Lime Venue Portfolio has secured the high profile new home of Cardiff City Football Club and Cardiff Blues Rugby Club into its ever expanding venue collection. The new stadium and purpose built conference & banqueting suite is due to open in July 09 and joins the Millennium Stadium and Swansea City’s Liberty Stadium, under the brands strong presence in South Wales.

“Cardiff City Stadium is a welcome addition to the brand,” commented Louise Amphlett, Head of Lime Venue Portfolio. “South Wales has a rapidly expanding and ambitious conference and event market, and through Lime Venue Portfolio, meeting and event planners have access to some of the finest venues in the region.”

(more…)

ExCeL London is further expanding its product offering by developing a bespoke meetings package aimed at events with 20 delegates and upwards, following extensive consultation with its customers.

Due to be launched in June, ExCeL London is developing the product which will include an extensive upgrade programme of its current meeting and conference facilities, complimented with state-of-the-art AV technology, an innovative F&B offering, user-friendly DDR and also specially revised contractual terms to specifically meet the needs of smaller audiences.

James Rees, Director of Conferences & Events, ExCeL London commented; “We have definitely seen an increase in demand for smaller meetings and conferences, particularly within the corporate and public sectors. Short lead business is also on the increase owing to the pressures put on organisations by the current economic climate.”

He continued; “In response to this, we have put a large investment of time and money into developing this initiative including a complete overhaul of our current meeting and conference facilities and services across the Gallery Meeting Rooms and Platinum Conference Suite.”

Church House Conference Centre, Westminster will utilise its unique wireless voting system this week at the annual national assembly of the Church of England; The General Synod.

In total, 469 leading figures will use the audience response system; ‘Agenda’ produced by market leading company IML, to register their votes on high profile religious issues including the ordainment of women bishops.

As a legally binding digital voting system, the Synod has the ability to use the results generated by the technology to pass measures that can result laws.

(more…)

Bernhard Zechner has been appointed as the new General Manager of Whittlebury Hall Management Training Centre, Hotel & Spa in Towcester, Northamptonshire.

With over 17 years experience in the hospitality industry, Zechner joins from his position as General Manager of the 801 bedroom Tower Hotel, London part of the Guoman Hotels group. His extensive experience also extends to senior operational positions held within the Intercontinental Hotels group and managerial roles within Sun International’s luxury hotels; Gaborone Sun, the Mmbatho Sun Hotel and Casino, as well as the Mmabatho Convention Centre all in Southern Africa.

(more…)

The St David’s Hotel & Spa on Cardiff Bay, part of Principal Hayley Hotels and Conference Venues has just launched a brand new meetings offer of Air, Land and Sea themed corporate activity packages.

Incorporating the hotel’s fantastic waterfront location and its close links with local incentive companies; Adventure Cardiff and HCE Adventure, the packages are designed to provide delegates with stimulation and energy boosts during an event or conference.

The packages, which can be tailored to fit around the group’s business requirements can be added to your normal day delegate or 24-hour packages and include;

(more…)

Nottingham Conferences is launching a year long awareness campaign highlighting the million pound benefit of holding conferences and events in the Nottingham and East Midlands region. The brand representing the University of Nottingham’s conference facilities will have brought £64.3 million* to the local economy by the end of 2008, a figure it is looking to increase in 2009 through a series of sales and marketing activities supported by a fully integrated PR campaign. Planned tactics will not only demonstrate the benefits of Nottingham as a business destination, but will highlight the importance of a local support network bringing and keeping business in the local community.

(more…)

ExCeL London has been named 2008 Business Venue of the Year at the fifth annual Visit London Awards, beating off strong competition from other finalists. The prestigious award ceremony, held at The Royal Albert Hall on 27th November honoured excellence in all aspects of business tourism in the Capital. ExCeL was named Business Venue of the Year in recognition of its:

• Excellent facilities and services and continual investment in maintaining standards
• Innovative marketing and creative sales techniques
• Evolution and efforts to ensure accessibility for all
• Awareness of environmental issues, work with the local community and actions taken towards to ensuring sustainability
• Responsibility towards staff training & development and internal motivation

(more…)

Whittlebury Hall Management Training Centre, Hotel and Spa in Northamptonshire has supplemented its standard day delegate and 24hr delegate packages over the Summer months with a set of complementary morning and afternoon motivational sessions, specifically designed to encourage effective learning.

(more…)

On June 29th Hilton hotels throughout the UK and Ireland will be inviting members of their communities to travel “around the world in a day” as part of their biggest ever national charity event.

Around the World in a Day participants will collectively aim to travel the circumference of the earth – 24,901.55 miles – by taking part in one of two events: the competitive Team Challenge or the more relaxed Miles4fun, designed for families. (more…)

Over thirty high profile London hotels and attractions have signed up to earn awards for their environmental credentials under the London Development Agency’s Green Tourism for London scheme.

Applicants including the Ritz, the O2 Centre, London Zoo, the Royal Lancaster Hotel and the Cavendish have began to implement their own tailor made ‘green action plans’.

The scheme, launched in Oct 2007, aims to help improve the environmental performance of the tourism industry and enable tourists to choose the greenest places to visit during their stay.
(more…)