Venues of Excellence consolidates growth

Venues of Excellence, formerly known as Conference Centres of Excellence, consolidates growth in the portfolio with further venues joining since the rebrand earlier this summer.

The new additions to the venue portfolio demonstrate the growth of the consortium both geographically into the North of England, and with a broader range of venues adding value and meeting the requirements of customers.

The most recent venues joining the consortium are Alderley Park Conference Centre in Cheshire, Manchester Conference Centre in central Manchester, and Keele Hall in Staffordshire.

By joining Venues of Excellence, each venue endorses their venue with a ‘quality kitemark’ achieved only when stringent criteria are met. Customers using venues within the group are assured of the best facilities and service delivered within the conference, training and events industry, and this continues to strengthen with the sharing of best practice and benchmarking within the network of excellent venues.

Venues of Excellence represents 31 member venues in the UK, and is aiming to grow membership further to 50 members by 2020.

Marketing Manager Amanda Stacey explains the new members add value to the portfolio:

“Alderley Park, Manchester Conference Centre and Keele Hall are three completely individual venues, each providing an exceptional service across their range of facilities.  We have been hoping to broaden our geographical footprint in the Manchester and North Midlands area for some time, and are delighted we can now offer customers these venues which meet our exacting quality standards. They allow us to offer more choice for our clients, and will also benefit from the range of marketing activities on offer to our valued partners.”

For more information about the venue portfolio, or the membership services on offer please contact info@venuesofexcellence.co.uk.

Venues of Excellence announces four new members

As Venues of Excellence, formerly known as Conference Centres of Excellence, launched at The Meetings Show at Olympia yesterday (14th June 2016) on Stand No H700, the consortium announces that it has gained four new members in recent weeks.

Venues of Excellence Board Members at The Meetings Show 2016

The four new venues are The Lensbury four star hotel in Middlesex; Manchester Conference Centre in Manchester; Yarnfield Park in Staffordshire and Jurys Inn Hinckley Island in Leicestershire.

Before joining the consortium, venues have to meet stringent criteria in terms of quality, facilities, accommodation and customer care.

A previous member of the consortium, The Lensbury four star hotel and awarding winning conference centre at Teddington Lock, has made the strategic decision to re-join Venues of Excellence in recent weeks.

Ivor Turner, general manager of The Lensbury, explained: “Following a £14.5million investment in upgrading our facilities and training our staff to the highest standards, we feel the timing is right to re-join the consortium.We are delighted to be back in the Venues of Excellence family and look forward to participating in educational exchange, networking and sharing of good practice with other quality-driven venues to deliver exceptional conference services to our clients.”

Stuart Websdale, chairman of Venues of Excellence, said: “The rebranding to Venues of Excellence has been a strategic step to broaden our footprint within the wider hospitality and events sector.

“The quality and calibre of our new members is testament to our reputation and to the work we have done over the past 24 years in providing marketing support, networking and impressive lead generation to our members.”

The consortium’s goal is to grow membership to 50 members by 2020.

With the journey towards having broader representation and increasing value to members already underway, Stuart Websdale is confident that other quality-driven venues from within the wider industry will want to endorse their venue with a badge of excellence synonymous with the Venues of Excellence brand.

He said: “Many of our members are independent players with a shared quality ethos and vision. What we offer is sharing of good practice, idea exchange and benchmarking to drive quality and to deliver excellence to our end users. The strengths of the consortium are many, not the least of which are our emphasis on transparency of relationships and understanding of buyers’ needs."

Venues of Excellence is currently exhibiting at The Meetings Show with six partners: Cranfield Management Development Centre, Bedfordshire; Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel, Glasgow; CIM | Moor Hall, Berkshire; Henley Conferences, Oxfordshire; Missenden Abbey, Buckinghamshire, and one of its newest members, Jurys Inn Hinckley Island, Leicestershire.