Stand B862 at International Confex sees Conference Centres of Excellence, the UK’s leading consortium of specialist conference and training venues, returning to the event with a broader choice of venues than ever.
The “Quality Centric” consortium passed up on last year’s event while it was establishing its own in house venue finding team and re-focusing its membership to address new trends and its “geographical spread” in the recession-affected market. Now it’s presenting that new line-up and the advantages of Hotline, its dedicated, one-to-one service to event organisers.
Wider spread
Ever since it was created in the 1990’s, Conference Centres of Excellence’s primary focus has been on bringing together a group of independent, dedicated conference and training providers which shared the highest possible standards of focus, facility and service quality. Until relatively recently, the group has consisted largely of venues with residential facilities, situated in attractive locations which were either rural or on the outskirts of major towns and cities.
Over the last year, Executive Director Anthony Lishman has focused on addressing the needs of those organisers who, for reasons of cost, convenience or CSR policy, are looking for venues in towns or city centres, and are not seeking the residential option.
The consortium has moved very quickly. New members this year include Maple House in Birmingham; The Pitt Building in Cambridge; and Broadway House in London’s Westminster. And the consortium will be announcing at the show its latest recruit, another very prominent central London venue.
“We’ve widened choice in a very significant way,” explained Anthony Lishman; “The demands of organisers are now more fluid than ever, with a different balance of priorities influencing the process of choosing a venue. Our job is to have a range of member venues that address both conventional demands and new factors – all, of course, still representing the pinnacle of quality.”
More complete service
At Confex, for the first time Conference Centres of Excellence will also be able to promote the values and services of its own in-house venue finding team. Called Hotline, the team was established in spring 2009 to replace the previous service, which was provided by an external provider.
Headed by manager Katharine Armstrong, the Hotline Team provides an impressive combination of focus, knowledge, advice and support. “We try to take away all the detailed work from our customers, making it easy for them to make a fully informed choice,” explains Katharine.
The team acts as a one stop shop, giving organisers single-source access to each of the CCE members, establishing availability, information on facilities and support services, and rates. It’s a free, genuinely personal service which guides the organiser through the complete process, through ro the confirmation of the booking and the completion of the event.
With a convenient new brochure also available for the first time at the show, Conference Centres of Excellence is poised for a highly successful Confex.