An important step forward for the meeting industry

Conference Centres of Excellence says that the recent meeting between the Business Visits & Events Partnership and the new Minister for Tourism is an important step forward for the meeting industry generally, and potentially for specialist conference venues in particular.

BVEP is a key ‘voice’ within the event industry, a leader in the effort to develop a competitive, high quality and more profitable business visits and events sector in Britain. Conference Centres of Excellence joined the group in 2007 to help represent the specialist conference venues sector.

BVEP’s chairman Michael Hirst met with Minister for Tourism John Penrose in July to discuss a number of issues. Mr Hirst said: "We had a good meeting and the minister was very switched on to the sector.” The minister agreed that bilateral meetings should continue to take place with his officials and BVEP on a regular basis.

“The meeting provided encouraging evidence that the Government understands the real significance of business tourism and the role of conference and events providers such as our members,” said Conference Centres of Excellence’s Executive Director Anthony Lishman (pictured), who represents the consortium at BVEP meetings: “ We hope it will come to recognise fully that, as the public sector comes even more pressure to cut costs, specialist venues provide a high value method of optimising expenditure on events and the receptiveness of those involved.”

Mr Lishman emphasised that its participation in the BVEP initiatives was not the only way in which Conference Centres of Excellence and its members were responding to the business challenge of economic pressures on the public and corporate sectors. “We are already capitalising on the versatility of the specialist venue concept in responding to changing patterns in demand and the nature of events,” he added: “ For example, our members are perfectly placed to respond to the increased need for training and teambuilding facilities, as organisations of all kinds seek to get the most out of a reducing workforce.”