Imperial Venues launches new food and drink menu for 2020

Imperial Venues has launched its new food and drink menu for 2020, featuring more vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free options.

Some of the new menu items include:

  • Vegan cheese platter with homemade caramelised onion chutney, grapes and crackers
  • Vegan plant pudding
  • Protein platter with chicken tikka skewers, boiled hens’ eggs and Woodalls salami sticks
  • Asian style rice noodle salad with flaked salmon, sugar snap peas and sweet chilli dressing

Plus, the additional options also feature Imperial’s ‘Queen’s Tower sourdough bread’, which is fermented and baked on campus:

  • Jerusalem artichoke, fresh peas and hazelnut dressing on sourdough
  • Heritage tomato burrata salad with avocado gel and sourdough crumb
  • Duck rillettes with cornichons, red onion marmalade and sourdough croute

You can download the full food and drinks menu on the Imperial Venues website.

The QEII Centre celebrates Business Brilliance Awards success

The QEII Centre has triumphed at the Business Brilliance Awards, winning accolades for brand recognition and customer service.

The centre won the Brand Brilliance (small to medium) award and was the Gold award winner in the Brilliance in Customer Service category at the Business Brilliance Awards 2019 on Thursday 5 December.

It was the first time QEII has entered the awards, which recognise excellence in the business world and are designed to celebrate the success of the world’s leading companies.

The awards attract a wide range of entries from across all sectors, from large international and public sector organisations, to dynamic and innovative private businesses.

The Brand Brilliance (small to medium) award is given to the entry that ‘encompasses the very best of marketing brilliance’ and that can demonstrate consistent growth, strong financial performance and brand recognition. Judges looked for evidence of site engagement, functionality, security, innovation and ethical practice.

The awards come following the news that the QEII Centre was Highly Commended for Venue Team of the Year at the Drum Experience Awards 2019.

To host your event at an award winning venue, contact the team at [email protected] or call  020 7798 4426.

IET London: Savoy Place shares alternative uses for lecture theatres

IET London: Savoy Place offers alternative uses for lecture theatres, thanks to raked flooring, tiered seating, cutting edge AV, a large stage and production lighting.

Product launches
Location, space and choosing somewhere that reflects your brand are important considerations for a product launch where you want to wow and excite an audience with your latest product. A lecture theatre is designed so that whatever or whoever is front and centre stage captivates an audience. And, with state-of-the-art AV – not to mention a large stage and screen, there is a lot that can help make a killer first impression.

Pop-up cinemas
The pop-up cinema market is growing rapidly in the UK with over 1,000 pop-up cinema screenings last year. Lecture theatres are dream locations for pop-up cinemas as the set-up is like a regular cinema. Plus, hosting in a dedicated events venue that has an in-house catering team and break out spaces allows you to add on a catering package.

Award Ceremonies
Lecture theatre set-ups work incredibly well for award ceremonies. A grand stage, tiered seating and wide aisles help bring such an event to life and conveys the grandeur and celebratory feeling. At Savoy Place, the Kelvin Lecture Theatre’s intelligent moving lights offer slick lighting to create a glowing atmosphere while Dolby 5.1 surround sound offers enriched audio experience for the whole audience.

For more information on hosting an event with IET London: Savoy Place, call 020 7344 5479 or email [email protected].

The Royal Society places single-use plastic reduction at the core of its sustainability policy

The reduction of single-use plastic has found its place at the core of the sustainability policy for the team at The Royal Society.

Last year, several successful initiatives were implemented, including opportunities for plastic reduction across various departments, from client events to internal staff facilities. The venues dedicated catering partner – CH&CO has played a major role in delivering these key objectives.

The Royal Society has invested in a number of projects to aid the reduction of single-use plastic, including:

  • Replacing single-use plastic bottles with water fountains for larger events
  • Replacing plastic cups with paper cones and cups and refillable glass bottles for all events
  • Encouraging staff to bring in their own containers for the canteen
  • Replacing plastic take-away boxes with paper take-away boxes and single-use plastic cutlery with compostable options

While acknowledging the achievements, a great amount of collective effort is currently going into further identifying novel ways of improving the venue’s impact on single-use plastic usage.

To host your event with a venue at The Royal Society, please call 020 7451 2612 or email [email protected].

Church House Westminster to replace corporate gifts with charity donations to boost sustainability

Church House Westminster has initiated a zero-gift policy in a bid to reduce the unnecessary use of plastic.

Replacing corporate gifts with charitable donations comes after an effort to replace plastic-based gifts with reusable coffee cups and bamboo pens. A deeper scrutiny of the sustainability of the concept then questioned the effect of transportation requirements and labour, leading to a trial of removing corporate gifts altogether.

Robin Parker, the venue’s general manager said: “Having established, at least in my own mind, that nobody really wants these gifts anyway, why are we continuing to purchase them and inflict them on our most valued clients? I wonder if instead of giving a gift, we make a pledge to charity? This must be a win-win! Firstly, we are not responsible for the production, packaging, and transportation of unnecessary items and secondly, it benefits a good cause.

“So, at Church House, we are working towards our zero-gift policy. I say working towards because we still have stock to get through, which rather than throw away and cause a notepad mountain in Westminster, we will try and distribute in a responsible way.”

For more information on hosting your event at Church House Westminster, please contact the events team on 020 7390 1582.