Warwick Conferences continues venue investment

Warwick Conferences is set to complete an extensive refurbishment in one of its distraction-free venues this spring.

The £1 million investment will see 154 bedrooms in its Radcliffe training and conference centre entirely renovated and replaced with new carpets, wall coverings, desks, beds, wardrobes and soft furnishings.

Due to be completed in March 2016, this latest refurbishment will precede Warwick Conferences’ £5.3 million investment in ‘The Canvas’ - a new customisable events venue set to open on the University of Warwick campus in Autumn 2016.

Rachael Bartlett, head of sales and marketing at Warwick Conferences, comments: “We’re extremely proud of our diverse range of facilities here at Warwick Conferences and dedicated to continuously improving the events solutions we offer for our clients. 

“2016 is set to be a busy and exciting year for the business, and the investment in our Radcliffe venue plays an important role in our ongoing commitment to enhance our facilities.”

Wyboston Lakes Announced as Finalist in M&IT Awards 2016

Wyboston Lakes, the leading conference and training venue, has achieved significant recognition in this year’s international M&IT Awards. It has been shortlisted in two categories – Best UK Management Training centre and Best UK Conference Centre’.

Organised by Meetings & Incentive Travel magazine, the Awards are amongst the most sought-after annual accolades to be given within the industry.  There are 19 awards voted for by the readers of Meetings & Incentive Travel magazine, plus a special award: M&IT Personality of the Year. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Friday 26 February at Battersea Evolution, London.

“The M&IT Awards represent an important recognition of venue standards across the country,” commented Wyboston Lakes’ managing director Mark Jones: “To be shortlisted in such a highly competitive category underline that the impact of our latest investment is widely recognised by our clients.”

While Wyboston Lakes has been established for many years as the UK’s largest privately owned single site specialist venue, the quality of its facilities and overall services has been recently enhanced through a comprehensive £3.5 million investment programme. Its two residential conference and training venues, the Wyboston Lakes Executive Centre and the Wyboston Lakes Training Centre, have been extensively improved to enable the company to offer a uniquely wide choice of facilities, services and delegate packages for conferences, meetings and training events.

Users of both venues benefit from sector leading 200 mbps broadband network, believed to be in some way the most powerful available in any specialist conference venue in the UK. The improved broadband facility has brought a completely reliable Wi-Fi service in all working, residential and rest areas, which is free to all conference clients and delegates. These developments are also represented through strong team morale which has led to Wyboston Lakes achieving a position in The Sunday Times ‘Best Companies to work for’ List for 3 consecutive years.

 “Our advanced technology can now illustrate to our guests that events of major dimensions need no longer be held with fingers crossed.  With the right facilities, carefully managed and monitored, they can be achieved with total consistency. That means our clients can, as they require, create solutions that are at the same time truly ground breaking, for them and their delegates, whilst being totally reliable.” Concludes Jones.

Warwick Conferences Sets Its Sights on Gold

Warwick Conferences is in the running to continue its awards success in 2016 after being shortlisted in four categories at this year’s Meeting & Incentive Travel (M&IT) Awards.

The collection of meeting venues – based at the University of Warwick – has been nominated for four awards in total: Best UK Conference Centre, Best UK Management Training Centre, Best Academic Venue, and Best Conference and Banqueting Staff.

The M&IT Awards are the oldest established awards programme in the industry. Voted for solely by event organisers and the readers of M&IT magazine, they serve to reward excellence in the meetings and events sectors.

Rachael Bartlett, head of sales and marketing at Warwick Conferences, comments: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted in four categories at this year’s M&IT Awards. The awards are a real highlight on the calendar, and as a reflection of the valuable opinions of event industry professionals, are also extremely important to us as a business.

“2016 is set to be an exciting year for us, and we’re exceptionally proud that our facilities and services have been recognised amongst the best in the industry. On behalf of all the team at Warwick Conferences, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to vote for us.”

College Court Honoured in the Prestigious Laterooms.com Simply the Guest Awards

College Court in Leicester has been honoured in the LateRooms.com Simply the Guest Awards 2016 by achieving the prestigious Top Rated status.

The highly prized LateRooms.com Top Rated status rewards only the very best properties globally, highlighting exceptional hotel standards and service.

To be awarded Top Rated status means that College Court in Leicester achieved a minimum review score of 80% on the LateRooms.com site during 2015.

The accolade is part of the annual LateRooms.com Simply The Guest Awards and is given to a select band of hotels in recognition of their excellent record of positive guest reviews.

The awards are special because they are the only UK hotel awards based solely on genuine guest
reviews – calculated through the review ratings given by guests who have actually stayed at a property and gone on to publish a review on the LateRooms.com website.

Andrea Tarpey, LateRooms.com spokesperson said: “The LateRooms.com Simply The Guest Awards have become a highlight of the travel and hotel calendar since they were launched four years ago.  Because all reviews on the LateRooms.com site come only from customers who have genuinely booked and stayed at the property, Top Rated status is now a trusted benchmark amongst those looking for a hotel where they know they can be confident of a truly outstanding stay.   

“According to our guests, College Court is one of the top hotels in the UK and to receive the honour of a Top Rated status in this year’s Simply The Guest Awards  reveals its standards are at the very top of the league in all areas.”

College Courts Centre Director Steve Crawford said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded LateRooms.com Top Rated status. It is firm recognition of the unrivalled quality we insist on here and the hugely exacting high service standards that we have become renowned for.”

Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel: The Future is Golden

From Monday 11 January, The Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre is officially known as the Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel.

The exciting rebrand reflects the Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel’s key role as part of the Golden Jubilee Foundation family, which also includes the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, the Golden Jubilee Research Institute and the Golden Jubilee Innovation Centre.

Bronagh Bell, Director of the Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel, said: “There has been a huge amount of preparation leading up to today’s official launch, and our team have been busy ensuring a seamless transition whilst continuing to provide first-class meeting and hospitality services for our clients.

“As part of our 2020 Vision, this will allow us to continue to build on our reputation as an internationally renowned facility, offering a tailor-made, state-of-the-art, venue for events providing collaboration in health, hospitality and learning for both the private and public sector.”

The Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel continues to host an increasing number of high profile international, medical and innovative conferences and events and further enhancements to both the bedroom stock and conference space are planned over the coming years. Already an accredited Conference Centre of Excellence, the Conference Hotel was recently accepted as the first and only Scottish member of the prestigious International Association of Conference Centres (IACC).

The Hotel and Conference Centre also has a stellar track record of customer satisfaction, receiving five consecutive VenueVerdict Gold Accreditations, the TripAdvisor Hall of Fame Award and being named the Top Large, Scottish Hotel in the Late Rooms Simply the Guest Awards.

Bronagh added: “This is an extremely exciting time for all of us, and we look forward to the new opportunities and challenges which lay ahead. We are in the unique position of being able to offer our clients the shared campus, meaning we are able to offer access to our cutting edge research and clinical skills suites, live audio visual links, and our new Innovation Centre.

“While we may have a new name, our team has not changed and we will continue to offer the same gold standard of service for every client, guest and visitor that comes through our doors.”

Conference Centres of Excellence 2016 Conference - Register Now!

Bringing fresh new ideas to the Conference, Training and Meetings industry!
Thursday 28th January 2016

The 2016 Conference will bring together like minded professionals from across the industry to discuss and share the latest ideas and innovation for our sector.

The conference will feature inspirational keynote speakers, interactive workshops sessions and an exhibition showcasing top industry suppliers with various opportunities to network with peers throughout the course of the event.

An optional study tour of the recently built Crausaz Wordsworth Building at Robinson College and the Wellcome Genome Campus Conference Centre will take place on Friday 29th January between 10:00 – 13:30.

Open to directors, senior managers, sales & marketing professionals and o
perational managers from food & beverage, front of house and technology. The programme is designed to stimulate all areas of our business with unique opportunities to collaborate, innovate and succeed.

The Møller Centre in Cambridge will be the host venue for this year’s event.  An intelligently designed purpose-built residential leadership development and conference centre set within 42 acres of beautiful parkland on the grounds of Churchill College, University of Cambridge.

The Møller Centre is one mile from the M11 motorway and a short taxi ride from Cambridge railway station, which has frequent express services to London King's Cross (45 minutes), London Liverpool Street (1 hour 15 minutes) and Stansted Airport (30 minutes).

Delegate packages include the full day conference, evening reception drinks, networking dinner and overnight accommodation.

 An event not to be missed – click here to register

EEF Venues forecasts further growth for 2016

Following incremental revenue growth of 5% year on year for 2015, EEF Venues is forecasting a further 5% year on year growth for 2016, with a projected annual turnover target close to £6 million for this financial year.

Over the last two years the group behind three AIM Gold accredited venues; Broadway House, (Westminster), Engineers’ House (Bristol) and the group’s residential venue, Woodland Grange (Leamington Spa), has achieved 19% consolidated growth, adding £900K to its turnover over the two-year period.

David Vaughton, director of venues for EEF Venues attributes this performance to EEF Venues’ focus on customer service excellence and quality.

He said: ”While price was a driver throughout the recession, we have seen an increased appetite from buyers to select on the basis of value rather than price. This is indicative of companies being more solvent and wanting a more quality experience for their staff.  An improved business landscape means there is a growing demand for business travel so we expect further strong growth in our business residency sales at Woodland Grange.

“2015 has also seen us penetrate new markets such the associations sector and we have seen tangible improvement in the Christmas party market – again an indication of a more confident corporate scene.”

The group’s sales and marketing strategies have also impacted on performance, as David Vaughton explained: ”We have invested in sales and we have been fortunate to attract many awards and accolades  throughout 2015, such as winning the Business Tourism category of the Visit England Awards for Woodland Grange, but that doesn’t mean we rest on our laurels.  

“New business doesn’t come on a plate; you have to go hunt for it so we will be seeking entry into new business markets to diversify our client-base. As ever, our critical focus will be on serving the customer. Achieving ‘world class customer service’ is an aspirational target across the business and we see this as being built into our DNA.  We are constantly innovating and developing to meet the changing needs of our customers.”

According to David Vaughton, staffing will continue to be an issue for the wider hospitality sector.
He said: ”2016 will continue to be a candidates’ market so our goal is to retain our staff by incentivising them to be the very best at what they do to protect our standards, consistency of service and quality - and to provide succession planning. 

“We view investing in talent as key to our on-going success and will continue to appraise, develop, mentor and reward our teams to encourage loyalty and performance. I firmly believe that we have an obligation to help people to grow. Happy staff means happy delegates. In return, we get greater stability, consistency and loyalty which impacts positively on our business performance.”

EEF, the parent company behind EEF Venues, has set a rolling capital investment budget of £500K for 2016/2017 to support the group’s aspirations ahead.

David Vaughton concluded: ”We will continue to invest in what we see as the three most important core elements for any delegate: leading edge technology, great food and people as these have most influence on our business. 

“Given our growth over the last two years, we are confident that 2016 will be another great year for EEF Venues.”