Working within the MICE industry for over 20 years, we have really seen the role of venues change when it comes to event planning and the relationships they hold with agencies and clients.
Traditionally the venue would provide a conference space, catering and accommodation based on the needs of the client. However, as event agencies look for new and exciting ways to help bring their message to life and create memorable experiences for their delegates, venues are stepping up and becoming important parts of the overall planning process.
A recent and fantastic example of this new way of working can be taken from the HBAA’s Annual Forum, held recently at the Crowne Plaza in Stratford-upon-Avon. While the venue provided a great blank canvas for our event, it meant we had to be extra creative on how to bring our festival theme to life, which was really important in creating an experience for our members.
While the HBAA events committee managed the agenda, registrations and the overall logistics of the event, they worked really closely with the team at the venue who supported us every step of the way and went above and beyond to help create our chosen festival theme.
The venue team embraced our vision in the planning stages, doing everything from sourcing local florist suppliers for our table centrepieces and creating a bespoke outside bar to enhance our theme to providing impressive bell tents for welcome and registration. Responding to our request for street food carts for the dinner, the venue knew this wasn’t its area of expertise, but instead of saying ‘no’ to the idea, venue staff went the extra mile and brought in external caterers to make our vision a reality.
In previous experiences, venues have been limited in flexibility in this type of offering, being relatively strict on catering and inflexible on many client requests that were not in line with their traditional room offering. The extent the venue team went to was a great experience for the HBAA and provided us with a real collaborative and flexible way of working.
It’s good to witness venues going over and above their traditional role and starting to work as an extension of the events team. In my opinion this is a huge step forward in the industry and something we should and will start seeing more of in the future.
For more information, please visit www.hbaa.org.uk
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