Conference Guide UK

I attended IMEX last week in Frankfurt. IMEX is a large exhibition for destinations around the world to showcase what they have on offer with regards to Meetings, Events and Incentive Travel. As well as the show exhibiting destinations there were also major hotel chains exhibiting the hotels they have world wide. Marriott, Rocco Forte, Hilton are to name but a few. I was being hosted by the Visit London Stand, so they were providing me with my flights and accommodation and any catering requirements I needed - saves me having to worry!

The first day started out with me getting out of bed at 3.30am to head for the airport after only four hours of sleep. Once at the airport I parked the car and headed to the terminal, I checked in and before I knew it I was on the plane and on my way to Frankfurt. I managed to get some shuteye on the plane which I was most grateful for as it gave me a little energy boost. Upon arriving in Frankfurt Airport I collected my luggage and found an IMEX host (dressed in a Red Jacket) as instructed, the host took my case to the hotel and me to Messe Frankfurt.

I had made appointments with destinations such as Algarve, Lisbon, Basel, Salzburg, Monaco, Lille, and Nice. Out of all my appointments I was most pleased with Basel. The gentleman I saw gave me brief information about the destination and then gave me the relevant information about conference venues and hotels. Overall I thought the show was well organised from the minute I got of the plane I knew what I was doing and where I was going. The show itself was very interesting and there were some amazing stands.

The accommodation, Le Meridian, was very nice although the beds were quite close to the floor, and the networking event that Visit London arranged on the first evening was great and the venue was stunning.

After two days of being on my feet I was most grateful to get in a bath once back home and have a long soak and get a good nights’ sleep.

I attended the RSVP 2008 event held at Manchester One Central Venue (formerly, and really still, known as GMEX) today. Although this event is essentially for events industry and focuses on services for the event industry. The company that took over the running of the event two years ago decided to add an additional spin - VENUES - by turning it potentially into the RSVP encorporating Venues of the North Show.

I attended last year when the event was much smaller, although still at One Central, and I think the feeling I had was of much more excitement and interest. Don’t get me wrong, the event this year looked good and still had the excitment and wonderful decor it had last year, maybe I was expecting a little bit more of a wow factor (and for those not having seen the show before I’m sure they would have had that).

Although not as big, it somehow seemed to have a much more exciting atmosphere than this year. Having said that there was definitely more to see with venues and services alike.

The event as a whole seems to work well and one thing I like more than anything else is the fact that Venues and Services are mingled between one another rather than having all the venues on one side and all the services on another. It allows the attendee walking around a chance to look at services or venues they would normally miss if making a beeline for the ‘venue’ area. This works really well for me as it’s important, as an agent and even one that only does the venue finding, to know what is available to our clients should we ever have the need.

Of course I met some venues that I already knew of, such as Barcelo Hotels and Moorside Grange, but I also had a chance to meet with a few newer venues that I was previously unaware of.

My only hope is that next year, they keep to the same format but add some more venues and really make it an event for everyone.

view the details for RSVP North at http://www.rsvpevent.co.uk

I attended a familiarisation (otherwise known as FAM) trip yesterday at Peckforton Castle near Chester. The castle has been made into a luxurious hotel with grounds and fantastic scenary surrounding it.

When I first had the invite which was advertising their new “Escape the Castle” experience for team building I was certainly intrigued and excited about the possability of abseiling down castle walls and driving 4×4. Never had I imagined how much fun and amazing the venue and event was actually going to be.

Packforton Castle was built in the mid 19th Century in the style of a medieval castle. Since being taken over as a family run business two years ago the hotel has been entirely refurbished and is now open as an exclusive hotel and conference centre with the likes of Land Rover Experience being part of the complex.

From my arrival til my departure I felt comfortable and relaxed. The staff were brilliant, polite and ever ready to help. The venue was stunning, set in it’s own grounds on a hill you can’t help but gaze in awe at as you approach and the facilities offered were at an exceptionally high standard.

My day consisted of Laser Beam activities (no real lasers were used thankfully), abseiling down the castle walls, archery, 4×4 driving (where everyone got a turn to drive) and falconry desplay. Food was provided on arrival and at the end of the day and even the family who own the hotel turned up to lend a hand and enjoy the events.

All in all a wonderful venue, most definately worth a visit and certainly worth thinking of for a conference or team building event. With 38 bedrooms and conference rooms that can hold up to 180 theatre style you can’t really go wrong.

Visit the hotel website: http://www.peckfortoncastle.co.uk

When a company has internal problems it takes good management and team effort to show to the world that they can handle it and everything carries on as normal.

Last week we had a major catastrophy. Our neighbours in a nearby office unit, that links with ours was burgled and the telphone lines and internet lines were cut. Major chaos ensued. No-one was able to phone out, phone in, use internet connection and most of all have access to their servers and for us - our enquiries and emails.

Having only just moved into our new offices three months ago, it was a little bit of a shock to have to move back to our old offices temporarily until the new offices were back online and accessible.

This took a week! Imagine the horror of not being able to access the database for over 72 hours and having to divert calls to a single line! Thankfully we all got on with the job at hand and took it within our stride with little moaning (well…just a bit of moaning) to be had.

Due to our misfortune I had to cancel three meetings lined up for the week with Folio Hotels, Macdonald Hotels and Crowne Plaza Chester. Thankfully a legitimate reason didn’t cause too much fuss and we have now managed to reschedule them.

Having said that it was a major misfortune, we did extremely well with our events managing to convert some rather large business. On top of that, we kept a calm professional manner despite the frustration of having to wait until someone had finished a call before being allowed to use the phone.

These things are sent to test us and I believe we passed with full colours! The girls even managed to attend an dinner at the Quality Hotel in Altrincham along side a show round. The food was extremely good although I believe the conference rooms need a little bit of sprucing up.

This week we’re on for another exciting week but on a different level. We’re heading over to Peckforton Castle, Cheshire to do some team building and see what the venue has to offer our clients. As an unusal and not so well known venue this hotel, housed in a Medieval Castle, has what looks like beautiful grounds and something a little bit different to offer the clients. They are making every effort to shout about their venue and I’m certainly looking forward to a day out of the office.

So here’s to a good week, a pat on the back for surviving the bad week and crossed fingers that no bones get broken when abseiling down the Castle Walls on Thursday!

Visit Peckfortons website at http://www.peckfortoncastle.co.uk

One group that has a rediculously large number of hotels, and many of which are franchised, is the Intercontinental Hotel Group or IHG as it’s otherwise known. This hotel group opens up a new hotel every week - sometimes more than one and has four different brands of hotels; Crown Plaza, Holiday Inn, Express by Holiday Inn and Intercontinental Hotels. Each of the different brands are there to represent a different standard of hotel and quality.

Express by Holiday Inns are based on your budget traveller. With very small meeting rooms, if any, rates here are low with the standard of rooms being basic but comfortable.

Holiday Inn Hotels are the next stage up. Most of which are three star, except in London where all Holiday Inn Hotels are 4 star. The rooms have more in them with regards to facilities and the conference and meeting rooms are much larger.

Crown Plaza Hotels are 4 star branded with a different colour and slightly more impressive feel to the hotels. They tend to be city centre based and have large conference and meeting facilities.

Last but not least are the Intercontinental Hotels. These hotels are 4star plus rated, are in major cities around the world and cater for a much higher price bracket and clientelle.

I have to say that these hotels are good if you want a hotel that has the same features and facilities in every hotel no matter where you are but one thing they do lack is personality and individuality. However, these venues work very for the likes of training events and even large corporate events.

Then you have the likes of City Inn Hotels. Much smaller hotel group in comparison as they only have 5 hotels within the group all based within the UK. Similar to the IHG Hotels in the way that they offer a very similar product, style and service throughout the group although with their new arrival of the Manchester City Inn fairly recently they up-stepped their game by having the latest in technology not only in the conference rooms but also the bedrooms to make your stay that much better an experience.

Now don’t get confused or underestimate the name ‘City Inn’, as they’re not so much an Inn but a very nice chain of small-ish hotels. The name Inn can certainly be misleading and you most certainly have the feeling of walking into a nice modern hotel rather than an ‘Inn’ of the old times. (Although I only have the Manchester Hotel to compare to).

Most definately this group is worth a try if you like to keep to venues of stardard, style and service.

Take a look at both groups: http://www.ihg.com and http://www.cityinn.com

One thing that really is a nice treat is when a hotel invites you to a fairly informal and relaxed evening for dinner with a chance to do a bit of networking and learn about a group - without too much sell, sell, sell going on.

I was invited by Langham Hotels to join them for a dinner at the Lowry Hotel, Manchester for an evening with drinks and a lovely three course dinner in one of the meeting rooms.

I arrived at the Lowry to be greeted by the doorman who showed me to the lift and directed me to the right floor. Once on the first floor (where all the meeting rooms are situated) I was greeted by the UK Representative from Langham Hotels who had organised the whole event.

I was then introduced to a number of different sales managers who were all based at the individual properties around the world. Talk was fairly formal discussing what each persons individual roles were and the type of business we each work with.

We were finally called in for dinner and went through to a nice sized boardroom where we each had a place setting with our names. Dinner was lovely with salmon and cream cheese to start followed by a lovely fillet stake and an baked apple tart for desert.

All the while I was sat with the sales manager for the Pasadena Hotel in Los Angeles. A very nice and chatty gentleman we discussed the important factors of a quality hotel and the ways in which service and standards should be addressed.

At the end of the dinner the UK representative stood up and formally introduced each sales manager and their hotel. The brand itself is only fairly small with only eight hotels currently under the Langham brand, all 4 star and above standard

As Conference Guide UK currently mainly deals with UK and European venues the only real venue that would be of interest is the London property. However, The Langham London is currently undergoing some major refurb and so most of the rooms are not available at this moment in time.

Having said that I’m looking forward to us being able to start looking at International events in places such as Boston, Hong Kong and Auckland, where the Langham Group currently already have hotels.

You can view the hotels at http://www.langhamhotels.com

We had a visit from the sales manager for the Jarvis Piccadilly Hotel - soon to be known as the Ramada Piccadilly Hotel.

The last time either I or any of my colleagues had seen the hotel was November 2007 when we had done a bit of a trip around Manchester to re-aquaint ourselves with the venues and layout of the city. We had originally planned a site visit to the hotel but it had had to be cancelled due to no-one being free to show us around. Probably a good thing as we paid the hotel a visit anyway to just have a quick look in the entrance and lobby. Not a pleasant sight!

We arrived to an entrance on the side of the main street that was covered in scaffolding, broken tiles on the floor and two lifts, one of which wasn’t working at all, the other that took nearly an hour to arrive to take us to the lobby area on the first floor. Once in the lobby it looked tired and dirty and not a place that either I or any of my colleagues would even consider to use for a clients’ event.

The hotel has been undergoing major refurbishment, not just on the inside but a facelift on the outside as well, for over a year. I don’t remember a day within the last three years where there hasn’t been scaffolding outside the hotel. The main problem for the hotel is that the building itself is owned by another company and therefore there are retail units all along the outside of the hotel.

Based in the city centre with it’s own onsite parking, the hotel can offer a room for up to 700 people for a conference or event - certainly one of the largest rooms within the city and one that I don’t think really gets as much use out of it as it should, and for a reason.

So you can imagine my surprise when the sales manager came in and showed us pictures of the recently refurbished lobby and entrance to the hotel and the change on the outside now the windows have been cleaned and the walls painted. Amazing! Both myself and my colleague were extremely impressed with the difference we saw. the colours and just the general overall feel of the hotel really made an impression.

The hotel is aiming to be the best 3 star hotel in the city. With so many other 4 star hotels to compete with it will certainly be a good aim as, although the standard of service is to be 4 star, as a 3 star the rates will fall much lower than that of the surrounding hotels and should therefore entice much more business.

The Ramada group as a whole has always been another group that I’ve never really known much about nor had a lot to do with but perhaps that’s partly down to whether you have someone keeping in touch with you and giving you updates for the group.

With regards to this hotel I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the finished result!

We had a visit from the Menzies Hotel group this week. The sales manager, who has previously worked with chains such as Britannia and Folio, had recently moved to the group and wanted to come in and showcase the venues.

Having not really had much contact with Menzies in the past I thought it was about time we had someone come in and explain to us what the hotel group were all about.

Typically, when anything new is brought to your attention you tend to notice it much more often than before. The same happened with this group.

Quite recently I had been dealing with a large event that needed a venue for continuous dates throughout the year in the Bournemouth area. Not an area that often comes up I’ll be honest, but on this occasion the client wanted a 4* plus venue. Bournemouth being Bournemouth there aren’t a great deal of options to choose from. One option, however, was the Menzies Carlton Hotel. Never having had any previous dealings with this hotel I was pleasantly surprised to find the hotel had everything the client required and had recently undergone a refurbishment. After arranging a site visit for the client to have dinner and see the venue I was extremely impressed with the comments the client had. Feedback was that the staff and service were extremely on the ball, the hotel was very nicely decorated and well kept and the place, on a whole, really was of a very good standard. When you’ve had a group under a certain catagory in your head for a long time, it’s a nice surprise to hear these comments and certainly ones you’ll remember.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it down to the Carlton hotel for a site visit myself, being based in Manchester it’s a bit of a trek just for a night. However we were offered the chance to come another of the hotels in the group that’s much closer for a dinner and to look around. So I suppose I’ll be able to make my own judgements then!

You can vist their site on http://www.menzieshotels.co.uk

Well, I survived the trip to Confex this year - although for some reason the day seemed to be longer than ever.

I managed to make my 7.20am train and sat, not having had any breakfast, ready for the long day ahead. With my planner in hand and my Confex badge in my handbag I had just over two hours to kill to try and plan my way around the show.

To be honest I don’t really see the point in trying to work out which stands you need to see and which you can bypass. The floor plans the show provide, quite often in the Conference & Incentive Travel magazine that comes with all the details, are so difficult to work out that by the time you’ve managed to find the company you want to see you’ve wasted half your day and walked around looking like a lost puppy! I can understand that they can’t possibly put the names of all the exhibitors on the map but they could design it better so that the numbers for each stand are easier to locate. Currently it’s offered in alphabetical order of the name of the company owning that stand. Understandable if you’re looking for a particular company, but when you’re there to see if there are companies you don’t know or have missed, it can be very diffcult. Maybe I should suggest to them that they have two maps - one for those that know the companies they want to visit and ones that want to know which stand is whichever company.

The show itself was good this year. In the past there have been comments that the same companies go and there is nothing new to see. It’s true, most years you will find the same companies there again and again and it can sometimes be quite repetetive. I think that this isn’t always a bad thing as quite often Confex is used as a networking session for people that attend as it’s the only chance they get through their busy year to catch up with venues and clients alike. I personally think that on occasion it would be nice to see much more newer companies and venues although I tihnk alot of them don’t stand a chance due to the pricy sum a company must pay to have a stand.

Having said that, without fail, I find the show to be of great use to me and this year was no exception. Marketing Manchester had a great stand, something that they have certainly worked on over the past few years, and it really seemed to stand out. Perhaps it was its location, as it was conveniently placed fairly close to the front of the exhibition. Obviously I was drawn to this stand as it’s where Conference Guide is based and is currently my home.

Other stands that stood out for me was the newly named ‘Barcelo’ Hotels (formerly known as Paramount). The Paramount group was taken over by a Spanish family run company, Barcelo, and they have since been trying to re-establish themselves within the hotel industry.

The one stand I was sad to see didn’t seem to have much luck this year was the London Stand. They had been given their own area and was hosted by Visit London. Visit london and Conference Guide have built up a nice relationship over the years and I was sorry to see that they didn’t seem to be doing quite so well this year. My thoughts are mainly due to the location of the stand - placed right at the back of the hall and not wonderfully sign posted I think it was a shame it didn’t seem to be doing as well as it could have been.

I got to the end of the day having walked what felt like a million miles loaded with bags of brochures (as I’m never too sure if they’ll arrive by post and quite often I need the information almost straight away), and having had very little to eat or drink I was exhausted.

Managed to get the train home safe and sound with no problems, thankfully. So, I’ll await the next Confex and in the meantime work through all the brochures I picked up this time.

This time of year seems to be the time when EVERY single venue under the sun wants to come into the office to talk about how good they are.

Today we had a visit from a lovely lady from Heritage Motor Centre down in Shakespeare country. Really it wasto update her with what we’ve been up to but also to keep us up to date with what’s happening at the venue. The Heritage Motor Centre were due to have a hotel opening onsite that was to be managed and run by a well established hotel group (of course we’re not allowed to know who until they have fully signed the contract). Unfortunately there has been a slight delay on the contract being signed for numerous reasons which means that the hotel will now not be ready until 2009. This is a bit of a shame for us as quite often we are unable to place enquiries for events or conferences with them as the client specifically requires onsite accommodation. However, as their current market is mainly exhibition space it’s still something we can look at. It really is a very nice venue to use and certainly one we think of here in the office when get an event enquiry for the Staffordshire area.

Next week we have a very long week of meetings - if I think I’m tired now I certainly will be by the end of next week!

However, I have more pressing things to think about at the moment like CONFEX. I’m due to travel down to London tomorrow to meet and greet new venues, old venues, new faces and old faces (and do a bit of business in between). Although I know it really will be a very long day (my train is at 7.20am tomorrow morning and I don’t get back until 8.00pm tomorrow night) and my shoulders will be laid down with numberous brochures and booklets, I really enjoy the day as it allows me to really connect with the people that I may or may not speak to on a day to day basis.

Confex is just another way of allowing people in the industry to get together and discuss business and meet with old friends all under one roof!

I’ll be in touch - providing I survive that is!