewards of our recent investment in our newest venue The Slate, and the creation of a range of feature rooms at Scarman, which have been designed to encourage creativity and innovation among delegates.”

NYS Corporate received M&IT’s Silver Award for Best Intermediary Agency 2017

Last Friday, NYS Corporate received M&IT’s Silver Award for “Best Intermediary Agency (more than 40 employees)” for the second year running! 

110 agencies and suppliers competed in the 30th M&IT Awards.  Organised by the Meetings & Incentive Travel magazine, these prestigious awards have been described as “the Oscars of the meetings industry”.  The popularity of the M&IT Awards stems from their reputation as an objective and reliable measure of customer satisfaction, as the results are entirely determined by how many clients vote for each agency.  They are also the only awards in the events industry which are independently audited (by the Audit Bureau of Circulations).   After collecting the award, Sharon Smith (Operations Manager at NYS Corporate) had this to say:

“Everyone here at NYS is delighted to have received this award for the second year running.  As an agency which provides a bespoke service tailored to each client, customer satisfaction is absolutely central to everything we do.  We are really pleased to have been nominated for this award by our clients and we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to vote for us.”

Sharon Smith, Operations Manager, NYS Corporate

M&IT’s gala presentation dinner on Friday 3^rd March saw record numbers in attendance, with 1,200 event professionals taking part in the glamourous event at Battersea Evolution.  This included four representatives from NYS Corporate, who were hosted by Macdonald Hotels, The Strand Palace Hotel, Marriott and AIMS International Spain.  At the event, £43,000 was raised for the nominated charity: Meeting Needs.

NYS Corporate are known to innovatively and proactively enhance the services they provide on an ongoing basis, and have achieved 100% of KPIs and an average customer satisfaction rate of 99% over the past two years.  This is the second time NYS Corporate have received M&IT’s Silver Award for “Best Intermediary Agency (more than 40 employees)”, and comes less than two months after the agency was recognised at the Business Travel Award 2017 as “Best Travel Management Company (less than £50 million UK Sales)”.