Nottingham Conference Centre achieves leading industry accreditation

Nottingham Conference Centre has recently received the Accredited in Meetings (AIM) Gold standard award. AIM is the nationwide Kitemark for venues and service providers in the meetings, conference and events industry.

Administered by the meetings industry association (mia) and endorsed by Visit Britain, Visit England and the Association of British Professional Conference Organisers, AIM is awarded to venues that have met or exceeded 50 criteria including customer service, quality of facilities, compliance with codes of conduct and corporate social responsibility.

AIM Gold is the highest level of the accreditation and demonstrates a venue's compliance with a more stringent set of criteria, completing a self-assessment, producing a portfolio of evidence in support of its application and receiving a visit from an independent assessor.

Jennifer Canto, Nottingham Conference Centre business development and sales manager, said: "We believe this is an important accreditation within the industry, showing customers the level of standards we are operating at.

"As an AIM accredited supplier we are committed to making our clients' events a success and by using our expertise we strive to exceed the highest standards."

Jane Longhurst, mia chief executive, added: "AIM is a mark of reassurance to meetings buyers; a demonstration that a venue is compliant, competent and capable. When a venue has achieved AIM Gold, buyers know the facilities will be of the highest standard and that they will receive service that is second to none with exceptional catering and hospitality."

Gold Award Hat-Trick for the Beardmore

The Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre has once again received the Gold Award for Green Tourism for the third year running.

First receiving the accreditation from the Green Tourism Business Scheme in the summer of 2010, the Beardmore were recognised again in July last year. Following a recent inspection of the four star residential venue, the team at the Beardmore are celebrating as they receive the prestigious honour for the third straight year, achieving a score of 86%: their highest score to date.

The Beardmore takes pride in its Green Team, which is represented by every department and meets regularly to come up unique and innovative ways to improve their eco-friendly status and encourage guests to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Gary Rice, General Manager of the Beardmore, said: “We are delighted to have received the Gold Award once again. Our team work extremely hard all year, and it is an honour to have our dedication to reducing our impact on the environment recognised by the Green Tourism Business Scheme.

“From the fundamentals of sustainable practices, such as recycling and monitoring energy consumption, we are constantly trying to adapt new ways to encourage our guests to be eco-aware, to re-use linen and towels, and help us make a difference.

“We have many innovative schemes in place, many of which have come from our own staff: such as growing our own herbs to use in the Beardmore kitchen to complimentary bikes for our guests.”

The Gold Award comes just weeks after the Beardmore was recognised as the top Eco Hotel in Scotland and third in the UK at the AA Hospitality Awards in London.

Commenting on the success, Gary said: “Here at the Beardmore, we try to go above and beyond to make a positive difference to the environment. We even offer a Green Conference Package to encourage event organisers to hold sustainable events.

“This package encourages them to use less paper and take public transport to name a few. It’s important to remember that all of this takes place in our upgraded, state of the art auditorium. It’s the complete package.”

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.

Conference Centres of Excellence confirms charity partner status with MIMN

Conference Centres of Excellence, the UK’s leading quality consortium of specialist meeting and event venues has received charity partner status from Meetings Industry Meeting Needs (MIMN) due to consistent fundraising efforts over the last four years.

MIMN is a registered charity founded by leading figures in the UK conference and events Industry to raise funds for worthy causes relevant to the events industry which may not have the resources to raise sufficient funds without additional contributions. Many needy causes do not have access to public funding and MIMN can provide financial support to these types of organisations through various fund-raising initiatives and activities.

For a number of years Conference Centres of Excellence has raised funds at the Annual Conference, and Annual Chefs’ Challenge competition dinner, with members contributing fantastic raffle prizes. Last year the group raised £1,335 for MIMN and with the 2013 Chefs’s Challenge competition just around the corner in November, we hope to exceed this figure to further support the organisation.

“As a leading venue organisation with 21 years of working in the events sector, it is right that we should support a charity partner that is close to our industry, and as such it is a privilege to be associated with the excellent and vital work MIMN carries out each year after year, taking care of people less fortunate than ourselves” commented Anthony Lishman, Executive Director of Conference Centres of Excellence.

Conference Centres of Excellence members deliver satisfaction with Gold Standard Accreditations

Conference Centres of Excellence member venues have once again achieved a significant number of BDRC Continental’s VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation, based on a customer’s ‘likelihood to recommend’ using feedback across a number of key areas.

Conference Centres of Excellence is the only marketing consortium to use the BDRC Continental VenueVerdict scheme as the benchmark for its ongoing quality assurance, ensuring standards are consistently maintained and measured to provide an excellent business meeting experience at all times.

In recent research carried out by member venue Warwick Conferences, the leading factor that results in satisfaction from an event is knowledgeable or helpful on-site staff, and customers define this further as ‘staff going the extra mile’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘a generally positive attitude’.

In choosing a venue where customer feedback and in particular the ‘likelihood to recommend’ has been measured, customers can rest assured that they are in safe hands – and the confirmation that several of our member venues have once again achieved the gold standard, does indeed  re-affirm the belief that our ‘people deliver satisfaction’.

The member venues who have achieved the BDRC Continental VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation following ongoing assessment of customer feedback during the year from October 2012 to September 2013 are:

• EEF Venues Engineers House, Bristol

• Maple House, Birmingham

• Farncombe Conference Centre, Worcestershire

• Scarman Training and Conference Centre, Warwickshire

• The Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre, Glasgow

• The Manor House, Surrey

• The Møller Centre, Cambridge

Anthony Lishman, Executive Director of Conference Centres of Excellence commented: 

 “Once again we are delighted to see so many of our venues achieving the Gold Standard Accreditation using BDRC Continental’s independent survey methods. Conference Centres of Excellence has been dedicated over the last 21 years to raising standards, and promoting the benefits to customers of using specialist venues - a key focus has always been delivering the best service from experienced and knowledgeable staff.”

For more details on the Value of Satisfaction report please visit: http://www.warwickconferences.com/value-satisfaction

Møller Spartan Warriors

Congratulations to the Møller Spartan team who all successfully completed the Cambridge Spartan race in September 2013. After obtaining a few scraped knees and sore legs, the Møller team drifted across the finish line to collect their medals.

Jessica Edwards, one of the Møller Spartan Warriors and Event Planning Executive at The Møller Centre comments: “The race was so much fun, we all had a great time taking on this challenge together, and finished as a team. Everyone was so supportive to each other, proving we have such a strong team here at The Møller! It was an incredibly muddy course in some places, but such a great experience!”

The Møller Centre took part in this year’s Cambridge Spartan race to raise £500 for Macmillan Cancer Support, the Centre’s nominated charity for 2013. With donations flying in over the weekend, we can confirm that we did reach the £500 fundraising target.

Many thanks to everyone who has supported us on this journey, and we look forward to the rest of the fundraising activities during 2013.

At the Manor House, consistency is everything!

In 2012, The Manor House Conference Centre, Godalming achieved a VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation from BDRC Continental. In 2013, we maintained the same level for the first two quarters and have now followed it up with the Accreditation for the third quarter, which ended in September. 

BDRC Continental collect feedback to measure how likely the Manor House’s meetings customers are to recommend it. Of the nearly 360 hotels and venues nationally who took part in the scheme in the quarter, only 33 got the net promoter score of +70 or more necessary to win the Gold Standard Accreditation. Once again, the Manor House is the only venue to gain the accreditation in Surrey. 

“We're really pleased to have attained the VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation for the third quarter in a row”  says Centre Manager Howard Canning, “the pressure in now on to gain the distinction for the last quarter and for 2013 as a whole. For our meetings customers, the VenueVerdict Gold Accreditation is a tremendous indication that their colleagues and peers are happy to recommend the Manor House’s facilities and services.”