Warwick Conferences harnesses future industry talent

Warwick Conferences has teamed up with Stratford-upon-Avon College to offer six youngsters an exclusive year-long apprenticeship at its collection of training and conference venues. 

Following a stringent assessment day at Coventry and Warwickshire-based Warwick Conferences, six out of sixty applicants were specially selected by a panel of interviewees to work in various roles within the organisation for an entire year. 

Three of the apprentices selected will carry out a chef apprenticeship where they will work in the kitchens under the head chefs whilst receiving mentoring from executive development chef Graham Crump. The other three will take it in turns to work in each department of the business, including housekeeping, reception, restaurant, conference assistance and kitchen. 

Warwick Conferences Scarman

The apprentices will work four days per week at Warwick Conferences’ Arden, Scarman and Radcliffe venues, and their fifth day will be spent at Stratford College working towards their NVQ.

Richard Harrison, General Manager at Warwick Conferences comments: “We are very proud to be working in partnership with Stratford-upon-Avon College in our new practical apprenticeship scheme.

 “We wanted to offer young people a bespoke, applied, hands-on and genuinely life-changing opportunity where they spend a year building on their knowledge of the meetings and conference industry, developing their skills, and preparing themselves for the world of work.
“Apprentices are hugely important to our industry and, as a collection of leading meetings and events venues in the UK, we feel it is our responsibility to encourage and harness this future talent.
“Our people are at the heart of our business and well-trained front of house teams and chefs are critical to the success of the service that we offer. The quality of this scheme certainly reflects this.”

Peter Young, the Curriculum Area Manager for Employer Responsive at Stratford-upon-Avon College said: “We are delighted to be working with Warwick Conferences on this project.

“Both organisations have outstanding reputations in this field and the young people involved will receive excellent training, both in the workplace and at college.
“This project is a prime example of the benefits of Apprenticeships where formal training is combined with training by an employer to produce people with skill sets that, not only match an employer’s needs, but provide a first class base for developing their careers.”

Chefs Challenge Competition and Awards Dinner 2012

Warwick Conferences Scarman hosted the 14th annual Conference Centres of Excellence/IACC Chefs Challenge Competition on Saturday 27th October 2012.  

The event invites chefs who work in any of the nationwide Conference Centres of Excellence or IACC centres to take part in a cook-off competition at nearby Stratford Upon Avon College, where their skills are put to the test with specific criteria for their menu.  This year, the chefs had to prepare a 3 course meal suitable for a banquet, using certain cuts of lamb for their main course.  

The competition again included a Food Service Skills award, to encourage food service staff to take part and support their chef colleague, competing for their own best service skills award and the Chairman’s award for best team.

For Conference Centres of Excellence this event is an additional component to their strategy of continuous quality assurance and is a great opportunity to recognise the achievements of their members’ chefs and a celebration of exceptional food.

Anthony Lishman Conference Centres of Excellences Executive Director said “Our venues pride themselves on having the highest professional standards in the meetings and events industry, and this extends across all aspects of dining and food service. We’re pleased to have this opportunity for the incredibly talented chefs to showcase their abilities in consistently creating appetising and flavoursome food, which not only meets the needs of customers in a working environment, but also delights and enhances their overall experience during their stay.”

The competition has proved to be a stepping stone for young chefs to go on to higher profile competitions nationwide and is endorsed by the British Culinary Federation.  Each Chef receives a certificate and one year’s free membership of the BCF.

This year, the event was opened wider to include members of IACC Europe, so we were delighted that a chef from the Dolce Sitges Hotel & Conference Centre in Barcelona was shortlisted, as well as two chefs from Scotland.  

The Awards Dinner
Hosted by Andrew Taylor, Competition Chairman and Food & Beverage Manager from Warwick Conferences Scarman, the awards dinner was attended by 120 guests from CCE/IACC member centres, including a number of the conference industry’s leading figures.

A raffle also took place during the Awards Dinner, raising £850 for the “Meeting Industry Meeting Needs” charity.

The Winners

http://www.cceonline.co.uk/news/News/Chefs_Challenge_2012 Visit our website for a full list of winners in each award category, and details of the winning menu (photos coming soon!).

There's still time to book your meeting space for 2012...

The clocks are changing this weekend, giving us all an extra bit of time. Time to book that last minute meeting space or training event, or time to start planning next year's event.

Whatever your goals, our venue-finding team offers a free service. We will discuss all of your requirements, and prepare a proposal within just a couple of hours - saving you even more time...and money.

Our venue-finding team have first-hand knowledge of every venue that makes up Conference Centres of Excellence, and experience of what makes the perfect event, every time.

Members of Conference Centres of Excellence are required to maintain the highest professional standards in the meetings industry, which ensures an exemplary quality of service and facilities.

• All our rates are clearly stated, all-inclusive with no hidden extras.. guaranteed.
• Flexible, value-for-money deals that truly reflect your needs
• From town and city centres to peaceful countryside venues, residential or non residential
• Our 33 member venues offer a range of stunning traditional venues, to modern purpose built centres
• From the south east of england to Scotland

Some of our venues have late availability and special offers throughout November and December, so contact us today to let our venue-finding team find your perfect venue.

Visit http://www.cceonline.co.uk/Special-Offers or call us on 0845 230 1416.

Cotswold Conference Centre Claims Tourism Awards

Cotswold Conference Centre continued its amazing year of awards after winning one category and being highly commended in a second at the Worcestershire Welcome Awards.

The ceremony, held on Thursday night at Sixways Stadium, saw the best businesses from across Worcestershire come together to celebrate the county’s visitor attractions and tourism industry.

Cotswold Conference Centre – part of the Farncombe group of businesses, near Broadway – won the Business Tourism Award for the second year in a row and was also highly commended in the Sustainable Tourism category.

The event was organised by Destination Worcestershire and each finalist was selected on the basis of customer nominations. 

Nick Vincent, Chief Executive at the Three Counties Showground, judged the Business Tourism category.

He said: “I was particularly impressed with the website, facilities, policy of supporting and promoting local suppliers and the external methods of obtaining customer feedback. I had no idea Cotswold Conference Centre also won this award last year.”

Cotswold Conference Centre is a modern meeting, training and teambuilding venue. It holds dozens of conferences each year and also plays host to Farncombe Courses, which offers a wide range of leisure and activity weekends. 

Richard Howdle, operations manager at Cotswold Conference Centre, said: “It’s been an incredible year for us, winning numerous awards at local, regional and national levels.

Lesley Stretch, Rachael Buttery and Debbie Sarjant collecting their awards

“The staff are rightly very proud of these accolades. As well as a morale boost, entering these categories is one of the ways that we constantly strive to maintain and drive up our performance by looking to improve each year.” 

Cotswold Conference Centre has won four other prestigious awards in 2012, including the Visit England Award for Excellence, which recognised it as the best business tourism venue in the UK.

The three other titles were the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) highlighting the centre’s commitment to sustainability, the Cotswold Tourism award venue of the year and the VenueVerdict Gold Standard for outstanding customer service.

The business is situated on the 320-acre Farncombe Estate between Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. 

For more information visit http://www.cceonline.co.uk/our_venues/our-venues/Cotswold_Conference_Centre or call us on 0845 230 1416

Autumn Meeting Offers at The Manor House

With autumn in full swing, we've put together some enticing new offers to tempt you. We love them and hope that you'll "Fall" for them too.


Flexible, no charge cancellations

Book a full day package or residential package so your meeting takes place before 31st March 2013 and you'll be able to cancel up to two delegates free of charge, any time up to two weeks before the day your meeting starts. On a typical two day residential course, that flexibility could save you up to £350!

Meeting price match

If you've found just the right meeting package but would rather be at the Manor House, let us know and we'll match it like for like.* We'll even honour our no charge cancellation policy, making this the best deal ever.

The Manor House

An atmospheric venue, professional staff and excellent facilities combine at The Manor House to create a unique business environment.

Eleven meeting rooms range from the small and intimate to airy and spacious, each with its own character and fully equipped. The tranquil setting offers fabulous views across the surrounding countryside yet The Manor House is very accessible, just 12 miles from M25 (junc 10, A3), 45 minutes from London Waterloo by train and under an hour from Heathrow and Gatwick.

* For us to price match, you must provide us with a valid written quotation for an identical offering at a similar quality venue in the Surrey area. The Manor House reserves the right not to match the price based on location and package details. If you're unsure whether your quote qualifies, talk to us - you've nothing to lose!

To check availability or discuss your requirements call us on 0845 230 1414 or email info@cceonline.co.uk 

For more information about our venues and other special offers visit our website www.cceonline.co.uk

Annual Chefs Challenge Competition

The Annual Chefs Challenge Competition is now in it's fourteenth year. The competition is open to any chef who works within Conference Centres of Excellence venues or whose centre is a registered member of the International Association of Conference Centres and will be judged by a panel of invited professionals from the hospitality industry. 

This year we have received more entrants than ever before.The original entries will be shortlisted and the 12 successful finalists will be invited to a cook off where the best tasting and best presented meal will be decided. Awards will then be presented to winners in a number of different categories including; overall best tasting meal, best main dish, starter and dessert. There is also a special award for the chef who demonstrated the best hygiene practices on the day.

With high quality service levels becoming increasingly important, the competition now incorporates a service element, where food service staff can enter to work alongside the chefs to compete for such awards as best service skills and the chairman’s award for best team.

Anthony Lishman Conference Centres of Excellences Executive Director said “ Chefs in our venues are seriously talented people who work hard to create interesting and appropriate menus for those attending training, events and conferences and as such their focus needs to be on providing a variety of interesting and tasty food that recognises the fact that most of our customers stay for long periods of time at our venues, this obviously includes healthy eating options but also food that can be consumed in a working environment and dishes that are an aid to learning in that they support the individuals concentration levels”

Quality Assurance

For Conference Centres of Excellence this event is an additional component to their strategy of continuous quality assurance and is a great opportunity to recognise the achievements of their members’ chefs and a celebration of exceptional food.



For the first time this year we have also opened entries up to members of IACC Europe and are delighted that Sebastién Lothore from Dolce Hotel and Conference Centre Sitges, Barcelona has been shortlisted as a finalist.

The full list of finalists are

• Neil Astbury from the Royal College of Physicians – who will be accompanied by Valentina Coffetti for the Food Service Skills Award
• Steven Bates from Imago at Burleigh Court – who will be accompanied by Rebecca Wade for the Food Service Skills Award
• Sarah Beardmore from Woodland Grange
• Rob Budd from The Manor House
• Jennifer Goff from Maple House, etc Venues
• Sebastién Lothore from Dolce Hotel and Conference Centre Sitges SL, Barcelona – our first IACC Europe entry
• Lisa Morris from Ashorne Hill
• Alan Read from the Kavli Royal Society International Centre, Chicheley Hall
• Ian Steele from the Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre
• John Tack from The Móller Centre – who will be accompanied by Piotr Zdulski for the Food Service Skills Award
• Raymond Thomson from the Stirling Management Centre – who will be accompanied by Peter Tedford for the Food Service Skills Award
• Claire Willett from Wyboston Lakes – who will be accompanied by Steven Whitehead for the Food Service Skills Award

The competition will be held during the day on Saturday 27th October 2012. Competitors have three hours to produce a three course meal that would be suitable for an end of conference dinner for a large group.





In the evening Scarman Training and Conference Centre holds the awards ceremony where the winners are announced.

For more information please contact pr@cceonline.co.uk or contact us on 0845 230 1416.