The Meetings Show is calling on event professionals to get creative when submitting papers for its 2019 education programme.
Conference producer Erica Keogan will curate a large proportion of the show’s 50 hours of free educational sessions but industry experts and those with a passion for sharing their knowledge are also invited to put forward ideas for sessions.
The 2019 education programme will be centred around the event planning journey, covering everything from conception to legacy, and is designed to provide attendees with information on the latest trends and challenges, as well as exploring what may happen in the future.
Alongside suggestions for topics, Keogan, who first encouraged industry involvement last year, is calling for the most creative ideas for session delivery.
The show wants to encourage active learning in a variety of different formats, with no constraints when it comes to how sessions are delivered, what technology is used, where the sessions take place or who they are delivered by.
Keogan said: “We’re looking to tap into the talent and insight of meetings and events professionals to help create something really inspiring for our educational programme this year.
“We are calling for those submitting papers to think outside-the-box and come up with some inventive ways to deliver their ideas. We’d love to hear all your ideas, no matter how unusual or outlandish they may seem.”
Those looking to participate in the education programme when the show returns to Olympia London on 26-27 June for its seventh edition should provide a proposed title, which part of the event planning journey it relates to, and, in no more than 250 words, a brief synopsis of what delegates will discover by attending their proposed talk.
The proposal should include details of how the talk or informative session will be delivered. To submit a proposal, complete the application form online here .
Successful applicants may also be offered the chance to speak on a panel debate.
Two years ago, the unique floating platform that is Good Hotel was pulled across the North Sea from Amsterdam to find its new home at the historic Royal Victoria docks in East London. Good Hotel London is good by name, and good by nature – its inspirational social business model means that Good Hotel not only donates all of profits to charitable causes, but it also hosts its own Good Training programme.
Good Hotel London works with local authority Newham Workplace to identify people in the local area that are in need of skills and training. It offers these people, regardless of background, a fresh start. Once accepted onto the programme, they are paid to train with Good Hotel for three months, gaining skills in hospitality and catering, alongside self-confidence and interpersonal skills. After completion, Good Group works hard to place them in permanent employment. So far, Good Hotel London has seen 68 people taking part in the Good Training programme in London, with almost 75% going on into further employment.
As for charitable donations, in its first year, Good Hotel donated $80,000, and is now structurally working towards being able to donate $500,000 per year to its Guatemalan NGO partner, Ninos de Guatemala. Ninos de Guatemala is building schools and directly facilitating the education of 500+ students in some of the poorest rural communities in Guatemala. Good Hotel is constantly seeking good partnerships, in 2018 Good Hotel London became home to London’s first Seabin – a floating rubbish bin designed to be placed at marinas, docks and commercial ports as a partial solution to the current global littering problem. Good Hotel always tries, where possible, to source locally and sustainably.
Whether it’s your next breakfast, lunch or dinner, event, or hotel stay – staying with Good Hotel means that you directly help in their efforts to rebuild communities in need, and give disadvantaged people new opportunities to succeed. Stay Good, do Good.
Timed to coincide with the opening of the COP24 climate talks in Katowice, Poland, ABPCO has released a report and Roadmap for the creation of a more sustainable events industry.
Following attendance at a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) workshop in Paris in October titled: “Leveraging Sustainable Procurement Practices to Transform Tourism Value Chains”, ABPCO and its members gathered to consider the areas where the industry can have the most significant impact on the creation of a sustainable future.
Using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, ABPCO identified a desire for the industry to do more in areas of:
Responsible production and consumption
Quality education and partnerships
Reducing inequalities
The UNEP workshop in Paris also highlighted an opportunity for the event industry to collaborate closely with the wider hospitality sector in the following key areas:
Phasing out single-use plastics
Sustainable food procurement
Circularity in the supply chain
ABPCO’s report and Sustainability Roadmap were launched at IBTM last week alongside attendees from UNEP, Positive Impact and other industry leaders focused on sustainability.
“COP24 will ensure the world is focused on sustainability over the coming days so there was no better time to launch both our report and Sustainability Roadmap,” comments Heather Lishman, ABPCO’s Association Director, who has been leading the project on behalf of the association. “We have worked with members from both the supply and demand side of the industry to identify where we can have the greatest impact, whilst ensuring the whole sector continues to deliver maximum value for those looking to use events as a means of education, communication and business development.”
Positive Impacts Fiona Pelham comments: “ABPCO has shown significant leadership by attending, contributing to and communicating about a UN environment event on behalf of the global event industry. ABPCO members should be extremely proud that their association is taking leading action to protect our future and the future of the Events industry.”
Meeting Professionals International (MPI) released its Meetings Outlook report at IBTM in November, highlighting projected favourable business conditions, with a caveat that budgets were unlikely to increase.
Only 1.5 per cent of those polled in the report believed that budget conditions were favourable, with 43 per cent thinking future budgets would be 1-5 per cent better.
A cautious approach was the order of the day, with safety and security at events highlighted as the area where budgets would be allocated.
Jessie States, head of meeting innovation for MPI, reported that 33 per cent said there were growth opportunities in the Eurozone as well as in other domestic regions.
The global projected business conditions were 63 per cent favourable, while 15 per cent were negative.
“One of the biggest areas of change is in the use of contractors in the events industry. The number of contractors was high because ‘organisations are not ready to invest in full-time staff’, so there was a trend to bring in a workforce who are not employees.
These contractors are specialising in different areas such as tech, food and beverage. They are starting their own business and come in on a consultative level to advise companies.”
Jessie States, head of meeting innovation for MPI
Current employment trends according to MPI show an increase of 43 per cent in contract staff, and a 34 per cent increase inpart-time workers.
Delving into the changing nature of events, States said there would be shorter, more frequent events, with 30 per cent of sessions shorter and 35 per cent of events larger. Projected live attendance was 61 per cent positive, 23 per cent flat, and 16 per cent negative.
Delegates are looking for a more hands-on experience, with an element of virtual reality “to learn, show, educate, and changemind sets,” States said. “The focus is on the challenge of balancing true, cutting-edge delivery and immersion methods.”
In terms of corporate responsibility, there was additional interest and adding activities related to this area, while “22 per cent said CSR was now a normal piece of the planning process.”
Contract negotiations are more complex, the report found, with 54.9 per cent agreeing with this.
“It’s a sellers’ marketplace and they have better leverage.”
etc.venues have announced a brand new conference and exhibition venue – just minutes away from Liverpool Street and Bank stations.
The new etc.venues – 133 Houndsditch will offer their largest room to date, catering for conferences up to 800 and dinners for 500.
The venue is conveniently situated across one floor and the main room is supported by 15,000 sq ft of flexible exhibition space, along with a further seven large breakout rooms with capacity for 50 – 200.
With plenty of branding opportunities and the latest built in AV technology, along with onsite chefs, exceptional service and the usual etc. flair for modern design – this new venue will offer the perfect space for your exclusive events.
From predictions for 2019 and expenses payments to mental health, the HBAA delivered a packed programme to a capacity audience at its latest Members Meeting, held recently at the Crowne Plaza Solihull.
Providing a global economic report for 2018, Liz Hall from Liz Hall Hotel and Travel Consulting discussed key forecasts for next year. She predicted that the hospitality and events industry will experience modest growth despite challenging macro-economic conditions. The average daily rate (ADR) is expected to increase in 2019, with London experiencing an 0.8 per cent rise, resulting an extra £150 of spending, while the provinces will see an increase of over 1.2 per cent, representing an £70 in additional spend.
Former HBAA Chair and Director of Proposition-Accommodation and Meetings at Capita Travel and Events, Leigh Cowlishaw unveiled Capita’s #THISISMEcampaign, which aims to call attention to and tackling the growing problem of mental health in the workplace. Alison Jenkins from Meetings Club unveiled her venue location platform, which focusses on sharing feedback and reviews.
Tony Morris from the Sales Doctors provided an engaging session on what the top one per cent of all sales professionals do differently. Key habits include ‘becoming the CEO of the first impression’, ‘helping to buy’ instead of selling, developing visual triggers of desired goals, matching your customer’s body language, asking relevant questions, stressing success over experience and continuously asking for referrals.
David Wood from Conferma explored consumer innovations driving change in corporate expenses payments. Explaining how one in three industry professionals experience cash flow issues and 38 per cent experience stress while waiting for business expenses to be reimbursed, David argued that virtual cards and digital payments not only eliminate these problems, but they provide full visibility and transparency for employers on staff travel purchases.
HBAA Tech & Innovation Chair, Caleb Parker, Founder and CEO of Bold, provided an update on the future of Wi-Fi at venues. The results from a recent survey suggested that more than 80 per cent of hospitality and events professionals want a transparent industry standard that is clear on service levels for Wi-Fi. Nearly 90 per cent believe that the industry would benefit from standardised pricing for Wi-Fi that offers a fair market.
Delegates were then split into groups and asked for their thoughts on response time to client enquiries and how the process could be improved. After a brief brainstorm, audience responses included the need to streamline small meetings bookings, reducing the amount of unnecessary options, creating more honesty between agent, client and venue, and ensuring there is greater transparency in budgets. The outputs from this session will be used to inform best practice for enquiry handling, as part of next year’s full review of the HBAA Code of Practice.
Louise Goalen, HBAA Chair says, “Our theme for the year has been Building on Success and the last meeting of 2018, attended by so many members, and delivering valuable, inspirational, and insightful presentations, was the perfect way to round off the year.”
After months in the planning, Trinity Event Solutions is delighted to announce the official launch of EDGE Venues into the meetings and events space – providing a platform for a global venue sourcing solution to support agents, corporates and associations. This new, innovative and revolutionary digital platform has been created by the industry, for the industry.
With a global database of MICE specific hotels and venues, event planners and agencies will be able to use EDGE Venues, free of charge, to source the perfect venue for their next meeting or event.
Since the announcement of EDGE Venues earlier this summer, hotel groups, independents and venues have flocked to the site to update their data to with many achieving 100% of the available data fields to enhance their positioning on searches. Event planners, including agents and corporates can now search for venues within 125 destinations and 45 countries –a database that will continually grow as demand increases. The ‘compare’ feature is a key focal point for the website, allowing users to select a number of chosen properties and compare the features available to determine the most appropriate venue that meets their requirements. This is supported by a managed service to support both planners and venues.
Here’s what Julian Kettleborough, Commercial Director at Studio Venue Company had to say about signing up to EDGE Venues:
“We’re delighted to be launching thestudio on EDGE Venues and excited by the opportunity to promote our four-creative city centre event venues across an exciting new platform, which promises to deliver an excellent experience for venues, agents and their guests. The ability for users to tailor make their venue searches across a wide variety of criteria and for us to promote the personality and flexibility of our locations clinched it for us and we look forward to collaborating with the EDGE team and their users.”
EDGE Venues is a B2B platform packed with articles of inspiration and venue updates, news and offers. It will also provide a community voice where associations will be invited to share their insights into the industry.
Jacqui Kavanagh, Managing Director of Trinity Event Solutions and EDGE Venues had this to say on the launch:
“We’re really excited to be launching EDGE Venues into the marketplace. As event planners ourselves, we understand that every event is different. It’s with that in mind the search functionality for event specific data is very flexible with opportunities to see the benefits and USPs of the venue and how it will work for the event. The reaction from the industry in the lead up to the launch has been really encouraging and we can’t wait to see how we can develop this further to continue meeting the needs of venues, agencies and event planners.”
Want to know how you can get involved with EDGE
Venues? Contact the EDGE Team to find out more:
Career network site LinkedIn has announced the launch of LinkedIn Events, a new feature which will allow users to join and create professional events, invite connections and have conversations.
LinkedIn says it recognises the importance of face-to-face meetings in building professional relationships, and its new platform is intended to tap into that. The network conducted research which showed 80% of LinkedIn users consider professional networking to be important to new opportunities and success.
The feature will start with a pilot group of organisers in San Francisco and New York, but will be rolling out globally to all members within the next few months. All users are able to join and participate in events they’re invited to.
The new feature will allow you to:
Create and event
Whether on desktop or mobile, event organisers can create an event and provide all of the details for it – a description, date and time, and a unique hashtag so people can follow along.
Promote and event
Hosts can invite their connections and share the event with their network to encourage other people to join. Attendees can also invite people in their network that might be interested.
Manage an event
Organisers can easily track attendees and invitees, post updates, edit the details if the time or location changes, and follow-up after the event.
Have conversations with fellow attendees
All event attendees will be able to chat with each other in the event page feed before, during, and after the event to share their excitement, meet one another, share videos and photos from the event, and continue strengthening their relationships.
See who else is going
Attendees can take a look at the guest list and use our search filters to see who else is going, what industry they work in, and more.
“We have seen behavior where people are using the platform to organize meet-ups and they will add a bunch of folks to the comments and tag them and those folks will in turn invite more.”
The Hyatt Regency Bangkok has had a soft opening and will celebrate a grand opening in January 2019.
Conveniently located on Sukhumvit road with direct access to BTS skytrain Nana Station, the hotel offers full facilities and amenities such as a fitness centre, swimming pool, outdoor spaces and Regency Club Lounge to provide energising experiences for guests visiting Bangkok, whether for business or leisure.
For meeting and event planners, the hotel will offer an array of function and meetings spaces totalling 1,359 sqm, with natural lighting and the latest AV technology featuring in all meeting rooms. The biggest space is on the fifth floor, where a pillarless ballroom has been designed to accommodate up to 1,000 guests. The room can also be divided into four separate venues.
Providing comfort and communal space for working or socialising, the event lounge, featuring a cluster seating area for four-to-eight persons, is ideal for small meetings.
Located on the 6th floor, their outdoor freeform pool is surrounded by lush vegetation with an outdoor whirlpool, shade/no shade pool chairs, a pool bar, lockers, sauna and steam room.
The 277 sq m. (2,981 sq ft.) lounge on the 27th floor offers stunning views of the city through its floor-to-ceiling glass windows, with 66 comfortable seats both indoor and outdoor. Boardroom space for 12, with exclusive F&B offerings through the on-site kitchen, is also available.
The indoor and outdoor spaces of the hotel include a U-shaped bar and an all-day dining concept, including a multi-purpose venue and tapas bar on the 29th floor.
I recently attended a trip with Global DMC Partners Connections (GDMCP) to experience what the historic city of Warsaw has to offer for meeting and event planners…
Warsaw day 1 – our arrival
After an early start for the flight to Warsaw where we were met by Global DMC Partnersrepresentatives who transferred us to our hotel for the event. Chopin Airport (named after the country’s famous composer) is only a 25 minute journey to/from the city centre and there are several low cost public transport options.
Our first stopover was the Sheraton Warsaw. This hotel is in the south of the city in a quite upmarket area but only a couple of minutes from shops, bars and restaurants. It’s about a 20 minute walk to the old town (along the main shopping streets), and 15 minutes to the business district.
This large 5* hotel had a complete refurbishment last year and to a very high standard. There are 350 bedrooms & suites and even the standard ‘Classic’ rooms that we were staying in were really spacious with a large lounge area. It has a large conference centre with 12 meeting spaces over two floors (Ground & 1st Floors) and ranging in size. The Grand Ballroom holding 600 in theatre layout and 360 cabaret. It’s worth noting however that most of the rooms, including the Ballroom do not have natural light – a key consideration for some meeting planners.
There is a large central area for registrations, networking and refreshment breaks and there are three primary restaurants – the Olive is the main restaurant with buffet service for breakfast and lunch. As well as a Tex-Mex and an Asian restaurant, there is a small 4th restaurant located in the ‘Chef’s Kitchen’ which can be reserved for small groups.
Experiencing Warsaw itself
Once we’d arrived and checked in we realised we were starving so a few of us went for lunch at a nearby restaurant. The food was interesting (minestrone soup with a poached egg in the middle) but it was very good quality, well presented and cheap! Less than £10 each for a good quality lunch in a very nice restaurant.
Everything in Warsaw was cheap. The cost of living index for Warsaw shows general costs including restaurants are about half the price of those in London, so great value. Several delegates found time for shopping and reported some great bargains.
Later that day after exploring a little of the city we met with our hosts, for drinks before leaving for an informal buffet dinner at the Warsaw Marriott Hotel.
5* Warsaw Marriott Hotel
The 5* Marriott was one of the first ‘skyscrapers’ in Warsaw and has the highest sky bar in the city on the 40th floor. It was built in 1989 (Poland’s year of independence) as a symbol of transformation. It’s situated in the business district next to the central train station and opposite a landmark building – the Palace of Culture and Science. The hotel has 21 meeting rooms with the Grand Ballroom being the largest space which can accommodate up to 700 theatre style.
Warsaw Day 2
Having declined the opportunity to join the optional morning walk at 0630 (!), we gathered for the morning session for an interesting presentation on global sales and economy.
The Emcee for the weekend was Sam McNeil from SongDivision. As well as being a great speaker, he & his team write ‘instahits’ (songs written in about 5 minutes based on answering a few questions about yourself) and provide various musical based entertainment. This is great idea for team building or general/meeting conference interaction. The rest of the morning was the 1-1 appointments with individual DMCs who gave me an overview of their destinations and how they could assist us on future enquiries.
Discovering Warsaw’s history
After lunch we had a choice of activities and I joined the ‘Communist Warsaw’ tour run by a great guide from the Adventure Warsaw company. The tour was very enlightening about life in Warsaw under communist rule and included a visit to a museum showing what the workers homes were like in the 50-80’s.
After a much needed shower, we departed for dinner at Lazienki Park. This beautiful park houses the former summer residence of the Polish royal family until the early 19th century. Unlike the centre of Warsaw, which was devastated by bombing during WWII, these buildings thankfully suffered little impact. After a 10 minute walk through the park (reminiscent of Hampton Court Palace), we were treated to a short piano concert featuring works by Chopin in a beautiful and intimate theatre. This was followed by dinner in the orangery which leads out onto terraces overlooking the park and gardens. It is an elegant and impressive location for a large group private dinner.
Lazienki Park
Our final day
After further appointments with the DMCs, I went on the ‘Warsaw in a Nutshell’ tour which took us to the Old Town, an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most of Warsaw was completely flattened during the war and during the 1950’s and into 1960’s, the centre of Warsaw was completely rebuilt to look the same as it had done pre-war. So, the lovely ‘medieval’ market square with it’s old street and houses is in fact only 50 or so years old.
Warsaw in a nutshell – walking tour
It is a city with over 100 museums and commemorative statues and sculptures are on almost every corner, much of it linked to events during the war, including a large museum in the vicinity of the former Jewish ghetto.
The tour then took us to Praga on the east side of the Vistula River. This is traditionally the rougher part of Warsaw but is now slowly becoming gentrified and has an arty feel to it. The banks of the river have been turned into beaches so we spent the last part of our tour having a drink on the beach whilst watching a regular Saturday massive salsa class – pretty impressive given the heat!
Our final Gala Dinner took place at the Palace of Culture and Science, which is in the business district and only 5-10 minutes by coach from the Sheraton. This enormous building was one of the first built by the communists (1955) and is therefore a divisive building. Since independence there have been calls for it to be destroyed, but this now looks unlikely. The Palace was built for ‘the workers’ as a centre of culture, as such it houses museums and exhibitions, a theatre, cinema, swimming pool as well as bars and shops.
Palace of Culture and Science
The dinner was held in a large hall which looked like it could take approx 150 in cabaret layout. The food was good although service was slow. There was plenty of space for a stage (the SongDivison crew were providing the music) and for dancing.
In summary
Warsaw is a compact city and all the large hotels are within a short taxi ride of each other. The Old Town is worth a look if any clients have an hour or so to spare when in the city. I wouldn’t call it a beautiful city as, except for the old town, the architecture is pretty bland and reminiscent of many Germany cities having been rebuilt at the same time. However, it does have a relaxed and safe feel to it with everyone we met being very friendly, plus there are some hidden gems in this city such as Lazienki Park.
Costs are very low throughout the city making it a good value option for anyone considering this as a destination for an event, although DMC services would probably be required to assist with some of the more unusual venues.
