EDGE Venues

The Harris Garden at Lord’s cricket ground is available to hire for corporate events for the first time this summer, providing space for 150 guests at a drinks reception. It is located directly behind the Grade II listed Pavilion building at Lord’s, and events held there can be combined with a tour of the world-famous sporting venue.

Well Met Conferencing has added The Grange to its portfolio of conference and events venues. Located on the picturesque Headingley Campus, just a short drive from Leeds city centre, The Grange is a listed building dating back to before the 16th century when it was originally used as a monastic grange as part of Kirkstall Abbey. Surrounded by 100 acres of parkland, this newly restored venue boasts a modern interior and includes two large conference rooms that are perfect for breakfast briefings, meetings, seminars and conferences for up to 20 boardroom style.

Carden Park in Chester has come up with an ingenious way of recycling the hundreds of glass bottles it uses every week – by using them to improve its two championship golf courses. The property has invested in a glass crusher which crushes the bottles in to a fine sand to help with drainage!

The five star Landmark London has launched 51 new luxury suites and has been awarded Gold Status for its implementation of green practices throughout the hotel.

Hilton London Heathrow Airport T5 will open at the end of August offering 350 spacious bedrooms and conference facilities for up to 1170 theatre style. The hotel will be just a few minutes from Heathrow Airport, less than 30 minutes by rail from Central London, and possess easy access to the M25 and M4.

Eventia’s research into the impact of the recession on the events industry has revealed event spend for the year ending December 2010 fell by 13% compared to 2009. Eventia’s UK Events Market Trends Survey 2011 was compiled from data supplied by 360 UK venues. The study reveals that, while the number of b2b events staged – approximately 1.3 million in 2010 – was similar to 2009, the level of expenditure they generated fell from £18.8bn to £16.3bn in the same period.

 

Overnight stays for corporate events fell, with only 21% of events being residential in 2010, compared with 26% in 2009. Event duration in 2010 remained stable at 1.5 days, but the majority – 68% –lasted one day or less, compared to 64% in 2009. Meanwhile, corporate b2b events increased their share of the overall events market, accounting for 51% of all events staged in 2010, compared to 47% in 2009.

 

Venue managers surveyed were optimistic about 2011, with 42% expecting business to increase from 2010 levels, and 36% anticipating it will remain the same.
 

 

Eventia’s UK Events Market Trends Survey 2011 findings also include:

• An estimated 99 million attendances at events in 2010 (based on an estimated 1.3m events with an average attendance of 76 people)

• An average of 371 events per venue in 2010, down slightly on 2009, which saw an average of 379 events per venue.

• Venues perceive ‘price’ and ‘value for money’ as the single most important selection criterion for buyers (scoring 87%), followed by location (68%), access (66%) and quality of meeting facilities (60%)

• Web-based marketing is now the most effective and productive of all types of venue marketing activity, rated by 44 per cent of venues.