beam All Members Meeting Recap

On 18th April 2024, we held our All Members Meeting at Ashridge House. From a heated debate around first options/shared options providing an opportunity for beam to work towards an industry solution, to a state of the nation, AI in meetings and events, attracting Gen Z, and more, the All Members Meeting was a fantastic day.

beam Events, Members

On 18th April 2024, we held our All Members Meeting at Ashridge House.

From a heated debate around first options/shared options providing an opportunity for beam to work towards an industry solution, to a state of the nation, AI in meetings and events, attracting Gen Z, and more, the All Members Meeting was a fantastic day.

Here’s a quick recap from the All Members Meeting…

We kicked off with the State of the M&E Nation with Peter Heath, Venue Performance. Here are the key points Peter covered:

The M&E market is seeing healthy growth, even with rising costs.

Christmas parties – a traditional main stay of corporate hospitality, are becoming less about alcohol and more about wellbeing – is there an opportunity to do things differently in the face of changing trends?

More generally, investing in experiences lifts meetings and events.

Next up, we heard about attracting Next Gen Talent with Will Gennard, Talent Hive. While salary and opportunities to work on something new are important, flexible working and a clear training plan are crucial to Gen Z. Our afternoon panel also concluded Gen Z are more connected, yet don’t have the same sense of belonging – something we can all work towards improving.

Our first panel was on Engaging with Agency Buyers and featured discussion from Mark Green – QEII Centre, Jessica Hobday – vbx., Martin Balmer – Northstar Travel Group, Heri Kashema – m&i, and moderated by Jason Gutteridge – Venue Directory. We learned building deeper relationships is vital to successful supplier/buyer engagement. And while trade shows are an opportunity to start the process of building those connections, it is down to individuals to take them further.

Our second panel was on Talking Business with Julie Shorrock – Hotel and Travel Solutions Ltd (HTS), David Tremmil – INLOCO EVENTS/INLOCO GOLF EVENTS, Joe Evans – Aimbridge Hospitality, Linden Beattie – Down Hall – Hotel | Spa | Estate, and moderated by Hamish Reid – MMGY Global. Our panel’s heated debate around first options/shared options means there is opportunity for us to work towards an industry solution that works for suppliers/agents and ultimately, our clients. It may begin with ensuring clients are fully informed on the challenge and processes.

We then learned more about AI in Hospitality with Aneesh Gupta and Andy Moore from Centelli. AI can process info faster than humans, has potential to increase hotel revenue by 10%, and excel operational efficiency with multiple opportunities to apply AI.

We finished off with a teambuilding session provided by Eventurous Ltd.

Event sponsors