Unit 17- events, conferences and exhibitions - P1, P2, P3, M1 & D1

P1

In the first part of the assignment I will be briefly explaining the event, conference and exhibitions environment

Types of event – There are many types of events and they are: corporate hospitality, team building events, incentives, fundraising, product launches, music events and festivals, wedding fairs and reunions

Corporate hospitality

This event is focuses on providing other events to people and entertainment to current and future business clients. It is also a good way for companies to network with other companies and create new business contacts.


These conferences are for the main political parties, whether it be the main government or local government political parties. The main government political conferences mainly happen in seaside resorts in the autumn town, which benefits the local businesses as it brings in extra money for the hotels and hospitality services when the holiday season is coming to an end. An example of a political conference which relates to travel and tourism is the World Tourism Organisation. 


This type of conferences occur all of the UK and range in size and budget. A company can have a yearly meeting in a small local hotel or on the larger side of the scale the Grosvenor House Hotel hosts the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry. The people who attend the business conferences have to participate in work shops to help them learn new ideas to expand their business and increase sales


Educational conferences are organised by teaching unions and some conferences can be only for certain educational subjects for teachers and lectures. An example of an educational conference is the National Union of Teacher’s conference.


Academic conferences are similar to educational conferences but they are organised for lectures in universities. The subjects talked about are at a higher level than educational and can take place all over the world.


Road shows are quite a popular way of having a trade fair as they go to many locations across a certain area to promote their products and services and showing them to a wide range of people rather then just in one location


Specialist organisations – There are four types of specialist organisations and they are: venue finding agencies, conference organisers, exhibition organisers and event management companies


Exhibitions are normally arranged for trade fairs (B2B) or consumer events (B2C). The organisers do a lot to create an exhibition ranging from: arranging extra power supplies, hiring the venue for the exhibition and building stands and working the layout for all the exhibitors to be in one place. 

Ascent Events is an example of a exhibition organiser.
When associations plan events they need to use products and services from the industry to help get a message across or just meet up with everyone in one place. ABTA have a yearly conference which changes location every year to talk about current and future factors affecting travel and travel agencies.
These organisations have events and conferences to have a political debate about many different topics, staff members from all of the government departments attend to keep up to date about current and future developments. Both central and local governments organise events.


Transport companies will be an important contact for event organisers as they may need people to be picked up from train station or even airports to be taken to an a location for the event. The transport company may even be booked by event management companies if someone is having a wedding and want not only a bridal car but cars to take every party member from one location to the other.
This is an important link within the travel and tourism industry, as when a day trip is planned many sectors of the industry are involved: transport, catering, place(s) to visit.


Companies who find venues and arrange events are becoming more popular as people are not having enough time or the effort to plan the event whether it be a wedding or a party. More and more people are becoming event planners and working from home rather than joining a business. Event management companies are also increasing as some people who are paying for the staff to plan the event may not know all the products they need for an event and if any public liability insurance is needed.


Venue finding and event management companies have increased due to the ever increasing need for planners.  A report by Recruiter says every year, 10% more companies open up as event or conference planning, in the same repot they say by 2018, there will be over eight thousand jobs as an event, conference and exhibition planner.


Because of the internet and technology developments are increasing it has an impact on conferences and seminars. More businesses are having web conferences and e-meetings, which they can do through the phone and video calls, this is having a negative impact on needing conferences and seminars as people do not need to hire out a venue, get a catering company and an event planner. For example, a report done by business week stated a company in America have got rid of staff training as they are having virtual meetings and training. The technology planned for the company staff training and each delegate will have a virtual person where they go into a building which can either be a conference centre or a meeting room. They can also choose what sessions they want to attend and learn things.


Security is an extremely needed thing when an event, conference and exhibition occurs, if it is well promoted and well known, security measures will have to be increased. Security is needed for different areas of the event: when people come in to park, entry into the event, managing crowds within the event and general safety of the people.


Purpose built venues are having to put on more security when hosting events and conferences because of the terror attacks. The Excel in London increased the amount of security after the Paris attacks in November, the purpose built venue also have a strong contact with the local police force if a sudden emergency occurs. The manager of the security team at the venue said the security workers work in shifts so the venue is constantly being secured and protected at all times, even in the dead of night. This may affect the event environment negatively, because if more security is needed, visitors may not want to go because of the risk of something happening.
The Excel centre is a purpose built centre and is near the Victoria Docks. The stations to get off at ExCel are: Custom House and Prince Regent, both are on the DLR (Docklands Light Railway)


The 02 is another example of a purpose built centre.
The 02 is located at Pensinsula Square near Greenwich park in London. The station for the 02 is North Greenwich and is on the jubilee line. There are eight different buses that go to the arena, you can also park and drive to the arena or for a different way of transport you can get Emirates Air Line or the Thames Clippers. At the 02, there are over 30 restaurants and bars both before and after going through security, also at the venue there is free Wi-Fi for people and many stewards walking around if people need help during an event. They have many events on at the 02 ranging from music concerts (Katy Perry and Take That), comedians (Lee Evans and Miranda Hart) and sport events (Darts and Wrestling

Hotel
The Marriott hotel in Waltham Abbey is an example of a hotel which offers events, conferences and exhibitions.
The hotel is located just off of the M25 and can be got to by car. There are 14 event rooms where they host weddings and business events. There are different suites suitable for different events and the staff members know which suite would be the most suitable depending on the event in mind. Eight of the rooms have a license so people can have their whole wedding in the hotel (ceremony and reception) Another facility is that you can easily manage the event as you can easily make arrangements for accommodation by using the guest list and then give the person havingthe event a rooming list so they know who’s stay in w hat room. The guests can also check in and out via their phone and it will send a notification to the event manager. For business conferences, all of the rooms have high speed Wi-Fi for all of the business delegates to connect to when learning and having to use their laptops. The hotel is also close to Stansted airport, and will meet the business attendees at the airport and will get driven back to the hotel.
Macdonald Hotels and resorts is a chain of hotels that act as a venue for events, the location I have chose as my example is in New Forest, Hampshire
It is a perfect place for a business meeting or a conference as it is set in a relaxing area in the countryside allowing the visiting delegates to forget the stress of working in the office. There are for function rooms for events and conferences to take place.
Because of the location of the hotel (23 acres) it makes a beautiful place and one of the most romantic wedding venues in the New Forest, they have a wedding co-ordinator who tailors everyone’s special day differently and the co-ordinator has many suppliers to help create the perfect wedding. The newly married couple also get to spend the night in the wedding suite of the hotel.  They have many events and conferences at the hotel in New Forest ranging from  business meetings to an expensive wedding package  .
 Academic venue
Location – University of Greenwich
There are three venues that can be hired, but for my example I will be talking about the Greenwich campus and the facilities on offer. Groves House, Roehampton college
It is a great place for a wedding as many events of the important day can happen there: wedding breakfast, ceremony and the reception in the evening. The venue holds around 150 people for the whole day and there is plenty of entertainment products for the evening for the couple to be to choose from.  The grounds are another facility because of the rose garden, Lily pond and large lake helps create a wonderful wedding. The other room known as the terrace room can seat 60 people and it is littler but backs onto the gardens making it a picturesque wedding ceremony background. Other than weddings, they hire out the college for private events such as parties and christening parties.
Unusual venue Location – British Library, London
They have a partnership with a catering company so they people planning the events or a business conference do not need extra stress of finding a catering company. There is a conference centre and there is also free Wi-Fi for the business delegates to connect to when attending a conference and also people attending a private event.  Business conferences and private events such as party events are examples of what this unusual venue can offer people.
The Natural History Museum
The museum is located in London, the station closest is South Kensington which is on the three lines (District, Piccadilly and Circle) and is a five minute walk from the station to the museum, also there is nine buses that stop near the museum
Every year there is over 140 functions, and the event management teams have plenty of experience  
There is a auditorium/ theatre which was purpose built to attract business clients and it can seat over 200 people and can book for any day of the working week and is an ideal place for a small conference, talk or a day of work training. There are also four other venues people can hire out, and three of them are located in the Darwin centre where they can seat up too 350 guests for a wedding reception. Limes Centre is on  Limes Avenue, Chigwell
It is a facility for everyone to hire for wedding receptions and business meetings
The other hall (activity) is smaller and it can only fit 50 people and it recommended as a children’s party venue. Location – Newcastle Civic Centre
In this civic centre there are four rooms that people can hire out: Haymarket room, Register office, Collingwood suite and grand entrance. This is a good venue for people to hire out when having a wedding as you can get married in the register office where up to 6 people can attend and then up to a function which can fit up to 90 people (depending on which room they use.
Potential growth in small conference venues
Some event planning companies move their business off shore as the event planner themselves will most probably be working from home so they don’t really need to go into to an office building to work at a desk.  

Team building events

Team building events are paid for by companies to help their staff members get along with each other and in the long run increasing work productivity

Incentives

Many companies offer incentives when staff meet a certain target or goal, the reward could be a day at a local sport event or a short break in Europe. Having incentives help to increase work productivities and drive sales which increase the company’s profits. Many travel agencies create incentives for the agents to gain once they have a certain amount of sales or a figure

Fundraising

Some companies have fundraising events to bring in more money for charities whether it be a well known charity or repairs to something in a local community.

Product launch

Product launches can be for both trade or consumer events and are organised to launch a new product or service.

Music events and festivals

These events are extremely popular and appeal to a wide variety of people, they can attract people from all of the world, especially for the Glastonbury festival.  

Wedding fairs

Wedding fairs are extremely popular as it is a place where all things wedding related are in one place to help brides and grooms to be book products and services through the companies that have a stand at the location where the wedding fair is being held, which are normally held in hotels.                                                                                                                                              

Reunions

These events are becoming more popular due to the rise of Facebook and Friends Reunited, many reunion events, people who attend are quite often from all different areas together for a short time period and may need accommodation. 

Types of conference – There are three categories conferences falls in to and they are: political, business and other (education, academic and medical)

Political

Business

Other types – Education, academic and medical

Medical conferences are when leading and high end doctors join together in one location (could be in just an area or worldwide) to talk about a singular case or a major health factor 

Types of exhibition – there are two types of exhibitions: trade fairs and others (road shows or a promotion)

Trade fairs

These types of exhibitions can either be B2B (Business to business) or B2C (business- to consumer) B2B trade fairs are aimed at business in a certain part of the travel and tourism industry and the business buyers mainly go to gather information about future contacts and arrange deals. B2C trade fairs are to tell the general public about the products and services they have. An example of a trade fair which are for both, business and consumer is the ideal home show.

Other – Road shows

Venue finding agencies

This organisation finds locations for clients, but they also book services to go inside of the venue (speakers, catering team) and also partner up with designers to plan the layout and the colour theme of the venue. Conference Care are a venue finding agency

Conference organisers

When organising a conference many things have to do be done such as: finding a catering company, finding a hotel with enough rooms for the guests and reserving the rooms, contacting speakers and arranging for them to come to the conference and promoting the conference. These are some of the main things conference organisers do. Group7events are a company who organises conferences.

Exhibition organisers

Event management companies

These are professional businesses who organise many different styles of events whether it a be a small wedding in a local hotel or a high end business meeting in a posh location. They liaise with many different companies and have good contacts with hotels, caters and entertainment companies. Julia Charles is a well known and highly professional event management company 

Customers- There are four different types of customers in the event, conference and exhibition environment and they are: corporate, associations, governmental and private individuals

Corporate

This type of customer are businesses or a few members of staff attending on the company behalf, they attend events, conferences and exhibitions to let buyers know about new ranges of product and services on offer and trying to sell them to the buyers.

Associations

Governmental

Private individuals

Private individuals could be a singular person organising events (hen and stag nights or a big birthday party) without be a corporate customer and want to create links and contacts with entertainment and catering companies and also with other companies who provide products and services 

In this part of the assignment I will be explaining the links between the event, conference and exhibition environment and the tourism sector.

Links with the travel and tourism sector: There are many links within the travel and tourism sector and they are: accommodation and transport provision, popularising destinations, extended stays before or after event, organised day trips and component of specialist holiday packages

Accommodation and transport provision

Accommodation providers host many different types of events such as weddings and reunions and seminars and conferences. The people attended the events and conferences may travel far so will stay over in the hotel. This links within the event, conference and exhibition environment because not only does the hotel for example host the event and gain income that way, but they may charge more for the hotel rooms when they know they are hosting an event.

Popularising destinations

This links with the travel and tourism industry as events, conferences and exhibitions are becoming more popular to be held abroad. This means that when one of these three things happen, many sectors in the industry will benefit: accommodation providers, transport organisations (taxi’s and airlines) and other sectors. Having an event in an unusual venue is increasing as people are wanting to have a day to remember with a twist.

Extended stays before or after event

When private individuals or staff members of a company travel somewhere for an event, conference or exhibition. They may only attend the event for a few days or just a day but may travel up the day before and stay for a few days after the event. This can be due to the trend of increasing event management companies as they might find it easier and more cost effective fro the company they are planning the business event or conference to send the employees out for longer rather than a short period of time

Organised day trips

Component of specialist holiday packages

Package holidays are linked in within the travel and tourism industry because not only do the travel agencies book the package holidays, the package consists of accommodation, transport and ancillary services (insurance, visas if needed and currency conversions)

P2 & M1

In this part of the assignment will be combining P2 and M1, where I will be describing trends and how they are affecting the event, conference and exhibition environment.

There are many trends affecting the event, conference and exhibition environment and they are: growth of venue finding and event management companies, impact of web conferences, web seminars and e-meetings, increasing security procedures and popularity of unusual venues

Growth of venue finding and event management companies

This is having a positive impact on the event, conference and exhibition environment as the need for planning is increasing making it a positive part of the tourism industry.

Impact of web-conferences, web seminars and e-meetings

Web conferences, seminars and e-meetings are having a negative effect on the conference environment because companies can easily contact and talk to other companies or even members in the same business but in a different area of the world. Rather than paying pout to hire somewhere to host the conference, hire a catering company and booking accommodation if needed, it saves on the company money and can always phone them if there is something serious to talk about.

The American company has saved up to 80% of their profits as they get rid of venue rentals, hotel rooms and transport methods.  Also the increase of the web conferences expands the companies work productivity and the convenience of the training without all of the employees travelling to the location of the conference/ business meeting. This affecting the conference environment as businesses are not needing.

Increasing security procedures

Popularity of unusual venues 

Having an event in an unusual venue is increasing as people are wanting to have a day to remember with a twist. Universities and museums are becoming a more popular place to have a wedding as Universities hire out their rooms in the summer to gain extra income as the students are on summer holidays. Castles are a new location to have a party as they have normally massive rooms and there are plenty of rooms to decorate as per the customer request.

This trend is having a popular affect on mainly the event environment because of people wanting to have a private event in a different location rather than the standard places (hiring out a hall, activity centre or even in their houses). This will then increase the growth of event planners and venue finders as the people who are wanting to host the event may not want the stress and difficulty of finding a place to have the event so will hand the task to a professional and can plan all of the event and the people will just pay what is needed.

P3

In this part of the assignment I will choose five different venues and will be describing. The five venues I will be writing about are: a hotel, an unusual venue, a purpose built centre, an academic venue and a civic venue

Purpose built centres

The facilities Excel offer are: having seven onsite hotels which combined have 1,600 rooms to offer people, there are 20 places to eat and drink and one shop within the centre, there is free Wi-Fi, toilets and disabled toilets are provided throughout and also at the entrances/exits there are multiple blocks of toilets, you can also park at the ExCel and for a day it will cost £15. There has been over four thousand events since it opened in 2000 and the most popular events people travel to the event centre is for the World Travel Market, Hotelympia, the wedding fair and Business Travel Market (These four events link within the travel and tourism industry).

Also at the hotel, the host wedding fairs which is another form of event and everyone has free entry on the 13^th of March and there are 140 exhibitors and this is one of the largest wedding shows in Essex.

Inside the Greenwich campus, there are over thirty rooms for seminars, there are three lecture theatre allowing up t o 230 people to attend for a conference or a big meeting. The campus also is equipped with computers, projectors, sound and lighting systems for rent.  Not only at the university venue can people attend a conference but also can stay over as they hire out the student halls which are flats with up to eight bedrooms in each flat. Past events have mainly been business meetings and conferences.

The library is an unusual place to have business conferences and private events. It is in an ideal location because is location near St Pancras Inter national (meaning people can travel on the Eurostar to attend if needed) and is also in walking distance of two stations (Euston and King Cross)

This is one of the most unique and unusual venues to have a corporate or private event

Examples of events: Christmas parties, parties, weddings and corporate events. Unlike the other unusual venue, the natural history museum is also a great place for team building events as they can learn about history and be quizzed when in groups to crown a winning team and help increase staff work and increase a positive work environment

Civic venues

There are three function rooms within the venue: the limes hall, limes activity and limes meeting room.

The limes hall has a kitchen attachedmaking it a great place for a party venue as the catering companies can lay out the prepared food. The hall can also accommodate 150 people in total.

The meeting room is suitable for 12 workers and does not have a kitchen or a break area.

The events that can occur at the Newcastle Civic Centre are weddings, parties and other functions.

D1

In this final part of the assignment, I will be considering the environment of events, conferences and exhibitions and its potential for growth in different ways

There is potential growth for small conference venues and it is predicted by 2020, conferences to be the sector to bring the most income in. This helps the small venues for conferences grow because it is becoming more needed and more companies are holding business conferences but at smaller sizes, for example the company may hold a conference for each department within a large company if it works out to be more beneficial. However on the negative side, venues for conferences may not be needed due to the increase of web-conferences which will save on costs, time and efficiency making the internet a more reliable way to talk to other employees rather than hiring out a small conference venue . There is growth of small conference venues because businesses do not need to hire out a large conference venue if it is for a small team conference (one area of the business, managers of different areas to meet and discuss or to talk to other locations of the business)

Increasing numbers of home workers

In the last ten years, the amount of people working from home has increased by eight hundred thousand making the total over 4 million. Just under 20% of the homeworkers are working for the event, exhibition and conference sector as it is a job where people can create a plan for the person asking for it.

However, some people who need something planned for them may want to go to a proper company and go into meeting room rather than going to someone’s house or meeting on unfamiliar grounds (a chosen location) This will have a positive impact of the growth of the event, conference and exhibitions environment because it means they will be easily contactable and will be more beneficial for both the staff and the people wanting a function planned

Number of UK companies basing their businesses ‘off shore’

Off shoring is when a company moves it base to overseas to lower costs.

Many companies have moved their base which will overtime save money and help contribute to the growing business.

A known place for the companies to go is India because of the cheaper rates of the building and even staff is needed.

This will have a positive growth for event, conference and exhibitions companies as it will mean more people will go into the sector and increase the numbers of homeworkers  . If the organisation decides to base their business off shore, it will have a negative impact on conferences, exhibitions and events environment in the UK as the business will host anything they need to in the country where the business is based.