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PUBLISHERS ANNOUNCEMENT
The Society of Event Organisers (SEO) which publishes this newsletter has moved to individual free membership, which can be taken up by organisers, venues, suppliers and agencies in the event sector.
All will receive all the SEO’s free newsletters, which can be unsubscribed at any time, as well as a 20% reduction on all qualifications, tutorials and conferences presented by the SEO. Supplier members, venues and agencies receive a 20% reduction on advertising rates.
To sign up for free membership go to www.seoevent.co.uk
The Real Hotel Company and 18 subsidiaries went into administration on January 21.
The group operates more than 50 hotels across Europe with most in the UK including 11 Purple Hotels and 6 Stop Inns, its own brands. Under franchise agreements it operates 20 Quality Hotels, 2 Clarion Hotels and one Comfort Inn as well as operating the New Connaught Rooms banqueting suites in Covent Garden, London.
Four hotels have been closed by the administrators, the Comfort Inn in Thetford, the Quality Hotel in Newcastle Upon Tyne, the Stop Inn (Floatel) in Northwich and the Stop Inn in Newcastle Under Lyme, with 150 job losses.
The move comes after revenues for the first two weeks of 2009 were 34% down on the same period in 2008 and the group’s shares were suspended.
The group’s hotels are mainly pitched at the better end of the budget market, with a value for money feel, especially in the business sector.
Thames island venue Ravens Ait in Surbiton ceased trading on December 1.
Creditors are around 40 couples who had paid a total of £30,000 for upcoming wedding receptions and companies who had paid for the venue’s Hot Pink Jazz Christmas parties which did not take place. Those who paid by credit card or were insured can make a claim, all others will be in the queue of unsecured creditors.
The venue’s directors and shareholders are Keith and Carol Hartogh, who live locally but who both have addresses in California registered at Companies House.
Some supplier creditors received orders from “Ravens Alt Island Ltd”, a company that does not exist but was used as a “trading name” by the Hartoghs.
A meeting of creditors took place on January 7, 2009 where Keith Hartogh reportedly put on an unconvincing performance. When questioned about his California address and where he actually lived he reportedly replied “Here there and everywhere”.
Some creditors are concerned that Hartogh knowingly traded whilst insolvent in the month of November when more than £70,000 was collected, and a creditors committee has been set up, which includes a representative from the Metropolitan Police to monitor the liquidator’s investigations into the possibility.
A complaint has also been lodged with the Companies Investigation Branch of the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) by one of the creditors over Hartogh’s use of a non-existent company in his trading. Ravens Ait Ltd goes into liquidation with a shortfall of more than £220,000. The property was leased and reverted back to its local council owners on December 31.
Two more companies in the celebrity chef Tom Aikens portfolio have announced huge shortfalls from administration.
T & L Ltd, the trading company for Tom Aikens Restaurant and Tom’s Kitchen has a shortfall of £1.99 million and Tom Aikens Ltd, which changed its name to TAK (OLDCO) Ltd has a shortfall of £2.24 million, a total of £4.23 million.
No unsecured creditors will see a penny of their money and neither will most secured creditors. The administrator’s report blames the failure of two Aikens’ enterprises, the fish restaurant Tom’s Place and the Tom’s Kitchen food retailing operation at Selfridges as triggering the collapse.
Meanwhile Tom Aikens (Canary Wharf) Ltd, incorporated in September 2007 applied to be struck off in November last year. And another firm Aiken set up in September last year with himself as the only director and shareholder T.A.A. Ltd applied to be struck off 10 weeks later, which is quite possibly a catering industry record.
Aikens recently told Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine: “2009 is going to be all about hard work, staying focussed and satisfying our customers”.
But not his creditors, it seems ….
(See Conference Venue Marketplace, Nov/Dec 2008, ETHICAL BUSINESS?)
One of the UK event industry’s largest suppliers from the troubled audio-visual sector Presentation Services Limited (PSL) has been the subject of a “phoenix” administration, also euphemistically known as a “pre-pack” by administrators.
With this arrangement, judged by many to be unethical, a company can legally cease trading, walk away from its debts and set up under a different company name, with the same directors, having bought the assets, but not the liabilities. In the case of PSL the administrators were appointed to Presentation Services Ltd on 29 October and immediately sold the assets of the company to another PSL company Presentation Services London Ltd, which had been set up on 5 September, seven weeks before.
The directors who are common to both companies are, so far, Patrick Collier, Lauren Steadman, Darren Glossop and director and secretary Gary Davis. Curiously Collier has been registered as “Paddy” Collier and Steadman as “Seadman” wiping out their involvement with the old company on records at Companies House, obviously innocent mistakes.
Such innocent mistakes also seen to dog the administrator for PSL, a firm called Tenon whose director and company secretary, compliance specialist Christopher Crouch, has multiple identities and is blessed with two different dates of birth, according to his record at Companies House. Tenon, as administrators are looking into allegations made by PSL that they were defrauded out of large sums of money by a former secretary and director who left in July this year, and that this, along with some bad debts was the reason for the profitable pre-pack.
According to Haymarket’s Event magazine a “police investigation” has already “unearthed evidence of fraud” but that the police have been “unable to locate the financial director who defrauded the firm”. All this is total tosh and news to the police who, when contacted said that they were not carrying out any such investigation, had not therefore unearthed any evidence of fraud and were not therefore looking for any fraudster. Haymarket’s editorial team need to check their stories.
As well as being very bad news for PSL’s creditors the pre-pack will not be good news for Duncan Reid, the director of the Confex industry exhibition which has appointed PSL as its official AV contractor for the event. A similar pre-pack was instigated by Reid’s choice of official PR company Davies Tanner Ltd last year which was replaced by Davies Tanner Marketing Services Ltd (formed two months prior) and which has continued trading as Davies Tanner (See Conference Venue Marketplace, Issue 1 www.eou.org.uk).
There is a view that if customers boycotted phoenix companies it would discourage the practice.
(Note: The above piece is reproduced from Event Organisers Update, November/December 08).
How hoteliers can market through the recession is one of the main and timely topics at the upcoming National Hotel Marketing Conference, Radisson Edwardian Hotel, Heathrow on Friday March 6, 2009.
Staged by The Tourism Business in association with the Hotel Marketing Association the conference costs £195 plus VAT per delegate, includes a keynote presentation by former BBC director general Greg Dyke, and also covers customer retention and taking advantage of some growing niche markets.
Tel: 01904 438100
www.hotelmarketing.org.uk
Hotelier Sir Rocco Forte gave some sage advice to those in business in a recent article in the Daily Telegraph.
This included:
Great Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast is a happening place for hotels we hear.
Police there have discovered a huge skunk cannabis factory with more than 500 plants growing across 20 rooms and two floors of the Waverley Hotel. This was a whole wing of the hotel, which was “closed for re-furbishment”, and also contained 200 bags of fertiliser and a sophisticated system of heat lamps that used illegally diverted electricity. Apparently the Waverley was in the news 16 months ago when three illegal workers from Mauritius and Brazil were arrested and subsequently deported.
And, also in Great Yarmouth the Countess Athanasia Constantine, 39, who owns the 18-room Fairholme Hotel is up in court charged with 17 breeches of food hygiene regulations, including allowing a pet rabbit to be kept in the hotel’s kitchen and allowing staff to smoke there. Apparently no evidence can be found that Constantine, from Mill Hill, London, is a countess.
(Source: Eastern Daily Press).
A clever marketing stroke was pulled off by the new 64 room boutique Indigo hotel in Paddington, a brand of Intercontinental.
Many national newspapers covered the installation of what is claimed to be the world’s largest hanging basket, a quarter ton (250 kg) monster swinging 25 ft (7.5 metres) above the entrance and stuffed with thousands of pounds worth of orchids, roses, gerberas, ferns and conifers.
The Technology for marketing and Advertising (TFM & A) exhibition takes place at Earls Court 2, 24-25 February.
Covering such aspects as digital, data and CRU solutions as well as viral marketing and marketing through mobiles the exhibition is said to feature more than 200 suppliers and 55 free seminar sessions, some of which might, of course be sales pitches.
TFM & A is co-located with the Confex event industry show.
www.t-f-m.co.uk
An amusing hotel anecdote appears in actor Timothy West’s autobiography A moment towards the end of the play …
Arriving late evening at a “large hotel in Bristol” West was in need of some food and consulted the room service menu, finding what he wanted, a cold meat salad, under the legend “24 HOUR MENU”.
When he called to place the order he was told: “We don’t go on the 24 hour menu until half past eleven.
Come back Basil Fawlty ….
The Society of Event Organisers (SEO has moved to individual free membership, which can be taken up by organisers, venues, buyers, suppliers and agencies in the events sector.
Members will receive all the SEO’s free newsletters, which can be unsubscribed at any time, as well as a 20% reduction on all qualifications, tutorials and conferences presented by the SEO. Regular low-cost members-only forums where buyers and suppliers can network to mutual advantage are being staged.
To sign up for free SEO membership go to www.seoevent.co.uk.
The list of events for 2009 includes:
o Certificate in Conference Venue Marketing, January and August.
o Certificate in Conference Food and Beverage, June.
o Certificate in Exhibiting, June.
o Tutorial – How to write a press release, April and October.
o Tutorial – How to be much more creative, April and October.
o Certificate in Conference Organisation, March, August and November/December.
o Diploma in Conference Organisation, August.
o Conference – Delegate Agenda, April and October.
o Conference – Training and Qualifications for Event Organisers, June.
o Monthly networking forums.
Circulated to 5000 of the UK’s leading event buyers listed in RGA’s Event Buyers Universe Database, which identifies event organisers/buyers from the UK’s leading companies, banks, PLC’s and associations, RGA’s Event Planners Pack is a shared mailpack featuring only services directly connected with the meetings industry.
We include a flier provided by you (maximum size A4 maximum weight 10 grammes), insert a maximum of 10 fliers in a display envelope, dispatch by post … and all this at a fraction of the normal postage and dispatch costs.
Established for over 15 years, the Event Planners Mailpack has proved very popular with the event buying community. So, if you’re looking for lead generation and/or a general awareness campaign targeting the UK’s leading corporate event buyers …. and, at a very reasonable price. Dispatch 2009 – 16 April & 24 September.
Contact RGA UK Ltd 01993 822303 or see out website www.rgaukltd.co.uk
Prospecting for Leads is a half day briefing seminar held on your premises for all exhibition stand staff in the art and craft of getting more valuable sales leads from exhibitions. It covers such aspects as opening conversations, keeping it short and succinct, selling benefits, securing appointments and following up.
Prospecting for Leads is presented by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO) and the fee is £325 plus VAT for the session, plus £10 plus VAT per delegate attending and plus travel, accommodation if required. SEO members can book for a 20% discount on the session rate, bringing this down to £260 plus VAT.
Call 01767 316255, or visit www.seoevent.co.uk for more information
The SEO’s free e-mail newsletter, Event Organisers Update is currently sent out to over 30,000. A 150-word announcement for your venue costs from £72 plus VAT, based on three insertions.
For more information call 01767 316255 or visit www.seo.org.uk
is a unique, four-day non-residential course, with a unique qualification for those who attend and pass the 1½ hour examination
It is staged by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO and sponsored by RGA UK Ltd, a specialist event industry direct marketing company, and the material is presented at all times from the event organisers (your customers) point of view with some eye-opening feedback from organisers on how they like, and definitely don’t like to be marketed to. In addition, and also uniquely, the material is all presented by marketing practitioners, sharing practical and proven tips for success, also incorporating what not to do.
THE CERTIFICATE IN CONFERENCE VENUE MARKETING is delivered to delegates as an instructive and enjoyable mix of presentation, interaction, discussion and exercises.
It will also feature significant time for the important delegate to delegate networking that invariably results in a mutually beneficial and invaluable exchange of tips, ideas and experiences in the specialised world of venue marketing.
The CCVM will be of most use and benefit to the following groups:
o Those already working in venue marketing, with one or two year’s experience, and wanting to share the experiences of others.
o Those working in senior general venue management needing a firm grasp of conference venue marketing.
o Those already working in venue sales looking for a move to marketing, or being moved to a marketing position.
o Sales and/or marketing staff at venue finding agencies, event management companies, and business travel agencies.
o Marketing and sales consultants working for conference venues, hotels and hotel groups.
o Marketing and sales staff at tourist boards and convention bureaux needing a firmer grasp of conference venue marketing.
The Certificate in Conference Venue Marketing for 2009 is being held at 16, Park Crescent, London W1B 1AH (nearest tube stations at Regents Park and Great Portland Street) on Monday 24 August 2009 to Thursday 27 August 2009 to coincide with a traditionally quiet time for most UK conference venues.
The fee, on a non-residential basis is £1,200 plus VAT per delegate with a reduction to £950 plus VAT per delegate if two or more delegates attend from the same organisation, or if delegate is SEO member (free sign up at www.seoevent.co.uk).
The Certificate in Conference Venue Marketing is a unique opportunity to acquire the valuable experiences of other practitioners. For many conference venues the profit on one extra booking in a year will more than pay for the fee.
The programme follows. To book places please complete the booking form (this can be downloaded) and fax or post a copy to the SEO.
PROGRAMME
DAY ONE
The big picture – nature of the market(s) – types of organiser – the big spenders – getting achievable marketing objectives for your particular venue – the best winning strategies – SWOT and what’s really important to organisers – what must go in the conference pack – where branding fits - pricing for maximum success – affinity marketing – networking with competitors – some zero-cost marketing – dirty tricks marketing (to avoid, not emulate) – the marketing bullseye, and the marketing plan.Advertising – magazines and newspapers, some golden rules – directory advertising – TV advertising – internet advertising .
DAY TWO
The scope of PR – what impresses organisers and what just curls their toes – some possible partnerships – evaluating the press – selecting the press and building a press list – approaching the press – press events – conceiving press stories, to impress the press – using story hooks, real news, surveys, advice, controversy – writing a press release, ten good and bad things to do – use of quotes – use of photos – delivering to the media – other ways to work with the media – how to alienate the media – what to do if you get bad press.DAY THREE
E-mail marketing, the lowest cost option – sourcing and evaluating lists – permission marketing – opt-in and opt-out, the law on marketing e-mails – spam filters and what trips them – an editorial option.Direct mail, some basic truths – what the objective should always be – the offer, the creativity and the list – formulating the best offers – creativity, some good tricks and bad traps – printing for direct mail – copywriting – building a database – types of lists available and how to evaluate – testing, testing – mailing to individual or job title – use and abuse of personalisation – maximising and measuring return – law on lists – Telemarketing, now it gets personal – the phone/mail/phone strategy – getting through - the best and worst approaches – some winning ways – and yes, it can be fun.
DAY FOUR
Exhibitions, the face to face medium – working out best strategy – choosing good exhibitions, not just the obvious ones – some criteria for evaluating – picking a high-traffic site – designing a stand that pulls in the right visitors – promoting the stand – managing the stand – training stand staff to work the audience and capture leads – following up.Special events at your venue – conceiving and organising open days, educational events and receptions – running show-rounds for interested potential customers - where all the above comes together.
Examination.
BOOKING FORM
To book delegate(s) on the SEO Certificate in Conference Venue Marketing (CCVM) course please download and complete the booking form: www.seoevent.co.uk
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Society of Event Organisers (SEO)
29a Market Square, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 8AQ
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