Last week saw Warwick Conferences and mental health charity, Coventry & Warwickshire Mind team up to support National Stress Awareness Day. The collaboration was in response to recent reports which suggest that work-related stress has doubled over the past decade.
According to a recent report by the Health and Safety Commission, out of the 33 million working days lost to illness last year, more than a third (13.4 million) were attributable to stress, anxiety or depression.
Due to the nature of Warwick Conferences’ business, it meets many businessmen and women who are all taking time out of their usual work environment to attend conferences, meetings, training sessions and events.
It is therefore inevitable that some delegates arriving at the venue may be feeling anxious. This may be compounded if they are feeling under pressure to deliver their best, are worried about other work they feel they should be doing or being away from home.
In a move to help reduce these potential feelings of anxiety amongst delegates, Warwick Conferences has developed two sets of tips. One offers advice to delegates about how to manage feelings of stress and get the most out of their conference experience, while the second offers tips to event organisers about how to prevent delegate anxiety.
Coventry & Warwickshire Mind were at Warwick Conferences’ Scarman venue on National Stress Awareness Day on Wednesday 2nd November to offer advice and practical relaxation guidance to delegates if they wished to take part.
Rachael Bartlett, head of sales and marketing at Warwick Conferences said: “We understand that taking a day or more out the office to attend an event can sometimes be stressful if delegates are already feeling under pressure; so we wanted to offer some tips on how to make their experience more enjoyable and productive.
“We also realise that distracted attendees can compromise the success of a conference or meeting so we designed the second set of tips with the aim of helping event organisers manage and prevent delegate anxiety and replace any feelings of stress with confidence.”
Chris Sampson, resources officer at Coventry & Warwickshire Mind comments: “It’s great that Warwick Conferences took the time out to mark National Stress Awareness Day.
“Stress is a serious and health-debilitating issue which not only affects the individual but can also have a detrimental effect on families, relationships and businesses.
“As the pressure of modern living takes its toll, stress is on the rise in the UK and it is important that we have the support of organisations like Warwick Conferences to help raise awareness of this issue.”
If you would like copies of the tips please contact Conference Centres of excellence on 0845 230 1414 or info@cceonline.co.uk.
