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Companies need to plan now to catch back effects of summer of celebrations, says Conference Centres of Excellence 

The frenetic pace of major events in the UK this year has affected the ability of many companies to implement the conference and training schedules of a normal summer – and in the autumn they may face challenges in finding space to catch up. That’s the concern of Conference Centres of Excellence, the UK’s leading marketing consortium of specialist venues, which is also expecting a surge in demand for team-building space after the Olympic Games.

With more than 30 of the country’s leading venues in membership, Conference Centres of Excellence is well placed to monitor the effects of events such as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympic Flame tour and the Games themselves - and the recent European football tournament - on corporate activities. “While it hasn’t been appropriate to carry out a specific survey, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence from our members that demand for space for corporate events, including training, hasn’t followed the normal pattern this year,” explains Anthony Lishman, the consortium’s Executive Director: “What concerns us is that if events are being postponed until all the excitement is over, companies may not be able to use the venues they want at the time they require.”

Act now

Conference Centres of Excellence believes that many companies may have postponed customer events such as sales conferences and marketing briefings because client response will be adversely affected by the distractions of the programme of significant events and occasions. It also thinks that internal training events may have been adjusted or even deferred, particularly during June and July.

The consortium is urging companies not to wait until the last winner’s tape has been broken before seeking to catch up.

 “Now is the time to plan for getting back to normal business when it's all over,” added Mr Lishman: “What nobody wants is to find that a sensible decision to postpone an event backfires because the space that the company had in mind has been booked by someone else.”

All Conference Centres of Excellence members are suitable for the full range of internal and external activities, including conferences, briefings, marketing events and corporate dinners or lunches. In particular, they are specialists in providing focused, distraction-free environments that optimise the training process, with many of them also offering extensive scope for outdoor team-building activities. A number of them are themselves accommodating Olympic delegations or hosting receptions or pre-Games training for athletes.

Increased demand

Team-building at Cotswold Conference Centre

The summer’s events have opened up another potential area of demand in terms motivational events for employees – an increased focus on team-building. “The pervading ethos of the summer of events, in various forms, is team spirit, whether it’s the UK's sportsmen and women working together to clinch success, or that feeling of togetherness that the Queen’s Jubilee has engendered,” says Anthony Lishman: “Companies will want to capitalise on these emotions, harnessing them for the corporate benefit, and that’s bound to raise demand for team-building events.”

Conference Centres of Excellence’s Hotline service gives a ‘one-stop- shop’ service to clients seeking the benefits of a specialist venue. The group has 33 residential and non-residential member venues across the UK from East Sussex to Stirling in Scotland, in both countryside and city: a call to Hotline gives immediate access to information about availability, rates and facilities for each venue - 0845 230 1414.