A business initiative that was borne during the pandemic by two industry leading consortiums Venues of Excellence and Academic Venue Solutions have just delivered a collaborative joint event for conference and event planners and their member venues.
The event, which took place at Unique Venues Birmingham, showcased over 40 member venues from Scotland to the South of England, and welcomed over 80 delegates to the event.
To add to the exciting itinerary for the day they included workshops on Body Language from Adrianne Carter, the Face Whisperer, Sustainability from Heather Lishman CEO of ABPCO and Venue Directory’s Instant Book from Heather Swatkins, Client Success Director.
Mandy Jennings CEO, Venues of Excellence said: “This was a very exciting event for our members as it celebrated how they have bounced back over the past twelve months and really proved how important joining together for face-to-face events is to our industry. We were blown away with enthusiasm of our venue teams and the genuine feeling of excitement in the room from the clients.
Rachael Lee, Membership Director, Academic Venue Solutions on the collaboration of the event commented: “What a fantastic event the Midlands Showcase turned out to be this week. New and familiar faces gathering to discuss business for this year and beyond, with Academic Venue Solutions and Venues of Excellence member venues. Thank you to our industry experts for sharing their insights and to our host venue Unique Venues Birmingham for their incredible hospitality. It was a momentous event built in collaboration and true partnership styles. Thank you to everyone for making this event the success it was.”
On the day great feedback was received from delegates around the packed, relevant content for the day and the quality and choice of venues they could meet and discuss their conference and event requirements with. The hospitality Industry has and always will be a ‘people’ industry and getting back to networking face-to- face is key to venues as the conference and events industry continues to advance from the past two years.
It was great to hear from member venues of enquiries for 2023 and beyond being discussed, site inspections being planned and feedback from exhibitors such as: “Thank you for a fantastic day, I really enjoyed it and there were some great clients and agencies there who I got to talk to.” (Lisa Wright, Alton Towers Resort), and “Just wanted to say a massive thanks for yesterday’s event. I thought it was a triumph!” (Julian Kettleborough, thestudio).
Alongside the Midlands Showcase, there was a VIP group of event planners from London who embarked on a 2-day itinerary of activity to showcase the diversity of venues and spaces available to host their events, which included Unique Venues Birmingham – the Rep and The Library of Birmingham, Conference Aston, and The Exchange – part of the University of Birmingham venues. Feedback on the VIP group itinerary was great too: “I think it was a great trip, really useful and informative. You looked after us so well and so did they. Couldn’t have asked for more. Very well run and I would be delighted to be able to join you again in the future. Their team were also lovely and the event we attended was great for networking and finding useful venues.”
“The event spaces were fantastic, the hotel we stayed in was great, especially the food. What a great space to recommend for clients for work and for convenience of Birmingham. The spaces worked really well, and the staff are lovely.” (Emma Wigan, Diamond Cut Events)
The Midlands Showcase was a highlight to the networking events calendar for both consortia and has been a resounding success and return to face-to-face networking.