David Vaughton is appointed to the mia board

David Vaughton, director of venues for EEF Venues, has been appointed to the Executive Board of the Meeting Industry Association (mia).

A Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality and a serving board member of Conference Centres of Excellence (CEE), David has over 25 years’ experience within the hospitality sector. Over the last seven years, he has launched and consolidated the EEF Venues brand, with responsibility for the strategic direction and growth strategy for the group’s three AIM-gold accredited venues: Broadway House (Westminster), Woodland Grange (Leamington Spa) and Engineers’ House (Bristol).

Having already served twice on the mia Council, this latest commitment from David Vaughton underlines his on-going support for the association and its work. 

He said: “It is an honour to be part of the strategic thrust of the association and to join such talented and experienced industry professionals on the mia’s Executive Board to help raise awareness of this respected trade association and the work it does to raise industry standards.”

Mark Chambers, chairman of the mia and group managing director of the Eden Hotel Collection, said: “We welcome David Vaughton’s strong commercial focus and his insight into the challenges and opportunities within the sector. His first-hand experience of the impact AIM accreditation can have on a hospitality business makes him ideally placed to support our strategic objectives. “ 

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.”

EEF Venues reports robust first quarter sales

EEF Venues’ first quarter trading results show a 12 per cent increase in sales revenue over YTD figures for the same period last year. The increased sales are right across the group’s three AIM-Gold accredited venues; Broadway House (Westminster), Engineers’ House (Bristol) and Woodland Grange (Leamington Spa). The double digit growth significantly surpasses UK GDP growth for the first quarter of 2014.

David Vaughton, director of venues for EEF Venues, said: ”We usually use GDP growth rate as a bench-mark as we find that improving performance and optimism in the manufacturing and construction industries can impact positively on the conference and venues market. To have out-performed British economic growth is beyond our expectations, and we predict similar success throughout our second quarter.”

David attributes the strong trading results to a combination of several factors. He explained: ”Increased corporate confidence, coupled with sharper and more proactive negotiating skills and better levels of engagement have all impacted positively on our results this quarter.”

Named ‘No 1 Small Group’ and ‘Best Value for Money Group’ in the BDRC VenueVerdict Awards earlier this year, EEF Venues reports these significant increases across multiple income streams including residential  and non-residential conference bookings.

Further support needed for SLAP

David Vaughton, director of venues for EEF Venues, has raised £1,400 to date for the Sri Lanka Aid Project (SLAP) by running in Cardiff’s Half Marathon on 6th October, coming in 7,751 out of 19,000 runners. 

He is hoping that a charity auction on Saturday 23rd November will help to meet his overall target of £5,000 to build a new classroom for the children of Bondupitiya School, victims of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami disaster.  

Meetings Industry Meeting Needs (MIMN) charity is supporting him in his fund-raising efforts.

 David Vaughton said: “My deepest thanks to all who supported me in the Marathon. We are hoping that the auction will help us to reach our £5,000 goal and we would be very grateful for any donations of prizes.”  

For further details please contact David on 01926 310504.

EEF Venues strengthens sales team

EEF Venues has appointed a new sales executive to strengthen the group’s in-house sales team.

Kristina Marshall joined on 9th September and is now responsible for business development across the group’s three Aim Gold accredited venues: Woodland Grange in Warwickshire, Broadway House in Westminster and Engineers’ House in Bristol.

Before joining the EEF Venues’ team at Woodland Grange, Kristina was area sales manager for twelve years with UMB Live’s venuefinder.com, the market leading guide serving the meetings and corporate events industry, where she was responsible for looking after 120 key accounts.

Before that, she was sales executive with Studley Castle Conference Centre and a sales co-ordinator with Billesley Manor Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Commenting on her appointment, David Vaughton, director of venues for EEF Venues, said: ”Kristina is an experienced sales professional who has embraced her new role with great enthusiasm and interest. We view this latest appointment as an investment in the business and a reflection of our confidence in the market which is looking far more buoyant and promising than this time last year.”

David Vaughton to run for Sri Lanka Aid Project

On Sunday 6th October, David Vaughton, director of venues for EEF Venues, will run the Cardiff Half Marathon in aid of the Sri Lanka Aid Project (SLAP) to raise funds for victims affected by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami in Sri Lanka.

David has been involved with this project for the past six years. Funding to date has supported repairs to the hospital in Bentota and, more recently, invested in Bondupitiya School on the fringes of the town where facilities and amenities are extremely basic.

“I had the privilege of visiting in December 2012, meeting such humble, charming and grateful people,” said David. 

“We oversaw the installation of running water into the school as a consequence of a significant donation from a major corporate organisation. The next project is to raise £5,000 to build a new classroom to accommodate the growth in numbers of pupils to over 300. We plan to undertake this project during January 2014 and as part of our fundraising activities for that, I will be attempting to complete the half marathon.” 

All materials and labour are sourced locally to support the community and all transport costs are funded at the volunteers’ own expense.

Event industry charity, Meetings Industry Meeting Needs (MIMN) is supporting David to help raise funds for this very worthy cause. 

MIMN trustee, Tim Chudley, commented: ”‘It's great to support David, a leading figure in the hospitality sector, with this very worthwhile project.”

A charity auction will also be held in November as a further fund raising activity to meet the target and prize donations would be gratefully received.

For further details or if you would like to sponsor David, please contact him on 01926 310504.

£1 million refurbishment investment for EEF Venues

EEF Venues is investing £1 million in a major refurbishment project at its Westminster venue, Broadway House, and at its Woodland Grange Conference Centre in Warwickshire. 

The company has commissioned Coventry-based McCarthy Interiors, leading specialists in corporate refurbishment and space planning, to manage the project, which is due to start on 4th March 2013. 

David Vaughton, director of venues for EEF Venues, said: "This refurbishment project is a considerable milestone for us. We view it as a huge vote of confidence in EEF Venues and also in the marketplace itself, which despite challenging economic times, is still buoyant.  Competition from other venues, particularly within the Westminster area, is strong. However, as approximately 75 per cent of all of our business comes from repeat bookings, this drives the business during difficult times. But there is no room for complacency; it’s vital to keep improving facilities and investing to meet increasingly high delegate expectations."

At Broadway House, a six-storey, Edwardian building in the heart of Westminster, EEF Venues is up-grading all of the public access spaces and conference areas within the building. This will include lighting, décor and new carpeting throughout.

The project will also involve a complete refurbishment of the 114 en-suite bedrooms at EEF Venues’ Woodland Grange in Leamington, Warwickshire. 

David Vaughton continued: “We will be completely stripping out the bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms to provide more contemporary and stylish facilities for our delegates and guests, in keeping with our four star accommodation standards. This will include everything from changing the flooring, tiling and sanitary ware to décor, bed linen and soft furnishings. We are not just looking at the aesthetics, but have focussed on the design element from a practical, housekeeping viewpoint also, such as having wall-mounted toilets and sinks for ease of access for cleaning.”

Roger Day, general manager of McCarthy Interiors, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be working closely with EEF Venues on this exciting and substantial contract. For the past six months we have worked very closely with the team to help realise their vision. One key element of the design process has been a ‘demo room’ at Woodland Grange where we have refurbished one of the bedrooms as an example of how the rooms will look. We now look forward to taking our concepts to completion at both of these impressive venues.”