Incentive & Motivation

Staffordshire based Keele Conferences & Events has devised a new campaign based around customer and industry feedback that calls for a greater focus on delivering conferences and events with a strong personal approach. 

The Conference Characters campaign will be officially launched at this year’s International Confex where Keele Conferences & Events will be exhibiting for the first time, alongside destination partners Yarnfield Park, Britannia Stadium and Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent Conference Bureau (stand no B421).

 Sam Booth, Head of Keele Conferences & Events comments; “It is not enough to just focus on providing a good service – that should be a standard. We should be working to provide good service but with a unique delivery by strong characters.”

 She continued, “With the arrival of the Olympic Games, this year more than any other will be one where people expect unique events and with the spotlight firmly placed on how the industry performs, we have a great opportunity to show off what we can do.”

 Innovative service provision has always being a key USP of the Staffordshire based team and last year it launched ‘Keele Event Services’ which provides event support and management to associations as their annual conferences travel around the country.

 Also during the latter part of 2011, Keele Conferences embarked on a drive to encourage the industry to support the promotion of the educational benefit of meetings and events for generating knowledge and research, rather than solely their financial benefits. This received strong backing from the Britain for Events Campaign.

High profile members of the UK events industry will meet with members of parliament at a closed-door dinner as part of the Britain for Events campaign on 2^nd February 2012.

 Attending the dinner will be 25 industry representatives, joined by five MPs, including Nick de Bois, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Events. The MP’s expected to be present include Bob Blackman MP (Harrow East), Bob Stewart MP (Beckenham), Steve Brine MP (Winchester & Chandlers Ford) and Tom Greatrex MP (Rutherglen & Hamilton West). There will also be attendance from Lady Cobham (Visit England) and Lord Triesman, underlining the collective interest from both houses of parliament.

 The dinner will be co-chaired by Nick de Bois MP and Michael Hirst, Chair of the Business Visits & Events Partnership, with the intention of creating closer partnership between government and industry to increase the UK event industry’s international competitiveness.

 Other confirmed attendees include Fay Sharpe, Managing Director – Sales & Marketing, Zibrant; Leigh Jagger, Chief Executive Officer, Banks Sadler; Kevin Murphy, Chief Executive, ExCeL London; Jonny Sullens, Portfolio Director, Confex Group; Ben Goedegebuure, Director of Sales, SECC; and Jane Longhurst, Chief Executive, MIA.

Momentum continues to gather for this year’sBritainfor Events campaign. Following its launch last month, the UK events industry has already secured major wins this month from senior government representatives.

Following official endorsement of the campaign from Prime Minister David Cameron, Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, spoke at the opening of World Travel Market this week on next year’s “World Tourism Summit coming together to discuss the power of events” and “new ways of looking at event tourism in the future”.

These statements continue momentum for theUK’s vibrant events industry and follow endorsement for theBritainfor Events campaign from John Penrose MP, Minister of Tourism and Nick de Bois MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Events (APPG). Furthermore, there will be an increased injection of resource for the industry with business tourism identified as one of the areas that will benefit from VisitEngland’s successful bid for £19.8 million Regional Growth Fund announced earlier this month.

“Event tourism is now firmly on the government agenda,” comments Michael Hirst, Chair of the Business Visits & Events Partnership and campaign coordinator for Britain for Events. “It is fitting that these developments have all taken place in the lead up to, and during one of the UKs seminal tourism events and goes to demonstrate the growing role both business and leisure events play in the UK tourism.”

Nick de Bois MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Events, will launch the Britain for Events campaign on 27^th October 2011 alongside industry thought leaders representing the UK meetings and events industry.

 The launch will take place at ‘The Deck’, at the National Theatre, where de Bois will lay out where government and the industry can work together to increase the UK’s competitiveness in attracting large scale events. The event will also see the unveiling of this years’Britainfor Events campaign and how it will support the industry in achieving this objective.

“This is a vitally important campaign in promoting theUKevents industry,” commented Nick de Bois, MP for Enfield North. “This is an industry that represents a huge opportunity for growth within the economy and to increase our competitiveness internationally.”

The launch event will take place from 6pm – 8pm on 27^th October 2011 and invitations have been extended to MPs on the APPG for Events, as well as members of the Culture, Media & Sports Select Committee and the Business & Enterprise Select Committee. The industry will also be represented though Partners and Supporters of the campaign including the Business Visits & Events Partnership and its member associations.

 Michael Hirst OBE, Chair of the Business Visits & Events Partnership commented: “As an industry we are right to seek a higher profile on the political agenda as we represent an area of huge growth for the economy. We’re delighted that Nick de Bois and his All Party Political Parliamentary Group are taking our case to the very highest levels of government and are so supportive of the Britain For Events campaign.”

To register your attendance at the event please RSVP by 14th October to info@britainforevents.co.uk

 ENDS