20 Cavendish Square now supporting emerging artists

20 Cavendish Square at the Royal College of Nursing has announced it will be supporting a new emerging artist every two months by exhibiting art in its office.

The fantastic venue will be showcasing a range of exciting styles over the coming months throughout its meeting rooms and office space. The paintings will be available to buy and the it is hoped the changing nature of the exhibitions will inject energy into the workplace, creating a dynamic and stimulating environment.

Art is a subjective topic and changing the works regularly will enable 20 Cavendish Square to cater for a range of tastes. It will provide the opportunity for staff and visitors to enjoy gallery quality art at work, encouraging people to share their opinions, promoting conversation and communication.

Cassandra Henry conference & internal manager, at 20 Cavendish Square, said: “This is an exciting opportunity to give emerging artists a platform whilst also having a positive impact on our space.”

The first artist to be exhibited at 20 Cavendish Square is Mark Fisher. Originally from Canterbury, Mark now works from him studio in Sedlescombe, East Sussex. He was taught to draw and paint from an early age by his mother, winning his first art competition at the young age of 16.

Mark’s collection of London cityscapes, are painted in a distinctive, representational style. Inspired by artists such as J.M.W Turner and Kurt Jackson, he is interested not only in the landscape but in the architecture that sits within it. Using deliberate brushwork, Mark builds the city in horizontal and vertical lines from high view-points to deliver an atmospheric body of work.

20 Cavendish Square is working with Little Van Gogh to bring these changing exhibitions to their London office.

Chloé Adams, director of Little Van Gogh, which works with artists all over Europe exhibiting 7,000 pieces of art internationally, said: “We are delighted to be showcasing our artists with 20 Cavendish Square. They have embraced supporting the arts wholeheartedly and the artwork is going to look fantastic in the space.”

For more information, please visit [email protected].

Refurbished Private Dining Rooms at The Lansdowne Club

The Lansdowne Club is delighted to announce that its two newly refurbished private dining rooms are now available to book.

The Findlay Room for up to 18 guests provides the perfect setting for corporate or private gatherings with stunning Art Deco design.

For larger parties the Shelburne Room can seat up to up to 50 guests and benefits from its own private reception area with bar where arrival drinks can be served.

For more information or to make a booking please contact [email protected].

Central Hall Westminster announces record turnover

Central Hall Westminster has announced a record turnover of over £7m for its 2015/16 financial year, ending August 2016.

Central Hall attributes much of this success to investments in a number of new technical installations at the venue and an increase in the number of enquiries from clients looking to hire the whole venue. These include PIXL, the largest partnership network of schools in England and Wales, and the BBC New Year’s Eve concert which has been held for the last three years at Central Hall. Following the success of this financial year, the venue is looking to expand its team.

Paul Southern, Managing Director at Central Hall, comments: “We are delighted to have experienced such a strong financial year. The team at Central Hall have been working hard to help drive new business opportunities and we have invested in a number of marketing campaigns and new technical installations to help develop our event offering over the past year and as a result, have seen some fantastic results.

“As well as seeing an increased interest from Chinese businesses, this year we have also expanded our concert offering at the venue and hope to grow this area of the business over the next year.”

As a not-for-profit organisation, Central Hall is committed to supporting a number of local charities. The venue has provided £1.2m for the Trustees to support international and local charities like the St. Vincent’s Family Project (SVFP). The SVFP aims to support young families living in Westminster and addresses the issues of parenting, child welfare and social exclusion by providing services for parents, carers and children.

Church House Westminster invests in the future!

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.

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

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.

The Clubhouse opens new flagship site

The Clubhouse, London’s leading business club and meeting space has opened a new flagship site on St. James’s Square, one of London’s most prestigious garden squares and one of the Capital’s most prominent businesses addresses.

The brand new building at 8 St James’s Square was designed by renowned architect Eric Parry and sits on a site that was once home to Josiah Wedgwood, founder of Wedgwood Pottery. With an interior designed to a high specification the space redefines the concept of flexible working and boasts a stylish members’ club feel. The new Clubhouse has been designed around the needs of its members and offers a unique, sophisticated and flexible meeting and work space tailored to the needs of today’s entrepreneurs and growing businesses.

Home to businesses of all shapes and sizes and across all industry sectors, The Clubhouse offers a range of individually designed meeting rooms, hot desks, lounge areas, dedicated desks, flexible meeting areas, a Club deli, event spaces and conference facilities for up to 80 delegates. In addition, The Clubhouse has launched its first innovation hub with a fully interactive video wall in partnership with MultiTaction.

For more information or to enquire about your next event click here.

QEII to create new banqueting floor with stunning city skyline views

The QEII Centre is continuing its £12 million refurbishment and rebranding project this summer by transforming its 6th floor into an open-plan banqueting space with breath-taking views of Westminster and the London city skyline.

Work has commenced and will be complete by September, when the renovated space will be revealed at a dazzling dinner to celebrate QEII’s 30th birthday.

QEII’s ongoing programme of refurbishments is focused on improving the customer experience and opening up the venue to a wider variety of events including banqueting, awards ceremonies, cocktail parties, product launches and other corporate and private special events.

The renovation of the 6th floor will give event planners greater flexibility for how they wish to use the space, with a retractable wall opening up what is now the Mountbatten room into one large, open-plan floor with a stunning glazed elevation providing dramatic views out towards the Thames, capturing Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, London Eye and the Shard.

The 6th floor refurbishment, which has been designed by architects AHMM, the 2015 winners of the RIBA Sterling prize, comes as QEII celebrates its 30th year at the heart of the UK’s event industry, contributing £122 million to the economy annually.

QEII’s in-house catering team, QEII Taste by Leith’s, has recently appointed Jean Michel Viala as its new head chef.

For more information about the QEII Centre visit www.qeiicentre.london

Event buyers enjoyed business breakfast at Victory Services Club

On Friday, 15 July, member venue Victory Services Club (VSC) showcased its newly refurbished El Alamein & Trafalgar Suite to event buyers, industry professionals and fellow member venues, at a breakfast networking event.

Guests enjoyed delicious breakfast samples prepared by the venue’s executive chef and a chilled glass of prosecco while they networked with other attendees and explored the new and improved events space.

Rosa Davies, events manager at VSC commented on the event: “After investing £1.5 million into the new space and adjoining state-of-the-art banqueting kitchen, we were very proud to share the new rooms with fellow event professionals and would like to thank all those who attended. It was a pleasure to host you and we look forward to seeing you at the many more TWC events in the future.”

Church House unveils new identity

From February 29th, Church House Conference Centre will be known as Church House Westminster.

The rebrand forms part of a strategic plan as the venue looks to the future and its continued investment, in particular in the technical facilities of its larger rooms.

Church House Westminster worked with design agency Deep on the rebrand which includes a new logo, a redesign of all marketing materials and the launch of a new website. With a logo inspired by their domed Assembly Hall and black and gold colour scheme, Church House Westminster new branding reflects the quality of the venue.

General Manager Robin Parker commented: “The rebrand is a milestone in the venue’s history. It highlights that we are no longer just a conference centre but a venue that can host a variety of events, from product launches and exhibitions to national consumer events and large award dinners. We wanted our new name to reflect not only this but also our location in the heart of London.

“Since opening in 1991 Church House has established itself as one of the highest quality venues in London known for its exceptional levels of service and friendly staff. Church House may have a new name but we will still be providing our clients and their guests with the same high levels of service that they have come to expect of us over the last 26 years.”

Church House Westminster is an AIM Gold accredited venue, and a frequent winner of the BDRC Gold Standard, placing it amongst a select group to achieve both awards. It has also been recognised for its audio visual capabilities, in which further significant investment is being planned for later in the year.

Church House Westminster is one of London’s most versatile event venues offering 19 flexible event spaces, which accommodate between 2 and 664 guests hosting a wide variety of events including meetings, conferences, awards ceremonies, gala dinners and receptions. For more information call 020 7390 1590 or visit www.churchhouseconf.co.uk.

Central Hall Westminster commits portion of £1.3m profit to charity

In December 2015, Central Hall Westminster announced record profits for its 2014/15 financial year, ending August 2015, resulting in £1.3m being invested in facility improvements, visitor services and charitable organisations.

As a not-for-profit organisation, Central Hall is committed to using substantial profits to develop the building as a visitor attraction and venue, as well as supporting the work of the Methodist Church, which owns the building. In this way, support is provided to a number of local charities including the St. Vincent’s Family Project, a registered charity that operates within Central Hall Westminster.

Speaking of the venue’s performance, Paul Souther, managing director, said: “2014/15 was an exceptionally strong year for the business and we have generated some fantastic profit. This would be a welcome result in any business situation, but it is made all the more rewarding by knowing that every penny is being used to make the building better for visitors and to support important charity work.”

The St. Vincent’s Family Project aims to support young families especially where there are difficulties. It addresses the issues of parenting, child welfare and social exclusion by providing services for parents, carers and children.