Tag: conference venues westminster

Spotlight on Cavendish Venue’s event sales executive

Posted on by vlondon-admin

After the recent 21st anniversary questions with Cavendish Venues past and present, this month’s spotlight falls on Hadleigh Miles, event sales executive at Cavendish Venues.

 What has been your most embarrassing moment in events?

This would have to be The Westminster Collection’s 2015 Christmas showcase where I ended up sitting on Santa’s lap!

What gets you up and out of bed in the morning?

My cat who has a pre-set alarm for feeding at 7.00AM which doesn’t go down well on Saturday mornings.

What do you enjoy most about working at Cavendish Venues?

As obvious as it may sound, it has to be the events themselves. Coming in every day to see each client put their own stamp on one of our 7 venues is always a joy to see and work with each day.

What is your most-watched film?

This would definitely be Straight Outta Compton. After over 10 times of watching it, I think it’s safe to say this is my new favourite film! (although both Jump Street movies came very close).

What is your favourite band/artist:

Some people may find this surprising but I am a huge heavy metal fan and as the band I have seen live the most times my favourite has to be Slipknot!

Describe yourself in three words:

Amiable, outgoing, determined.

If you could invite five people past and present to dinner who would they be?

Ray Charles, Anthony Hopkins, Corey Taylor, Robin Williams, Ray Liotta.

What would be your dream car?

Pagani, Zonda.

If you would like to find out more about Cavendish Venues or talk to them about your next event, please click here.

New appointments at Church House Westminster

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Church House Westminster has welcomed three new members of staff to its event and marketing teams.

Nicole Regalario has joined the team as events coordinator, bringing with her a wealth of sales and events experience having previously worked at Richmond Hill Hotel and Warren House.

Church House has also strengthened its marketing team with Gemma Watts taking over the role as marketing executive. Gemma has joined the team from the Roehampton Club, having gained a degree in Marketing Management from Oxford Brookes University.

Hannah Draboczy has been appointed sales and marketing assistant. Having graduated from Sheffield University with a degree in Events Management Hannah previously worked at Centaur Media as an operations assistant.

General manager at Church House Westminster, Robin Parker said: “Nicole, Hannah and Gemma are welcome additions to our dedicated team and bring with them key skills and experience for their roles. I am looking forward to working with our three new recruits to ensure we achieve growth targets by raising our profile though strategic marketing initiatives and maintaining our reputation for providing clients with first class event support and delivery.”

Situated in the heart of London, Church House Westminster has AIM Gold accreditation and is one of the city’s most versatile event venues, accommodating between two and 664 guests. For more information call 0207 390 1590.

When 10 – 11 Carlton House Terrace became the Esquire Townhouse

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Britain’s most stylish men’s magazine, Esquire, came to life in the grand setting of 10 – 11 Carlton House Terrace in central London – where four days of exclusive one off events, live interviews, screenings and master classes took place last month. Guests enjoyed drinks by Fullers, Laurent Perrier and Errazuriz Wines while enjoying a personal cover shoot thanks to Huawei.

The opening night set proceedings off with a bang thanks to an exclusive DJ set by Mark Ronson playing late into the night as celebrities including Jeremy Renner, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Sam Smith, Tom Daley, Victoria Pendleton and Mollie King joined team Esquire and their sponsors Dior on the dance floor.

It was the perfect start to kick things off in which Esquire was brought to life as guests talked food with Heston Blumental, met Supersonic director Mat Whitecross, listened to Felicity Jones discuss her latest film and learnt how to dress well with Oliver Spencer and Charlie Casely-Hayford.

Cavendish Venues celebrate 21 years of business

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Cavendish Venues is celebrating an impressive 21 years of business and to celebrate the milestone, they asked CEO Tom Mayers and MD Rachel Applegate for an insight into the key secrets of the company’s success and hopes for the future:

What has been the most memorable event of your career?

TM: Party for a group of Saudi Princesses at the Mayfair Conference Centre.

RA: Diabetics UK, London Bridge Walk.

Biggest challenges faced in the industry so far?

TM: Multiple terrorism attacks in London in 2005.

RA: Ensuring all venues are full to capacity.

Most satisfying achievement so far?

TM: Working with happy colleagues.

RA: When an event is a success to all parties concerned.

Biggest challenges you foresee for the industry?

TM: Everywhere is becoming a venue!

RA: Keeping up with trends.

What drives you individually?

TM: Happiness.

RA: Happiness.

If there’s one lesson you’ve learned?

RA: Do not panic or lose heart.

TM: Keep going and do one thing at a time!

 

During the 21 years, the privately-owned firm has been proud to achieve numerous accolades including securing titles at prestigious Conference Awards for four consecutive years.

Continuing to welcome clients with a high level of service, you can enquire for your next successful events at [email protected] or call 020 7706 7700.

High praise for our venues at the London Venue Awards

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A huge congratulation to member venues The Clubhouse, One Great George Street and IET London: Savoy Place who scooped top prizes at the London Venue Awards this month.

The Clubhouse was named as Best Business Club, One Great George Street won Best Private Dining Venue and IET London: Savoy Place was awarded Best New or Refurbished Venue.

To find out more about our award-winning venues click here.

Church House Westminster invests in the future!

Posted on by engineroom

Church House Westminster has invested a further £330,000 in state-of-the-art AV services – installing 4K dual projection in its largest room, the Assembly Hall as well as upgrading its sound system.

Installed in August, the new sound and projection system, which enables clients to choose from a range of high quality screen layouts, were used for the first time during The Art Business Conference on Thursday, 1 September. All projection is now in 16:9 widescreen format, in line with PowerPoint 2010 and beyond. The venue can also now provide 4K projection on a standard screen or up to 8k image on an ultra-wide screen. Clients can choose between a curved wide screen, an extra wide screen, a centre screen stage set or a dual screen stage set.

The new investment opens up a whole new range of opportunities for Church House Westminster’s clients to enhance their content and delegate experience by delivering high quality images and video, and by providing them with the ability to project multiple images on screen at any one time. The new stage will also allow far more versatility and flexibility for the increasing range of events that are delivered at Church House Westminster.

The venue has always invested in high specification equipment and infrastructure. Currently this includes high speed networked internet services via fibre and cat 6 cabling enabling delivery of video conferencing, and IPTV video relay. Church House Westminster also provides broadcast quality HD recording and streaming services and has an editing suite to produce professional videos.

To find out more about Church House Westminster or to make a booking enquiry click here.

Westminster venue secures a place on miaList 2016

Posted on by engineroom

The QEII Centre’s Steven Mann has been awarded the ‘Back of House’ title in the esteemed Meetings Industry Association’s (mia) miaList 2016.

The 24-year-old AV project manager who has worked at the leading Westminster-based centre since March 2014, picked up the award, which celebrates those outstanding and passionate individuals in the sector, at a prestigious lunch on 16 September at the Park Plaza Victoria, London.

Jane Longhurst, chief executive of the mia, said: “The judges were impressed by Steven’s professionalism and felt he was a great ambassador for Westminster’s QEII – consistently delivering to high standards. They thought he was a highly motivated, ambitious team player who was very focussed and eager to learn to extend his knowledge and embrace change. He also identifies areas for improvement in the department and is not afraid to suggest change as he has a strong desire to progress and seek professional development opportunities, rather than waiting to be selected.”

Steven said: “I’m so proud to have secured a place on the much sought-after miaList 2016. I thought just being short-listed at 24 was an achievement, but to actually achieve a place is such an honour. It’s fantastic that the QEII Centre continues to invest and support its employees to achieve their goals.”

Congratulations too to the other Westminster Collection members Denis Hickey of Cavendish Venues, Stephanie Gadd of Victory Services Club and QEII’s Stuart Drummond for making the shortlist for the prestigious awards.

The benefits of being part of a venue collection from One Great George Street

Posted on by engineroom

Being a stand-alone, independent venue is not always easy. While it definitely has its advantages, such as full control over day-to-day management and procurement which allows us to pass on the very best produce and services to our clients, we do everything ourselves without the helping hand of a sister organisation. Without drawing on a larger pool of manpower, Marion and I need to be selective in choosing which trade shows, forums and networking events will best showcase our fabulous venue, One Great George Street (OGGS).

We jumped on The Westminster Collection (TWC) bandwagon 5 years ago and are still current members due to the excellent ROI we receive year on year. For example, in the last 12 months we have received approximately 77 referrals and confirmed over £25,000 worth of business – a very healthy return on our membership fee of just £1,700! There’s also very real value in the affordable access the collection gives us to exhibition shows, FAM trips and networking events.

For example, The Meetings Show is a very popular industry trade show which we try to attend as part of TWC (offered on a first-come-first-serve basis). It takes place once a year, attracts over 3,000 industry professionals and provides us with pre-scheduled buyer appointments. This year we received 17 new enquiries and over 300 scanned leads which we are now in the process of prospecting for new OGGS business. This is a free event which has provided me with over 300 fresh contacts – sounds too good to be true right? But it’s true and it’s great! The next event will be TWC’s very own showcase which takes place on Monday 3rd October – sign up to our newsletters for more info.

When contemplating the advantages of joining a collection, I can say that One Great George Street has been able to utilize collections such as The Westminster Collection to support us with sales opportunities and also become part of a friendly and constructive environment with our competitors and industry peers.

Please find the original blog post from One Great George Street here.

Central Hall Westminster launches carbon offset programme

Posted on by engineroom

Central Hall Westminster has announced an initiative to encourage clients holding events at central London’s largest conference centre to offset the carbon generated by the use of the venue. Having calculated the average daily energy and water use for an event, Central Hall has developed a calculator to provide an indication of the carbon footprint created by use of the venue’s facilities and will offer all clients the opportunity to offset this footprint via a range of tree-planting and carbon offset programmes.

The first event to offset its venue carbon footprint was the Methodist Conference, held between June 30th and July 7th this year, which saw around 2,000 delegates attend the nine-day event. Central Hall calculated that the venue carbon footprint of this event was some 15.81 tonnes, which will be offset by planting 40 trees.

Paul Southern, Managing Director at Central Hall Westminster, comments: “We have been developing a number of initiatives to enhance our sustainability as a venue and are delighted to have worked on hosting the first event this week that will be effectively carbon neutral in terms of its venue energy and water consumption. We have several initiatives under way already this year and are excited to offer our clients the opportunity to quickly and easily reduce the carbon footprint of their events held at Central Hall.”

This new scheme is the latest initiative in Central Hall’s environmental strategy developed over the last five years. In that time, Central Hall has implement a number of initiatives that have reduced its day to day carbon emissions. In recognition of its achievements, Central Hall was awarded a Gold Standard from the Green Tourism Authority in 2016 having introduced LED lighting throughout the venue, encouraged recycling by offering a 25 per cent discount for clients who use their own cups instead of paper cups, adopted a fair trade products only policy and has ensured red tractor sourcing of all food products.

RSVP now for special showcase at Cavendish Venues

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You are invited to a special showcase at Cavendish Venues on Thursday, 29 September 2016, open to all event bookers. The event will begin at 6.30pm and will include champagne, cocktails and canapés alongside plenty to keep attendees entertained including a fantastic, fun photo booth.

RSVP now to [email protected] to receive confirmation and secure your place and see for yourself how member venue, Cavendish Venues consistently surpasses expectations through a warm, personable and efficient approach to hospitality.