Venues

Entertaining at The Wallace Collection

Posted on March 27, 2014

Hope you are having a fabulous week so far! I have very interesting venue tip for you this time. You can visit this venue with friends, colleagues, family or host an event there.

Last weekend I went for an afternoon tea at The Wallace Collection in central London, just off Oxford Street. The venue, Hertford House, has 25 galleries featuring paintings, furniture, porcelain and much more from the 18^th century. According to the brochure the museum also displays works of the greatest artist including Rembrandt and Velázquez. We spent about an hour walking around and contemplating all the impressive art pieces in different galleries on the ground floor and finished the tour with a traditional afternoon tea at the The Wallace Restaurant in the courtyard .

The courtyard largely benefits from the daylight and it feels like being in a garden. This same space can be transformed to host gala dinners or receptions. Other galleries on the ground and first floors can be also transformed to event space with dinner capacity ranging from 24 to 160. The courtyard is the biggest event space and has capacity for drinks reception up to 300 and dinner for up to 160.

I loved the venue because it is very central, but still outside the main street in a tranquil area. The building is very impressive and knowing that it used to host the Spanish and French embassies before becoming a museum in 1990 enhances the experience when visiting this beautiful place. It is a perfect venue for intimate, high profile events for attendees with love and appreciation for art and history.

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Education

International Confex: Impressions from the Exhibition Floor

Posted on March 23, 2014

Before attending Confex this year I made some research online to see who is exhibiting. The way I did it was by using the #loveconfex on twitter. That way I could interact with exhibitors and see who is original enough to render a visit. I also knew that I am going to meet old colleagues and catch up on their news and I was excited to meet new ones and discover something innovative.

The highlights from the buzzing and colourful exhibition floor:

When I first entered the exhibition I had to go through a short “Confex Tag Cloud Tunel” and had the option to talk into the “catch box”- a type of throwable microphone. I like this fantastic idea of getting the attendees engaged from the first moment they enter the exhibition floor.

Pick ‘n’ mix is one of my favourite concepts and I met these guys already at other exhibitions. The ‘self-service’ sweets station is a popular addition to almost every event, be it corporate or leisure. I will definitely book these guys for one of my future events.

It seemed that the stand of the Old Manor Hotel was the busiest at the exhibition. They literally brought the hotel with them. While Matthew the Chef served salmon canapés the visitors could participate in a shooting game, which is also one of the outdoor activities offered at the hotel in cooperation with the incentive company Teampursuits. If there would be the “most creative stand award” the Old Manor will have my vote.

Another great idea was of Incredible Artists Company and their Champaign Hostess. Placing one hostess by the entrance will WOW the attendees and can be a good ice breaker at a party. Looks very luxurious isn’t it?

The networking lounge/coffee bar was another good idea and was centrally located. Once I even spotted the Confex team performing.

Event branding is always a good idea, especially when it’s on chocolate!

Other companies I was happy to see were eventbrite, Destination Manchester, Liverpool and Belfast and got some updates on their new projects and venues.

I really wish that the exhibition will be one day longer. There were so many talks and panel discussions I wanted to attend but at the same time it was important for me to visit some of the exhibitors and see friends and colleagues from the industry. I hope everyone enjoyed the exhibition and took the most out of it!

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Education

International Confex: What I learned from Karren Brady

Posted on March 16, 2014

After visiting the International Confex Exhibtion in Olympia London last week Wednesday and Thursday I feel even more motivated and inspired to work in this fast-pace, dynamic and vibrant industry. If you are not familiar with the Confex, it is a 2-day exhibition in London for event professionals. Venues, destinations, associations, catering, technology and other service providers for the industry present there while seminars and panel discussions on current topics take place simultaneously.

My days were packed with information, seminars, panel discussions, speeches and great networking. I have so much to share with you so I decided to split my posts into several posts covering different topics. I start with the highlight of the Confex which was the keynote speech of Karren Brady. She is one of the most prominent business women in the UK and the vice chairman of West Ham United FC. To many she is also known as Lord Sugar’s assistant at The Apprentice. I love the show because it provides a good business sense regardless the industry you are in. My favourite episode from last season was when the two teams were given the task to organise corporate away days. It was not as easy as it sounds and the teams faced many challenges. It’s a classic for every event planner. (I attach the video in the end of the post).

Back to the talk. In a packed conference hall she shared her principles and values of success. Some of the points I noted down:

– Leadership is not management. She added that real leadership is how you behave when faced with unknown situation and quoted Martin Luther King: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”.

– Have passion, pride and respect.

– She highlighted that staff is the core of every business and talked about the importance of motivating the staff in different positions within the organisation. She emphasised that the staff has to know everything about the business and gave an example of her football players selling tickets in the ticket office.

– Her core values are: dedication, commitment, being profitable and the employer of choice.

– She said that one has to be open minded to do things in new way.

– She talked about ambition and here mentioned Lord Sugar. He has everything, private jets, yachts, houses, you name it but he always worked hard to stay on top. She said that when they film The Apprentice episodes, he is the first to come in the morning and the last to leave. The challenge of success is not only to be on top, but also to survive and thrive once you are there.

– She advised to look at other industries and learn from other successful people.

– She concluded with the key elements of success: determination, attitude, direction and being positive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAbbDR05nc4

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MICE Destinations

Rediscover London with London & Partners: New Convention Bureau Website

Posted on March 11, 2014

London & Partners_view to Tower Bridge_night

My story goes back to 2012 when I worked at the London Olympics. I had an extensive training of six months for the role – I learned about the Olympic venues, London venues (including hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions), Olympic disciplines as well as customer service and intercultural communication. I had to know as much as possible to give the best advice, at the right time, to the right customer. Demanding role, where you have to exceed customer expectations. My role required not only to provide event hospitality, but also a world class service, in a world class city.

Now, two years later, and London is building up on its Olympic legacy, attracting investment and major events, developing new residential areas, opening new hotels, adding event space and the list goes on.

One of the major milestones was announced last week, 6 March – London & Partners, the official promotional organisation for London, launched a new convention bureau website as a virtual window into the city. A group of selected event organisers, venues and media were invited to the launch event at their headquarters near Tower Bridge.

The new website is a valuable source of information where event planners can get inspirations for event venues, gastronomy, ideas for team building or after-work and other related services. Before creating the website the dedicated team of London & Partners conducted an extensive research to understand the needs of event planners and found ways to address them.

Here you can see the successful result: London & Partners Website

I like the straight- forward and functional design of the website and appreciate the informative “insider” information and tips of London & Partners team which they share on their blog and YouTube channel.

The new campaign is about sharing personal stories. So I want to take this opportunity and share with you my story. One of my favourite venues is Excel Exhibition Centre in east London. I love this venue for several reasons. It’s not too big, not too small and conveniently accessible with public transportation. I attend between 1 – 4 events per year at the Excel, World Travel Market being my favourite. I love the Gallery rooms upstairs where the seminars are usually held and there is always a good technical support on site to assist the speakers. In the summer I enjoy spending some time off on the river side while sipping my coffee and having the view over Canary Wharf. Last but not least, Excel has an excellent onsite diverse and healthy catering offer, sounds trivial, but many exhibition centres miss on this aspect.

The next big announcement is the reopening of the south of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on the 5 April 2014. I can’t wait to visit the park again after almost two years. I am sure it will be a very emotional moment for me to visit the place where I witnessed some of the Olympic highlights such as Usain’s Bolt 200m and 10,000m of Mo Farah.

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Venues

East Wintergarden – venue in the heart of London’s financial centre

Posted on February 9, 2014

Canary Wharf is one of London’s financial and business centres and some of the major financial institutions headquartered there, including Thomson Reuters, HSBC and J.P. Morgan. Nowadays many public events take place in Canary Wharf to also appeal to leisure visitors and make the area more buzzing on the weekends. Such events include the London Ice Sculpting Festival, motorexpo, food markets etc. In addition Canary Wharf is very ‘strategic’ area for business travelers because of the proximity of the City Airport and the exhibition center Excel.

Few weeks ago I was on a site visit at the East Wintergarden in Canary Wharf. The venue belongs to Canary Wharf Group plc and hosts public and private events. Needless to say, all the corporations book the venue for meetings, conferences, seminars and other corporate events. But not only. The venue is also popular for private hire of weddings, birthdays, Bar Mitzvahs and other celebrations. On the day I visited the venue it undergone maintenance work so I kindly asked to send me photos from past events to get an impression of the different set-ups.

The venue has two areas, the main area on the ground floor which can accommodate up to 500 attendees for banqueting and 800 – 1000 for receptions. And The Gallery on the upper floor which can accommodate up to 120 guests seated and 250 for a reception. Of course both areas can be hired together such as hosting a drinks reception in The Gallery and the dinner downstairs.

The highlight of the venue is the arched glass atrium which gives the venue an elegant and modern touch well aligned with the architecture dominating Canary Wharf. Thanks to the glass atrium the venue can also highly benefit from the daylight.

Note: a big thank you to East Wintergarden team who showed me around the venue. All opinions expressed above are mine.

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