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			<title>Event Organisers Update September 2021 ISSUE 202</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update September 2021 ISSUE 202</description>
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			<pubdate>Thu, 30 Sep 2021 06:45:02 +0100</pubdate>
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Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update September 2021 ISSUE 202 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
 Dear Readers
 Due to ongoing illness this is the final issue of Event Organisers Update. We would like to thank our readership for their encouragement over the past 17 years, as well as colleagues, friends and family for their unwavering support, without which we would never have published over 200 issues.
 We hope that whether you&rsquo;re organising events, reflecting on topical issues, watching a diverse range of films, or appreciating great food and drink, you enjoy it as much as we did.
 Thanks for reading.
 Peter Cotterell  Editor
NEWS
 CLAMP DOWN ON DISHONEST INFLUENCERS   The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is clamping down hard on influencers who publish positive posts about their client's products without revealing and often concealing that they have been paid to do so. It is thought that this strategy has the favour of both the influencer and their paying client, neither of whom would want to be seen as making money from dishonest and misleading advertising.
 Meanwhile the ASA has named and shamed five participants from Love Island who it says have been guilty of the dishonesty - Francesca Allen, Eve Gale, Jess Gale, Belle Hassan and Anna Vakili.
 In our August issue we ran the story of the exposure of Australian influencer and convicted scammer Belle Gibson who claimed to have recovered from a brain cancer she never had in order to sell a cookery book, published by Penguin.
  
 BEER TASTING  West Yorkshire&rsquo;s Little Valley Brewery recently came top of Ethical Consumer&rsquo;s list of most ethically produced beers (May/June 2021). We reviewed 11 of their chilled beers to see if a clearer conscience could be associated with an enjoyable pint. The scores are out of ten, based on the preference of the reviewers.
 Cragg Bitter - 4.2%  This full-flavoured bitter was savoured from first sip to last! Advertised as &ldquo;bold and malty&rdquo;, this certainly lives up to its billing, and then some! A beautiful bitter that in my view epitomises everything that a great beer should be. The biggest compliment I can give it is how disappointed I felt when the bottle was empty and I was left wanting more - a lot more.   9.5/10
 Radical Roots - 4.0%   This pale ale packs a real ginger punch, but not one that overwhelms. There are also notes of dried fruit and citrus as advertised, but it&rsquo;s good old Ginger who&rsquo;s the showstopper and dances her way across your palette. As a one-off - I loved it - but it also left me looking forward to my next pale ale that doesn&rsquo;t remind me of cans of pop on the way home from school.  9/10
 Stage Winner - 3.5%   Citrusy, light and easy drinking, while being cloudier than your average pale ale. Lovely when well-chilled but must be drunk very cold to be enjoyed this much.   8/10
 Cherry Saison &ndash; 4.5%   Like cherry cola just grew up and turned in to a beer. The label describes it as tart and tangy which it certainly was, but equally packed with flavour. A really enjoyable drink.  8/10
 Moor Ale &ndash; 5.5%  A red-brown ale that&rsquo;s rich and full-bodied. One to savour slowly in front of an open fire on a cold winter&rsquo;s afternoon.   8/10
 Withens Pale - 4.2%   A beautifully light and refreshing pale ale when served chilled - but chilled is an absolute must. Light and lager-like, but without the gas. Would work beautifully on a hot summer&rsquo;s day.   8/10
 Tod&rsquo;s Blonde - 5.0%   A full-bodied beer that I enjoyed, despite not being a blonde lover ordinarily. It was refreshing with some fairly complex notes. Quite enjoyed this one and would buy it again.   7/10
 Hebden&rsquo;s Wheat - 4.5%   Described as a &ldquo;fruity and hazy&rdquo; this full-bodied beer does exactly what it says on the er, bottle. Speaking of the bottle, I&rsquo;d totally missed the quote specific &lsquo;To enjoy Hebden&rsquo;s Wheat&hellip;&rsquo; pouring instructions - but enjoy it I did!  7/10
 Stoodley Stout &ndash; 4.8%  I&rsquo;m not a stout drinker but I went in open minded. I needn&rsquo;t have worried. This was a delightful dark beer that delivered refreshment and taste in equal measures.   7/10
 Dark Vale (Porter) - 4.5%   A relatively smooth and light Porter this, with subtle, but definitely present notes of vanilla and liquorice. Enjoyed it more than I anticipated I would - just the one mind - it&rsquo;s still Porter after all.  6/10
 Python IPA - 6.0%   A strong aftertaste that you would expect from a 6% IPA! Not for me I&rsquo;m afraid!  6/10
  
 GIN TASTING   The Process
 Four of our gin tasters, Hazel, Maggie, Jack and David, agreed to taste 11 gins and rate them in order, with a score out of ten, based on what they enjoyed most. They had no information about the price, brand, etc., and therefore their reviews were based purely on taste. Gins were tasted with and without tonic.
 In order of preference (maximum score: 40)

 GREYSONS (ALDI) 37.5% ABV &pound;14.19/litre  Score with tonic: 29. Score without tonic: 29.  Comments: Strong juniper smell. Grassy, fresh, summery. Pine needles. Smooth and rounded. Pleasant with tonic.
 FISHERS SMOKED (Aldburgh Online) 44% ABV &pound;80/litre   Significant Botanical: Baby Bog Myrtle from Suffolk, plus smoke.   Score with tonic: 26. Score without tonic: 24.   Comments: Smokey smell, cinnamon and bonfire! Slightly tropical. Complex but not spicy. Fresh nose/aromatic. Pleasant with tonic.
 ROCK ROSE GIN, SUMMER EDITION (Dunnet Bay Distilleries Online) 41.5% ABV &pound;53.60/litre  Score with tonic: 26. Score without tonic: 23.   Comments: Slightly sweet with a fennel/aniseed scent. Spicy, but lacking complexity. Not complex. Very drinkable with tonic.
 ISLE OF HARRIS GIN (Online) 45% ABV &pound;57/litre   Significant Botanical: Sugar Kelp from Outer Hebrides.   Score with tonic: 25. Score without tonic: 21.   Comments: Hot. Celery, juniper, pepper. Floral, possibly lavender. Fiery start then slightly sweet fruity scent. Strong and &lsquo;oily&rsquo; neat, very pleasant with tonic.
 FISHERS ORIGINAL (Aldburgh Online) 44% &pound;57/litre   Significant Botanical: Baby Bog Myrtle from Suffolk.   Score with tonic: 22. Score without tonic: 24.   Comments: String juniper scent with an aniseed or cinnamon taste. Grassy, liquorice, bittersweet, tropical and citrussy.
 HAYSMITHS MANGO AND PASSIONFRUIT (ALDI) 40% ABV &pound;21/litre   Score with tonic: 22. Score without tonic: 21.   Comments: Rounded and warming spices. Tropical, but not sweet. Strong pineapple scent and taste. A bit disappointing neat, but improved with tonic.
 FISHERS FIFTY (Aldburgh Online) 50% ABV &pound;80/litre   Significant Botanical: Baby Bog Myrtle from Suffolk.   Score with tonic: 22. Score without tonic: 21.   Comments: Strong aniseed flavour. Fennel, liquorice, anise and celery. Summery. Pleasant with tonic.
 TOPAZ BLUE PREMIUM GIN (ALDI) 40% ABV &pound;20/litre   Score with tonic: 22. Score without tonic: 17.   Comments: Strong and sharp when neat. Spicey nose. Grassy, fresh white pepper and juniper. Clean and refreshing. Lemon/citrus.
 HAYSMITHS CUCUMBER AND LIME (ALDI) 40% ABV &pound;21/litre Score with tonic: 20.   Score without tonic: 19.   Comments: Sweet and fruity with a slight peppery finish. Fresh, grassy scent. Sweet, creamy background, slight taste of orange peel.
 RED DOOR HIGHLAND GIN (Online) 45%ABV &pound;43/litre   Significant Botanicals: rowan berries, bitter orange, heather.   Score with tonic: 20. Score without tonic: 17.   Comments: Smoot, but surprisingly strong neat, improved with tonic. Chemical. Faint smokiness like whiskey. Lacks complexity. Pleasant with tonic. Fruity, juniper scent.
 INFUSIONIST APRICOT AND LYCHEE LIQUEUR (ALDI) 20%ABV &pound;22/litre.   Score with tonic: 9. Score without tonic: 10.   Comments: Fruity smell, vanilla yoghurt. Very sweet, like banana medicine! Weak, insipid. Improved with tonic. Very smooth when neat.

  
 DISCUSSION POINTS  During 2020 and 2021 we wrote some background notes for three discussions staged by our local branch of the educational charity, the Workers Educational Association (WEA). These featured the slave trade in August 2020, free speech in January 2021 and cyberbullying in April 2021.
 These are offered to readers on the basis that they might stimulate some further discussion on some important and topical subjects.
 SHOULD WE STILL HONOUR OUR SLAVE TRADERS?
 "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!"   From "Man Was Made to Mourn: a Dirge". Robert Burns 1784
  
 As colleagues will know the controversial statue of 17th century slave trader, and latterly philanthropist, Edward Colston was desecrated and torn down from its plinth on College Green in Bristol in June and rolled into Bristol's harbour.
 The vandalism by a few dozen took place at the peaceful 10,000-strong Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol on June 7, one of many across the world sparked by the appalling killing on May 25 by white police of George Floyd, a 46 year old black American man in Minneapolis, USA. Floyd was suspected of passing counterfeit money and during his arrest white police officer Dereck Chauvin, helped by three other police officers knelt on his neck for nearly eight minutes, cutting off his breathing and causing his tragic death.
 There is a view that under these circumstances the tearing down of a statue of a slave trader as a protest against the past treatment of black people by white people nearly 200 years ago is entirely justified, and since the Colston incident other statues of slave traders, and slave owners have been torn down, with threats of many more to follow. The police in Bristol however are treating the action as criminal damage and have already identified a number of the perpetrators from newsreel shot at the time. Our politicians have described the incident as "thuggery" and as "undermining the Black Lives Matter cause".
 Undoubtedly the enslaving of an estimated 12.5 million black Africans, and their transportation to work till death on plantations in the Americas is a dark stain on the history of Great Britain, which was responsible for more than 3 million. It is known that 1.5 million enslaved died on the forced march to the coast, and when crammed in on the slave ships. These sailed the "Triangular Route" carrying British goods, often shoddily made guns, to Africa as payment for slaves that they collected for the "Middle Passage" to the Americas where they were exchanged for rum and sugar to take back and sell in the UK. This turned a substantial profit for slave traders like Colston, who also had buildings and streets named in his honour, while up in Liverpool both today's foodie destination of Bold Street and Penny Lane were named after prominent slavers. Around 90% of black slaves were sold to white European slave traders by black slave traders in Africa, both showing that black lives only mattered if you could make a profit selling them, or exploiting them as very cheap labour.
 The British House of Commons passed a bill for the abolition of slavery in 1805, but this was rejected by the House of Lords, although slave trading was abolished in 1807. Slavery in the UK was abolished in 1833 by the Slavery Abolition Act. This came into effect on August 1 1834, at which time the British Government compensated slave owners across the UK for the loss of their slaves, to the tune of &pound;20 million, equivalent to more than &pound;6 billion today. The slaves got nothing. Careful records were kept of who the money was paid out to, and for how many slaves, and these records are searchable online for those who might want to know if any their ancestors were slave owners. (Warning. The author put one of his family names into the Slave Owners Database and turned up 48 men and women with the surname who owned in total more than 2,000 slaves. They were awarded the equivalent of &pound;13 million for their loss.)
 In the USA, where slavery was finally abolished in 1863, nearly 30 years after the UK, twelve US presidents had owned slaves. These included George Washington, America's first, who served from 1789 to 1797, laid the foundations of democracy and owned 317 slaves, and Thomas Jefferson, America's third, who served from 1801 to 1809, drafted the Declaration of Independence and owned more than 600 slaves, despite being against the institution of slavery. Both Washington and Jefferson have their 60 foot high faces carved into the rock at Mount Rushmore, along with Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909 America's 26th) and Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865 America's 16th) whose firm conviction that America should not break up on the basis of slavery led to its final abolition.
 Others who made money from the inhuman business of slavery include King Leopold II of the Belgians, whose personal rule in the Congo from 1885-1908 was marked by atrocities against men, women and children forced to work collecting natural rubber. When Leopold died in 1909 many Belgians booed at his funeral, and it was only in June this year that the Belgian government, represented by King Phillipe, "expressed regret" for the atrocities committed in its former colony. This year numerous statues of Leopold II have been vandalised, and some taken down. During the 1940's the Nazis in Germany enslaved millions of men, women and children of Jewish, Polish and Roma descent, along with homosexuals and others they deemed "undesirable" killing those who couldn't work and working to death those who could.
 Today, sadly, slavery is still with us, though not at these levels. However 300 - 400 potential victims of human trafficking or modern slavery were identified by police in Bedfordshire last year. Man is still inhumane to man. Question is, what can any of us do about it?
  
 SLAVERY IN FILMS  Films that feature slavery in the storyline include D. W. Griffith's epic and racist The Birth of a Nation (1915) and his Abraham Lincoln (1930), Gone With the Wind (1939), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Gladiator (2000)
 Some well-regarded films where slavery is the central theme follow.

 Burn! 1970 (Marlon Brando)
 Mandingo 1875
 Roots 1977 (TV Miniseries)
 Glory 1989
 Amistad 1997
 Amazing Grace 2006
 Lincoln 2012
 Django Unchained 2012
 12 Years a Slave 2
 Belle 2013
 Birth of a Nation 2016 (Same title as Griffith's 1915 film)

THE RIGHT TO SPEAK FREELY
 The principle of free speech, and freedom of expression, is a human right. It is recognised under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, which states that everyone should be able to hold opinions without interference. And they should be able to express their opinions, and ideas, without fear of censorship, retaliation or legal sanction. This can be done in any form, in speech, in writing, in print, in art or in any other media.
  
 SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT FREE SPEECH 
 o "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" Evelyn Beatrice-Hall, writer. Also credited to Voltaire.
 o "I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so" Barack Oboma 44th US President.
 o "Some people only speak of freedom of speech when they are out of power. Once they're in power they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others" Barack Obama 44th US President.
 o "Goebbels was in favour of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you are really in favour of free speech then you're in favour of free speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise you're not in favour of free speech" Noam Chomsky, American philosopher.
 o "It is easy to believe in freedom of speech for those with whom we agree" Leo McKern, Actor.
 o "Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech" Benjamin Franklin, British American Founding Father, USA.
 o "I think freedom of speech is important, but coupled with responsibility" Brandon Boyd, American singer.
 o "Too many people - some of them judges - seem to think that freedom of speech means freedom from the consequences for what you have said" Thomas Sowell, American social theorist.
 o "We have freedom of speech, but you got to watch what you say" Viola Spolin, American theatre academic.
 o "I'm for the freedom of expression, given that it will be under strict control" Alan Bennett, British actor and author.
 o "We should silence anyone who opposes the right to freedom of speech" Boyle Roche, Irish politician.
 o "Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence" Alan Dershowitz, American lawyer.
 o "There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech" Idi Amin, murderous Ugandan President.
 o "If a man is a fool the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking" Woodrow Wilson, 28th US President.
 o "We're going to walk down to the Capitol" "Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong" Donald Trump, businessman and 45th US President.
 o "The only purpose for which power can be exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others" John Stuart Mill, English philosopher
  
 MAIN LIMITATIONS TO FREE SPEECH  In order to prevent physical or mental harm, or loss, to others there are a number of curbs on free speech.
 SEDITION INCITEMENT  Conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of the state INSURRECTION is the act or instance of rising in revolt, rebellion or resistance against a civil authority or established government. TREASON is the crime of acting to overthrow one's government, or harm or kill its sovereign.
 FIGHTING WORDS  Spoken or written words intended to incite hatred or violence in others. A HATE SPEECH is a public one that expresses hate and/or encourages violence towards a person or group based on aspects such as race, religion, national origin, colour, sexual orientation, gender and disability. In the USA most hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, but there is no such protection in the UK.
 PORNOGRAPHY  Portrayal of sexual subject matter for exclusive purposes of sexual arousal. OBSCENITY Statements or public actions that tend to deprave and corrupt or strongly offend according to the prevalent morality of the time.
 DEFAMATION  Usually a false statement about a living person that unjustly harms their reputation - "lowers them in the esteem of right-thinking members of society" LIBEL is usually the written, or broadcast, word. SLANDER is the spoken word.
 There are also curbs on revealing classified information or trade secrets, violation of copyright, violation of the rights to privacy, dignity and to be forgotten, breaching non-disclosure agreements made, and in some countries, blasphemy.
  
 EXAMPLE
 o The estimated 70 members of hate group Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) have a reputation in the USA for organising hate speech against Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Mormons, America and numerous Christian organisations, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Despite its name it is not affiliated with any Baptist denomination and it is especially active in picketing military funerals with placards stating "THANK GOD FOR DEAD SOLDIERS" and "GOD HATES FAGS" at funerals for those in the gay community.
 In August 2008 Canadian officials barred the hate group from entering the country after they discovered that their plan was to use the funeral of a 22 year old man, Tim McClean, who was horrifically killed, beheaded and cannibalised by a mentally ill attacker on a Greyhound bus, for protests against Canadian laws permitting homosexuality, abortion, divorce and remarriage.
 In February 2009 the UK Home Office banned the hate group from entering the UK to picket a performance of The Laramie Project, a play about the horrific killing of a 21 year old gay student at the University of Wyoming, Matthew Shepard. They were banned on the basis of their hate speech that targetted the LGBT community.
 Question. Should this antipathy to hate groups change in countries outside the USA? Or should America modify its First Amendment and change?
  
 SOME FILMS ABOUT FREE SPEECH  Star ratings from Radio Times and Guardian reviews, and out of five.

 Nineteen Eighty-four (1984) 4* John Hurt and Richard Burton star in this nightmare vision of the future.
 The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) 4* Biopic of pornography publisher of Hustler magazine. Woody Harrelson and Courtney Love star.
 The Fifth Estate (2013) 4* Benedict Cumberbatch plays founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange.
 Citizenfour (2014) 4* Documentary on former CIA systems analyst Edward Snowden and the NASA/GCHQ spying scandal.
 The Post (2017) 4* Drama about the 1971 publication of the Pentagon Papers. Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks star.

 Internet sources   Peter Cotterell for WEA 2021
 CYBERBULLYING
 WEA Biggleswade Discussion Group, Thursday April 29
 Notes on Cyberbullying. (Most will find this upsetting)
 FACT  On October 10, 2012, a 15 year old Canadian student took her own life after (foolishly) exposing her breasts on the internet to an anonymous flatterer and then becoming a victim of brutal cyberbullying for more.
 Before her death Amanda Todd posted a video on YouTube, telling her story of how she was ordered to expose herself again. When she didn't the original image of her was circulated, causing her to be insulted and bullied by school classmates. The bullying turned especially physical after she reportedly had ill-advised sex with an older man at his house while his girlfriend was away, and Todd had to face the wrath of the returned girlfriend, and a dozen helpers, who beat her and left her in a ditch.
 She recounted some of her experiences with a series of 20 flashcards. As of February 2021 her video has been viewed more than 14 million times. The texts she wrote on the flashcards follow below. (verbatim)

 I got a msg on Facebook
 From him.....Don't know how he knew me....
 It said....If you don't put on a show for me I will send ur boobs
 He knew my address, school, relatives, friends, family names,
 Knock at my door at 4am....
 It was the police....my photo was sent to everyone
 I can never get that photo back....
 It's out there forever....
 So I moved schools again....
 Everything was better, even though I sat still alone
 1 week later I get a text. Get out of your school.....
 So she did....She threw me to the ground a punched me several times
 Kids filmed it. I was all alone and left on the ground....
 I wanted to die so bad.... When he brought me home I drank bleach....
 It killed me inside and I thought I was gonna actully die.
 Ambulence came and took me to the hospital and flushed me.
 6 months has gone by....people are posting pics of bleach, Clorex and ditches
 tagging me....I was doing a lot better too....They said....
 She should try a different bleach. I hope she dies this time and isn't so stupid.
 Everyday I think why am I still here?

 Amanda Todd is one of a selection of 66 people across the world who have taken their own lives as a result of bullying, with the relatively new cyberbullying being involved in 20 of the cases. Of these 20 one victim was just ten years old, four were twelve years old, three were thirteen, two were fourteen, four were fifteen, two were sixteen, one was seventeen, and three were eighteen. Some were bullied because they were LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer/Questioning). Many hanged themselves, some shot themselves and some jumped to their deaths.
 A 2018 Pew Research Study (USA) found that 59% of teenagers had experienced some form of cyberbullying, with offensive name-calling topping the list at 42%, followed by spreading of false rumours (32%), receiving explicit images they hadn't asked for (25%), constant asking of who they are, what they're doing and who they're with by someone other than a parent (21%), physical threats (16%), and having explicit images of them shared without their consent. A UK study by anti-bullying organisation Ditch the Label found that 42% of surveyed young adults experienced bullying on Instagram, 37% on Facebook, 31% on Snapchat and 9% on Twitter. Mobile telephones used by nearly all teenagers make them easy to reach.
 In October this year a Dutch man, Aydin Coban, 42, will be tried by jury in a Canadian court charged with five offences in relation to Amanda Todd. Coban was sentenced in 2017 to 10 years and 243 days in prison for multiple offences of online fraud and blackmail in relation to the abuse of 34 young women and men. In many cases Coban's victims were young girls who he chatted to online, gaining their trust and sometimes posing as a young boy or girl. He persuaded them to perform sexual acts in front of a webcam, and then threatened to circulate the images if they didn't do more, threats he carried out in some cases. Coban has been extradited from the Netherlands to face the five charges in Canada, and will return to the Netherlands to finish his current sentence, plus any others that might be imposed.
 In the UK 2009 was a key year for cyberbullying. In July Megan Gillan, 15, of Macclesfield Cheshire took a fatal overdose of painkillers, following extreme cyberbullying from classmates on Bebo. In August the very first conviction for bullying on the internet was handed down to 18 year old Kelly Houghton for her bullying and cyberbullying of classmate Emily Moore, over a four year period. Houghton was sentenced to three months in a young offenders institution after pleading guilty to harassment. And in September 15 year old Holly Grogan, who had been targetted for online abuse by classmates at her school in Cheltenham, leapt off a road bridge, fell 30 feet onto a busy dual carriageway in Gloucestershire and was hit by passing traffic.
  
 SOMETHING WE SHOULD ALL SEE?  Meanwhile a 2015 TV film The Cyberbully is available free on YouTube and has a documentary feel to the story of a young, but perhaps not so innocent, girl, beautifully played by Masie Williams, who is targetted by a vicious, anonymous, cyberbully who takes over her computer. What makes the film particularly good is that it is all based on real life experiences, enhanced by the acting quality of Williams in the lead role of Casey Jacobs as well as that of Haruka Abe, a Japanese English actress who plays the heartbreakingly naive Jennifer Li, who webcams herself telling her tragic story with flashcards before she takes her own life. As one reviewer opines: "It should be part of the school curriculum".
  
 HERE'S SOME QUESTIONS FOR OUR DISCUSSION.

 What can our young relatives do to protect themselves and not become victims?
 What advice can we as parents/grandparents give?
 What can teachers do?
 What can our lawmakers do?

  
 HERE'S SOME TERMINOLOGY
 Blue Whale  A sick internet "game" encouraging troubled teens to commit increasingly dangerous acts of self-harm, culminating in suicide. Other versions are called A Silent House, A Sea of Whales, F57 and Momo. Schoolgirl Molly Russell, 14, from Harrow took her own life in November 2017 after viewing self-harm and suicide content on Instagram, owned by Facebook.
 Doxxing  Publishing another's personal information.
 Revenge Porn  Erotic images of victims originally sent by victims to partners, who then distribute them when the relationship turns sour or ends.
 Trolling   Sending menacing or upsetting messages with the intention to hurt.
  
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			<title>Event Organisers Update August 2021 ISSUE 201</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update August 2021 ISSUE 201</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Tue, 17 Aug 2021 15:25:01 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update August 2021 ISSUE 201</subject>
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Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update August 2021 ISSUE 201


 
 


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.




  Dear Readers
  Apologies but due to some illness in the editorial department, it has not been possible to produce the August issue of "Event Organiser's Update." 
 We hope to have the September issue with you by the end of September, but must apologise for these increasingly uncertain times. 
 Thanks for reading. 
 Peter Cotterell   Editor
 eou.org.uk
 Edited and distributed by:
 ##SenderAddress##  Tel: +44(0)1767 312986





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			<title>Event Organisers Update July 2021 ISSUE 200</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update July 2021 ISSUE 200</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Thu, 29 Jul 2021 00:45:01 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update July 2021 ISSUE 200</subject>
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Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update July 2021 ISSUE 200 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
 To ##Name##

 
 ##EmailAddress##   ##Unsubscribe##


 
 
Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 SHAKE ON IT NOW?  Eons ago, it seems like, we'd read somewhere that being touched was the thing that made our delegates feel most included and welcome when they first walked into a crowd of strangers. So we played the game on the meet and greet and stood at the door to the tea and coffee section, shaking hands with every delegate who came in and thanking them for coming.
 Question is should you be doing this now, and should your delegates be shaking hands with each other?
 Probably not in the current pandemic as we have become a nation of safer fist and elbow bumpers, and sometimes high-fivers. This view is borne out by research at Aberystwyth University which indicates that high-fiving is twice as hygienic as handshakes and fist bumping is 20 times safer (no data yet on elbow bumps, but these don't usually feature the skin to skin contact that can pass on infections).
 Perhaps the slight, respectful bow of the head favoured by our Oriental community is now the safest of all?
  
 COVID CORNER
 o Reality TV participant and far-right commentator Katie Hopkins has been deported from Australia for boasting of flouting quarantine rules, taunting her guards and opening her quarantine hotel room door without a face mask on. In January this year a French tourist was deported for his part in an illegal New Year rave in Queensland that attracted more than 1000 people.
 o  An Australian clothing company, Lorna Jane, has been fined &pound;2.68 million for claiming that its products could prevent Covid, claims a judge deemed to be "Exploitative, predatory and dangerous".
 o  A Dutch court has handed down a prison sentence of one year, six months suspended, to a 21 year old man convicted of arson at a Covid test site. A 16 year old boy, also convicted, received 180 days of youth detention, with 131 days suspended.
 o  Infections of Covid have soared in The Netherlands following the re-opening of nightclubs, described by some as "disaster zones", along with music festivals, bars, restaurants and cafes. Prime minister Mark Butte has admitted that he and his government had "totally underestimated" the effect of the re-openings.
 o  Scams continue to infest the pandemic. In Lima, Peru, nine people have been arrested for charging &pound;15,120 for an intensive care bed and treatment at a free, state run hospital, and those arrested include hospital administrators. In the UK scammers are trying to charge for fake Covid vaccine passports. The genuine ones are free to anyone who has had their jabs from the NHS.
 o  Schoolchildren have been viewing clips on Tik-Tok which show how they can fake a positive lateral flow test with a range of commonly available liquids and get sent home from school, along with their classmates. The 17 year old who posted the clips, Amar, claims he did it because he was "bored" and that they were "just for fun".
 o  One of the best ways of stopping indoor transmission of Covid, and the one largely ignored by our government in all its advice to us, is to open enough doors and windows to allow a through-draught , especially important in our coming winter.
  
 LIVERPOOL LOSES UNESCO STATUS  Liverpool's historic waterfront is to be stripped of its coveted Unesco status as a World Heritage Site after 13 out of 21 countries voted for its deletion.
 Unesco say that the planning approval for Everton's new &pound;500 million stadium at Bramley Moore Dock, and the approval of the &pound;5billion Waters Project at the Northern Docks "signalled a lack of commitment to protect the property in the long-term".
  
 BEWARE  A screenshot of a listing on accommodation booking website Vrgo seems to indicate some seriously predatory pricing for staycations in Cornwall.
 Conservative councilor Paul Nickerson was trying to book a three bedroom place for a week for his family when he was shown a "wonderful, contemporary waterside house" in St Ives that the site was offering for &pound;71, 627, for the week in August, or just &pound;10, 232 per night.
 After all the bad publicity the listing was quickly taken down, so we'll never know if it was a simple mistake, or a UK record rip off.
 MOVIE SPOT
  ATLANTIC CITY (1980)  There are very few films that this reviewer watches three times before reviewing, but the enjoyment of this one made it well worth the time.
 It's the Louis Malle directed story of elderly petty criminal, the quite likable loser Lou Pascal, masterfully played by Burt Lancaster in what many critics felt was his last great role, and up to his performance as the steely, thoroughly unpleasant gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker in The Sweet Smell Of Success (1957), along with a superb turn by Tony Curtis as his fawning agent, and the aristocratic prince Fabrizio di Salina in the cult classic from Luchino Visconti The Leopard (1963) Certainly all three films are featured in the excellent and influential directory 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.
 Though Lou claims to have been associated with the great master criminals of yesterday - Al Capone and Ben "Bugsy" Seigel no less - these days he scratches a living acting as a runner (bet collector) for an illegal penny-ante numbers racket amongst the poor of the city. For those unfamiliar with how these work punters pick a daily three-figure number to bet on, often with as little as 25 cents. The number they are trying to pick is made up from the totals of bets placed on horses at a local racetrack for Win, Place and Show bets, and published in a local newspaper The Win bets will be for horses to win their race, the Place bets for horses to run first or second and the Show bets for horses to run first second or third. The three figure number is then created from the last full-dollar amount shown for amounts wagered on Win/Place/Show, in that order. An example makes it easier - Win bets $2457.05, Place bets $1023.00, Show bets $345.00, the number created, and the one the punters will want to hit, is 735.
 In fact Lou also makes a little more money looking after, in a number of ways, Grace Pinza, the domineering and unlivable widow of his former gangster employer, played convincingly and with great relish by the excellent Kate Reid, who would go on to impress in 1985 reprising her stage role as Linda Loman, the put-upon wife of dreamer Willy Loman in the film version of Death Of A Salesman, alongside Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovitch. Grace lives in an apartment in a crumbling and condemned building in the city's poor area with Lou living in an apartment directly above. A bell has been rigged up in Lou's apartment with the pull-cord by Grace's bedside, so she can call him whenever she wants him to do something for her, which is often Next door to Lou lives Sally Matthews, a lovely young waitress played by the lovely young Susan Sarandon, who works in a seafood bar at a casino, and has ambitions to become a blackjack dealer in Monte Carlo, for which she is training in Atlantic City. Before going to bed each night she cuts up lemons and massages the juice into her arms, neck and breasts, "to get rid of the fish stink". Unseen, outside the window, Lou watches and fantasises.
 The story takes a lurch for the worst when Sally is outraged by her feckless ex-husband Dave arriving in town with his new, very pregnant wife Chrissie, who is Sally's younger sister that Dave ran off with, and Dave expects Sally to put them up in her apartment. There are two strong character turns here with Chrissie played by Hollis McClaren and Dave played by Robert Joy. In fact Dave has stolen some pure cocaine from the Mob in Philadelphia and wants to use Sally's apartment to store it, cut (dilute) it and sell it. Things start to really crack off when Lou meets Dave and agrees to help him sell the cocaine, not realising that one smooth and nasty mobster, Felix, well played by Canadian TV and theatre producer Moses Znaimer, and one brutal and nasty mobster, Vinnie, well played by Angus MachInnes, have arrived in Atlantic City and want their cocaine, or the cash made from selling it, back...
  
  RUNNING AGAINST THE WIND (2019)  More nasty gangsters contrast with the uplifting themes in this endearing new tale of friendship, family love, growing up and inspiration in Ethiopia, seen by some as a love letter to the country by German director Jan Philipp Weyl, who wanted to make his debut film about street children and their struggles.
 It features two boys, 12 year olds living in a remote village in rural Ethiopia when we first meet them. Abdi has big dreams about being a top runner and his inspiration is the real life Ethiopian champion Haile Gebreselassie, with dozens of world records set and two Olympic Golds and fairly described as one of the greatest distance runners in history. Solomon's inspiration comes when a humanitarian worker and keen photographer played by director Jan Philipp Weyl visits the village and takes both the boys on an eye-opening trip to the capital, Addis Ababa. When back Solomon, with his heart now set on being a photographer, thanks his mentor by stealing his expensive camera and heading on back to the big city.
 Ten years on, with the two boys in their twenties, Solomon played by Mikiyas Wolde has settled in the city surrounded by the love of his new wife, Genet (Samwarit Desalegn) and cherubic three year old daughter, as well as the ambition to be a professional photographer. Problem is he and his family are also surrounded by poverty, suffering and crime, and Solomon has got involved with a gang of criminal thugs. Meanwhile Abdi, played by Ashenafi Nigusu has stayed in the village and is doing rather better, honing his running skills, winning championships and even meeting up with and sitting next to his inspiration at a sports event, a cameo part for Haile Gebrselassie. Moving to Addis Ababa to follow his running dreams Abdi starts to search for his long-lost friend...
 Running Against The Wind is blessed with some seriously good cinematography and is being released by Eureka Entertainment next month on Blu-ray as part of the Montage Pictures range, with the first 1,000 copies including a limited edition collector's booklet with an interview with the director by film writer Jason Wood.
DOC SPOT
 One documentary that anyone who follows an influencer, or knows someone who does, should see is Bad Influencer: The Great Insta. Con, now available on BBC i-Player.
 This charts the rise and fall of Australian influencer, Belle Gibson, who launched herself in August 2013 as a wellness warrior, claiming that her diet of super-healthy foods had cured her brain cancer. Certainly she looked the picture of young, glowing health, as some fawning TV presenters and magazine editors were quick to point out. Apparently Penguin Books published a cook book by her and didn't require her to substantiate her claims, a line also reportedly taken by Apple for the app they produced for her.
 Some were rather more questioning about her claims, including freelance journalist Richard Guilliatt who gave her a probing interview, after which he says she called him up to warn him that some people exposed in the press had taken their own lives. Seeing this as a thinly veiled threat to stop him publishing Guilliatt went ahead and The Austrailian published, in March 2015, a piece entitled A Healthy Dose of Scepticism About Belle Gibson, which laid bare many of the lies Gibson had told, about having cured brain cancer with her healthy diet, about the four further cancers she had contracted since, about her age. One former friend (anonymous) opined "Belle likes to lie". Two weeks later Penguin had removed her book from its lists, Apple had scrubbed her app and thousands of her 200,000 claimed followers worldwide had written to denounce her, some to revile her for giving genuine cancer sufferers dangerously false hope. The game was up for the girl who liked to lie and described by Guilliatt as "a very fragile person whose grip on reality was tenuous".
 Since then life has got more difficult for Belle, especially when it was discovered that her claim to have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities was found to be, yes, another lie, and she has been fined $ 230,000 for the fraud, a fine that has reportedly not yet been paid.
 This month journalist Ed Power, writing about this documentary pointed out that "The wellness industry chugs on and social media is still full of people selling ersatz versions of themselves". He also warned "On the internet the truth routinely takes a back seat to fake sages telling people what they want to hear".
 FOODIE NEWS
 o Food items featuring cruelty in their supply are coming under scrutiny in a new bill to ban them from import to the UK being considered by Environment Secretary George Eustice.
 On the list is pate de foie gras, a rich and, for many, delicious liver pate made from the enlarged livers of force-fed birds and mostly imported by us from France. Politicians against its ban include Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg and the Conservative's Chief Whip Mark Spencer. Currently both Houses of Parliament have stopped serving it and major stores such as Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Selfridges and Harvey Nicholls have stopped selling it.
 The bill, which may be introduced in this parliamentary session, will also look at another cruelty food, shark's fin, where sharks are caught and their fins hacked off before the rest of the maimed animal, which has no commercial value, is dumped back in the water and, unable to swim, spirals down to the sea bed to die. Also considered will be fur, and trophies from hunting.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Monday  Good to hear that some heavy-handed and offensive legal tactics from Amazon against small retailers have now been withdrawn.
 Amazon have apparently registered as a trade mark the phrase "Prime Day" to describe the offer of two days of online deals and offers for its Prime members. Meanwhile for years, and certainly pre-dating Amazon founder and world's richest man Jeff Bezos, the fish selling trade has used the term "Prime Day Boat Fish" to describe fish that have been sustainably caught from boats that have only spent a day at sea. Hence when London fishmonger Moxons received a letter from Amazon's solicitors ordering them to stop using the term Mr Moxon himself phoned them up to put them straight, and received a prompt apology.
 Could it be that Bezos and his legal team, in all innocence, have only ever known fish as fish fingers?
  
 Wednesday  Given the failure of the Penguin book empire to check the veracity of the claims to have had cancer made by Australian influencer and fraudster Belle Gibson before they went to press on her book (see DOC SPOT above) it will be interesting to know what checks, if any, will be made in the case of Prince Harry's upcoming new memoir about his life in the Royal Family. How will Penguin verify the claims made, and with whom? And does it matter anyway to the kind of people who read this kind of stuff whether it's true or not?
 Already there are storm clouds gathering over the alleged &pound;14.5 million book, which the Prince has promised will be "An accurate and wholly truthful account of my life in the Royal Family" with commentators concerned that more cruel blood-letting, is not what our 95 year old Queen needs at this point in her life, and that the Prince's move is "very regrettable".
 We won't be buying it.
  
 Thursday  Much rejoicing in the hospitality industry as figures reveal that many millions of pints went down the necks of England football fans watching their team play in Euro 2020.
 The industry has probably had the worst 18 months ever, and deserves a little good fortune.
  
 Saturday  Recent polls indicate that our lovable PM's overall approval rating, the proportion of people in favour less those against, now stands at -6, down from +9 when he and his government were buoyed by the success of the NHS vaccine roll-out. Apparently most voters (50-56%) believe he is not honest, organised, trustworthy or consistent in his decision-making.
 Ah well, nobody's perfect, and he has got a unique hairstyle.
NEXT ISSUE
 Handshaking is banned at meetings worldwide with elbow bumping and slight head bows recommended by organisers. Delegates are also recommended to dress warm for all the open windows this winter... Seekers looking for accommodation stop using the Vrgo website... Jeff Bezos and his legal team at Amazon reject suggestions that the only fish they know is fish fingers. An anonymous spokesperson states "We all like those goujons and crispy cod bites too"... The Penguin book empire pulls out of its lucrative deal on Prince Harry's memoir. An anonymous spokesperson states "On reflection publishing anything that could further upset our Queen, to no defensible purpose, could make us the most reviled publishers on the planet"... The government announces its latest messaging to boost the hospitality industry and is confident that much good will come from HELP HOSPITALITY - STAY PISSED... Approval ratings for Boris jump from -6 to +15... and much, much more...
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			<title>Event Organisers Update June 2021 ISSUE 199</title>
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			<pubdate>Tue, 29 Jun 2021 16:45:02 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update June 2021 ISSUE 199</subject>
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Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update June 2021 ISSUE 199 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 MANCHESTER ARENA MANAGEMENT "TRULY SORRY"  SMG, the operator of Manchester Arena, has said it is truly sorry for the May 2017 bombing tragedy that killed 22 visitors to the Ariana Grande concert and injured hundreds more, including many children.
 A proposed law requiring large venues to offer more protection to its customers has been backed by Sir John Saunders, chairman of the enquiry into the tragedy who has also spoken of a number of opportunities to detect the bomber, 22 year old Manchester born Libyan Salman Abedi as a threat that were missed. Security arrangements, says Sir John, "should have prevented or minimised the devastating impact of the attack. They failed to do so".
 SMG have stated that the fact that the security standards they adopted were in line with published industry guidance at the time gave them "no comfort".
 The possible gap between what is sensible and adequate protection and what is legally required was starkly illustrated by the number of lifeboats on the ill-fated Titanic. She could have carried 64, accommodating the ship's capacity of 3547 people. In fact her chief engineer planned for 48 and this was eventually cut to 20 by White Star Line to stop the deck looking "too cluttered". This was perfectly legal under Maritime law of the time but left more than 2,000 souls to perish in the freezing seas.
  
 LEGAL ACTION AGAINST ONE GOVERNMENT COVER-UP  The live music and theatre industries have launched a legal action against the Government to force the publication of the results from the May Events Research Programme. (Access All Areas)
 The results, leaked to the press some weeks ago, showed that out of 58,000 people attending a variety of indoor and outdoor events without wearing face masks or social distancing, a total of 15 contracted Covid as a result of attending. The events tested included an outdoor concert for 5,000 in Liverpool's Sefton Park, which generated two of the infections. Several football matches and the BRIT Awards generated none of the infections. A snooker tournament caused four infections and two nightclub events caused nine.
 Many more infections have been recorded in Cornwall following the Government's G7 Summit held there, with the area experiencing the fastest growing rates of infection of any county in the UK, and specific areas where G7 events were held showing rates rising more than 4,000 per cent. Perhaps unsurprisingly public health officials in Cornwall are blaming the thousands of staycationers, rather than the 20,000 international visitors at G7, for the surge in infections, although the same thing hasn't happened in other popular tourist spots. And they are currently refusing to publish the results of the risk assessment made for the event, all of which smells strongly of another grubby cover-up.
  
 UNETHICAL BOOKINGS  The current habit of holidaymakers "spreadbooking" holidays with two or more operators, often one in the UK and one overseas, and then cancelling the ones they don't want at the last minute has been condemned as highly unethical.
 It has been encouraged by some operators allowing the late cancellation with a full refund or no penalty. Those who charge a non-refundable deposit and allow bookers to carry this through to a later booking are usually happy with the arrangements made.
 One operator commented that free cancellation was a "business killer" and the restaurant equivalent of the no-show and those who exploited it were exhibiting "appalling behaviour in good times but totally unacceptable in Covid times", especially after "the 15 months we have all had in the hospitality sector".
  
 TOUGH CALLS  Pilots and cabin crew at Hong Kong airline Cathy Pacific have been warned that if they don't get vaccinated against Covid they could lose their jobs. And US carrier United Airlines have told staff that only the fully vaccinated will be able to work on flights to high-risk destinations around the world.
 In Moscow the authorities have ordered all workers who deal with the public to get vaccinated or take a different job. The jobs for which vaccination is now obligatory include retailers, hairdressers, taxi drivers, teachers, bank tellers and performers.
  
 TEENAGE WAITER SHOWS US HOW  A 16 year old waiter at the Jazz Cafe, Doncaster, has saved the life of a 7 year old girl by using the Heimlich manoeuvre on her when she was choking.
 In just his second day in full-time work Jack Smithson heard panicked screaming from the girl's grandmother, who had her fingers down the girl's throat, trying to pull the lethal obstruction out. First-aid trained Smithson knew this was dangerously wrong in that it could have pushed the obstruction further in, making things worse, so stood behind the girl and reached around, joining his hands and sharply compressing the diaphragm to force air pressure behind the obstruction and push it out.
 Fortunately after four tense tries this worked, the girl coughed up the obstruction and went home alive.
 Now, shouldn't every event organiser be taking a first aid course that includes instruction in what to do to save a life when one of their delegates starts choking at an event involving food?
  
 CONFEX POSTPONED  Event Industry exhibition Confex, due to run June 22-23 has been postponed till early September, when it will run at Excel, Docklands.
 Organisers Mash Media, who have also postponed the PA Show and the Publishing Show have blamed the current rise in Covid infections.
 VENUE NEWS
 o  Twenty hotels in Rio de Janeiro are to be converted to residential use, following the slump in trade caused by the Covid pandemic there.
 Most will convert to luxury residences and the list includes the Hotel Gloria, the art-deco themed Hotel Payssandu and the 17-storey Flamenco Palace, with views of the Flamenco Beach.
  
 o  After 100 years of being closed to the public the Old War Office Building, which once included offices for Winston Churchill, is to open soon as a luxury hotel outpost run by Raffles Hotels and Resorts of Singapore.
 This will offer 125 rooms and suites, nine restaurants, bars and a spa.
 MOVIE SPOT
 I NEVER CRY (2020)  "Euro-Orphans" is the name given by Polish film writer and director Piotr Domalewski to the potentially millions of children who grow up with one parent or another absent because they have emigrated in search of work that will enable them to send a regular paycheck home for their estranged family.
 Such a child is Ola who lives with her mother and disabled brother in Poland while her father works on the docks in Dublin. Played by 22 year old Polish actress Zofia Stafiej, in an impressive debut that won her the 2020 best actor in a debut award at the Polish Film Festival in Gydnia, Ola is a hard bitten, streetwise and rebellious 17 year old who doesn't do emotion, hence the title. The film opens with her taking her third driving test, which she badly needs to pass as her father has promised her a car when she does. Sadly it's not to be. Her telephone has a rebellious ringtone on it - "effing police, effing police" - and goes off twice, the second time enough to distract her and make her swerve violently and screech to a halt when someone cuts in front of her. She then compounds the error by getting out in a fit of road rage and kicking her protagonist's car, breaking off the number plate. This does not go down well with her examiner, and nor does attacked by the selfish driver and knocked to the ground, guaranteeing Ola a definite fail.
 When her father, who Ola barely knew, is reported dead after a docks accident it is Ola who is the only person who can travel to Ireland and bring home his body, because she is the only one in the family who speaks English, and her mother has to stay and look after her disabled brother. Anyway she wants to go to find out if there is any money coming to her for a car, as he had promised So the stage is set for the real coming of age of Ola as she gets drunk with young new-found friends in Dublin, like you do, and fights officialdom, and the uncaring employer of her father, in her own streetwise way, such as breaking into offices to steal files and other thieving. When she cant identify his corpse at the morgue she realises how little she knew him and her search changes from trying to find her money to getting more information about him so she can get to know him better.
 There is a strong supporting cast for I Never Cry, with a standout for this viewer being Cosmina Stratan, who plays the mysterious hairdresser's assistant Sara, reputedly Ola's father's mistress, who is being sexually abused by her employer. Stratan, a beautiful 37 year old Romanian journalist and actress with large, hypnotic eyes won a shared Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival with her co-star Cristina Flutur for her debut performance in Beyond The Hills. This was a highly rated 2012 Romanian film about two young women in a physical relationship, which collapses when one is subjected to a violent and lethal exorcism by Romanian nuns.
 I Never Cry is being released by Eureka Entertainment in UK and Ireland cinemas from July 23.
  
 THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1965)  " What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not. They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me, little men, drunkards, queers, henpecked husbands, civil servants playing "Cowboys and Indians" to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong?"
 This angry and self-loathing outburst, one to make James Bond choke on his shaken martini, was a highlight in the gritty film that many regard as Richard Burton's best ever, as he played the bitter, washed-up Alac Leamus playing the part of a defector to the East, disillusioned with his employers in the British Intelligence service and ready to get out and sell their secrets to the highest bidder. As part of his cover he gets drunk and beats up a grocer to get arrested and imprisoned. When out he is approached by a succession of East German contacts, which sets the stage for a squalid and seedy experience in cross and double-cross that becomes his downfall. 007 he isn't.
 As well as Burton's much-admired and award-winning performance - he and the film won Baftas, Tony's and a David di Donatello award as well as one of his seven Academy Award nominations - the rest of a starry cast provide much pleasurable viewing, not least Claire Bloom CBE as the beautiful young librarian Nan Perry, whose naivet&eacute; irritates Leamus to his outburst. Cyril Cusak makes a wonderfully silky Control who sets his spy his last, most dangerous mission, Peter Van Eyck makes a very believably evil head of the East German intelligence service, Hans-Dieter Mundt, a former Nazi that Leamas is sent to discredit, with the help of Mundt's second in command, Fiedler (Oskar Werner - who picked up a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture).
 Fielder believes that his boss, Mundt, is really a double agent working for the British and wants him exposed, and shot. The path of Leamas to Fiedler is via a succession of increasingly senior East German operatives. The pathetic Ashe, who makes the first contact with Leamas when he comes out of prison is an impressive cameo role from Michael Hordern, who has featured in other Burton films. Ashe passes Leamas onto the brutally glacial Dick Carlton, played by one of Burton's old friends Robert Hardy CBE and Carlton passes him up to Peters, the last contact before Fiedler played by actor/director Sam Wannamaker, the man who was most responsible for getting Shakespeare's Globe Theate in London up and running. James Bond fans might recognise the grocer that Leamas beats up, Patmore, played by Bernard Lee, 007's gruff boss, "M".
 The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is closely based on the 1963 John Le Carre novel of the same name and was released in Blu-ray format for the first time last month by Eureka Entertainment as part of their Masters of Cinema Series. The pack includes a brand new audio commentary by film scholar Adrian Martin, a brand new and very watchable video essay Cold Light, and a 48-page collector's booklet.
 CATCH-UP TV
 TIME (2021)  Those many viewers who enjoyed Jimmy McGovern's much-lauded and deserving TV dramas - including Cracker (1993-1995), The Lakes (1997) and Hillsborough (1996) - will recognise his realistic style and intuitive grasp of what makes drama dramatic in his latest work, Time, a bleak, affecting and gritty prison tale now streaming on BBC i-Player.
 In three parts this features some powerhouse acting from its two leads, Sean Bean, (who also featured in an episode of McGovern's 2010-2012 Accused TV anthology and 2017 TV series Broken)  playing Mark Cobden, the mild-mannered, guilt-wracked teacher given four years for killing a cyclist while driving drunk, and Stephen Graham, who many will remember as the UCO (Under Cover Officer) in the fifth series of Line of Duty, here playing the experienced and respected prison officer Eric McNally, who is mercilessly blackmailed into committing crimes by the terrifying psychopath Jackson Jones, who finds out that McNally's son is an inmate in another prison and can be got at to pile pressure on McNally.
 Jones is convincingly played by Brian McCardie, who also played the very nasty operator of an OCG (Organised Crime Group) Tommy Hunter in an early series of Line of Duty. He certainly isn't the only nasty that the amiable Cobden clashes with as he settles into the routine of prison life as another psychopathic inmate, Johnno, an excellent turn by James Nelson-Joyce, embarks on a programme of violent bullying. Cobden also has to cope with his first cell-mate Bernard (Anurin Barnard) being a suicidal self-harmer, and Cobden's drunken driving offence and trial haunting his nightmares. There is also a bad let-down from one of his close family, and a tragedy involving his father, and you soon start to wonder how much more this basically decent man who once made a lethal mistake can take.
 There are, however some good human beings in there to balance the bad ones. As an excellent five-star review by Lucy Mangan in The Guardian points out there is the kindness showed by Cobden to some of his fellow inmates, as well as McNally's efforts to keep his wing in order even as he reluctantly succumbs to the foul blackmail of Jones. And there is the obvious loving bond between McNally and his wife Sonia (Hannah Walters) and the seriously saintly prison chaplain Mary-Louise (Siobhan Finneran) who knows how to practically help Cobden with his family tragedy. As Manghan says "Time well spent".
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Wednesday  Four Instagram influencers have been the first to be named by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for not making it clear that their posted recommendations are actually paid-for advertisements.
 They are Chloe Ferry, Chloe Khan, Jodie Marsh and Lucy Mecklenburgh. All were warned by the ASA that they were publishing misleading advertising and sought assurances that they would label their paid for posts as ads in future. All four either didn't respond, or gave assurances that they would comply and then broke them.
 Seriously not to be trusted then.
  
 Saturday  Sorry to hear that GB News (Freeview 236), the dedicated news TV channel headed by veteran broadcaster Andrew Neill, has got off to such a rocky start. On the serious side it has been the subject of a damaging advertising boycott by such as Swedish firms Ikea and Kopparburg cider and Octopus Energy, who have all bravely bowed to pressure on social media from left-wing zealots, an aspect that culture secretary Oliver Dowden describes as "undermining democracy".
 There have also been problems with sound quality, and on the less serious side their newsreaders have been targetted with letters sent in signed by false names that sound amusingly rude when read out on air. These include Mike Oxlong, Hugh Janus and Jenny Taylia. Presenter Simon McCoy reacted badly by slamming the "idiots" sending them in, portraying the maverick anti-woke channel as perhaps taking itself a little too seriously when stressed.
  
 Tuesday  Really sad to learn that our government have so easily succumbed to the blackmail from football body Uefa for 2,500 of Uefa and Fifa officials, sponsors, politicians, broadcasters and various other hangers-on to attend the Europe 2020 games at Wembley without having to quarantine like everyone else has to.
 Apparently we have also agreed higher spectator limits for later events under threat of them being moved to outside the UK from Uefa, and our grovelling compliance and wish to suck up to Uefa is not unconnected with collecting Uefa votes for our bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
 Pathetic or what?
FOODIE NEWS
 o Like most others your editor has had to rely more and more on online purchases of food and has lately been trying dried mushrooms of various types. Being neighbours with a couple who also love their food we gladly let them have samples of the six different ones we bought for them to rehydrate, cook and try and they kindly reported back their views to add to our own scores, as below. Most rehydrate to four or five times their dry weight. Scores out of ten added together to get final total out of 30 and in descending order.
 1.   20  Chinese Black mushrooms, whole, also called "Shiitake" on the paperwork. From Tradewinds, &pound;25.83/kilo plus shipping "Chewy, savoury/strong flavour, garlicky".
 J2.  17 Dried Tree Oyster mushrooms, whole, British grown, from Cambridge Mushrooms. &pound;48/kilo plus shipping. "Strong and pleasant flavour, dense texture, truffle hint".
 J2.  17  Dried Porcini mushroom pieces, China, from Wholefoods Online. &pound;59.20/kilo plus shipping. "Earthy, savoury, sweet, nutty, dense texture".
 J4.  15  Dried Forest mushroom pieces, China, from Wholefoods Online  &pound;65.40/ kilo plus shipping. "Earthy umami flavour, not strong, nice texture".
 J4.  15  Dried Pearl Oyster mushrooms, British Grown, from Cambridge Mushrooms. &pound;48/kilo plus shipping  "Subtle, pleasant flavour/Nondescript, too subtle flavour".
 6.  10  Dried Sliced Shiitake mushrooms, China, from Wholefoods Online. &pound;80/kilo plus shipping. "Very chewy, not much flavour, strong aftertaste".
 Worth noting that the cheapest mushrooms get the highest score, and the most expensive the lowest. Thanks to our two tasters, Hazel and Aaran, who knew nothing about the prices.
DRINKS NEWS
 o Brexit problems are affecting fans of the Pornstar Martini, we hear, on account of the increasing difficulties of getting one main ingredient, Passoa passion fruit liquor. This 17% ABV specialist drink is usually available in our supermarkets for &pound;12 a 70cl bottle, but is now "impossible to get" say some. Also affected are vermouths, along with some wines and spirits.
 One alternative is substituting the Passoa with real passion fruits - four per serving. Or to wait till one of the countries that we are newly trading with comes up with an alternative to replace the European sourced product.
 Meanwhile the creator of this popular cocktail has revealed that it was given its name because it was thought to be the kind of tipple a pornstar would drink. Bottoms up, then?
  
 o  A new report has identified the South Downs National Park as being a suitable hub for a huge increase in post-Brexit English wine-making.
 Currently only 0.4% of the agricultural land in the 87 mile park is used for viticulture -comprising 51 vineyards and 11 wineries - against the 34% that could be used - creating 800 full time jobs and a contribution of &pound;127million to the UK economy.
 There is also thought to be the possibility of 75,000 visits by tourists, (and corporate hospitality and incentive groups?) with the huge increase in wine production.
NEXT ISSUE
 Following the Manchester Arena bombing enquiry more venues realise the worrying shortfall from "published industry guidance" to sensible security standards&hellip; Government sources admit they sat on results that might have opened events earlier to coincide with the delay to lifting restrictions&hellip; Hospitality businesses realise that allowing late cancellation of bookings with no penalty is just shooting themselves in the foot&hellip; Trust in influencers is further eroded as more names of those who mislead are added to the ASA black list&hellip; As well as not being required to quarantine when visiting the UK the Uefa entourage is treated to a gourmet gala dinner where British politicians file in to lick their shoes and leave presents, and full diplomatic immunity to cover any crimes they might commit while here&hellip; and much, much more&hellip;
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    ##SenderAddress##   Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - ##EmailAddress##   If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  ##Unsubscribe##
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			<title>Event Organisers Update May 2021 ISSUE 198</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update May 2021 ISSUE 198</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Sat, 29 May 2021 19:45:02 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update May 2021 ISSUE 198</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update May 2021 ISSUE 198 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 THE RIGHT DIRECTION  All who make their living from running events, and those who enjoy attending them will be cheered by the results of the government's Event Research Programme (ERP).
 A total of 58,000 people were allowed to attend a selection of indoor and outdoor events in May, without wearing face coverings or social distancing, and these included an outdoor concert in Liverpool's Sefton Park for 5,000, the BRIT Awards, a snooker tournament, several football matches and two nightclub events. When tested before entry and then again afterwards it was found that a total of 15 people (0.02586%) had contracted Covid. The nightclub visits generated nine of the infections, the snooker, four and the Sefton Park concert, two. No infections were recorded from the BRIT Awards or the football matches.
 Of course it is for individuals to decide whether the event they want to attend is worth this risk. Currently indoor events of up to 1,000 (or 50% capacity) are allowed with face coverings and social distancing mandatory, a requirement that remains in place until June 21. At this time it is possible that some requirements will be lifted and replaced with some Covid-status proof from attendees, such as proof of a negative test, vaccination history or presence of antibodies.
 A government announcement is expected around 14 June 2021.
 Sources Daily Telegraph and Access All Areas.
  
 COVID CONVICTIONS
 o More than 4,000 people were prosecuted last year for breach of coronavirus laws, with 3,464 paying fines totalling nearly &pound;1.3 million.
 o A teenager from Chester-le-Street was initially issued with a &pound;400 fine for organising a memorial balloon release, in honour of a friend who was hit by a train, attended by around 200 people. On the day of the funeral he was issued with a &pound;10,000 fine for the same offence, with Durham Constabulary claiming that the original &pound;400 penalty, which the teenager had paid, was "an administrative error".
 o Airlines have been fined a total of &pound;1.26million for carrying 630 passengers who didn't provide proof of a recent negative coronavirus test, or a passenger locator form.
 o Holidays to red-list countries are being offered despite government advice that only essential travel should be taken. British Airways are pushing the Maldives, where Covid infection rates are nearly 67 times that in the UK. Teletext Holidays are pushing Turkey, where infection rates are 22 times that of the UK, and the UAE where rates are 11 times. Turkey, under President Erdogan, is currently the subject of a boycott call, due to its government's "brutal regime" and "violence against Kurds, and religious and ethnic minorities".
  
  STUDENT CONTEMPT FOR LOCKDOWN  Nearly a half of more than 1,000 students surveyed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from May 4-12 admitted visiting family or friends they were not living with, in breach of lockdown rules at the time.
 The rules were not relaxed till May 17, allowing people to meet in groups of six, or two families, indoors.
 There were 2.46 million students in the UK in 2019/20 indicating that the number breaching lockdown and potentially spreading Covid in early May was more than 1 million.
  
  JOB KILLING YOU?  The first study of long working hours and the risk of strokes and heart disease has been completed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and found that those working 55 hours or more a week had a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of death from heart disease. The comparisons were made against those working a 35 to 40 hour week and the study covered the 16 year period from 2000 and took in data from 194 countries.
 Those most at risk are middle-aged and older men (74%) and people from South-East Asia were most affected. The deaths of 745,000 in 2016 associated with the longer working week was nearly 20% higher than 2000.
  
  HYPOCRISY AT ENGLISH HERITAGE?  An English Heritage estate that welcomes paying visitors and event organisers, Wrest Park in Bedfordshire, has also welcomed groups of paying trophy hunters who bravely kill the tiny Muntjac deer and then circulate pictures of themselves on social media smirking over the corpses.
 When the story, with sick pictures of members of a brave Scandinavian group, hit the national press Wrest Park management were quick to claim that they deplored the trophy hunter's disrespectful behaviour, which "shocked and saddened" them, but admitted that they allowed the culling that made it possible, permission that they claim to have revoked with a current anonymous "third party" which organised the sad and shocking killing for them.
 The official English Heritage position is that they "don't allow hunting for sport at our sites" but organise "management of some animal populations", saying that "It's important to us that this is done humanely and respectfully", which rather suggests that the killing for sport will go on but the sick photos proving it will not be shared with the paying public, and event organisers who support them.
 As Bedfordshire Against Trophy Hunting (BATH) puts it: "For a national charity this is really quite grubby and we should expect better from them. They may seek to protect the national heritage but there are parts of it that should be consigned to history." And as Dominic Dyer at the Daily Telegraph puts it: "talk about PR disaster".
  
  SCOFF AND QUAFF ITALIAN  A new London food hall concept that could be a useful possibility for corporate hospitality, when it comes back, has opened in a former bank building in Bishopsgate, London, near to Liverpool Street station.
 Eataly occupies 42,000 square feet of space, with shops offering 5,000 mostly Italian food products, though with some British mixed in. There are also cocktail bars, cafes, wine shops, and a cookery school, with two restaurants already open and a fine dining unit coming in September.
  
  NEW FOODIE DESTINATION IN SHEFFIELD  The new &pound;70 million New Era Square shopping and leisure development at St. Mary's Gate in Sheffield promises lots of choices for foodies when it opens in June. (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 The selection includes the city's largest oriental supermarket, and restaurants serving Asian dishes, Taiwanese street food, Japanese cuisine, BBQ, breakfast and burgers. Also planned is a large sports bar and a restaurant specialising in Nordic and North European offerings.
 MOVIE SPOT
 o TIME AND TIDE 2000
 Fans of Hong Kong, high-octane, wall-to-wall action thrillers will find lots to enjoy in this one, directed, produced and co-written by an acclaimed master of the genre, Tsui Hark.
 Some critic's opinions include "mind-boggling and terrifically thrilling slice of cinematic chaos" and "beats every other Hollywood action film of the last five years, hands down" (Mark Savlov, Austin Chronicle) And "essentially a hyperactive showcase for Tsui Hark's ability to pile one unbelievably complex action sequence on top of another" (Roger Ebert, who also learns us to pronounce the Tsui name as "Choy Huck) For this modest critic it was a case of "Never mind the plot, feel the action".
 For the plot is incredibly convoluted and confusing, but is soon outshone by all that is happening on the screen as sprays of machine gun fire to be ducked and rolled away from fly everywhere, actors crash through windows and kill each other and, in our own favourite stunt moment one desperately fleeing drops vertiginously down the side of a very high rise apartment building followed by the camera also going over the edge, which makes it feel as if we are plummeting down with him. And there's more, much more...
 The two male leads are the rootless Tyler, played by Nicholas Tse, and mercenary Jack, played by Wu Bai. The two men start off working together until circumstances pit them against each other. More alpha-males join the fray in the form of a gang of murderous South American mercenaries known (surely ironically?) as the Angels, whose job is to kill both Jack, who used to be one of them called Juan, and Tyler. The Angel's second in command, Miguel, played by Joventino Couto Remotique, offers Jack the chance to rejoin them, if he kills his father-in-law, the batty Uncle Ji, played by Anthony Wong, and who runs a bodyguard business. Instead Jack kills the Angel's leader and steals a case full of money from under their noses.
 One of the two female leads is Ah Hui, played by Candy Lo, who is married to Jack and expecting his baby. This arrives as she is caught up in the final conflict between Tyler and the last of the Angels, and is delivered by Tyler as the last live Angel discovers, the hard way, how useful Ah Hui is with a gun. The other female lead is Ah Jo, played by Cathy Tsui, a scowling but attractive lesbian undercover police officer who accepts a stupid boozing challenge from an unknowing Tyler, working as a barman. The couple get vomiting and collapsing drunk, and end up sleeping together, with Ah Jo becoming pregnant and then wanting nothing to do with the father, giving back money he tries to give her. When her baby is born she softens her attitude and treats Tyler, and us, to a truly beatific smile.
 Time and Tide was released on Blu-ray on May 24 by Eureka Entertainment as part of its Eureka Classics range. The pack includes feature length audio commentaries from director Tsui Hark and from Asian film expert Frank Djeng and a limited edition collectors booklet (2,000 copies).
  
 o THE HANDS OF ORLAC (1924)
 Actor Conrad Veidt was always a big, and well-paid name in German Expressionist cinema and this silent black and white science-fiction horror classic from 1924 was one of his early films, from the 100+ he featured in. Earlier Veidt, who was bisexual, was in the world's first film (his 23rd) that sympathetically portrayed homosexuality, Different From The Others (1919), which was eventually banned by the Nazis. This was made with the same plot more than 40 years later as Victim (1961) starring Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Syms. Veidt had also had a key role in the definitive Expressionist film that many remember him for, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) where he played Cesare, the murderous somnambulist.
 For The Hands of Orlac Veidt is again directed by the director of Caligari, Robert Weine.Here Veidt, who dominates the film, plays Paul Orlac, a confident and talented concert pianist with a glittering future ahead of him, until an horrific train crash he is involved in cruelly robs him of his hands. Desperate to have him playing, and loving her again, his wife Yvonne (Alexandra Sorina) persuades a surgeon to graft two new hands onto Paul's arms, not mentioning to him that they are the hands of a convicted and newly executed murderer, Vasseur. When Paul Orlac finds out he is terrified of what the hands might do, as he believes they are out of his control. They certainly cant play the piano like his original ones used to, he discovers, as he descends into madness and the film moves towards its twisty and unexpected conclusion...
 A decade later Veidt emerged as one of the principled actors in Germany and a fervent anti-Nazi as the country struggled in the grip of the Nazis in 1933 and Joseph Goebbels began purging the film industry of all anti-Nazi sympathisers and Jews and obliging actors and directors who wanted to continue working in Germany to support the portrayal of the anti-Semitism that was a fundamental part of Nazi spin. Some of those who refused found themselves, and their families, shipped off to a death camp and gassed on arrival. Veidt, who had just taken a Jewish bride as his third wife, left Germany with his spouse for good and emigrated to Britain, where he made films for director Michael Powell (The Spy in Black in 1939 and The Thief of Baghdad and Contraband in 1940) In 1941 the Veidts moved to Hollywood, after giving their life savings to the British government for the war effort, and, ironically as he observed, he played the kind of characters who forced him to leave his homeland. This culminated in the performance - you must remember this - as the sinister Major Heinrich Strasser in Casablanca in 1942, a few months before his sad and untimely death in 1943, aged just 50.
 The Hands of Orlac is being released next month for the first time on home video by Eureka Entertainment in a Blu-ray format as part of its Masters of Cinema Series. The pack contains two different presentations of the film, one with original German intertitles and a score by Johannes Kalitzke and another held by the Murnau Foundation presented in SD with English intertitles and a score by Paul Mercer, along with scene comparisons highlighting the differences between the two versions. There is also a full-length audio commentary by author Stephen Jones and author and critic Kim Newman, an interesting video essay, Extremities, by film makers David Cairns and Fiona Watson and a Collector's Booklet featuring new writing by Phillip Kemp and Tim Lucas.
 DOC SPOT
 Fans of documentaries will remember Super Size Me, (2004) directed by and starring American film-maker Morgan Spurlock, 32, who feasted at McDonalds for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 30 days and monitored the effect on his physical and mental health. Part of the programme was if he was offered the chance to "Super Size" to double portions of fries and cola, he would, and this happened 9 times.
 He gained 11.1 kilograms (24 lbs), 13% on his body mass, upped his cholesterol level to 230mg/dL (healthy level for his age would be 130mg/dL) and experienced fat accumulation in his liver, mood swings and sexual dysfunction. After filming, which included bringing up his first super size meal on Day 2 in the parking lot of one of the McDonalds in New York, and getting heart palpitations on day 21, it took him 14 months to lose the excess weight. Super Size Me highlighted some of the real dangers of excessive fast food consumption and did rather well at the box office generating $22.2 million for a budget of $65,000.
 Now a 42 year old doctor, Christoffer van Tulleken has made a UK food documentary for BBC1, What Are We Feeding Our Kids?, in which the doctor included Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs) for 80% of his diet for 30 days and logged the effects on himself, which included rapid weight gain (6.5 kilos) insomnia, headaches, heartburn, mood swings, anxiety, constipation and piles (hemorrhoids) Perhaps even more worrying, before-and-after MRI brain scans indicated that the high UPF diet had connected the reward centres in his brain to the areas that drive repetitive automatic responses, something you might see in someone with an addiction.
 Commonly UPFs contain long lists of ingredients not found in homemade food and common examples include industrialised breads, breakfast cereals, sausages and other reconstituted meats, ready meals, baked beans, tinned soups, sweets, biscuits, buns and cakes, pasties, industrially produced chips, soft drinks, sauces and dressings, meat alternatives, crisps and soy and milk substitutes. The tastiness of these items, and therefore their addictiveness is no accident but something carefully built in by the ten or so large companies that make and profit from them. It is estimated that 21% of children leaving UK primary schools are now catagorised as obese.
 What Are We Feeding Our Kids? aired on BBC1 at 9.00pm on Thursday May 27, and is now available for free viewing on BBC iPlayer for the next five months.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Tuesday  A sad, but possibly apocryphal tale reaches us from the heart of rural Bedfordshire, where infections from the Indian variant are on the increase.
 A man in the front of the queue at a newsagents was standing without a facemask. The newsagent told him he wouldn't be served unless he wore one. The man then claimed he had medical exemption, whereby the newsagent asked to see proof of this. The man then claimed he had left it at home. He was again told he could only be served when wearing a facemask. Whereupon he reached into a pocket, pulled out a facemask and put it on, muttering that he "didn't like wearing them".
 According to the Daily Express our Government should "trust people to assess risks and make sensible decisions".
  
  Saturday  Not personally hailing from Cornwall or Devon Old Grit notes with interest the Great Cream Tea Conundrum whereby intelligent folk from Cornwall insist that the jam must go on the scone first, whereby equally intelligent folk from Devon say it must be the cream. The bakery section of a Sainsbury's branch in Truro, Cornwall showed a sign depicting, shock/horror, a scone with jam on top of the cream Devon-style and the supermarket later removed its offending sign in the wake of protests from intelligent folk from Cornwall. It's reassuring, is it not that some folk are concentrating on the serious life or death issues in the current pandemic?
 Meanwhile, away from the scones and onto the tea itself the issue of whether cold milk or hot tea should go into the cup first is engaging intelligent folk in other parts of the UK. Time was the milk went into fine and expensive bone china first as boiling tea could crack the cups if poured in first since there was no milk to cool it down. Nowadays though there are still those of us, 27% reportedly, who always go milk first on the basis that the brew tastes better.
 Their view is backed by that of Professor Alan Mackie, head of Leeds University's School of Food Science and Nutrition who says that this method "locks in the flavour" According to the survey done on this by Intu Boiling Water Taps 46% of us don't agree and put water in first, and 26% of us chose not to take sides. Presumably the 1% left were too busy stuffing their faces with healthy jam and cream laden, or healthy cream and jam laden scones to care?
 Now you know...
  
  Monday  We liked the style of Sleeping Bear Hotels when they issued an unchecked press release which contained a number of typos. The release explained that due to a large postponed booking they had a big hole in their occupancy for the following week and were offering rooms with a 70% discount at their Stanton Manor property.
 When the group realised the typo problem they sent out a follow up, less than an hour later, admitting they had "pushed send too quickly" and offering anyone booking a room and a dinner a free dessert if they mentioned one of the typos when booking.
 Good recovery, hope it worked for them.
  
  Wednesday  It was edifying to read, in the i paper, that Boris Johnson, who has been quick to comment on the low standard of media ethics at the BBC, was once sacked from The Times for making up a quote.
 Reportedly he had "an elastic relationship with objective fact".
FOODIE NEWS
 o Luxury fish dishes made from lab-grown fish flesh that has never been in the seas or rivers may not be as far from our plates as lab-grown meat, where it is much harder to duplicate the taste and texture of the original.
 This is the view of a small number of companies working in the sector. One is US start-up Blue Nalu which points out that using lab-growth the cells from a single fish could provide enough for thousands of meals. The company is currently working on lab-grown versions of one of the world's most expensive, bluefin tuna, as well as red snapper, yellowtail and mahi-mahi, the marketeer's exotic name for the common dolphinfish, which has nothing to do with dolphins and is called lampuka if you eat it in Malta. They say they will have these on our plates within the decade. Another US start-up, Wildtype, is developing lab-grown salmon fillets while a Singapore firm, Shiok Meats is working on shrimp, crab and lobster.
 Nearer to home a British firm, Exmoor Caviar, has developed a lab-grown version of its product and is confident that sturgeon-free caviar will be available to buy in two or three years.
 Could a guilt-free lab-grown foie gras be in our future?
DRINKS NEWS
  o Drinks experts Funkin Cocktails have compiled a list of 86 cocktails ranked in order of the number of online searches worldwide made for each one. The Margarita had the most searches, (546,280) followed by the Mojito (302, 840) and the Pina Colada (199,640) The top ten, with main ingredients, follow.

 Margarita (546,280) Tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, salt for garnish.
 Mojito (302,840) White Rum, sugar, soda water, lime, mint for garnish.
 Pina Colada (199,640) White Rum, coconut, pineapple.
 Old Fashioned (168,460) Rye or Bourbon whiskey, dashes Angostura Bitters, cube sugar, orange twist for garnish.
 Moscow Mule (162,130) Vodka, ginger beer, lime juice.
 Sangria (160,480) Red wine, brandy, orange juice, fruit.
 Pornstar Martini (141,730) Vanilla vodka, passionfruit, prosecco.
 Martini (135,510) Gin or vodka, dry vermouth, lemon peel, olive or pickled silverskin onion for garnish.
 Bloody Mary (120,460) Vodka, tomato juice, Worcester Sauce, celery for garnish.
 Sex on the Beach (104,930) Vodka, Peach Schnapps, Cranberry Juice, Orange Juice.

 Vodka is the spirit most used in the above - four/five of the ten cocktails.
NEXT ISSUE
 A businessman explains why he is still not attending exhibitions or conferences. "Just because only 15 people out of 58,000 got Covid in the government's research its not much consolation if I'm one of the unlucky 15. It's not worth the risk"... UK students are warned "It's not clever to breach lockdown rules. You all just selfishly put thousands at extra risk of dying"... Overtime and extra working becomes a thing of the past as employees demand a shorter, safer working week... A brave, fearless and courageous trophy hunter at Wrest Park tells the press: "Just because the little Muntjac is a herbivore it doesn't mean it wont sink its teeth into your throat, given half a chance, especially those tiny baby ones"... Boris Johnson is quoted as saying: "I feel sorry for anyone affected by my Covid cock-ups, unless they live North of Watford", a quote he denies making, saying "This is obviously one made up by a lying and deeply unethical journalist"... and much, much more...
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ARE YOU COMMUNICATING REGULARLY WITH YOUR TARGET MARKET?  SG7 Web Solutions email this Event Organisers Update newsletter every month to a list of  event organisers supplied by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). We receive the copy, check it, email it out to the list and send prompts advising recipients that their newsletter is residing in their inboxes. We also maintain the list, adding new subscribers and deleting unsubscribers.
 Could we do something like this for you?  We can handle any size of email list, and, as a small company based in Baldock, Herts, offer a friendly five-star mailing out service for two-star prices. Like a quote for your work? Contact Mark Ely by email at mark.ely@sg7.biz , or telephone on  07415865943, and start saving money on your customer communications. 
 Publisher's Note  The above is an example of our new Announcement advertisement. If you have a product, service, venue or event of interest to event organisers you can promote it as above for &pound;30 for up to 150 words. Contact Peter Cotterell on 01767 312986 or peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk for details and to book.
  
 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    ##SenderAddress##   Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - ##EmailAddress##   If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  ##Unsubscribe##
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			<title>Event Organisers Update April 2021 ISSUE 197</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update April 2021 ISSUE 197</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Fri, 30 Apr 2021 20:25:02 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update April 2021 ISSUE 197</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update April 2021 ISSUE 197 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
 To ##Name##

 
 ##EmailAddress##   ##Unsubscribe##


 
 
Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
  MURDER OF HOTELIER  Sir Richard Sutton, 83, owner of London's 164 bedroom Athenaeum Hotel and the 303 bedroom Sheraton Grand London Park Lane was stabbed to death in his Gillingham, Dorset home in early April. His partner, Danish physiotherapist Anne Schreiber, 65, was also stabbed in the same attack and is still in a critical condition in a Bristol hospital.
 Sir Richard's stepson, Thomas Schreiber, 34, was arrested for the murder, and the attempted murder after a 100 mile police chase of his Range Rover. He has been remanded in custody from Winchester Crown Court with a plea hearing set for July 5 and a trial date set provisionally for October 25.
 As well as the two London hotels Sir Richard also owns three smaller MGallery brand hotels in Windsor, Cheltenham and Bath, as well as other property and farmland. According to the Sunday Times Rich List for 2020 his net worth was &pound;301 million.
  
 TAX SCAMS UP IN PANDEMIC  Those individuals or businesses who get a phone call, letter, text or email purporting to be from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) offering a tax refund will need to check it with their local tax office as 553,000 of them have turned out to be bogus as fraudsters try to get information about bank accounts, to "pay the refund into".
 Nearly as many have had communications falsely claiming that money is owed, and threatening court action if it is not paid, to the fraudsters of course.
 HMRC have handled more than 1 million complaints of tax scams in the past year and 20,000 fake HMRC websites have been taken down.
  
 SICK TRADE  Trophy hunters who get pleasure from killing wild animals and cutting bits off them to take home and impress their friends, are being well looked after in Zimbabwe. Here the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority have announced licensing them to kill one of a total of 500 elephants, for a fee.
 The move is to try to make up revenue lost in the pandemic lockdowns on travel, resulting in the collapse of visitor numbers. Fees, dependent on the size of the animal killed, range from &pound;7,200 (for a baby one?) to &pound;50,500. Thus the slaughter is expected to raise from &pound;3.6 million to &pound;25.25 million for the cash-strapped Authority.
  
  ATTRACTIONS SUFFER  Some of the UK's top attractions lost significant numbers of visitors in the pandemic year.
 Those suffering an 80%+ fall in 2020 were:
 Edinburgh Castle 87%  Kelvingrove Museum 86%  Tower of London 85%  St Paul's Cathedral 85%  Southbank Centre 84%  Royal Albert Hall 83%  National Portrait Gallery 81%  Scottish National Gallery 81%  British Museum 80%  National Gallery 80%  National Museum Scotland 80%  Stonehenge 80%
 Source: Association of Leading Visitor Attractions ALVA.
  
  THE LOUVRE, ONLINE.NOW  The world's most famous and largest art gallery and museum, The Louvre, Paris (currently closed) has put all its treasures online.
 The 480,000 items to view free include 7,500 artworks, the total that are on loan, on display and, perhaps most exciting of all, those in storage that visitors seldom see.
 As art lovers will know, all the artworks from after the 1848 Revolution were moved to the Musee D'Orsay in 1986, leaving works from the 13th Century at The Louvre. The new online presentation means that we can all enjoy some of the world's best without people thoughtlessly standing in front of us, waving selfie sticks around or taking naff selfies to impress their friends on Instagram. The Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci, hanging there since 1797 and insured for a reported &pound;475 million has never looked so good.
 Other significant artworks include Theodore Gericault's Raft of the Medusa, from 1818 when he was just 27, Eugene Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (1830), the startling Tree of Crows by Casper David Friedrich (1822), Bathsheba at Her Bath by Rembrandt (1654), the luminous Bathsheba holding David's Letter by Willem Drost (1654) and the radiant Diana after the Bath by Francois Boucher (1742).
 There are many paintings of the biblical figure Bathsheba - like Eve it was permissible to paint her naked, something many artists took full advantage of. She was a beautiful woman who was lusted after by King David, after he spied her bathing. David sent for her by letter, seduced her and made her pregnant, then sending her soldier husband Uriah into the frontline of battle and ordering his officers to abandon him there, knowing he would be killed. David then married Bathsheba but God punished David for his coveting and killing by causing the first child of the adulterous union to die. David repented and their second child, Solomon, with some wily string-pulling by Bathsheba, became king when David died, with Bathsheba as the influential queen mother.
  
 COVID UK
 o In Bestwood, Nottingham a woman has been fined &pound;10,000 for organising a 30th birthday party for 50 people in a garden marquee.
 o In West Bridgford, Nottingham, the Bridge Field park is now being patrolled by security guards after large numbers of people flooded onto it.
 o In Fallowfield, Manchester the organiser of a performance by rapper A.J. Tracey has been fined &pound;10,000 after hundreds turned up to listen.
 o In Hyde Park, Central London, eight police officers were injured by missiles thrown by peaceful protesters against lockdown and vaccine passports. Five people were arrested for offences, including assault.
 o Essex police are tracking down partygoers who fled from a group of 100 attending an unlicensed music event at Stamford-le-Hope.
 o Kent police closed down an illegal rave before it could open at Polhill, Sevenoaks.
  
 COVID OVERSEAS
 o India, where the virus is increasingly raging and killing, has become the focus of world attention, with many countries, including the UK sending medical supplies to try to preserve lives there.
 o On the island of Mallorca, Spain, a 40 year old man with Covid-19 symptoms coughed on his work colleagues and told them: "I'm going to give you all the coronavirus". He is believed to have infected 22 people and police have charged him with deliberately causing injury.
 o In Madrid, Spain, which has become the capital of illicit parties police there have claimed extra powers to break them up. They say they dealt with 3,761 parties in private homes and bars in the first eleven weeks of 2021, a rate of nearly 50 a day, though also say that many more are going undetected.
 o In Vietnam a 29 year old male flight attendant with Vietnam Airlines has been given two years probation for violating quarantine rules and spreading the virus to others. Duong Tan Hau spent time with a teacher and visited a cafe when he was supposed to be isolating. As a result three people, including the teacher, have since tested positive, several schools have had to close and 2,200 people in the chain of contact have to quarantine.
 o In Paris 110 people were fined for illegally dining in a restaurant, while the organiser of the dinner, and the restaurant manager were both arrested.
 o In Basel, Switzerland, three students falsified positive Covid-19 results in an effort to skip school, an action that forced 25 classmates to quarantine in their homes for 10 days.
 o Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ccha has been fined &pound;165 for not wearing a face mask.
 o As former US president Donald Trump continued to travel and hold rallies during the pandemic, the former vice-president Mike Pence took a winter skiing holiday in Colorado that breached federal guidelines on coronavirus safety. His trip, with his family and 48 agents, cost the US taxpayer &pound;544,000 in security costs alone.
  
 MOVIE SPOT
 KARLOFF AT COLUMBIA  Between 1935 and 1942 horror icon Boris Karloff, who was aged 48-55 starred in six films for Columbia, a few years after making the Frankenstein films that cost him many hours being made up as the monster, but that really made his name internationally.
 For Columbia in 1935 it was The Black Room, made in the same year as two highly acclaimed horror films, The Raven and Bride of Frankenstein. In 1939 it was The Man They Could Not Hang, in 1940 The Man With Nine Lives and Before I Hang, and in 1941 The Devil Commands. These last four have been dubbed his "mad doctor" cycle as in each he plays this character, or an equally mad scientist, both of whom cause the film's body count to mount. The sixth film, in 1942, was The Boogie Man Will Get You, a parody of these four. Reviews follow.
 o The Black Room 1935 Here Karloff shows he can act both nice and nasty, playing two brothers, the kindly Baron Anton who everyone loves and the evil Baron Gregor, who everyone hates and fears for his habit of capturing, ravishing and then murdering, in the Black Room of his baronial castle, the wives of the local peasants. Anton, with his faithful mastiff, Tor, visits Gregor for a bit of brotherly bonding, and the stage is set for more murder, a visit to the Black Room, the vindication of an ancient family prophecy concerning the two men and a major acting part for the dog.
 o The Man They Could Not Hang 1939 Karloff plays Dr Savaard, a good doctor obsessed with bringing dead people back to life. This he hopes to achieve by connecting a patient to an artificial heart that pumps blood around the body while the patient's own heart is stopped and a serious operation is performed. In 1939 this was pure science-fiction but nowadays actually happens as open heart surgery. Sadly for Savaard the young man willing to be killed and then brought back to life has a girlfriend who is frightened enough to go to the authorities and have him stopped. Savaard is sentenced to hang, and does, but not before he arranges for his assistant to claim his dead body from the hangman and bring it back to life, so that a now vengeful Savaard can kill those who convicted him, which he does with great ingenuity.
 o The Man With Nine Lives 1940. There's a cryogenic theme to this one as the ten year old frozen body of Dr Leon Kravaal (Karloff) is found in a deep ice chamber under his deserted and derelict home, along with four other frozen men. The discoverers, Dr Tim Mason (Roger Pryor) and his nurse Judith Blair (Jo Ann Sayers) have also, like Kravaal, been working on aspects of cryogenics and revive Kravaal and the four others, with the revived doctor explaining in flashbacks how he and the others came to be there. Revived, one of the four who believes Kravaal killed his father for his money, destroys the only copy of the formula for the potion that allows those frozen to be revived again, prompting Kravaal to shoot him in a rage and then use the rest as guinea pigs to find the right proportions of chemicals for the potion.
 o Before I Hang 1940 The ethics of euthanasia are the theme here with Dr John Garth (Karloff) convicted of murder and sentenced to hang for the mercy killing of an elderly friend. Garth's passion to develop a serum that will reverse the effects of aging impresses the prison warden who lets him go on with his research, assisted by another interested doctor, in the three weeks before his execution. On the last day Garth and his colleague finally have a serum, using blood from another prisoner, that Garth takes just before prison staff arrive to take him to his death. Just as they all leave however the telephone rings with the news that Garth's sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment, as Garth collapses due to the serum in his body. When he wakes up he finds that the serum has worked to make him younger and fitter, but that it was a tragic mistake to flood his body with the blood of a murderer...
 o The Devil Commands 1941 Brain Waves are what Dr Julian Blair (Karloff) is studying when his beloved wife Helen (Shirley Warde) is killed in a car accident. Blair goes on with his controversial, and demonstrably dangerous, research but becomes obsessed with using the technology to communicate with the soul of his dead wife. He visits a medium, Mrs Walters (Anne Revere, convincingly playing against type as a seriously nasty piece of work) and experiences her seance, staying behind afterwards to expose it as a clever fraud. Despite this the two become colleagues and she works with him until she is accidentally killed during her involvement in one of the experiments with powerful electrical currents, though she is not the first to be sacrificed in Blair's poignant attempts to talk to his dead wife.
 o The Boogie Man Will Get You 1942 This parody has Karloff acting the kindly and gentle old buffer, more Mr Chips than Mr Hyde, whose experiments with strong electrical currents to create superhumans mostly,( "Dear, Dear, Dear" he grumbles) end up killing people. The film is enhanced by Peter Lorre, another horror icon, who played the baby-faced serial killer of little girls in his breakthrough film, Fritz Lang's M (1931) and was then destined to play murdering psychos, although his comedy part in this shows him in a much more likable light. Another welcome addition is the very watchable young Jean Marie Donnell, nicknamed "Jeff" after her favourite cartoon character, who brought "a perky, unpretentious, tomboyish quality" to the screen, said one critic, a quality which served her well in the 70+ movies and TV appearances she enjoyed in a 46 year career. Unusually for a Karloff movie this one has a happyish ending.
 Karloff at Columbia is being released as part of its Eureka Classics range by Eureka Entertainment on May 3 in a World first Blu-ray edition limited to 3,000 copies. The pack contains brand new audio commentaries and writing on all six films in an exclusive Collector's booklet.
  
 DOC SPOT
 Fans of BBC1's addictive Line of Duty series can also get some facts about police corruption to go with the fiction from an excellent three-hour, three part documentary on BBC2 and now iPlayer.
 Bent Coppers:Crossing the Line of Duty explores that period in the late 60s and early 70s when Soho, London was awash with then illegal pornography and the pornographers paid high-ranking corrupt police officers millions at today's money values, in cash that went undeclared to HMRC, making it even more valuable. However it was the exposure of the corporate hospitality side that unraveled the whole smelly mess, courtesy of bent Commander Ken Drury, then head of the Flying Squad.
 Drury, thinking himself untouchable, arrogantly went on a two week luxury holiday to Cyprus with his wife and another couple, pornographer Jimmy Humphreys and his stripper wife Rusty. In fact the holiday was paid for by Humphreys, as was another 50+ acts of hospitality lavished on Drury, along with big wads of cash for Drury allowing him to operate his lucrative business. At the time there was no anti-corruption squad investigating any of this and the whistle was blown by the Sunday People newspaper which questioned why the head of London's elite Flying Squd was spending a long holiday with a criminal he was supposed to be catching. For Drury this was the beginning of the end and in 1977 he was tried, convicted and jailed for eight years.
 He wasn't the only highly placed one with his long arm of the law in the till. DCS Bill Moody, head of the Obscene Publications Squad aka the Dirty Squad was also a recipient of Humphrey's hospitality. He was also convicted of corruption and received a twelve year jail sentence, as did his boss, Commander Walter Virgo, who was then released after ten months on appeal only to die a few years later.
 Sir Robert Mark, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in the 70s famously quipped that "a good police force is one that catches more crooks than it employs" Mark formed the A10 Anti-Corruption Squad and, on his watch, nearly 500 officers - some of the employed crooks, perhaps? - were dismissed or forced to resign.
  
 FROM OUR READERS
 From Bryan Williams  Dear Sirs
 A correction re show arounds
 Conference show arounds are permitted from Monday 29 March as business to business
 Wedding show arounds hotels are permitting from 12 April when retail can open &ndash; there is some confusion at to if this should be delayed to 17 May
 Some hotels are already doing show arounds - but we are sticking with the above
 Kind regards  Bryan Williams
 Editor's response: Best of luck with your re-opening
  
 From Alan Turner-Smith  How can I find an organiser, probably an individual, who could quote to run a 2 or 3-day photographic exhibition for about 40 people on a campsite in Lincolnshire?
 Thanks  Alan
 Editor's response: Hope this publication helps
  
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Tuesday  It really is depressing to read of the restaurants that have fraudulently fiddled the Eat Out to Help Out scheme brought in to help them survive. Reportedly one was caught by continuing to receive online reviews despite claiming to be closed. Another, which claimed to have sent all its workers home, had higher sales in August than it had before the pandemic.
 And HMRC have also uncovered furlough fiddles with one company that threatened to sack its staff if they didn't work through the pandemic, even if ill, with the company still claiming furlough money meant to cover their wages. HMRC have managed to recover &pound;357,000 of our money from this one. And they also recovered &pound;13,800 from a restaurateur who was taking &pound;2,500 a month in furlough money, claiming that the restaurant was closed yet still supplying take away food.
  
 Thursday  Lobbyists, never the most respected of people, have now welcomed our former PM David Cameron to their grubby number.
 Cameron demeaned himself with his ceaseless begging on behalf of his paymasters at failed Lex Geenshill. Ironically, and with more presience than he could have known at the time Cameron once declared that political lobbying would be "the next big scandal waiting to happen".
 As if to bear him out the Grubbies have further mired themselves with the revelation that the chairman of our Government's lobbying watchdog is, er, a lobbyist...
  
  Saturday  Meanwhile our cuddly PM has an increasing set of problematical questions to answer over the financing of the essential refurbishment of his flat, and whether or not he said that he would rather see dead bodies of coronavirus victims piled up in the streets than impose another lockdown.
 Help in answering these questions is being selflessly offered by his formerly loyal top aide, Dom.
FOODIE NEWS
 o Those organising catering for their delegates will be interested to hear that the once-hated Brussels sprout has been continuing to rise in popularity with diners.
 o Good news for lovers of oysters - the price has come down significantly this year with Aldi offering six for &pound;3.99 for Valentines Day. Sources also claim that the price could drop even further as the post-Brexit difficulties and costs of selling them to the EU persuade suppliers, growing in number, that the home market, even with lower revenues for the product, could be more profitable and considerably less hassle.
 Whether or not the "gulps of the ocean" become a feature on up-market conference menus remains to be seen. Certainly the traditional slurp as the slippery bivalve slides, still alive, down throats will always be something of an acquired taste that many may not be too keen to acquire. However cooked oysters may have more of a chance, especially the simple fried version popular in Europe with twice-fried chips on the side. Old English beef and oyster pies could make a comeback, and spicy stir-frys could also find favour.
 And all that lunchtime aphrodisiac could definitely make for interesting conference afternoons...
 o Another post-Brexit development is the likelihood that the tasty, low-cost lamb, and hopefully mutton, could be back on menus as our government gets closer to finalising a free trade deal with New Zealand that was forbidden when we were under the thumb of the EU.
 This is expected to reduce tariffs on both sides, paving the way for us to import lamb, beef, and wonderful New Zealand wines to wash them down with and for them to buy our cars and gin.
 o Conference chicken, the favourite safe meat for organisers everywhere could be less of a feature in future as major outbreaks of avian flu have been ravaging flocks in Europe since last October.
 A major supplier of chicken meat to UK hotels and restaurants, Birtwhistles, has advised that more than 20 million birds were destroyed earlier this month in Poland, the largest supplier of European poultry to the UK. Other poultry affected are ducks - in France 10 million have been culled.
 Avian flu is mostly spread by wild bird contact with captive flocks, and can affect humans in contact, though good PPE keeps the risk low. 2020/2021 outbreaks have occurred in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. The highly pathogenic virus can be controlled by culling infected birds and vaccinating the healthy ones.
NEXT ISSUE
 Donald Trump and Mike Pence explain why they should be above the law... HMRC gain in popularity with the public for their activities against furlough fraudsters... Lobbyists lose more respect with the public as it is realised that in many cases their activities act against the public interest. A recent poll puts them just below child molesters on a table of popularity... Police investigate a cryptic banner hung on the wall of 10, Downing Street. A spokesperson comments: "We have no idea of the meaning of DOM4PM"... and much, much more...
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			<title>Event Organisers Update March 2021 ISSUE 196</title>
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			<pubdate>Tue, 30 Mar 2021 23:05:02 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update March 2021 ISSUE 196</subject>
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Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update March 2021 ISSUE 196 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 DEMONSTRABLE STUPIDITY  One group of event organisers in danger of becoming the most vilified are those who organise public demonstrations and protests, and have thoughtlessly continued to do so in 2020/2021, breaching lockdown rules and endangering public health. Presumably they consider their cause far more important than the deaths of some people they don't know?
 One especially worrying development is the presence in demonstrations of a thug element, prepared to escalate what is in normal times, a lawful and peaceful event into a lawless, violent one. The protests in Bristol over new powers proposed to be given to the police in respect of dealing with demonstrations is a recent example, where windows were smashed, police vehicles were set on fire and more than 40 police officers and a journalist assaulted, some left with broken bones. In this case the violence was performed by around 500 protesters out of a group of 3,000, a dangerous minority described by Andy Roebuck, chairman of the Avon and Somerset Police Federation as "a mob of animals".
 It is these mobs, and their violent actions that the organisers clearly can't, or maybe wont control, that the new powers are aimed at curtailing, for the safety of all. And the reason why we so badly need to give these extra powers to our police forces has ironically been demonstrated by the mobs, all too clearly.
  
 BIG DIVE IN PASSENGER NUMBERS, AND CO2  The UK's fifteen busiest airports have suffered a total reduction of 209 million passengers, equivalent to a percentage reduction overall of 75%, between 2019 and 2020, the effect of the pandemic. (Source: Civil Aviation Authority Mybaggage.com)
 Worst hit on passenger numbers was Heathrow, with a drop of more than 59 million (72.7%) followed by Gatwick (36+million, 78.2%) Manchester (22+million, 76.1%) Stansted (20+ million, 73.2%) and Luton (12+ million, 69.5%) The total drop for the five worst-hit was around 150 million or 72% of the total losses.
 The massive loss of passenger numbers will also be reflected in losses at airport shops, and shops, hotels and restaurants overseas. The same period also saw a 60% drop in CO2 emissions from aviation.
  
 FRAUD BUST  Some extravagant spending of ill-gotten gains in London's pricey boutiques identified two fraudsters who had swindled more than &pound;20 million from hundreds of customers of two major banks, in a "smishing" scam.
 This involves sending genuine-looking mobile phone text messages pretending to be from organisations such as banks and the NHS for the purpose of collecting the personal and financial information needed to steal from bank accounts.
 For their high-tech crimes Quin Huang, 27, was jailed for five and a half years and Clarke Morgan-Finlay, also 27, for two and a half years.
 In the last year an estimated &pound;1billion has been taken from Britons by fraudsters, while the Home Office has quietly shelved its Joint Fraud Taskforce, a committee responsible for co-ordinating British police and financial regulators in the fight against fraud&hellip;
  
 SCAM ALERTS  This may be an old scam but we've just received an email from "Email Service" telling us that our inbox is "overloaded" and advising us to click on the link supplied "to resolve the issue". We understand that those doing this are risking someone taking over their inbox, so we didn't. Has anyone else out there had this email?
 Meanwhile consumer rights group Which? has launched a free scam alert service, delivering details of new scams to subscriber's inboxes.
 w. which.co.uk/scamalerts
  
 MORE INTEREST FROM EVENT ORGANISERS, BUT NO SITE INSPECTIONS YET  Despite a 24% increase in enquiries from event oganisers, venues are still not allowed to offer them site inspections.
 Government guidance indicates that these may be possible from May 17, depending on the progress of infections. However, given that organisers are unwilling to book business at venues until a site inspection has taken place the Hotel Booking Agents Association (HBAA) claims that the restrictions are "blocking the return of a &pound;70 billion industry".
  
 MORE LOCKDOWN CONVICTIONS
 o Karen Reissmann, 61, an NHS mental health worker and union representative was fined &pound;10,000 for organising a protest in Manchester City for 40 people against the NHS workers 1% pay rise plan.
 o A man and a woman from Liverpool have each been fined for returning from Dubai and failing to quarantine.
 o Seventy guests attending two parties in Mayfair, London, have been fined &pound;800 each.
 o A man who supplied speakers for an illegal 3,000 strong rave in the Brecon Beacons last summer has been fined &pound;4,000
  
 AND OVERSEAS
 o A British citizen, Nigel Skea, has been jailed for two weeks and fined &pound;533 for contravening quarantine orders in Singapore.
 o More than 1,000 people have been arrested at Florida's Miami Beach resort, 70 with guns, for breaching Covid rules and rioting against the police.
  
 VENUE NEWS
 o The new 88-bedroom Telegraph Hotel, Corporation Street, Coventry opens on May 17, following a two-year, &pound;18 million investment programme. (TheBusinessDesk.com) The building was formerly the HQ of the Coventry Telegraph Bedrooms include two-level loft-style penthouse suites and the hotel's outdoor rooftop bar, Generators, will open on April 14 for cocktails and a tapas menu for a maximum group size of six drinkers.
 o A new 150-bed hotel is part of regeneration scheme, the Goods Yard, next to Stoke on Trent railway station (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 o A new 18-bedroom hotel, the Doghouse, is to be opened by the BrewDog group in Manchester this June. (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 o A new 195-bedroom Aloft hotel, the Aloift Birmingham Eastside, is opened by Marriott next month adjacent to new conference and events venue The Eastside Rooms, offering 23 event and meeting spaces. (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 o The Holiday Club, a chain of five hotels in the Canary Islands was facing laying off 100 staff due to hotels empty of tourists because of travel restrictions, but instead has housed, in co-operation with the Red Cross, up to 300 migrants from West Africa.
 o Two top-rated conference and wedding hotels run by the Sundial Group, Highgate House in Creaton. Northants and Woodside Conference Centre in Kenilworth have closed and called in administrators due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 o A new &pound;48million, 147 bedroom Hampton by Hilton hotel is planned for completion at Trafford Park, Manchester, by April 2023. (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 CATCH-UP TV
 o Two interesting and thought-provoking documentaries we've enjoyed from BBC Three on player were Odd One Out and Sara McDermott: Revenge Porn.
 The first features former Liitle Mix member Jesy Nelson, 29, who left the band last December citing serious concerns over her mental health. This was damaged by the online bullying and abuse over her weight and how she looked she had been singled out for by internet trolls, all bravely staying anonymous of course. The abuse, which started after the band won the X Factor competition in 2001 was bad and unrelenting enough to reportedly drive her to attempt to take her own life in 2003. Fortunately this failed, which would have upset her sick trolls.
 Overall a worrying look at the serious dangers for young women in taking some of the dross on social media too seriously. And good to note that Nelson is now well on the way to full recovery.
 The second was the story of another young woman who, arguably less than careful, sent images of herself, naked, twice, only to have them posted on the internet. Zara McDermott: Revenge Porn revealed that, when McDermott, 24, was just 14, bullied and at school, one of the boys there pestered her to send nude photos of herself. Hoping that it might make her more popular, and less bullied, she did, and the boy then circulated them around the whole school, resulting in her being blamed for her stupidity in complying, and being suspended. Seven years later, when she was 21 it happened again. This time the one sharing the images of her naked was an ex she had liked and trusted and he circulated them while she was appearing on TV reality show, Love Island.
 Perhaps this is a lesson for all in never sending anything to anyone that you would not want published to everyone?
 MOVIE SPOT
 NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950)  Fans of film noir, and one of its archetypal protagonists, Richard Widmark, will probably know that this celebrated noir about a loser and nasty racketeers was shot exclusively in London's sleazy backstreets, and is available to view, free, on YouTube.
 Here Widmark delivers a remarkable performance as small-time con-man and fantasist Harry Fabian, who is constantly looking for the Next Big Thing that will make him his fortune and a life of ease. One of these is a pill that costs nothing to make and, he believes, triples the mileage of a car when dropped into the petrol tank. Another is a partnership in a new dog-track in Birmingham. For all his schemes Harry needs investment money he doesn't have, so he tries to borrow it from his long-suffering girlfriend, Mary Bristol, well played by top beauty Gene Tierney, best remembered for the title role in the five-star rated Laura. (1944)
 Fabian's only regular work is hustling suckers to a seedy Soho clip joint on the promise of seeing a "hot" floor show, rather than be conned into buying very expensive bottles of champagne and cartons of cigarettes for "escorts", which is what actually happens. The clip joint, the Silver Fox Cafe, is owned by the rotund Phil Nosseross (Francis.L.Sullivan) and run by his wife Helen, played by Googie Withers, who would like to obtain a night-club license.
 While hustling suckers at a huge sports arena owned by Kristo, played by a master of sinister, Herbert Lom, Fabian learns that Kristo's father Gregorius (Stanislaus Zbyszko, a real-life former heavyweight wrestling champion) a talented exponent of traditional Greco-Roman wrestling, hates the fixed fights that his criminal son puts on for money Fabian sees his chance and cons Gregorius into believing that he, Fabian, will promote the "true" sport as long as Gregorius will lend his name to it, something to which Kristo very reluctantly agrees. To get the money together Fabian approaches Phil Nosseross who says his wife Helen will finance him if he can get her the night-club license she craves. Fabian supplies her with a forged one and she leaves her husband, who then colludes with Kristo and tells Fabian he will back him only if he can get Gregorius to fight the Strangler, (Mike Mazurki) a low-life wrestling thug despised by Gregorius. A fight goes ahead, but in true noir style, has tragic consequences&hellip;
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Tuesday  It was depressing to read that a number of states in the US have now lifted the restrictions put in place to protect their people from Covid-19. These states include Louisiana, Mississippi and Michigan, and now Texas, where 43,000 of the US total of more than 500,000, have died of the disease, the third highest death toll.
 Texas Governor Gregg Abbott tells the world "It's time to open up Texas" and points out the benefits he is bestowing on the business sector, which have gone down a storm with voters at Chambers of Commerce there.
 So, don't you feel lucky you don't live there?
  
 Wednesday  Equally depressing it was to read that 43% of people over 80 who had received their first vaccination had then breached lockdown rules by meeting people indoors who were not personal care support workers, members of their household or support bubble, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) And 48% of e over 80's who have had both vaccinations claimed the same.
 Thought older people were supposed to set a good example&hellip;
  
 Thursday  Meanwhile a greater sense of community in the UK has been revealed in a survey by the National Lottery Community Fund. Canvassing more than 7,000 adults this found that 77% claim their behaviour will change as a result of the pandemic, with 40% intending to focus more on simple pleasures, and 33% focussing more on relationships with friends and family.
 Respondents also flagged up the benefits of being part of a community, such as helping each other, a sense of connection with others and a reduction in the sense of isolation.
  
 Friday  Hooray for Trish Greenhalgh, professor in primary healthcare sciences at the University of Oxford, who has advised what a danger there is to pedestrians in being passed closely by "panting joggers" on pavements not wearing face masks.
 Apparently if they have the coronavirus, with or without symptoms, they can be infecting everyone unfortunate enough to be caught in their slipstream, including vulnerable elderly who may not hear them coming up behind, and anyway may be too infirm to quickly move out of danger. And given that joggers invariably jog on our pavements is it fair of them to expect others to get out of their way, perhaps taking a risky step into the road to do so?
FOODIE NEWS
 o Those organising catering for their delegates will be interested to hear that the once-hated Brussels sprout has been continuing to rise in popularity with diners and is now, according to recent surveys, one of the UK's most popular green vegetables, nudging broccoli for the top green spot.
 One survey last October by Waitrose, with 2,000 respondents, had 26% naming sprouts as their top greens, and 25% opting for broccoli. For organisers choosing menus the survey also found a useful gender bias, with men more likely to love the sprouts and women the broccoli. Another survey of 2,000 adults, conducted this year by nutritional supplement firm FutureYou Cambridge, found that the "most rated" greens were , in descending order, broccoli, peas, Brussels sprouts, asparagus and cabbage, and the "most hated" list was topped by Swiss chard, followed by watercress, pak choi, kale and lettuce.
 Apparently the country with the largest production of sprouts in Continental Europe is the Netherlands and it is here that the better-tasting sprouts that have resulted in the increase in popularity were developed in the 1990s by Dutch scientist Hans van Doorn. He identified the chemicals that made the sprouts grown then taste unpleasantly bitter so that Dutch seed companies could breed the low-bitterness varieties that we enjoy far more today.
  
 o Supermarkets and small independent food shops alike are beneficiaries of a lockdown surge in food buying for millions who now have to cook at home. The increase is estimated at a healthy &pound;15billion, or &pound;500 extra per household. Trading up in quality seems to be a major factor, though the worsening obesity crisis due to lockdown could indicate a trading up in quantity too.
  
 o One of the best parts about writing and editing this newsletter has been attendance at various food and drink exhibitions and sampling and bringing home items to taste and write about. All this stopped abruptly with the lockdowns, as did visits to review restaurants, so it was good to note that Speciality Food magazine now offers us journalists complimentary items from their advertisers sent directly to us, to sample and write about. As a result a confectionery firm in Devon called Bristows, which has been making sweet, creamy fudge since 1922 sent us three different samples to try. We took on four other tasters for this and the results, with scores out of 50 total follow below.
 Chocolate Brownie, 26. Two tasters, real dark chocolate fans, said they wanted more chocolate flavour. Another named this as her favourite.
 Clotted Cream, 29. The highest score and the favourite of three tasters. One liked the "pleasant and moreish powderyness".
 Salted Caramel, 21. The lowest score, the least favourite of all tasters, except the writer, who loves anything salted caramel flavour. "Too salty" for two tasters.
 Thanks to Bristows, and tasters, Aaran, Colin, Hazel, Pauline, Peter.
NEXT ISSUE
 The law clamps down on organisers of demonstrations and protests, making them fully accountable for the cost of policing, and of any damage or injury caused by their protesters&hellip; The Home Office explain that Britons being defrauded of billions is not really their problem&hellip; State Governors in the USA reveal how many votes are placed by the business sector, whether or not bribes have been offered to lift Covid restrictions, whether or not they have accepted them and how many extra people are estimated to die from the early lifting of restrictions&hellip; An over 80 comments "As a part of the vulnerable sector of society I am happy for younger people to take sensible precautions, so that I don't have to. Now if you'll excuse me I'm getting trolleyed and going out clubbing"... and much, much more&hellip;
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ARE YOU COMMUNICATING REGULARLY WITH YOUR TARGET MARKET?  SG7 Web Solutions email this Event Organisers Update newsletter every month to a list of  event organisers supplied by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). We receive the copy, check it, email it out to the list and send prompts advising recipients that their newsletter is residing in their inboxes. We also maintain the list, adding new subscribers and deleting unsubscribers.
 Could we do something like this for you?  We can handle any size of email list, and, as a small company based in Baldock, Herts, offer a friendly five-star mailing out service for two-star prices. Like a quote for your work? Contact Mark Ely by email at mark.ely@sg7.biz , or telephone on  07415865943, and start saving money on your customer communications. 
 Publisher's Note  The above is an example of our new Announcement advertisement. If you have a product, service, venue or event of interest to event organisers you can promote it as above for &pound;30 for up to 150 words. Contact Peter Cotterell on 01767 312986 or peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk for details and to book.
  
 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    ##SenderAddress##   Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - ##EmailAddress##   If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  ##Unsubscribe##
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			<title>Event Organisers Update February 2021 ISSUE 195</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update February 2021 ISSUE 195</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Sat, 27 Feb 2021 20:05:02 +0000</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update February 2021 ISSUE 195</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update February 2021 ISSUE 195 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 LIVELIHOODS AND LIVES  Understandably the new quarantine rules for arriving travellers to England from more than 30 "red list" areas which require them to pay &pound;1750 to stay in a quarantine hotel for 10 days on the pain of a fine of up to &pound;10,000 if they don't have drastically and immediately reduced the number arriving, presumably the whole idea. The quarantine rule also applies in Scotland, and applies to travellers from anywhere.
 For those lying about where they've come from, or presenting forged documentation the penalty is far more severe - a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
 There is polarisation of opinion on the draconian new measures with some accepting that all governments have to do what it takes to stop more people dying from deadly new strains of the virus, and others, making their money from travel, accusing the authorities of "taking a wrecking ball" to the travel industry, and destroying it by advising against booking holidays yet. According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) the country with the biggest fall in tourism due to the pandemic is Hong Kong (90.6% down) followed by Taiwan at 84.8%, Macao at 82.7%, Malaysia at 80.2%, Greece at 78.2% and Spain at 75.1%. In fact 31 countries have fared worse than the UK, which is showing a 50.6% drop.
 Currently the NHS is running a hard-hitting series of ads showing a Covid victim struggling to breathe with the caption "Look him in the eyes and tell him you really cant work from home". Perhaps an appropriate variation would be "Look him in the eyes and tell him your livelihood is as important as his life".
 Or is that a bit too close for comfort?
  
 NO VACCINE, NO ENTRY?  With consideration being given to vaccine 'passports' being used to gain access to pubs and restaurants, when they open again, it will be interesting to see if our event venues follow the same path, and insist that all delegates attending, and their venue staff, are up to maximum protection with their vaccinations, for the safety of all.
 Of course it's going to depend on the likelihood of the passports being forged and sold, and fines or prison sentences being harsh enough to deter the fraudsters who are happy to knowingly put people's lives at risk for a profit.
  
 SCAM WARNINGS  Fraudsters are trying to exploit the current NHS Covid vaccination programme by sending out text messages that claim to be from the NHS offering the vaccine. They then offer a link that connects to a fake NHS website that asks for personal and bank details.
 Recipients are advised NOT to click on the link, and that the NHS will never ask for personal or bank details to supply the free vaccine.
 These and other suspicious texts can be brought to the attention of service providers for appropriate action by forwarding them to 7726 (SPAM on the keyboard).
 There has also been a sharp increase in tax scams, with fraudsters sending pre-recorded phone messages claiming their victim's National Insurance number had been compromised, and claiming to be from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Included in the list of potential victims receiving the bogus messages was Jim Harra, chief executive of HMRC.
  
 TOO SOON?  Social distancing is neither practical nor profitable for festivals.
 This is the view of Eric van Eerdenberg, a Dutch promoter who is organising a number of music festivals next month on two sites with a capacity of 60,000 and 100,000.
  
 PRISON SENTENCES FOR FALSE HOLIDAY SICKNESS CLAIMS  Two men and two women from Middlesborough have been handed prison sentences for claiming that their 2016 holiday in Grand Canaria had been ruined by gastric illness.
 Their claims were undermined by pictures posted on social media showing them enjoying the waterslides, swimming pool and bar, and by one of the party completing a Jet2 survey saying he was "very satisfied" with the choice, cleanliness and quality of the meals offered by the hotel.
 Christopher Byng, 38, Barbara Byng, 64, and Anthony Byng, 66, received four-month sentences, with Linda Lane,36, having her sentence suspended. The four have also been ordered to make an interim payment of &pound;20,000 towards Jet2's legal costs.
  
 NEW SERVICE FOR ORGANISERS  The convention bureaus of eight UK cities are offering to host hybrid and Covid-secure events in multiple cities from one point of contact. The eight cities are Birmingham and West Midlands, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle Gateshead, Nottingham and Sheffield.
 The initiative is termed HESUK, standing for Hybrid Event Solutions UK, and can be accessed from the convention bureaus of any of the above English Core Cities.
  
 BREAKING THE RULES (UK)
 o TV personality Amanda Holden travelled from London to Cornwall to visit her parents after receiving a 'distressing' telephone call from them. Reportedly the police have been advised.
 o Two unnamed men in their 20s have been fined &pound;10,000 each for organising a mass snowball fight on Woodhouse Moor, Leeds
 o Police raiding a party of 20-30 guests in Islington reported that when they knocked at the door the music volume was turned down, the disco ball lights were switched off and the curtains were drawn.
 o Essex police have fined 18 'reckless' people &pound;800 each, nearly &pound;15,000, for attending a house party, claimed to be a music video shoot, in Sewardstonebury.
 o Around 200 people were discovered partying at the Richmond Hotel, Liverpool, and 13 fixed penalty notices were issued.
 o In Dudley Port, West Midlands, the owner of a workshop there was fined &pound;1,000 after police discovered it had been turned into a makeshift pub called the Covid Arms housing 13 drinkers.
 o On Buckingham Street, Birmingham, police discovered another makeshift bar with 150 people across two floors packed in. More than 50 are believed to have fled as police arrived, to be pelted with bottles. Around 70 drinkers were fined &pound;200 each and the DJ could be facing a &pound;10,000 fine.
  
 BREAKING THE RULES (INTERNATIONAL)
 o The UK Border Force reported that up to 1,000 travellers a day, of the 20.000+ arriving every day, were getting into the UK illegally using forged negative Covid test certificates to avoid quarantine, and start mixing sooner with UK residents.
 o In Austria 96 foreign skiers have been forced into quarantine by the police there after checks at 44 hotels at the Tyrolean Alpine resort of St Anton am Amberg. It was reported that some claimed their reason for being there was to look for work. Most will face fines of up to &pound;2,000. The skiers came from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Romania, Poland, Australia and Ireland.
 o A dental practice in Tenerife has reported that they have had more than five bookings a day from people in Ireland, who then failed to turn up, showing that they were simply looking to get around current travel restrictions.
 o More than 100 people in Thailand, including 89 foreigners, have been given suspended prison sentences for attending a party in a bar.
 o In Peru 487 officials took advantage of their positions to secretly receive the earliest injections of Covid 19 vaccine. Peru's interim president Francisco Sagasti commented that the officials "failed to do their duty as public servants".
 o In Denmark a man in his early twenties has been given a four month prison sentence for coughing and shouting "corona" at police officers who were carrying out routine traffic checks last March. The man later tested negative.
  
 VENUE NEWS
 o Plans have been submitted for the conversion of the 186-bedroom Royal Angus Hotel, Birmingham, into a 174-bedroom aparthotel.(TheBusinessDesk.com) The hotel is next to Snow Hill train station and the Colmore business district, and is owned by SevenCapital, who also own the four star Park Regis Hotel, Five Ways, Edgbaston.
 o Plans have been approved for the building of a new 188-bedroom Premier Inn hotel on the former Carpetright site at Layerthorpe, in York. (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 o Set to open in Spring 2022 in Liverpool is its tallest hotel, the &pound;38 million, 221-bedroom Novotel in Paddington Village, east of the city. (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 CATCH-UP TV
 THE SERPENT  For his ability to slither away when in danger of being caught this was one of the nicknames of conman and cold killer Charles Sobhraj, the final j is pronounced, who drugged, robbed and brutally murdered at least ten victims in 1975/6, crimes for which he has received prison sentences totalling nearly 40 years.
 The murders were of male and female Western tourists on the Asian "Hippie Trail"and carried out by Sobhraj when he was 30/31 with the help of a fellow murderer Ajay Chowdhury. Sobhraj is now 76, and still in prison in Katmandu, Nepal. He is said to be in poor health after a number of open-heart operations performed at the prison, and to be institutionalised by spending most of his adult life in jails, where he is known to all and a "celebrity", to the extent that he feels uncomfortable in the outside world. Chowdhury has never been caught and is said to have been murdered by Sobhraj in 1976. Another accomplice, completely besotted with Sobhraj and aware of his robberies, frauds and murders was a French-Canadian tourist looking for adventure, Marie-Andree Leclerc (30) who assisted him, shared his bed (with others) and who was found guilty of some of her contribution. She was paroled and went back to Canada, to die of ovarian cancer in 1984, when she was 38.
 The nemesis of Sobhraj was a painstaking young diplomat at the Dutch embassy in Bangkok, Herman Knippenberg and his wife Angela, whose moral outrage at the callous murders of a young Dutch couple - smoke in their lungs proved they were still alive when their bodies were set on fire - prompted an investigation of the deaths and the start of the building of a huge file of evidence against the killer, one which linked all the murders together.
 The story is told in The Serpent, an eight-part miniseries which premiered last month and is available on BBC i-Player. The acting of the villains and the heroes is seriously good with the unsmiling and deadly killer believably played by Tahar Rahim, an actor who said that Sobhraj was "what you don't want to be" and that he "saw him as an animal", perhaps the source of one reviewer's comment that Rahim "prowled amid these Western innocents with a look that lions give to grazing zebra" His besotted moll was also a strong turn by the rather lovely Jenna Coleman, getting a break from playing wholesome roles - and they don't come much more wholesome than Susan Brown from the TV Room at the Top - and perhaps relishing the change. Ajay Chowdhury was played by Amesh Edinweera as a chilling mix of sickly-sweet charm and real menace. Hero of the story, Herman Krippenberg was heroically played by Billy Howle, with his wife Angela played by the equally rather lovely Ellie Bamber.
 For some the continual switching back and forth across time frames will be confusing, though some may find it forces concentration, and the highlight for us was the last few minutes when pictures of the real people involved were flashed up, with descriptions of what they were doing now. It was encouraging to learn that Herman Krippenberg was keeping his files updated and open. The letdown, for us, of the real-life story was the fact that the corrupt Thai police interrogated Sobhraj and his gang but released them because the authorities there were scared that a murder trial could frighten off tourists and their lucrative spend in the country. Did more die because of this?
 MOVIE SPOT
 VIY  Fans of the atmospheric and Gothic Hammer horror films will enjoy the Russian fantasy/horror production of Viy (pronounced Vee) a film adaptation of a novella by the same name from the influential Ukrainian writer, Nikolai Gogol (1809 - 1852) who, after a glittering career tragically went mad and died at the young age of 42.
 The movie, filmed in 1967 but looking considerably older in a good way, features the demon Viy, a squat, ugly, shambling abomination. The story starts with a group of three students from a monastery in Kiev who break for their summer vacation, start to walk home and lose their way in the unfamiliar countryside where they chance upon a farm where an old woman begrudgingly agrees to shelter them for the night, as long as they are lodged separately. One of the students, Khoma, is later attacked by the woman, a witch, who rides him through the air like a horse. Back on the ground Khoma beats the witch, almost to death, to then see her transformed into what looks like a lovely, innocent and dying young girl, who is actually the daughter of a Cossack chief.
 The dying girl's last wish is that Khoma is brought from his monastery to her side as she dies, and that he spends three successive nights alone in the church with her corpse. The Cossack chief arranges this with Khoma's rector and the young student spends his first frightening night watching the corpse, really the witch, come to life and try to attack him, without success, due to the magic circle he has drawn around himself for protection. The second night is worse, with various demons summoned by the cackling young witch to help her kill Khoma, and on the third and final night a huge gathering of these and more demons is joined by the terrifying, summoned Viy, to finish the job&hellip;
 This historic horror movie is featured in the film compendium 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die and is described as a "colourful, entertaining and genuinely frightening film of demons and witchcraft that boasts some remarkable special-effects work" It is one of two being released in a two-disc Blu-ray limited edition of 3,000 copies by Eureka Entertainment on March 15 as part of The Masters of Cinema series. The other film is a more modern Serbian take on the same Gogol story, A Holy Place, made in 1990. In this the witch transforms into a mature and beautiful temptress who dominates the film with her looks and body language, and the sexual elements, some Sapphic, of the story, are much more prominent. In truth this reviewer enjoyed both, for different reasons. Also in the pack are three segments of Russian silent films totalling 44 minutes, an audio commentary, an archive documentary and video essay on writer Nikolai Gogol, new essays and a collector's booklet.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Tuesday  The Spanish bullet train service has now been launched with promotional fares for the 390 mile, three hour trip from Madrid to Barcelona offered at &pound;4.43. This is the equivalent of London to Glasgow, which takes five hours and cost &pound;44.55 for an advance single, or ten times as much for two hours more travelling.
 Of course our rail fares will be much more competitive when our HS2 high-speed rail links, "very much something people can afford" are completed, wont it?
  
 Wednesday  Old Grit was sorry to hear that a 24 year old police officer in South Wales, PC Tasia Stephens, faced a misconduct hearing and has now been sacked following her reported off duty attendance at a house party last April, after which she crashed her car into a shop and failed a breathalyser test.
 Not the best of days, then...
  
 Thursday  Women talk too much in meetings.
 So says Yoshiro Mori, 83, a former "gaffe-prone" prime minister of Japan and the chief of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Mr Hiro's sexist remark caused an outcry globally and he has now apologised and resigned over it, leaving the fate of the massive sports event due to start in five months in considerable doubt.
 According to researchers at Brigham Young University and Princeton in mixed meetings 75% of speaking time is taken up by men.
  
 Friday  We hear that Canadian American economist and intellectual John Kenneth Galbraith had a jaundiced view of meetings, claiming that they were "indispensable when you don't want to do anything".
 As if.
NEXT ISSUE
 Industries reveal what they would consider an acceptable level of lives lost to protect livelihoods&hellip; The Law Society explains what it is doing to bring to book solicitors who have knowingly made money from false holiday sickness claims&hellip; HS2 management publishes their highly competitive rail fares&hellip; and much, much, more&hellip;
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ARE YOU COMMUNICATING REGULARLY WITH YOUR TARGET MARKET?  SG7 Web Solutions email this Event Organisers Update newsletter every month to a list of  event organisers supplied by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). We receive the copy, check it, email it out to the list and send prompts advising recipients that their newsletter is residing in their inboxes. We also maintain the list, adding new subscribers and deleting unsubscribers.
 Could we do something like this for you?  We can handle any size of email list, and, as a small company based in Baldock, Herts, offer a friendly five-star mailing out service for two-star prices. Like a quote for your work? Contact Mark Ely by email at mark.ely@sg7.biz , or telephone on  07415865943, and start saving money on your customer communications. 
 Publisher's Note  The above is an example of our new Announcement advertisement. If you have a product, service, venue or event of interest to event organisers you can promote it as above for &pound;30 for up to 150 words. Contact Peter Cotterell on 01767 312986 or peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk for details and to book.
  
 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    ##SenderAddress##   Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - ##EmailAddress##   If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  ##Unsubscribe##
 Newsletter distributed by SG7.biz for Society of Event Organisers





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			<title>Event Organisers Update January 2021 ISSUE 194</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update January 2021 ISSUE 194</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Sun, 31 Jan 2021 10:05:01 +0000</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update January 2021 ISSUE 194</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update January 2021 ISSUE 194 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
 To ##Name##

 
 ##EmailAddress##   ##Unsubscribe##


 
 
Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 TRAVEL BEING KILLED OFF  Many travellers to the UK are to be forced to quarantine at selected hotels near airports for ten days - possibly at their own cost of &pound;1500 - &pound;2500 - and those wanting to leave the UK will have to give a good reason why they are, under new measures to cut spread of the virus.
 "To take a holiday" or "to visit relatives/friends" will not be accepted and those who cannot prove that their travel is vital will be ordered back home, or face a fine.
 At present the restrictions only apply to those travelling from areas known to have Covid variants, but there is pressure on our government to apply this to all incoming passengers.
  
 COVID CONVICTIONS
 o Two teenage boys were fined &pound;1,000 each after Manchester police broke up a party of around 100 people, and seized music equipment, at a flat in Shudehill, in the Northern Quarter.
 o A dozen people have been fined for playing dominoes in a Whitechapel, London restaurant, where they tried to hide from police officers in a darkened back room.
 o At a social club in Hackney, London, thirteen men were fined for playing cards.
 o A mother of two from Portsmouth, who styles herself a "registered journalist" has been fined &pound;200 for sharing photos of hospitals in the south of England on social media, claiming that they proved Covid 19 was "a hoax" and the government was "lying" about the coronavirus.
 o In the Midlands four men were arrested after they posted videos online they said showed quiet corridors at two hospitals. The men were banned from entering hospitals, except on medical grounds .
 o Greater Manchester police reveal that they have issued 2,600 fixed penalty notices since August for breach of covid regulations, including recent issues to partygoers in Hulme, Salford and Cheetham Hill. Fines of &pound;200 each were imposed on four friends from different households who started a 61 mile drive from Manchester to Uttoxeter, to buy burgers.
 o Buying burgers was also the reason a 34 year old man gave for his 100+ mile drive from Luton, Beds to Devizes in Wiltshire. He was issued with a &pound;200 fine and his car was seized for his having no insurance.
 o In Romford, Essex 49 people were fined for attending an illegal car meet up.
 o In Edinburgh two women attending an illegal Scotland Against Lockdown protest outside the Scottish Parliament building were taken into custody after they argued with police about their right to be there.
 o In Leighton Buzzard, Beds an organiser of a party for 50 was fined &pound;10,000.
 o Partygoers apprehended by the police in Basingstoke claimed they were not aware of the global pandemic because they "never watch the news".
 o In Hackney, London, police issued a &pound;10,000 fine to a place of worship following evidence of a large party being organised there. When the police returned later the same day they found further evidence of another large party.
  
 COVID OVERSEAS
 o Two young women in their 20's have been arrested in New Jersey, USA, for organising an illegal party in a warehouse for more than 200 guests.
 o British backpackers are in danger of being deported from Australia after police there broke up a beach party on Bronte Beach, Sydney on Christmas Day attended by "hundreds" of people. Witnesses claimed that many had English accents and were wearing English football shirts.
 o Pope Francis has hit out at holidaymakers who travelled abroad for Christmas, saying that they did not consider the effect of their actions on others and that they thought "only about going on holiday and having fun".
 o Former Love Island participant and Miss Great Britain, Zara Holland has been fined &pound;4,415 for breaching quarantine regulations in Barbados. Ms Holland had a covid test after her boyfriend had reportedly tested positive and was told to isolate at her hotel by the Royal Barbados Police. Instead she travelled to the local airport where she was apprehended. Under Barbados law she could have drawn a fine of up to &pound;18,000 and a jail term of up to one year.
 o French Border police stopped a group of holidaymakers from boarding a Eurostar train at St Pancras, London, to travel to Switzerland for a skiing holiday.
 o Delta Airlines has banned 800 people from flying for non-compliance with face mask rules. Others banned by the airline include supporters of Donald Trump who heckled Senator Mitt Romney on a Delta flight.
 o Fines of &pound;500 were handed out to at least 30 travellers arriving at Heathrow airport without any proof of a negative Covid 19 test, as now required for all UK arrivals.
 o More than 400 British skiers holidaying in Verbier, Switzerland, fled their hotels rather than comply with new quarantine measures requiring them to isolate for ten days.
 o In the Netherlands a Covid testing centre in the fishing village of Urm was set on fire by youths protesting a national curfew. Police deployed water cannon to disperse rioting youths in Amsterdam and Eindhoven protesting the lockdown. Police say they have fined more than 3,600 people for breaching the curfew. Netherland's PM Mark Rutte comments "This is nothing to do with protesting, this is criminal violence and that's how we will treat it".
  
 MORE ON COVID
 o Glastonbury 2021, due to run in June and fronted by Sir Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift, has been cancelled due to the pandemic, as was last years presentation The Chelsea Flower Show has been postponed from May this year to September.
 o A legal challenge to the prohibition of live music events in indoor licensed venues in Northern Ireland has been commenced by Sir Van Morrison.
 o "They have blood on their hands" says an intensive care doctor about people who don't wear face masks and who continue to mix with others unnecessarily.
 o Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick reveals that her officers have faced 48 spitting attacks. She urges the public to continue to report those who are known to them to be consistently breaching restrictions and regulations.
  
 COVID - IOTS?
 o UK PM Boris Johnson was spotted cycling in the Olympic Park in east London, staying local at only seven miles from his home in Downing Street.
 o Japan's PM Yoshihide Suga has apologised for members of his ruling coalition making a number of unnecessary visits to nightclubs, in breach of their own calls for the rest of the population not to.
 o Rebecca Hilsenrath, the chief executive of the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission, was asked to leave her second home in in Llanegryn, Wales, where she was holidaying on Christmas Day, in breach of lockdown rules. She was shopped by her neighbours.
 o SNP MP Margaret Ferrier has been arrested and charged in connection with alleged culpable and reckless conduct last September. Ferrier traveled from Glasgow to the House of Commons in London while she waited for the result of a Covid test - when she was advised she had the virus she travelled back to Glasgow.
 o The leader of Richmondshire District Council, North Yorks, Angie Dale has urged all her residents to stay local to save lives, urgings that she made whilst holidaying in the Maldives, only 5,000 miles from her home.
  
 ENJOY  If, like most of the population, you are bored with every day being much the same, it might be a good time to spend more of it doing Covid-safe things you really like.
 According to a recent survey by internet movie retailer and renter Weyu, 56% of 1,000 people surveyed said they were beating their lock-down blues by watching their favourite films and/or TV shows. Coming second was reading books, a choice of 36%. (Note. Respondents allowed more than one choice)
 Third was to clean or reorganise the house (29%), fourth was to do gardening (23%) and just behind at fifth was to phone a friend (22%). Sixth was physical exercise (18%), just behind at seventh was to do a puzzle or play a board game (17%) and eighth was to cook for the family (15%) Equal ninth at 12% each was two activities at opposite ends of the spectrum, redecorating, and taking a nap.
 Enjoy, and don't feel guilty.
  
 VENUE NEWS
 o The Queens Hotel, Leeds, is renovating all its bedrooms and adding 16 more to total 232 in a &pound;16 million refurbishment due for completion by this summer. (TheBusinessDesk.com) Also planned is a revamped food and beverage offer, with a central restaurant, outdoor terrace and wine bar.
 o The 206-bedroom city-centre Renaissance Manchester hotel on Deansgate, which included offices and a car park, closed in the summer of 2020 citing weakened demand caused by the coronavirus. However it will now be converted to a &pound;200 million mixed-use development including a new hotel, offices, a car park and residential units. (TheBusinesDesk.com)
 o The 98-bedroom Mercure Birmingham Barons Court Hotel, Lichfield Road, Walsall Wood is up for sale at &pound;2.85 million through Christie and Co. (TheBusinessDesk.com) The hotel has four conference areas for 150/70/70/28 theatre-style.
  
 GOOD TIMING?  A German MEP, Peter Liese, who sits on the European Parliament's public health committee has threatened Britain "You will suffer" if AstraZeneca fulfils its contractual obligations over the Covid vaccine at the expense of supplies to the EU. According to AstraZeneca Britain's order for its vaccine was received three months before that from the EU.
 Completely co-incidentally Herr Liese's bullying threat was issued on January 27, designated by the UN as International Holocaust Remembrance Day&hellip;
 MOVIE SPOT
 SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN  Those who love a good documentary will warm to the story of the search for American singer-songwriter and poet Rodriguez, said to have killed himself on stage in Detroit, Michigan, in the 1970s
 The tale was told in the Academy and BAFTA Award winning film Searching for Sugar Man, released in 2012 and documenting how Sixto Rodriguez, aka Rod Riguez, Jesus Rodriguez and Sixth Prince, was the sixth boy child born to immigrant Mexican parents in 1942 in Detroit. Rodriguez grew into a talented performer of psychedelic folk and rock music, often with a political theme, in his 20s when he was favourably compared to Bob Dylan. He recorded his first album, Cold Fact, in 1970 and his second, Coming From Reality in 1971. Neither did well in the USA and he was dropped by his record label, Sussex, which itself closed in 1975
 Since then strong claims were made that a depressed Rodriguez had shot himself on stage, in front of his audience. In South Africa a bootlegged copy of Cold Fact found its way into the country and into the consciousness of the anti-apartheid young, who loved his political lyrics set to excellent tunes, his anti-government attitudes and his support for the less well off in society. As his fame and fanbase grew through the 1980s there, so did the need of the fans to find out more about the talented singer whose music had died after only two albums a decade and more ago. And there was no information, except the reports of his shocking death
 Later in the 1990s two South African fans decided to travel to the US and discover what had happened to their hero. They were led to the Detroit area by a lyric in his song Inner City Blues that states "Met a girl in Dearborn" Dearborn is part of the Motown metropolitan area, famous for being the birthplace of Henry Ford and the site of his headquarters. Near here, at a house in the historic Victorian suburb of Woodbridge they finally learnt the cold fact about Rodriguez and the emotional moment was captured on film for Searching for Sugar Man, along with interviews with members of his family, players from the record industry, and some performance footage
 The film's soundtrack contains selections from his two 1970s albums, along with two or three tracks that were part of an unfinished third album. The film also includes details of how some of the singer's output was banned, an aspect that only increased his appeal to a young set. This was for his singing about his "Sugar Man"drug dealer and the drugs offered: "bumpers" (amphetamines), "coke" (cocaine) and "sweet Mary Jane" (marijuana). However the lyrics of Sugar Man, his signature track, make clear the self-respect that can be completely lost with the dependence on drugs, and those who can turn out to be false friends, so in no way does the song glamourise drugs or drug-taking, but points out the dangers.
  
 HELL AND HIGH WATER (1954)  This exciting Cold War thriller, starring a perfectly-cast Richard Widmark, starts with a bang as an atom bomb explodes somewhere between North Japan and the Arctic Circle in the remote North Pacific, sending up a boiling mushroom cloud.
 This is the style of director Samuel Fuller, who favoured hooking in his audiences early, and the explosion footage was supplied by the US government with the proviso that certain spectrum colours were removed to prevent possible identification of nuclear secrets. The blast in the film triggers the sending of a hastily overhauled Japanese submarine to investigate, this commanded by experienced captain Adam Jones (Widmark) and carrying two senior scientists, Professor Montel, played by Victor Francen towards the end of his 50+ French and Hollywood film run spanning 45 years, and his assistant, Professor Denise Gerard played by Polish-born actress Bella Darvi in her debut movie
 Captain Jones soon proves his mettle as they are stalked then attacked with torpedoes by a Communist Chinese submarine. Unable to fire torpedoes back due to the fact that there had been no time to test the torpedo tubes Jones nevertheless manages to disable the attacker with a cunning and unexpected move deep underwater and they carry on their journey. Meanwhile Jones and Professor Gerard are developing into each other's love interest as they move closer to solving the mystery of the big nuclear bang.
 The 44 year, 60+ film career of Richard Widmark is featured in clips from some of his best films in the excellent 45 minute documentary Richard Widmark: Strength of Characters included in the pack for Hell and High Water. This showcases his talent for playing villainous roles - and villains don't come much nastier than the appalling psycho, Tommy Udo, giggling as he kills in the 1947 film-noir Kiss of Death - as well as heroic ones, like Colonel Jim Bowie in The Alamo (1960) with John Wayne as Davy Crockett.
 The life and career of the strikingly good-looking Bella Darvi is less well documented but Hell and High Water may be the best of the 15 films she was featured in between 1954 and 1971. Born Polish in 1928 she was imprisoned by the pro-Nazi French Vichy government for being Polish in the 1940s, while her brother died in a concentration camp. Her first marriage lasted less than two years and her second less than a year, and she became the mistress of producer Darryl Zanuck, who left his wife Virginia for her but then left Darvi when he realised she was bisexual, something she never made a secret of. Darvi was a problem gambler in Mote Carlo and would lose or win up to &pound;30,000 a night. Clearly unhappy she attempted suicide with barbiturates in 1962 and 1968 and then killed herself with gas in 1971 when she was aged just 42.
 Hell and High Water had a limited release of 1,000 copies last month in Blu-ray format by Eureka Entertainment as part of their Masters of Cinema Series. As well as the Richard Widmark documentary mentioned above the pack includes two audio commentaries and a collector's booklet
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Friday  Home Secretary Priti Patel points out the danger of illegal house parties to public health, and praises "our wonderful police officers who attend these events to shut them down".
  
 Wednesday  Nine Metropolitan Police officers have been fined &pound;200 each for eating together in a cafe. They were all members of the South East Basic Command Unit and their superintendent commented "Police officers are tasked with enforcing the legislation... and the public rightly expect that they will set an example".
  
 Thursday  Another thirty-one Metropolitan Police officers are facing fines of &pound;200 each for having their hair cut by a barber who visited their police station at Bethnal Green, east London. Two officers who organised it are being investigated for misconduct.
FOODIE NEWS
 One of Spain's great ewe's milk cheeses is Manchego, which has to be made with raw or pasteurised milk from the Manchega breed of sheep on selected farms in some areas of the La Mancha region of.Central Spain. It's a firm textured cheese, with a very creamy and inoffensively mild taste in the young, white versions and a still creamy but fuller flavour in the cured, yellow versions, the semi-curado taking 1-3 months, the curado taking 3 - 6 months and the vintage stuff (viejo) maturing from 1-2 years.
 We recently tasted a curado from a Spanish foods importer (Tapas Lunch Company) along with four younger Manchegos from UK supermarkets and the results follow (Do try this at home but don't eat the rind from any Manchego - it's inedible, unlike that on a Stilton where for us the lovely nutty flavour is the best bit) Scores are out of 10.
 Tapas Lunch Company Manchego curado. Creamy and yellow with a vintage hit. Score 8 200g/ &pound;3.55 &pound;17.75 per kilo.
 Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Manchego Creamy and white Score 7 170g/&pound;3 &pound;17.64 per kilo.
 Aldi Manchego Creamy and white. Score 7 175g/&pound;1.99 &pound;11.37 per kilo.
 Asda Extra Special Mild Manchego Creamy and white. 150g/&pound;2 Score 7 &pound;13.33 per kilo.
 Morrison's Matured 9 months minimum. Creamy, light yellow, fuller flavour. Score 7.5 175g/&pound;3 &pound;17.14 per kilo.
 Conclusion. For a young cheese Aldi's is the best buy. Morrison's maturer Manchego is nearly as good as the curado from the Tapas Lunch Company and very slightly cheaper.
 NEXT ISSUE
 The latest Home Office message is very clear - "No quarantine, no travel"... Party organisers ask "Whee's the harm in bringing together dozens of responsible adults for eating, drinking, dancing, singing and shouiting?"... Boris Johnson, speaking from his bicycle in Walton-on-the-Naze, explains what staying local means to him... Japan's PM explains why nightclubs there are still open for government hospitality... Angie Dale, leader of Richmondshire District Council, North Yorks is told by her team to quarantine in the Maldives, permanently... MEP Peter Liese asks why a bullying German issuing threats has got anything to do with International Holocaust Memorial Day... and much, much more...
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ARE YOU COMMUNICATING REGULARLY WITH YOUR TARGET MARKET?  SG7 Web Solutions email this Event Organisers Update newsletter every month to a list of  event organisers supplied by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). We receive the copy, check it, email it out to the list and send prompts advising recipients that their newsletter is residing in their inboxes. We also maintain the list, adding new subscribers and deleting unsubscribers.
 Could we do something like this for you?  We can handle any size of email list, and, as a small company based in Baldock, Herts, offer a friendly five-star mailing out service for two-star prices. Like a quote for your work? Contact Mark Ely by email at mark.ely@sg7.biz , or telephone on  07415865943, and start saving money on your customer communications. 
 Publisher's Note  The above is an example of our new Announcement advertisement. If you have a product, service, venue or event of interest to event organisers you can promote it as above for &pound;30 for up to 150 words. Contact Peter Cotterell on 01767 312986 or peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk for details and to book.
  
 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    ##SenderAddress##   Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - ##EmailAddress##   If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  ##Unsubscribe##
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			<title>Event Organisers Update December 2020 ISSUE 193</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update December 2020 ISSUE 193</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Mon, 28 Dec 2020 19:45:02 +0000</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update December 2020 ISSUE 193</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update December 2020 ISSUE 193 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 PROMISING ?  Despite 2020 being, for many of us, the worst year ever there is a little hope on the horizon for the next one.
 We now have at least two effective vaccines against the killer virus and the massive vaccination programme to protect all has started. Let's just hope that most of us had the anti-social Christmas and New Year prescribed, and that many more lives are not lost due to irresponsible mixing.
 We have, fingers crossed, a deal with the EU which can leave both sides on friendly terms and able to move forward with barrier-free trade between us.
 It's a promising start.
  
 TRUST THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY NOW?  Trust in the travel industry to do the right thing in a crisis has plummeted as airlines and travel companies have illegally withheld billions of pounds of customer's money for trips cancelled since March because of the pandemic.
 According to Neena Bhati, head of campaigns at Which? there was still more than a &pound;billion owed to customers by online travel companies and airlines outstanding at the end of November, with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) apparently powerless to force payouts owed, or issue fines.
 Let's hope, when travel becomes possible and safe again, that travellers who have been mistreated will boycott those who have mistreated them.
  
 COVID CONVICTIONS
 o  A student at the University of Lincoln has been fined &pound;10,000 for organising a party for more than 70 guests at a house in Newland, Lincoln, in clear breach of the legislation which bans gatherings of more than 30.
  
 o  A barber in Oldham has been fined &pound;1,000 for using his house as a hairdressers during lockdown.
  
 o  A Scotsman from Ayrshire was jailed for 28 days for travelling to the Isle of Man on a jet-ski to visit his girlfriend. The island has closed its borders to stay Covid-free and the man, Dale McLaughlin, 28, entered illegally and then visited two nightclubs, risking lives locally. It is understood he was released after a week and is now back in Scotland.
  
 o  A sex party in Saint-Mard, south east Belgium was broken up by Belgian police and the 52 participants each fined &pound;228, the amount they had paid to participate. The Belgian legislation bans gatherings of more than four people in a closed space. The party venue was a house in front of a hospital where Covid patients were being treated.
 Two weeks previously police had broken up an orgy in Brussels involving 25 men, including an anti-LGBT Hungarian MEP, Jozsef Szajer, who was caught trying to get away by climbing naked down a drainpipe.
  
 MORE COVID
 o  Two UK female celebrities who should know better have organised illegal and irresponsible birthday parties for themselves. Kay Burley, a presenter on Sky News who previously, and correctly, tore into Michael Gove for his stupid defence of the stupid travellings of Dominic Cummings, stupidly organised a 60th party for herself, resulting in her being suspended from her TV role for six months. It is understood some of her colleagues at Sky overheard her arranging the Soho bash and arranged for press photographers to be there
 And singer Rita Ora organised a 30th party for herself and 30 friends, after which she admitted was "an inexcusable error of judgment" and offered to pay a &pound;10,000 fine.
  
 o  Actor Lawrence Fox reportedly tweeted that he had "Just had a large group over for lunch and we hugged and ate and talked and put the world to rights. If the NHS can't cope then the NHS isn't fit for purpose". There is a view that Fox, coming as he does from a well-known and distinguished family of actors, was simply getting into character for his next role, playing against type as a total prat.
  
 o  As many as 5,000 illegal parties could take place over the New Year's Eve weekend. This is the view of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) which warns that young people are "socially starved" and that public health and the possible deaths of vulnerable people will take second place to their want and desire to mix with others, says CEO Michael Kill.
 According to the i newspaper some promoters of illegal raves are adding &pound;10 to their entrance fees, to cover the cost of a possible fine.
  
 o  A survey of the events industry by Reed Exhibitions has highlighted some changes in customer attitudes to physical and digital events, brought about by the current pandemic.  For visitors and exhibitors there is an increasing acceptance of online over physical events, with 3.5 new digital services being tried by visitors by September 2020, and 3.6 by exhibitors. However visitors are more optimistic than exhibitors about whether they can carry out the majority of their event objectives online - 57% of visitors against 43% of exhibitors. Around two-thirds of exhibitors say that they will be back into in-person events as soon as the vaccines are developed.
  
 FOUR CHARGED FOR DAMAGE TO COLSTON STATUE  Four people have been charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) with criminal damage to the bronze statue of 17th century slave trader MP and Bristol benefactor Edward Colston, which was pulled down during a Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol on June 7th and rolled into Bristol Harbour.
 Rhian Graham, 29, Milo Ponsford, 25, Jake Skuse, 32, and Sage Willoughby, 21 are due to appear at Bristol Magistrates Court on January 25, 2021.
 Six other people involved in the vandalism have accepted conditional cautions, as an alternative to prosecutions. The damage has been assessed at &pound;3,750 and the statue will be given a new home in a city museum.
 MOVIE SPOT
 o  HOUSE OF BAMBOO 1955
 This stylish and colourful film noir crime thriller from Samuel Fuller is set in 1950's Tokyo and stars one of the screens most convincing actors of smooth but deadly villains, Robert Ryan, playing a ruthless gang leader Sandy Dawson.
 Ruthless Dawson rules that if one of his gang is shot and injured during a job he is shot dead on the spot by his colleagues, to stop him talking under interrogation or torture. Into this supportive group blunders the reportedly recently released convict Eddie Spanier, trying to start a protection racket all of his own. Dawson signs him up as a gang member and he soon impresses the crime boss enough to qualify as an ichiban, or number one man. "Eddie Spanier" is played by Robert Stack, who, four years later would impess TV audiences as Eliot Ness, the incorruptible federal agent in Prohibition era Chicago in The Untouchables. This ran for 90 episodes, three series and 70 hours from 1959 to 1963 and earned Stack the well-deserved 1960 Primetime Emmy award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Series.
 For The House of Bamboo Stack's character "Eddie Spanier" hides a secret from Dawson, one that he only shares with his love interest, the lovely and mysterious Mariko, played by the lovely actress, singer, TV presenter and latterly politician Yoshiko Yamaguchi, under her stage name for English speaking films of Shirley Yamaguchi. When Dawson learns the secret the stage is set for a brutal revenge and a thrilling shoot-out in a children's playground.
 House of Bamboo was released this month by Eureka Entertainment as part of its Masters of Cinema series, and limited to 1,000 copies. The pack includes two audio commentaries, a Fuller at Fox video essay on director Samuel Fuller's films for Twentieth Century Fox and a collectors booklet with an essay and the words of Samuel Fuller.
  
 o  THE LEOPARD 1963
 This masterpiece from Luchino Visconti, himself an aristocrat, detailing the slow fall of the ruling class Italian aristocracy in Sicily, and the rise of the bourgeoisie in 1860 had a seriously inauspicious start as 20th Century Fox butchered 40 minutes from its 205 minute running time for its American release, causing its director to distance himself from it and accuse Hollywood of treating the American public like children.
 Fortunately in 1980, but sadly four years after Visconti's death, most of the original film was restored under the supervision of the film's cinematographer, Guiseppe Rotunno, and his 185 minute production has enjoyed a reassessment and continually rising reputation, with director Martin Scorsese now considering it to be one of the greatest films ever made.
 For us everything seems to work. The casting of Burt Lancaster as the elegant, privileged and flawed Italian aristocrat Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, once ridiculed because of the actor's "cowboy" image, now shines as inspired, with his sensitive performance, hinted at by his role as a Nazi-serving judge with a conscience in the 1961 Judgment at Nuremberg, a complex perfection. Here is an intelligent man who knows the days of his ruling class are numbered, as he seeks to do the best by his family, encouraging his dashing and hot-headed nephew, Tancredi, played by Alain Delon, into a marriage with Angelica the exquisitely beautiful daughter of one of the nouveau riche. Angelica is played by the stunning 25 year old Claudia Cardinale. Her father, Don Calogero Sedara (Paolo Stoppa) is the corrupt merchant wanting to associate with the aristocracy, and willing to use the wealth that Tancredi craves to achieve it.
 Tancredi and his beautiful betrothed manage a significant faux pas between them when they join the rest of the family for a meal and Tancredi is telling of his experiences as a soldier, recounting the occasion when they enter a nunnery. According to Tancredi this is inhabited by elderly nuns who are disappointed that the soldiers have not come to rape them, and he tells them that he and his colleagues will be back when there are some young novice nuns they can defile. This amuses Angelica who says that she wishes she had been there, drawing the retort from Tancredi that if she had they wouldn't have needed the novices, and causing Angelica to burst into peals of sustained hysterical laughter. This shocking vulgarity goes down badly with everyone, especially Don Fabrizio's very strait laced and devoutly religious wife, the Princess Maria Stella of Salina, played by Rina Morelli.
 The story is played out against a backdrop of the Risorgimento Italian unification movement that welded all the different states in the Italian Peninsula into the Kingdom of Italy, a process that began in 1848 and was mostly completed by 1871, when Rome was declared its capital. This was not without much bloodshed and the film features the violent battles, the firing squads and the lynchings that took place.
 The last segment of The Leopard is a sumptuous ball held at the villa of a neighbouring Prince. This plays as a 45 minute set piece that Visconti stuffed with hundreds of extras, many actually Sicilian aristocracy, in an array of fabulous costumes. This serves as the last heroic gasp of the doomed order and features Angelica asking Don Fabrizio to dance a waltz with her. By now it is obvious that there is a strong physical attraction between the two that will always be unspoken, and, under the watchful eye of Tancredi the Prince grants her request, the two gliding effortlessly and elegantly around the magnificent ballroom. When the dance is over it is as if the Prince's life has also finished and he walks out of the villa and down a darkened street for the end of the film.
 They really don't make them like that any more...
  
 o  Talking of which, it was interesting to note that, of the 33 top-rated, five star movies showing  on TV over the Christmas fortnight nine of them were produced in the ten years from 1950 to 1959, and just thirteen - ie only four more - in the 50 years from 1960 to 2010. For the record the nine from the 50s were Scrooge - A Christmas Carol from 1951, Singing in the Rain from 1952, High Society and The Searchers from 1956, The Bridge on the River Kwai from 1957 and Some Like it Hot, North by Northwest, Rio Bravo and Ben Hur, all from 1959.
 Like we say, they really don't make them like that anymore.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Monday  Not before time, Old Grit would say, at the news that his computer searches could be enhanced by a welcome dwindling of those tacky pop-up ads that appear, sometimes as a result of agreeing to the use of advertising cookies in order to access many websites these days
 Two big fans of the consumer exploitation to generate advertising revenue, Amazon and Google have both been fined by the CNIL French data privacy watchdog for assuming computer users were happy with the cookies used on their sites without getting their prior consent - &pound;31.7 million for Amazon, &pound;90.5 million for Google. Both firms failed to provide clear information about the purposes of the cookies and how users might refuse them.
 The firms have three months to clean up their act, with additional fines of &pound;90,500 per day if it takes longer.
  
 Wednesday  Is Barclays the banking industry's finest, or just the most fined?
 We ask this noting that the bank holds the coveted record for the largest amount of fines levied on any UK bank, 11 separate fines totalling &pound;517 million since 2009. This figure includes the &pound;284 million imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2015 for Barclay's manipulation of currency exchange rates and its inappropriate sharing of information about its client's activities. This is the largest single fine ever imposed on a UK bank, another enviable Barclays record. Also included is &pound;72 million imposed by the FCA for Barclays failure to minimise risk that it might be used for financial crime.
 Now Barclays have been hit with another FCA fine of &pound;26 million, this time for mistreating 1.5 million customers who fell into arrears during the current pandemic, often due to illness, bereavement or unemployment. Many were put on unaffordable or unsustainable repayment plans, bullying them into prioritising their debt to Barclays over other more important commitments such as their mortgages, child support, council tax or utility bills, which made their bad situation worse.
FOODIE NEWS
 o  When you are tucking into a piece of solid, fruity Christmas cake, with wonderful marzipan icing of course, you are enjoying the Nation's ninth favourite cake.
 This is according to a recent survey by Foodhub, which invited 2,000 UK adults to name their favourite cakes and giving them more than one vote. Cheesecake topped the top ten, nominated by 42% of respondents, closely followed by chocolate cake at 41%. Victoria sponge got 32%, with Brownies on 31%, lemon cake on 30%, Carrot cake on 29%, Bakewell on 27%, apple cake/pie on 25%, Christmas cake on 24% and Black Forest Gateau on 22%.
  
 o  A group of celebrities are urging us to try a vegan diet for January 2021, which means giving up all meats, all fish, all dairy products and eggs.
 The group includes musician Sir Paul McCartney, comedian Ricky Gervais and actress Lily Cole who say in a letter, also signed by Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, that animal eating accelerates climate-change and could lead to more pandemics from the "breeding ground" factory farms as well as more deforestation as more forests are cleared for grazing and to grow crops to feed animals.
  
 o  Meanwhile laboratory-grown meat, grown from animal cells and now a reality, could be one answer to the above problem. The authorities in Singapore have given permission for lab-grown chicken to be sold in their country, the first-ever opportunity for consumers to try the "clean", that is slaughter-free meat, for themselves. And apparently this is just the beginning, with laboratories growing steaks, burgers and fish fillets from live animal muscle cells.
 Initially the price of the lab-grown meat will be much higher than that of slaughtered meat, but this is expected to reverse as more companies get into the market, and if the product is the genuinely tasty alternative its producers claim.
 NEXT ISSUE
 Travel industry bodies explain how they are lobbying to change the law so that withholding of customer payments in the event of cancellations will be legal in future&hellip; The swelling sex party sector in Belgium holds its own against increasingly stiff competition, according to MEPs... Sky News explains why Kay Burley cannot be wheeled out as a credible critic of illegality in future... Rumours fly of a typing error in the tweet from Lawrence Fox which claimed that he had "Just had a large group over for lunch" Allegedly this should have read "Just had a large groupie"... An online worldwide Cookie Preference Service for computer users to declare their "NO COOKIES EVER" preference attracts a billion registrations in the first 24 hours of its activation... Barclays admit that, on their track record, they are a really crap bank... and much, much, more...
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ARE YOU COMMUNICATING REGULARLY WITH YOUR TARGET MARKET?  SG7 Web Solutions email this Event Organisers Update newsletter every month to a list of  event organisers supplied by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). We receive the copy, check it, email it out to the list and send prompts advising recipients that their newsletter is residing in their inboxes. We also maintain the list, adding new subscribers and deleting unsubscribers.
 Could we do something like this for you?  We can handle any size of email list, and, as a small company based in Baldock, Herts, offer a friendly five-star mailing out service for two-star prices. Like a quote for your work? Contact Mark Ely by email at mark.ely@sg7.biz , or telephone on  07415865943, and start saving money on your customer communications. 
 Publisher's Note  The above is an example of our new Announcement advertisement. If you have a product, service, venue or event of interest to event organisers you can promote it as above for &pound;30 for up to 150 words. Contact Peter Cotterell on 01767 312986 or peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk for details and to book.
  
 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    ##SenderAddress##   Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - ##EmailAddress##   If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  ##Unsubscribe##
 Newsletter distributed by SG7.biz for Society of Event Organisers





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			<title>Event Organisers Update November 2020 ISSUE 192</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update November 2020 ISSUE 192</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Mon, 28 Dec 2020 19:05:01 +0000</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update November 2020 ISSUE 192</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update November 2020 ISSUE 192 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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 ##EmailAddress##   ##Unsubscribe##


 
 
Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 TOUGH CALL  Boris Johnson has said that business events will be allowed to run in most areas after December 2, the date when national lockdown finishes in the UK
 The exception will be in those places where the Covid risk is classified as "very high alert" and deemed as Tier Three. These areas include the North East, North west, excepting Liverpool, Yorkshire, East and West Midlands, Slough and Kent in the South East and Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset in the South West. The tiers are due to be reviewed on December 16, and every two weeks thereafter' which might leave some areas worse off and some better off.
 Limits on size of events are 4,000 outdoors and 1,000 indoors in Tier 1, and 2,000 outdoors and 1,000 indoors in Tier 2. No events are permitted in the Tier 3 areas above.
 All this of course makes it well-nigh impossible to plan an event, which might be due to run in a Tier 2 area, which then switches to Tier 3. So, paying delegates to conferences find their event cancelled and the organiser, understandably, expected to give all the monies back, something that no insurance companies will be willing to underwrite. Those organising exhibitions that have to be cancelled will, understandably, be expected to reimburse their exhibitors. And all this assumes that delegates and exhibition visitors will be happy to take the risk of attending.
 Rather like the millions of prudent people who will not be nixing socially with family over Christmas, just because our government says they can, it will be sensible for event organisers to hang in there and bide their time until mass testing and vaccines have the effect of getting us all back to some kind of normality, likely Spring/Summer 2021.
 It's a very tough call...
  
 MORE COVID ILLEGALITIES  o A man has been fined &pound;10,000 after police in Manchester were called to his two-bedroom flat and found up to 60 people attending a party there, none wearing face masks or social distancing.
 o More than 40 people have been fined after they tried to cross the Channel to take a holiday in France.
 o Two wedding organisers have each been fined &pound;10,000 after police attended at the Chaudhry's TKC restaurant in Southall, West London and found a reception for 100 guests taking place in a back room, behind a curtain.
 o In South Australia a state-wide lockdown was imposed because a man with Covid 19 told the authorities that he had caught it while buying a pizza. The authorities imposed the lockdown assuming that the virus caught during this very brief exposure was a particularly contagious strain. In fact, the man had lied and had been working at the pizza takeaway.
 o Take-away drinks from pubs could be banned in Ireland after videos appeared on social media of large crowds gathering for drinking in the streets of Dublin and Cork.
 o West Midlands police have issued a &pound;10,000 fine after discovering a lock-in at a Birmingham pub.
 o Students who party against the lockdown rules should be expelled, as a deterrent. This is the view of Nottinghamshire police chief Craig Guildford, following his officers breaking up at least ten parties in the county over one weekend, and issuing fines totalling more than &pound;26,000. One student party organiser was fined &pound;10,000 and the 38 guests &pound;200 each. 
  
 O ' BLARNEY AGAIN  Analysis of 12,000 complaints from consumers about airline refunds by consumer group Which? show that 40% of them were about how they had been treated by Ryanair.
 Complainants stated that they were still waiting for refunds requested for cancelled flights, due to coronavirus, from up to six months ago, despite recent claims made by Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary that all passengers who had requested a refund had received it. O'Blarney said that Ryanair passengers suffering cancelled flights were automatically issued with vouchers that could be used to claim refunds.
 In fact, many airlines, including British Airways and easyJet, are not, according to Which? following EU guidance on vouchers and not making it clear what happens to their customer's money if they are unable, because of coronavirus restrictions, to use the vouchers for flights before the vouchers expire. EU law, still applicable in the UK, requires that airlines refund customers on request within seven days of their flight from any EU airport being cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions. Vouchers should not be issued automatically, but only on a written and signed consent from the customer.
  
 REOPENED IN BIRMINGHAM  The Grand Hotel, Colmore Row, Birmingham has made a limited opening after being closed for 18 years (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 The 141-year old Grade ll listed building has had a &pound;45 million restoration and offers 185 rooms and suites, as well as a ballroom for up to 250 theatre style, sunken rooftop garden terrace, two new bars, a restaurant, a gym, five event spaces for up to 56 theatre style and three boardrooms for up to 7.
  
 NEW FOR LIVERPOOL  Due for completion by the end of 2022, Liverpool's Grade ll listed Municipal Building on Dale Street is being converted into a 180-bedroom boutique hotel at a cost of &pound;35 million. (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 Formerly the administrative offices of Liverpool City Council the building features grand pillars, decorative vaulted ceilings and marble fireplaces. As a hotel it will offer an all-day brasserie, tea room, cocktail bar and spa with pool, jacuzzi and treatments.
  
  THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR  Fans of the Wuxia genre of Oriental cinema will be interested to know that Eureka are offering this month a brand-new colour graded restoration of the classic 1993 film of the martial arts novel The Bride With White Hair, which now joins their Eureka Classics range.
 Like all Wuxia films ( the name means "martial heroes") this one features the adventures of martial artists in Ancient China, and here the plot concerns the rebellious but talented swordsman Zhuo Yihang, played by Leslie Cheung, who is part of the Wudang Sect, aka the Wu-Tang Clan.. When still a young boy Zhuo witnesses, and is nearly a victim of, a grisly massacre involving decapitations, impalements and people chopped in half.by mounted marauding swordsmen from a rival clan. This is led by an evil pair of brother/sister Siamese twins called Ji Wushuang and played by Francis Ng as the male twin and Elaine Lui as the female Zhuo&rsquo;s young life is saved by the intervention of a mysterious martial arts fighter, actually a beautiful female assassin for the Siamese twins called Lian Nichang, played by Brigitte Lin. An orphan, Lian was brought up by wolves before being adopted as "wolf girl" by the cojoined Ji Wuschuang, to do their killing.
 Lian quickly disappears after saving Zhuo's life but reappears when he is much older and fighting for his clan. When the two meet they fall in love, consummating the fact with much erotic writhing under a waterfall, for some a welcome change from all the bloody fighting with swords. As a result, Zhuo persuades Lian to leave her evil clan and join him, a decision that brings her a savage beating and torture with hot coals, ordered by the brutal twins.
 When Zhuo returns to his clan he finds many of his fellows have been murdered, by Ji Wuschuang as it turns out, but the remaining clan members blame Lian for the murders and attack her when she comes to meet Zhuo. This is an attack in which Zhuo feels forced to side with his clan against his lover, who tells him the truth about the murders. However, her lover's betrayal causes the devastated Lian to morph into the white-haired killer of the film's title and she murders more members of his clan before joining forces with him to murder Ji Wushuang, after which she vows never to forgive him and walks away. 
 The Bride With White Hair, which plays as an operatic fantasy was directed by award-winning Hong Kong director Ronny Yu, and released on Blu-ray by Eureka on November 9th. The pack includes audio commentaries, five brand new interviews totalling nearly four hours and a collector&rsquo;s booklet for the first 2,000 copies.
  
  WAXWORKS  This 1924 silent German expressionist three-part horror and comedy film anthology, directed by Paul Leni, concerns a young, un-named poet, played by German born actor and director William Dieterle, who is hired to write a story about each of three figures in a waxwork&rsquo;s museum. Each story puts the poet into the narrative, and the German actress Olga Belajeff into the three strong female parts and the parts of the three figures featured are played by three well-known German actors. 
 Firstly, Emil Jannings plays what is really a comedic role as a lovelorn and randy Baghdad Caliph, Harum-al-Rashid who hits on Assad the baker's pretty wife. (Olga Belajeff) The Caliph has already ordered the death of the pie- baker (William Dieterle) after smoke from his oven has billowed into the Caliph's palace and caused him to lose a game of chess. After some fun farcical moments there is finally a happy ending to this 40-minute segment.
 Very unlike it is the tragic 37 minute tale of the cruel and sadistic Russian, Ivan the Terrible, played by Conrad Veidt, who had his enemies poisoned and then inverted a giant hour-glass in front of them so that they could see their life ebbing away as the sand trickled into the bottom, their lives ending when the sand had stopped flowing Poetic justice is visited on Ivan when he himself is told he has been poisoned and has to helplessly watch the sand, and his life trickle away, like his victims had to. However, Ivan realises that if he inverts the hour glass back he can live a little longer as the sand runs out again, but is then driven mad by the thought that he will have to keep turning the hourglass downside-up till the end of his days.
 For the last story Werner Krauss plays the killer Spring-Heeled Jack (aka Jack the Ripper) for a very short six-minute sequence in which the un-named poet (Dieterle)) is menaced and stabbed, although this turns out to be a bad dream had by the poet, who had fallen asleep and stabbed himself with his pen.
 Originally Paul Leni had intended to feature a fourth character, to be played by Dieterle, the robber captain Renaldo Renaldini, who can still be seen in his tall black hat in the original artwork for the film and in the scenes in the waxworks. However, this was dropped to shorten the film, thought to be because of financial problems caused by the raging hyper-inflation in Germany at that time
 In real life Dieterle got out of Germany in 1930 sensing the coming catastrophe, emigrated to the US and carved out a successful career as a director in Hollywood, which included being awarded a Best Picture Oscar for The Life of Emile Zola (1937) Conrad Veidt, who had appeared as the murderous somnambulist in the classic 1920 horror film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari,  was fervent anti-Nazi and left for Britain with his new Jewish wife in 1933 
 Staying behind in Germany, and getting involved in the real-life horror of the Nazis was the unapologetic Werner Krauss, who had played the evil and mad doctor in The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. He happily took parts in the infamous, anti-Semitic Nazi hate film Jud Sus (1940) in which director Veit Harlan portrayed Jewish people as rats, to please the Nazis  Equally unapologetic was Emil Jannings, who had enjoyed great popularity in 20 years of acting, which had included him winning the first-ever Best Actor Oscar in 1929 for his performances in The Way Of All Flesh (1927, now lost) and The Last Command (1928)  He also deservedly gained  great acclaim for his impressive performance as the elderly and naive professor who tragically falls for sensual nightclub performer, Lola Lola (Marlene Deitrich) in The Blue Angel (1930) Despite this Jannings was happy to lower himself and act in Joseph Goebbel's propaganda films which attacked the British and promoted Nazism, aspects that understandably made him unemployable when the "1,000 year" Third Reich finished rather sooner. 
 Waxworks is a restored print made from some originals and with new English intertitles, and has been released on Blu-ray by Eureka Entertainment as part of their Masters of Cinema Series. Included in the pack is a choice of two new scores, an interview with Julia Wallmuller of Deutsche Kinemathek detailing the progress of the restoration, an audio commentary, an interview with Kim Newman on the legacy of Waxworks, an example of Paul Leni's Rebus-Film cinematic crossword puzzles - clues screened before the main feature and answers after it -  and a collector's booklet with new essays on the film, notes on the restoration process and rare photographs.
  
 CATCH UP TV  It isn't so often that something on the box really cuts deep but Honour, a drama-doc about an "honour" killing of a 20-year-old girl by members of her own family, now streaming on ITV Hub, did just that for us.
 This is not pretty - you have been warned. Banaz Mahmod was born in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1986 and came to South London, England with her family in 1996 when she was 10 years old. In 2003, at the age of 17, she was married to a 27-year-old man in an arrangement made by her parents. Reportedly the man was abusive, and told her family that he only beat her when she was disrespectful and only forced her to have sex when she said no, which satisfied her family. In less than a year Banaz was asking for a divorce and had fallen in love with a younger man, Rahmat Sulemami.
 Spotted kissing her lover outside a Tube station Banaz was reported to her father, Mahmod Mahmod who told her that her behaviour bought shame and dishonour to the family and confined her to the house, beat her and forbade her to see Rahmat. Escaping, she went to the police, the first of five occasions, to tell them that her life was in danger from her own family but no-one listened. One inspiring female police officer even considered charging her with criminal damage to a window she broke in the act of escaping. In 2005 Banaz left her husband.
 In January 2006 Banaz was tortured, anally raped and strangled to death, this reportedly on the orders of her father, Mahmod Mahmod, and her uncle Ari Mahmod.Two cousins, Mohammed Saleh Ali and Omar Hussein, and a third man, Mohammed Hana carried out the murder, with Hana pulling on the cord around her neck. After one and a half hours of rape and torture she took a long and agonising half an hour to die by strangulation. When dead her body was stuffed into a suitcase, this done by another cousin, Dana Amin, and driven up to be buried in a back garden in Alexandra Road, Handsworth, Birmingham.
 Finally the police made a right move and started investigating the disappearance of  Banaz, under the caring leadership of DCI Caroline Goode. Mohamad Hana had admitted being present in January when Banaz and Rahmat were threatened with death and had been remanded in custody awaiting trial. Whilst in prison Hana made a number of telephone calls that were covertly recorded, calls in which he described what he had done, boasted of his manliness and given away clues that led police to the back garden in Birmingham, and the body in the suitcase.
 For his part in the crime Mohamad Hana got a minimum jail sentence of 17 years. Banaz's father Mahmod Mahmod got a minimum of 20 years, and his brother Ari Mahmod, the family head, got 23 years. Banaz's cousins, Mohammed Saleh Ali and Omar Hussein had fled to Iraq, but eventually became the first ever to be extradited out of Iraq. Brought back to the UK they both received life sentences at their trial in 2008. Tragically Banaz's love, Rahmat, who was living unhappilly under police protection took his own life in 2016.
 It is estimated by the UN that 5,000 people, mostly young women, die in "honour" killings every year, with most happening in North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. In the UK the figure is thought to be one per month.
 In Honour the part of DCI Caroline Goode is played by the excellent Keeley Hawes, supported by a strong cast of the good and the bad. Watch it and weep.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Sunday   Fraudsters are quick to exploit any crisis and the current one has not been spared.
 Three men in their 30's and 40's have been arrested in London on suspicion of defrauding the government's recent generous Eat Out To Help Out scheme whereby meals out for all were subsidised by up to 50%, to encourage us to start eating out again and financially help the sector of the hospitality industry hard hit.
 And three more people have been arrested in Birmingham accused of fraudulently obtaining coronavirus bounce back loans totalling &pound;145,000.
 If such schemes don't happen again, because of the defrauding, there's some fraudsters who will be really popular.
  
 Tuesday  Spare a tear, caring readers, for our PM's most protected advisor, one Dominic Cummings.
 Our ducking and diving Dom, some may remember, has been cruelly mocked just because he flouted the rules on travelling during the first Covid lockdown and drove around the country with the perfectly reasonable explanation that he was testing his eyesight. Despite this being totally accepted after painstaking scrutiny by our top  investigative police officers, poor Dommy Baby has had to put up with a good deal of intolerable mocking, including a vicious suggestion from satirical emailed newsletter the daily mash that he was running a countrywide tour for "Lockdown 2" and would be making available branded merchandise, including an exclusive Lockdown 2 2020 T-shirt printed with his tour dates.
 Let sadness be unconfined, as since then our Dombo has left his high office, and left less deserving political celebs for us all to take the p*** out of.
  
 Wednesday  Meanwhile there seem to have been three cabinet members at Coventry City Council doing a Dom and flouting Covid rules, although they have all had the decency to accept their actions as lousy leadership during the pandemic and resign. (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 First out in September was John Mutton, who broke Covid quarantine rules, followed in the same month by Tariq Khan, who was filmed breaking social distancing rules at a large local gathering. Now Rois Ali has resigned after being photographed sitting with friends from different households at what he said was a business meeting in a local Indian restaurant.
 Wonder who's next?  
FOODIE NEWS
 Every year the foodies at Good Housekeeping magazine have the task of tasting hundreds of Christmas foods and scoring them out of 100, publishing the results in Mid-November. This year we were especially interested in their results for our own favourite food, smoked salmon, so we took five of their recommendations, added seven of our own and tasted and personally scored the twelve out of 100, as below, in descending order.
 Yorkshire smokehouse Bleikers were offering free delivery on orders of &pound;40 or more and a "buy six, pay for five" promotion. So, the prices were &pound;4.50 for one 100 gm. pack, plus a &pound;7.50 delivery charge = &pound;12.  Six packs charged as five totalled &pound;21.60, and with a &pound;7.50 delivery charge = &pound;29.10 = &pound;4.85 per pack. Twelve packs charged as ten with free delivery = &pound;43.20 = &pound;3.60 per pack = best price. All other prices in price per kilo.
 1 =  Bleikers Gravadlax. This was not included in the 25 smoked salmons tasted by Good Housekeeping but delivered a lovely balanced dill-enhanced flavour which scored it 80 points when we tasted it without the sweet honey and mustard sauce, and 90 points when the sauce was drizzled over. It is cured to a Scandinavian recipe with Scottish farmed salmon, dill, brown sugar black pepper and salt and tied with our next entry, also from Bleikers Lowest price &pound;36/kilo.
 1 =  Bleikers Yorkshire Peat Smoked.  We loved the very light and subtle notes of peat in this one, the natural oiliness of the Scottish farmed fish and the lack of salt. Good Housekeeping gave it 87, their highest score for traditional smoked, and we gave it 90. Lowest price &pound;36/kilo.
 3 =  Asda Extra Special Mild and Delicate.  Does what it says on the pack and delivers some excellent subtlety via smouldering oak and applewood chips. This was God Housekeeping's runner up with 84 points and we agreed with 85. Price &pound;33/kilo
 3 =  Asda Extra Special Rich and Intense. Not tasted by Good Housekeeping this was top Scottish farmed salmon cured in salt and brown sugar and smoked over a lovely mixture of peat, with oak a cheerywood chips. We enjoyed it as much as the last entry and gave it 85. Price &pound;33/kilo.
 5 =  Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Smoked Hebridean. Good Housekeeping gave this lovely creamy-tasting Scottish salmon, smoked over oak and whisky cask chippings, an 81 score and we gave it 80 A good smoke hit - close your eyes and you're in Scotland's beautiful Hebridean Islands. Price &pound;40/kilo
 5 = Bleikers Oak Smoked. Not tasted by Good Housekeeping this, for us, was equally good as the Sainsbury's Hebridean, with the same good oak smoke hit in the Scottish farmed salmon, hence our placing of it as 5th equal with an 80 score. Lowest price &pound;36/kilo.
 5 =  Bleikers Oak Roast Salmon Flakes. Not tasted by Good Housekeeping, and really in a category of their own, these oak-smoked and lightly roasted flakes of Norwegian farmed salmon are really for those who are not so keen on the traditional raw stuff and prefer their fish cooked. We enjoyed them nevertheless and gave them another 80 score. No discounts - &pound;3 for 110 gms = &pound;27.30/kilo.
 8  =  Asda Extra Special Muscovado Sugar and Sea Salt. This rich and interesting Scottish farmed salmon,enhanced with lemon zest, is smoked for 24 hours over hickory and mesquite chips and then given a generous sprinkle of cracked black pepper, the taste that for us lingered on. Good Housekeeping liked this slightly more than we did, giving it a 78 score to our 75 Price &pound;33/kilo.
 8 = Bleikers Gin, Juniper and Dill Marinated.  Not tasted by Good Housekeeping. Despite it being infused with Marston's award-winning Yorkshire gin, and crushed juniper berries, we struggled to get much gin or juniper flavour from this one, though the overall taste was pleasant enough to earn it a 75 score. Lowest price &pound;36/kilo.
 10 = Bleikers Scotch Whisky. Good Housekeeping liked this more than we did and gave it an impressive 82 score to our slightly less impressive 70. Perhaps the solid whisky and smoke in the Scottish farmed salmon tastes better for us coming out of a bottle of something special from Islay? Lowest price &pound;36/kilo.
 11 =  Regal Fish/John Ross Jnr Scottish Smoked Salmon. Not tasted by Good Housekeeping. We gave this a 65 score for the big salt aftertaste. We'll try their roasted flaked product next time. &pound;43.70/kilo.
 11 =  Aldi The Fishmonger Gravadlax. Not tasted by Good Housekeeping. We gave this a 65 score after we'd added the sweet sauce provided. The fish on its own, with what for us was a very high salt hit, scored 50. However it was a bargain at &pound;16.60/kilo.
BOOZY BREWS
 o We kick off our first Boozy Brews section with a tasting and evaluation of five beers from Sharps Brewery, Rock, Cornwall. Our tasters, with thanks, are Malcolm and Owen Cotterell and their comments follow. Scores are out of 10. Cheers....
  Sharps Coconut Stout 5.2%  Malcolm:  "Smooth, slightly sweet flavour. Would be nice with a meal, perhaps a spicy meal. Slight coffee flavour. Not particularly strong coconut. It's growing on me!" Score 7  Owen:   "Had to park my general dislike of stout. Easier drink than lots of stouts. Enjoyed the coffee-like notes. Couldn't drink more than a couple in one go.  Could be good with a warm winters meal in front of the fire...." Score 6
 Sharps Sea Fury 5.0%  Malcolm:  "Impressive. Reddish with subtle berries. I could definitely have a few of these in a nice warm pub on a cold winter evening. Would provide a good beer coat." Score 8  Owen: "A deep and layered ale. A lively brew that definitely benefited from being well-chilled. Would be great with a chessboard - and pretty much anything else!" Score 8
 Sharps Pilaster Offshore 4.8%  Malcolm:  "Not gassy (or is it flat?) Light. Refreshing. Would be brilliant to cool down with on a hot day. Not strong on taste but maybe that's the point of it" Score 5  Owen:  "Quite refreshing. Not at all gassy - in fact it felt like it was missing some! Evoked memories of drinking lager on a plane. Sorry!" Score 5
 Sharps Atlantic Pale Ale 4.5%  Malcolm:  "The Rolls Royce of pale ales. Perfectly fills that space between a lager and darker ales. Crisp, refreshing, sweet-tasting loveliness" Score 9  Owen:  "Already a big fan. Really beautiful light pale ale with some adorable citrus notes. Close your eyes while drinking and you are thousands of miles away on a tropical island without a care in the world. The biggest compliment I can give it is that it is the type of drink that gives late 20s/early 30s drinkers permission to finally move on from lager. It's a beautiful introduction to the world of ales...." Score 9
 Sharps Doom Bar Amber Ale 4.3%  Malcolm:  "As comforting as a Sunday roast with all the family round and with plenty of second helpings available" Score 8  Owen:  "OK, so park the fact that I'm already an addict....genuinely the best tasting amber ale on the market, in this author's humble opinion. It was the drink that introduced me, and many others, to Sharps brewery&rdquo; Score 10
  
 o Good to read that our English sparkling wine continues to give the prestigious French champagne houses a run for their money. According to the results of this year's International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) our Langham Wine Estates in Dorchester, Dorset picked up the gong for the world's best sparkling wine, its white-grape blanc de blanks being praised for its "creamy nose, freshness and elegant finish"
 Buy direct from the producer at &pound;31 per bottle, free delivery on three or more bottles.
 NEXT ISSUE
 As events resume in December so too do rises in infections and deaths in the New Year... Laws banning any drinking outside the home are introduced in Ireland, and quickly copied in England, Scotland and Wales... Flight bookings plummet even further as passengers realise they will never see their flight, or their money again... Fraudsters beg to go into a police protection scheme when they get out of prison... Boris asks the press "Dominic who?"... Ladbrokes open a book on who will be next to fall on their sword at Coventry City Council... and much, much more...
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			<title>Event Organisers Update October 2020 ISSUE 191</title>
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			<pubdate>Sat, 31 Oct 2020 19:30:02 +0000</pubdate>
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Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update October 2020 ISSUE 191 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 A GLORIOUS NOOSE  Some readers may have seen communications from restaurants advising them that the government is allowing gatherings of more than two household members in the higher tiers of restrictions provided that the purpose of the gathering "is reasonably necessary for work purposes." This has been described by food critic William Sitwell as "a glorious loophole."
 Sadly, despite encouragements to exploit the perceived loophole from London restaurants in the Corbin and King group, and Veeraswamy, organising a business lunch on this basis, and deeming it reasonably necessary for work purposes could well turn out to be a glorious noose for those who attend to stick their necks in. According to an article on the subject in the Financial Times the lawyers Lewis Silkin say that potential business lunch organisers need to ask themselves the logical question that should always be asked and that is "What business are you transacting over lunch that couldn't be done by other means?" After all, in the first few months of the pandemic all businesses had to get used to boring Zoom meetings rather than slap-up meals so what's changed?
 Apparently, our government has been careless in drawing up the letter of the law on this one, but the spirit and objective always remains and that is to cut the rate of infections, hospitalisations and deaths by minimising socialising. And those who don't can look forward to fines of &pound;100, doubling for each further offence to a maximum of &pound;6,400, which could make attending seven free illegal business lunches in a row, and getting caught each time, a very expensive proposition at a total of &pound;12,700, or nearly &pound;2,000 per lunch.
 Lastly, according to Lewis Silkin the term "reasonably necessary" is one that lawyers could argue about in court "at great length" And at great cost, of course.
  
 GREEDY CANCELLATION   A wedding venue and event organising company, Bijou Wedding Venues of Haddenham, Bucks, has been investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over its unfair cancellation fees on weddings cancelled by itself or its customers due to the pandemic.
 Bijou Wedding Venues own five country house style venues around the UK, including Botleys Mansion in Surrey, Cain Manor in Hants, Notley Abbey in Bucks and The Harper in Norfolk. One customer has reported that the company, whose chief executive is Sam Cutmore-Scott, had cancelled his May 2020 wedding at Cain Manor and insisted that he pay an 80% cancellation fee of &pound;13,600. Since he had already paid a deposit of &pound;13,000 Cutmore-Scott's firm has held onto that and insisted he pay another &pound;600. They also advised him to claim the money back from his insurance company, something that was not possible when the insurers, UK General Insurance, rejected their claim on the basis that the cancellation was due to "government regulation or act."
 The CMA investigation motivated Cutmore-Scott to cut his cancellation fee from a greedy and exploitative  80% to a rather fairer 30%, but consumer lawyer Dean Dunham opines that the CMA had ultimately "let consumers down" in allowing Cutmore-Scott to include such charges  as "cleaning the venue" which is part of the fixed costs of doing business, and goes against the CMA's own guidance. Weddings and private events, holiday accommodation and nurseries and childcare providers are three sectors where the CMA has seen increasing numbers of complaints in relation to cancellations and refunds.
 In our view those organising events of any kind should remember the name Cutmore-Scott and be careful.
  
 COVID ILLEGALITIES 
 o  Four students at Nottingham Trent University were fined &pound;10,000 each for involvement in a house party. They had told the police that everyone had left, but more than 30 people were found hiding in a kitchen, bedrooms and basement at the house in Lenton.
 The students reportedly accused the police of "spoiling our fun" and that they "should be having the time of our lives" at university.
 o Twelve members of a local football team in Northumbria, that the police have declined to name, have been fined &pound;200 each for drinking together at the Wetherspoons Wouldhave pub in South Shields.
 Pub staff were suspicious when the twelve men took off their jackets and were wearing the same football strip, and called the police.
 o  A bride is facing a &pound;10,000 fine after police found more than 200 people attending her wedding in an Old Kent Road, London venue, and no-one making any attempt to socially distance.
 o  Police in Greater Manchester have halted at least six illegal weddings in recent weeks.
 o  The management of the Greyhound pub in Erdington, Birmingham have been fined &pound;1,000 for allowing a wedding party of more than 60 people to continue after midnight.
 o  The male organiser of a christening party in Wolverhampton has been fined after police raided the event and found more than 40 guests enjoying food and drink, and live entertainment in a hired marquee. Reportedly the police were told by the organiser that he "didn't believe in" the virus.
  
 GLOSS OFF FOREIGN TRAVEL   A Yougov survey of Britons has found that only 11% of responders intend to travel internationally in the next six months, a 30% drop from the 17% recorded on July 3rd. .If international travellers had to self-isolate for two weeks when coming back to the UK nearly 60% wouldn't travel, with 74% cancelling their plans if they had to self-isolate for one week at their destination and 80% cancelling if the self-isolation period was two weeks.
 Domestic travel was more positive with 34% of respondents planning to go, although this was also down around a third from the figure recorded for July 3rd.
  
 BREDBURY HALL FOR SALE   One of North-West's most famous venues, the Bredbury Hall Hotel and Country Club, Stockport, Cheshire, is up for sale from its administrators. (TheBusinessDesk)
 The 148 room three-star hotel in the Goyt Valley has a 16th century barn that has been converted into a nightclub, but has been closed since March 2020. Of the 93 staff, 91 have now been made redundant.
  
 DEATH IN VENICE   Beauty abounds in this 1971 classic, directed beautifully by Luchino Visconte, featuring the beauty of Venice, the beautiful Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony, the lovely Grand Hotel des Bains on the Venice Lido and some of the beautiful people who stayed there during the very ugly sixth cholera pandemic which infected the city in 1911. These included a composer, Gustav von Aschenbach, modelled partly on Gustav Mahler and beautifully played by Dirk Bogarde in arguably the most heartbreaking performance of his career, and the beautiful, knowing and flirtatious 14-year-old Polish boy, Tadzio, who von Aschenbach sees and yearns after, played by the 16-year-old Bjorn Andresen.
 Once von Aschenbach has exchanged loaded glances with Tadzio, whose eyes are sometimes augmented with blue shadow, he is smitten and spends his time watching the boy cavort in the sand and sea from his chair at his beach hut, eventually stalking him around Venice when out with his family. Tadzio's attractive and stately mother is played by the 41 year old Italian actress, Silvana Mangano in a very different role to those she had in 1951 when she was 21, as the sexy dancer turned nun in Anna, or the heroine in Bitter Rice in 1949 for which some critics wrote that the stunning 19 year old "oozed sex from every pore"  In flashbacks to von Aschenbach's previous life we view his lovely young wife, played by Marisa Berensen, and Esmerelda, a very pretty prostitute he failed to cavort with at a brothel, played by the 19 year old French actress Carole Andre.
 Fortunately, Visconti spares us the graphic details of the deeply unpleasant effects of cholera. The disease is caused by poor sanitation, crowded living conditions and ingesting contaminated food and water, and produces extreme loss of body fluids and fatal dehydration in victims. However, von Aschenbach finds that staff at the hotel are playing the situation down, claiming that, despite public notices all over Venice warning about the disease, and the all-pervading smell of powerful disinfectant everywhere it's all malicious rumours spread by foreign newspapers to hurt the lucrative tourist industry in Venice. Finally, von Aschenbach does get an honest travel agent to level with him and he is strongly advised to leave the area and return home, which he decides to do.
 Sadly, it is not to be. As he relaxes in his chair on the beach the next morning, his last, he sees Tadzio being beaten up in the sand by an older boy, and as he rises to get up and help Tadzio his heart, never his strongest organ, gives up and he slumps dead as the Adagietto playing reaches its crescendo.
 Death in Venice is based on the novella of the same name by the highly-regarded and influential German novelist Thomas Mann (1875-1965) When Mann's diaries were opened after his death they recorded his struggles with his homosexuality, not least of which was his infatuation with an angelic 10 year old Polish boy who was staying with his parents at the Grand Hotel des Bains when Mann went there for a holiday in the summer of 1911. Mann always maintained his writings were not autobiographical...
 Dirk Bogarde reveals that some white cream they spread on his face for his death scene began to burn very painfully and was not, according to a reading of the pack, intended to make contact with skin. In 2003, when Bjorn Andresen was 48 he gave an interview to The Guardian in which he stated that he was unhappy with the image that playing Tadzio had given him, and with the subject of adult love for adolescents. The Grand Hotel des Bains, one of the world's great hotels closed in 2016 and is still boarded up, reportedly awaiting being turned into luxury apartments. 
 Following Death in Venice with some similarities was the well-regarded 1997 film Love and Death on Long Island, made 26 years after. This features the obsessive infatuation that a fogeyish British writer, played with dignity by John Hurt, develops for a good-looking American male star of puerile college movies - played with his tongue firmly in his cheek by Jason Priestley - one of which he sees by accident. After Hurt's character travels to Long Island to be with his love interest, it all, perhaps predictably, ends in tears.
  
 ISHIRO HONDA   Fans of Japanese science fiction from the 1950s and the work of the celebrated director, Ishiro Honda (1911-1993) will welcome the three films being released on Blu-ray by Eureka Entertainment in November and added to their Masters of Cinema series. In all three the colours are impressively vibrant and bright, the special effects impressive for the period, the acting serious and the scores rousing. And all are entertaining and fun.
 o  THE H-MAN (1958) is released as part of a Double Feature pack on November 16 and like Honda's most famous production, Godzilla (1954) reflects Japan's understandable fear of the hydrogen bomb, which creates the giant lizard in the first film and the deadly blue-green slime creatures, dubbed the H-man (for "hydrogen man") in the second. These kill by dissolving human flesh and bone on contact, just leaving their victim's clothes, and can creep under doors as glutinous puddles to attack and consume. The puddles can also re-form in the shape of humans for their attacks, and live in sewers, coming up for their meals. Fire is the only thing that can effectively kill them, so gasoline is pumped into the sewers and set alight for their immolation.
 This one plays like an entertainingly good film noir, and is an early example of the Japanese "tokunatsu" film, that is a heavy use of special effects. The pack contains both the original Japanese and the English versions, as well as two brand new audio commentaries.
 o The other feature in the pack is BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE (1959). a fast-paced &ldquo;tokunatsu" featuring techno-savvy, mind-controlling aliens from the planet Natal setting up a base on Earth's moon and using it to attack us with their flying saucers.
 Following a series of unexplained disasters on earth, which include a railway bridge levitating off a ravine and a train plunging into it, an ocean liner destroyed by a waterspout in the Panama Canal, severe flooding in Venice and a manned space station blown up, a conference at the Japanese Space Research Center called by world powers to discuss the happenings is attended by a Dr Ahmed, who is under the alien's control. After he fails in his mission to sabotage the heat-ray experiments he is vapourised by his caring controllers, but a tiny transmitter planted on him survives the process and its transmissions lead us to the alien's base on our moon. Cue a massive space battle between Natal's flying saucers and deadly ray guns and our rocket fighter planes and our atomic heat cannons, and lots of blown up scenery representing our cities...
 The pack includes two audio commentaries and a collector's booklet.
 o  MOTHRA (1961) is, like films starring Godzilla, an example of a Japanese kaiju movie, that is featuring a giant strange beast that wants to destroy mankind, usually as punishment for letting off the bombs that gave it life. However Mothra is different, being a giant female moth that only destroys by accident.
 Her story starts on the remote Infant Island in the South Seas where she exists as a giant egg, worshipped as a goddess by the natives and guarded by them, as well as tended by two beautiful 12-inch-high fairies, called Shobijin. When Japanese humans invade the island two nasty ones realise that the lovely little fairy beings will make them a lot of money if they take them back to Japan and exhibit them as an exciting curiosity. The audiences that pay to see are entranced by the Shobijin, and in particular by their sweet singing, that nobody realises is actually summoning Mothra to come and save them. Accordingly the egg hatches and Mothra's gigantic caterpillar larva swims across the sea, forms a cocoon and then hatches out into its giant moth stage, all the time impervious to the bullets, explosive rockets and deadly ray guns discharged towards her. The beating of Mothra's massive wings inadvertently causes widespread destruction below her, as she searches Tokyo for her beloved fairies, finally finding them in New York, where they are reunited at an airfield and fly back to their home on Infant Island.
 Mothra is released on November 16 by Eureka Entertainments as part of their Masters of Cinema series, and the pack includes both the Japanese and English versions of the film, audio commentaries, a reversible poster showing both the Japanese and US artwork, an interview with film critic and author Kim Newman and a 60-page perfect bound collector's booklet with an essay, an interview and an extract from a Honda biography.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Monday  Top hotelier Sir Rocco Forte has called for Health Secretary Matt Hancock to be sacked. According to Sir Rocco this is because Hancock has presided over "the current shambolic handling of the (Covid) crisis, with policies marked by indecision, U-turns and blindness to the devastating impact of (the government's) actions."
 Sir Rocco also claims that he will have to make 80 of his 450 UK staff redundant when the furlough scheme ends, and that the government's virus response is turning the UK into "a totalitarian state."
 Tuesday  Cheered to hear that more than 865,000 have signed a petition calling for an end to subsidised or free lunches for MPs.
 This follows Parliament's voting not to extend free school meals for under-privileged children, a decision that our government is under pressure to reverse.
FOODIE NEWS

 o  Those who have enjoyed trips to the Netherlands will have noticed the national passion for coffee - the Dutch are the world&rsquo;s biggest fans of the caffeine hit, to the tune of 8.3 kilograms per head.(source: Statista)
 In the UK, despite the marketing efforts of Costa and the like, and the mushrooming of coffee shops over the last decade we only drink 1.3 kilos per head, or less than one sixth of the Ditch consumption. However, coffee is still (just) the most popular UK drink with 64% saying they drink coffee regularly, against 63% nominating tea, 59% for soft drinks, 40% for bottled water, 34% each for beer and wine and 28% for spirits.
 Scandinavians are also serious coffee drinkers with the Finns second to the Dutch with their consumption of 7.8 kilos per head, the Swedes with 7.6 and the Norwegians with 6.6.
  
 o  Interesting to learn that airline Finnair, anxious to make up losses caused by empty seats and cancelled flights, is planning to offer its business class meals to all classes of shoppers in supermarkets across Finland. This follows a pilot scheme at one supermarket near Helsinki where 1600 dishes sold out in days.
 This echoes the efforts of some airline caterers in the UK to grow their meals business with deliveries of luxury dishes direct to people's homes (see Foodie News, Issue 186, May 2020, One Fine Dine review) It's a trend we can see continuing as the lack of business travellers sustains. It will be interesting to see if other airlines can exploit what some see as withdrawal symptoms through lack of plane food. Ryanair sandwich anyone?
 The Finnair range includes lots of dishes that go down well in Finland, including those featuring reindeer meat, which might not enjoy quite the same popularity if Finnair expand their scheme to UK supermarkets as the Christmas season approaches and consumers are offered the chance to tuck into prime cuts of Rudolph...

 NEXT ISSUE
 Restaurants enthusiastically encouraging organisers to run possibly illegal business lunches at their venues go strangely quiet when asked if they will be covering any fines imposed on the organiser and/or attendees... Dozens of organisers are fined for running risky business lunches that could have been replaced by a safe, but much less fun, virtual meeting... Heavy new fines are introduced for venues that host risky business events... Sam Cutmore-Scott reveals how much profit his firm, Bijou Wedding Venues have made from unfair cancellation charges... Another 50,000 vulnerable people die in the UK  as a result of  disobedience of restrictions... Matt Hancock calls for Sir Rocco Forte to be sacked... Money for school meals for under-privileged children is taken from MP's salaries... and much, much more&hellip;
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			<title>Event Organisers Update September 2020 ISSUE 190</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update September 2020 ISSUE 190</description>
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			<pubdate>Sat, 31 Oct 2020 19:26:02 +0000</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update September 2020 ISSUE 190</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update September 2020 ISSUE 190 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 COVID BITES HARDER  As well as live events having to be cancelled.in favour of virtual presentations the Covid tragedy is forcing some other changes.
 In Birmingham's Hockley district a bar, PBs on Key Hill has been closed for ignoring regulations on social distancing, the same breach that has closed a bar, Blossoms in North Street, Wolverhampton. (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 A man from Co Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, has been fined &pound;1,000 for failing to quarantine following a trip to Spain. He later tested positive for Covid-19 and had been out in Enniskillen. A 26-year-old American woman, who worked at the Edelwiess Lodge and Resort Hotel in Garmisch-Pertenkirchen, Bavaria is facing a 2,000 euro fine for going on a pub crawl whilst showing symptoms of Covid-19, and after she had been told to self-isolate when tested. Her test proved positive and it is estimated she infected more than 40 others in the town.
  A 19-year-old in Nottingham has been fined &pound;10,000 for holding a large house party. The police say the young man was given a number of opportunities to comply with the law but chose not to, and defended the fine as "sending a clear massage" Meanwhile thousands of people are still travelling across the country to attend illegal raves, despite the threat of &pound;10,000 fines handed out to organisers. Nearly 3,000 arrived in Banwen, South Wales for the purpose and another 500 travelled to Thetford Forest, Norfolk for the same reason.
 The EventCity venue in Trafford, Manchester is to close on March 31 next year and the plans for a new venue in the city have been scrapped. This followed the scrapping of the October 1 restart date for conferences and exhibitions.
  
 COMFORT ZONES  Only one in ten Britons currently say they would feel comfortable booking a holiday abroad within a month of departure, according to a survey by YouGov.
 With a 6 to 9-month lead time the figure rises to 26%, with a 9 to 12-month lead time to 41%, with a 1 to 2 years lead time to 57% and with 2 years or more to 63%.
 In terms of accommodation 50% would feel comfortable staying in privately rented units while 42% would feel comfortable in hotels. Comfort for places to visit while away is 51 % for a museum, 50% for the beach and High Street shops, 47% for restaurants, 28% for bars and 10% for nightclubs.
 In another YouGov survey respondents were asked which venues in the UK they would currently feel "very comfortable" or "fairly comfortable" visiting. Results showed 80% OK with parks and gardens, 65% with heritage attractions, 57% with museums, 54% with art galleries, 39% with cinemas, 37% with live outdoor music events, 36% with theatres and 34% with live indoor music events.
 In addition, 57% said the main thing any venue would need to do was to have well-managed and policed social distancing in place.
  
 CLEANING UP THE BBC?  Organisers hiring BBC presenters for their events may have to look for alternatives in future.
 The new broom at the BBC, director-general Tim Davie, has announced that is clamping down on presenters taking fees, often substantial, from private companies. He feels that they run a real risk of a conflict of interest, and compromising their own, and the BBC's impartialily He has promised more clarity over presenters declaring their earnings for non-BBC work, and who is paying them.
 BBC employees employed by private companies include BBC Breakfast's Naga Munchetty, rebuked by the BBC for appearing in a public relations video for Aston Martin, and North American editor Jon Sopel, who has been paid to speak at events staged by US bank J.P.Morgan. Fiona Bruce, the Question Time host had agreed to speak at a company conference but had to pull out when the company employing her was accused of inadvertently assisting the issue of passports to criminals.
 Davie has also promised a clampdown on BBC employees voicing their personal opinions in newspapers and on social media, with Newsnight presenter Emily Mathis, its policy editor Lewis Goodhall, and presenter Gary Lineker identified for such breaches.
  
 CURFEW REACTION  The reaction of the hospitality industry to the 10.00pm curfew now imposed has not been positive.
 According to the Hardens restaurant guide chefs and restaurant owners have described it as "an incredibly stupid idea" pointing out that sending everyone home at the same time, perhaps on public transport, is potentially dangerous, as is the possibility that diners will leave Covid-safe environments in restaurants and bars and socialise in each other's homes. Social distancing becomes more disregarded as people become more intoxicated. and later of an evening when it is cold and dark.
 The curfew makes it difficult to impossible for restaurants to table turn and have more than one sitting in an evening.
  
 HOTELS OFFER REMOTE WORKING  Do you work from home? Are you one of the 23%, estimated at more than 4 million, who feel they are less productive because of all the at-home distractions?
 If so, and you feel you could do a better job in the peace and quiet of a nearby hotel room there are many UK, and overseas hotels now offering the chance to rent a daytime room at "a discounted rate on the normal overnight rate."
 However it might be more economical, in some cases, to book at the normal overnight rate and pay the extra charges for an early check-n and a late check-out As a low-cost example the modern Ibis Hotel in the centre of Stevenage quoted us &pound;39 for a one-night midweek stay on September 30 with a &pound;10 fee to arrive at 10.00am instead of 2.00pm, subject to availability. We could also, subject to availability, check out later on the 1st October, 4.00pm instead of noon.
 So, our total time working in the peace of our hotel room would be from 10.00am on the check in day till 4.00pm on the checkout day, including a bed for the night, would be 30 hours, for a total of &pound;59, or a little less than &pound;2 per hour for what would amount to two days working. If we just took the standard timings, from 2.00pm on the check in day to 12.00 noon on the check-out day we would get 22 hours for &pound;39, still less than &pound;2 per hour. Meals would be the only extras and Wi-Fi and tea/coffee are free at the Ibis.
 Worth a thought for all that extra peace and productivity?
  
 ON-LINE INFLUENCE  Those companies and organisations that feel that their exposure to government ministers, and private conversations with them, will help get them decisions in their financial favour are asked to pay up to &pound;25,500, plus VAT, to take a virtual exhibition stand at this year's Conservative Party conference.
 This replaces the traditional fundraiser for the party, cancelled due to the current pandemic. Normally held as a traditional event in Birmingham and thought to be worth around &pound;20 million to the city the virtual event takes place from Sunday October 4 till Wednesday October 7.
  
 MEET ON THE NET  The Meetings Show, running from Monday October 19 to Wednesday October 21, will be fully virtual this year, due to the rise in coronavirus infections in the UK.
 When it was announced that conferences and exhibitions could start again on October 1, which has since been scrapped, the organisers had planned to run it as a hybrid, with some virtual and some live content.
  
 BUSTER KEATON: 3 FILMS (VOLUME 3)  Fans of the stone-faced Buster Keaton, multi-talented American actor, director, comedian, screenwriter and stunt performer, are in for a treat with this latest compilation of his silent comedy films from the 1920's, released by Eureka Entertainment last month.
 o  OUR HOSPITALITY made nearly a century ago in 1923, is the earliest of the five Keaton comedies featured in the directory of film reviews "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" Arguably one of Keaton's finest movies this is a fictional parody of the real life and bloody feud that, in the 1880s, killed more than a dozen members of the Hatfield family, mostly from West Virginia, and the McCoy family, mostly from over the border in Kentucky. For Keaton's film these are re-named the "Canfields" and the "McCays", whose main purpose in life is to end that of each other&rsquo;s.
 Keaton plays the lead role of 20-year-old Willie McCay, whose father was killed when Willie was just one year old by a Canfield who also died in the shoot-out. Willie has only just been told about the daft and deadly feud as he announces his intention to leave his New York home and travel down to his Southern birthplace to claim his former family home, his journey being by a train engine based on Stephenson's Rocket pulling stagecoach carriages along a rickety track. In the carriage with him is an attractive young lady called Virginia, played by actress Natalie Talmadge (Keaton's wife, who he married in 1921) and the two have fallen in love by the time the train, after a series of amusing mishaps, reaches its destination.
 Here Virginia is greeted by her father and two brothers, who just happen to be called Canfield, and Willie innocently and unknowingly asks one of the brothers where he can find the McCay estate.  This sparks a resolve by the Canfields, now they realise who he is, to kill him, which becomes more of a possibility after Willie meets Virginia again and she, innocently and unknowingly invites him to supper at the family home. The problem for the vengeful Canfields is that it is against their "Our Hospitality" code of ethics to kill a guest while in their home, so while Willie is inside, he is safe, but when he is outside it is a very different matter.
 The subsequent chase around the countryside gives Keaton the chance to showcase one of the many dangerous stunts in his films he performed himself, in this case swinging on a rope into a waterfall and grabbing Virginia before she can be carried over it, a sequence that many viewers will be winding back and repeating.
 o GO WEST (1925) With this one Keaton showcased pathos as Friendless, a touching Chaplin type figure who is introduced in the film with: "Some people travel through life making friends where ever they go, while others - just travel through life."
 Selling all his worldly goods to a greedy storekeeper for a hunk of bread and a large sausage Friendless follows the reported advice of New York Daily Tribune editor Horace Greeley to "Go West young man, go West and grow up with the country&rdquo; and stows away in one of the goods trucks in a train going to Arizona He offers himself as a cowboy to a rancher, who gives him a job trying to milk a cow that is not giving any, Brown Eyes, played by herself. Unsuccessful at this Friendless notice that Brown Eyes has a painful limp, owing to a sharp rock caught in one of her hooves. Friendless removes the rock and makes his first friend for life as the grateful animal follows him everywhere, even protecting him from an attack by a wild bull. In return Friendless gives her his blanket to keep her warm at night and scares away some wolves, by jumping away in fright through an open window.
 Things get really sad for our hero when he learns that his beloved is going off to be slaughtered, along with a thousand others, at the Union Stockyards in Los Angeles and he resolves to save her, first offering the rancher back the pay he has earned and told it is only half of what Brown Eyes is worth, as a carcass  Friendless then tries, without success, to win some money in a card game with two cheating cowboys, and finally ends up on the train taking the cattle, and his beloved, to be killed.
 In Los Angeles Friendless leads all the animals in a stampede through the streets of the city, and in its shops, amusingly terrorising the locals, until he delivers all the doomed beasts to the stockyard, excepting Brown Eyes of course.
 If a chubby faced lady in the department store scene looks familiar to film buffs it is because it is the famous director and star of silent comedies Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in a small bit part. Keaton and Arbuckle had been good friends since Arbuckle gave Keaton his film debut in The Butcher Boy in 1917, eight years before.  And Keaton spoke up for Arbuckle at the 1921/1922 trials of his friend for allegedly causing the death by violent sexual assault of a 26-year-old actress and model, Virginia Rappe at one of Arbuckle's San Francisco parties. Arbuckle was acquitted at the April 12, 1922 trial with the jury handing him an unprecedented written apology for the ordeal a corrupt legal system had put him through, but his career and personal life were badly damaged. Ten days after his acquittal his good friend Keaton signed an agreement to give him 35% of the profits from Buster Keaton Comedies Co. 
 o COLLEGE (1927) Though Keaton did dozens of stunts that expensive stars today would not be allowed to do, the one known time he hired a double to assist him was in this film.
 College features Keaton as Ronald, a very serious and gifted high school student who believes that indulging in sports and games during education is a waste of time. This puts him at odds with other students at his new college for whom athletic prowess is just as important as academic, if not more so, this also being a view held by his love interest from high school, Mary Haynes played by Anne Cornwall. Accordingly, Mary dumps Ronald and takes up with athletic college jock Jeff.
 Stung by this rejection Ronald resolves to win her back by becoming proficient in the sports and games at Clayton college. His efforts are doomed to failure as he displays his ineptitude for baseball, hurdling, hammer and javelin throwing and pole-vaulting, much to the cackling amusement of Jeff and his cronies. However, he does score some points with Mary, who admires him for trying. Finally, he is given a chance as coxswain of the college rowing team for a boat race, which his team wins, despite their boat sinking before they can climb ashore.
 At this time Ronald takes a part-time job as a waiter, another disaster for which he disguises himself by going blackface to keep it from Mary. In 1927 the blackface element was not thought offensive but is today, and there is an appropriate warning at the start of the film.
 Finally, Ronald's luck starts to turn as Jeff is expelled from Clayton and kidnaps Mary to leave with him and marry him. This gives Ronald the chance to race to her aid, sprinting and hurdling like a champion on the way to her dormitory where the evil Jeff is holding Mary locked in an upstairs room. Fortunately, there is a small window to the room which is open and viewers see Ronald grab a long washing pole from a line of washing and pole-vault through the open window, to then throw household objects at him to defeat Jeff, in the process demonstrating his mastery of javelin throwing and shot putting.
 In fact, the pole-vault was one of the few items in the range of athletics that Keaton had failed to master, and he used an Olympic pole-vault champion to do the deed for him. This was 21-year-old American Lee Barnes who had won gold at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris three years earlier when he was just 18 years old.
 BUSTER KEATON: THREE FILMS (VOLUME 3) has been released as a 3,000 copy Limited Edition Three Disc Box Set as part of Eureka's Masters of Cinema Series. The pack includes new audio commentaries, new video essays, a documentary, one of Keaton's last short films, the Railrodder from 1965 and a collector&rsquo;s booklet.
  
 FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO   Director Billy Wilder's second film is his well-regarded black and white espionage thriller of 1943 set in the Egypt of WW11 and based on the 1917 play Hotel Imperial.
 The 17 room Empress of Britain hotel in the North African desert is run by owner Farid (Akim Tamiroff) assisted by his feisty French maid Mouche (Anne Baxter) his cook having fled and his club-footed waiter Davos, secretly a German spy, having just been killed by German bombing, with his body still buried under rubble in the basement. Into the hotel stumbles Corporal Bramble (Franchot Tone) the only survivor from a British tank crew attacked by Rommel's Afrika Korps Suffering from heatstroke Bramble is treated by the kindly Farid and Mouche and hidden as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) with Lieutenant Schwegler (Peter van Eyck) and their men arrive to take over the hotel as their headquarters.
 Realising his predicament Bramble retrieves the special shoes worn by Davos from his body in the cellar and poses as the waiter/German spy, who the Germans are unaware has been killed. Rommel, who Bramble plans to shoot at breakfast the next day tells him he is to be transferred to Cairo the next evening. Meanwhile a group of captured British soldiers are brought in for a lunch with Rommel and one realises that Bramble is not Davos. The two men agree however that Bramble will not kill Rommel but will gather military intelligence instead. At the luncheon Rommel cannot resist showing off how clever he is to have established a string of five secret supply dumps across Egypt to aid in its conquest. In fact, unbeknown to the British Rommel spent time before the war disguised as an archaeologist and excavating five tombs - the five graves to Cairo - to then fill with supplies. Bramble listens to Rommel's cryptic bragging and correctly works out where the five locations are.
 Mouche has her own reasons for wanting to keep Rommel alive as she has a young wounded brother held in a concentration camp that she is hoping Rommel can free. When it is obvious this is not going to happen Lieutenant Schwegler convinces her he can help and then shows her telegrams to and from Germany that he has faked, to earn her gratitude and win some physical reward. Meanwhile Schwegler finds the body of Davos in the cellar and, after a fight, is killed by Bramble, a murder for which Mouche gets the blame, leading to the sad conclusion.
 We personally enjoyed all the excellent performances by the cast, and particularly that of Peter van Eyck in his early debut as a nasty Nazi, as well as Erich von Stroheim's turn as the arrogant Rommel, Anne Baxter's beguiling French maid and Franchot Tone's urbane hero.
 Five Graves to Cairo was released on Blu-ray last month by Eureka Entertainment as part of its Masters of Cinema Series. The pack contains an audio commentary, an interview with Billy Wilder on this and some of his other early films, the "Five Graves to Cairo" episode of Lux Radio Theatre starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter and a collector&rsquo;s booklet.
  
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Saturday  We enjoyed a recent article first published in the Financial Times, and then in the i paper headed "Is this the end of corporate entertainment as we know it?" by Katie Martin.
 In this Martin, a journalist in the financial sector, tells of financial schmoozing thus. "The deal is this: The hosts dish out tasty snacks and booze, you chat to bankers and investors, and the PR people nervously hang over your shoulder in case anyone says something interesting, always ready to swoop in with a reminder that the evening's proceedings are strictly off the record. Executives pretend never to have met you before when in fact they have been feeding you tips for years. The flacks stay sober all night and can hear a banker telling you something juicy from 50 paces" She goes on to say however that there are some useful benefits from the events, not least of which are that the chit-chat often leads to stories or ideas,  that you get to gossip, at someone else's expense, with other journos and former colleagues and that posh canapes are "God's own food", although "they never fill you up".
 Of course, the high risks of networking with other people in Covid times has killed off such PR events, along with conferences and exhibitions. Like many journos though we are now looking forward to these things happening again, whenever it is so we can have drinks, canapes and the event industry grapevine to enjoy.
 See you there?
  
 Sunday  Restaurateurs, presumably looking for a way to turn a profit in these challenging times, are going down the gimmick road, it seems.
 In Brussels diners are suspended at a table for four, socially distanced, 50 metres above the pavement opposite the city's Metropole Hotel. There are eight tables available on the nine-ton metal structure suspended from a crane at the new Dinner in the Sky 2.0 New Generation restaurant. Dinner in the Sky is a Belgian concept from 2006 and the company has restaurants on 60 countries, including one in London, near the Eye. Lunch prices range from &pound;138 per person, with dinners from &pound;169.
 Silly question perhaps but what if you, or any of your guests need the loo whilst suspended?
 And those who like avocado are well looked after at The Avocado Show, a restaurant that has avocado in almost every dish. Three have been open in Amsterdam for the last three years and is now tipped to open soon in London, Paris and Madrid. Apparently, we currently scoff around 100 million kilos of the fruit.
 Sadly, not everyone is a fan of dedication to one ingredient when they go out to eat, with some who have been to one of the Amsterdam eateries describing it as "A marketing stunt" and "A restaurant built for Instagram."
  
 Monday  Sad to see another group hell-bent on dangerously protesting during the pandemic, following Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter is calling itself We Do Not Consent.
This one is unhappy about following government rules, many made law, to slow the current exponential spread of Covid-19. Thousands of demonstrators have packed into Trafalgar Square for the last two weekends and more than 20 police officers have been injured in angry clashes. The police have had to disperse the demonstrators owing to their refusal to socially distance and the organisers took no action to ask participants to comply with the rules
FOODIE NEWS

 o Those looking to buy good quality beef steaks from an internet supplier can check out two that we have bought from and will be going back to.
 One is the Warrendale Wagyu company in Yorkshire where we took advantage of a special offer of a box of 10 x 227g rump steaks for &pound;50, delivery included. These we gave a score of 7 out of 10 for tenderness and flavour in our home tasting trial, which was the same score as we gave to the special Aberdeen Angus ribeyes from Aldi (see Foodie News, July) The only sample that did better was the wagyu ribeye at more than twice the price which we scored at 8. Currently a box of 10 x 227g wagyu rumps is &pound;70 delivered.
 The other is Donald Russell from Scotland where we bought two boxes containing their Signature Steak Selection. Each box was &pound;35 delivered and contained 2x centre cut 160g fillet steaks, 2x 230g sirloins and 2x 230g ribeyes. On a subsequent tasting we scored the fillets at 7 and the sirloins and ribeyes at 6, as for our money they were very good but not quite as flavoursome as the wagyu meat which has a lot of fat marbling.
  
 o Given the above we were intrigued to note that a company in Israel, Redefine Meats, is marketing fake steak made from plant-based proteins and cut on a 3D printer.
 Apparently, the ingredients include protein from soya beans and peas, with coconut fat and sunflower oil and are all plant based and vegan. It seems there&rsquo;s a race on to bring fake steaks, which will cost around the same as the real thing.
 If anyone, gets a chance to try the fake stuff for taste against a juicy piece of dead animal we would love to hear from them, and try it for ourselves, for publication.

 NEXT ISSUE
 Gary Lineker leaves the BBC, telling the press "I should have stuck to something I'm good at, like selling crisps"... The Conservative party reveals the lucrative financial gains that have been made by companies taking a virtual exhibition stand at the party conference... A new vegan restaurant opens in London serving dishes based on pea protein. The owner comments "I'm proud to say that every dish enjoyed by our valued customers has got pea in it"... Demonstrators for We Do Not Consent say that they defend their right to catch Covid-19 and die from it, as well as infect and kill others&hellip; Following a number of Covid deaths tracked and traced back to We Do Not Consent demonstrations the organisers are made responsible for medical and funeral bills, and put on trial for manslaughter... and much, much more...
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    Society of Event Organisers  29a Market Square, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 8AQ  Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - %%emailaddress%%  If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  %%unsubscribelink%%    %%emailaddress%% Subscription Options  Click here to update your details    Subscribe   eou.org.uk
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			<title>Event Organisers Update August 2020 ISSUE 189</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update August 2020 ISSUE 189</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Sat, 29 Aug 2020 15:32:01 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update August 2020 ISSUE 189</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update August 2020 ISSUE 189 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 TOUCHY SUBJECT  A few years back, when the writer was organising and presenting seminars for event organisers the important subject of making delegates feel welcome was a regular feature.
 Our organisers were told of the research into the psychology of touch between human beings and of the benefits of contriving to touch arriving delegates, in an appropriate way of course. This could take the form of a light touch when putting on a delegate's badge, or pointing the way, but one favoured form for us was a friendly meet and greet handshake as delegates arrived. The writer, who was delivering the seminar would often stand at the entrance to the meeting room and shake hands with each delegate entering, saying an informal "Thanks for coming".
 Of course there would be those few who did not want to shake hands, such as some with severe arthritis in the fingers and some oriental delegates who considered it unhygienic, but generally it worked for most.
 Definitely not now, of course, in these difficult times where physical contact is avoided to fight the virus we touch covered elbows.  Perhaps we also need to adopt the safe oriental way of a slight bow to each other as the meet and greet.
 Times have changed, perhaps for ever.
  
 IRRESPONSIBLE  Organisers of illegal raves, parties and other illegal gatherings now face fines of up to &pound;10,000 in the latest government clampdown on illegal events that potentially threaten public health. Those attending the events face fines of &pound;100, doubling up with each subsequent offence to a maximum of &pound;3,200 for six offences.
 The new punishments came into effect on Friday August 28, in time for the Bank Holiday weekend. The Metropolitan police have responded to more than 1,000 illegal events since the end of June, and police forces in Birmingham, Huddersfield and Blackburn have broken up many illegal gatherings, the West Midlands police closing down 125 raves and parties in one weekend.
 The view from the authorities is that it is deeply unfair that while the majority of the population sacrifice their freedom to safeguard the health and perhaps save the lives of others, a small minority who think they are above the law continue to put others at risk. And that those organising the events should be held accountable.
  
 CRIMES AT THE CONNAUGHT?  A cleaner at the five-star Connaught Hotel, Mayfair, has denied charges of stealing items from hotel guests in the three months between December 2018 and March 2019.
 Graziela Camaco, 29, of Ilford, east London was charged with five counts of stealing diamond jewellery and &pound;15,000 in cash at Southwark Crown Court on Monday August 17, and was also charged with being in possession of criminal property in relation to "Jewellery, money and designer bags" found at her address in April 2019. She was bailed and told to come back to court for a case management hearing on 18 November 2020.
  
 PANDEMIC CASUALTY  A Birmingham event organising and production company that ran events for Royal Mail, Ricoh, Specsavers, Aston Villa and Mondelez (Cadbury) has been forced to close by the pandemic. (TheBusinessDesk.com)
 MCL Create turned over &pound;10 million and the closure has caused the permanent loss of 71 jobs.
 The current restrictions on large scale live events, that have to be planned many months in advance, are hurting a sector which is said to employ 1 million people.
  
 MORE PANDEMIC PAIN  Hotel group Intercontinental, owners of Holiday Inn are axing 650 jobs, or about 10% of its corporate level workforce following pre-tax losses of &pound;210 million for the first half of this year.
 The group blame the impact of Covid-19, which has left its hotels worldwide with an occupancy of 25% from April to June this year. In this period in the UK revenue per room dropped by 90% as hotels were forced to close.
 The company opened 90 new hotels in the first six months of this year. They have signed agreements for 180 more, including 100 Holiday Inns.
  
 YORKSHIRE HOTELS FOR SALE  Three Best Western hotels in Yorkshire are up for sale following administration. (TheBusinessDesk.com) 

 o  The 30 bedroom New Hobbit Hotel, Sowerby Bridge, Nr Halifax has restaurants totalling 60 covers, a function room for 120 and is less than a mile from the railway station.
 o  The 44 bedroom, three-star Allerton Court Hotel, Northallerton, offers two restaurants and a bar area totalling 120 covers, a function room for 240 and is 1 mile from the railway station.
 o  The 24 bedroom Hallgarth The Manor Hotel, is located 4.5 miles from Durham centre and offers 4 acres of private grounds and capacity of up to 240 for weddings.

 Contact Lambert Smith Hampton 0113 245 9393 by noon 4 September 2020.
  
 THE PAINTED BIRD  This black and white film, released digitally and in selected cinemas next month by Eureka Entertainment, starts with a mindless and sickening act of cruelty on a defenceless animal. And the cruelty, to animals and human beings continues through the almost three hours that is the journey of a young Jewish boy, Joska, through war-torn Slavic regions during World War Two.
 Beautifully played by a ten year old Romani boy, Petr Kotlar, the boy's lone wanderings induce a massive loss of innocence as he witnesses a shocking assault by an unhinged miller (Udo Kier) on one of his workers, a brutal attack with a bottle on a woman by a gang of women and the murder and rape of unarmed civilians by soldiers. His own troubles include being taken in and abused by a murderous paedophile (Julian Sands), courtesy of a well-meaning priest (Harvey Keitel), witnessing a horrible act of bestiality on a goat by a beguiling farm girl he befriends (Julia Vidmakova) and being attacked and beaten by local youths, and men who should know better, because he looks different.
 All the horror, and some of it has led to audience walk outs, is leavened a little by some who are kind to the boy, if not to other beings. A man who traps and sells wild birds for a living (Lech Dyblik) daubs paint over the wings of a sparrow he doesn't need and releases it into a flock of other sparrows, for it to be attacked and killed because it looks different, the incident that gives the film its name and narrative. There is a decent German soldier (Stellan Skarsgard) who is ordered to take the boy away and kill him, but doesn't, and a decent Russian soldier (Barry Pepper) who shows the boy how to use guns and gives him a pistol to protect himself with. However it is the acts of cruelty that affect him the most and he quickly starts to avenge himself on some of his protagonists, and some innocents. War changes people, and cruelty breeds cruelty.
 The Painted Bird is directed by Czech director Vaclav Marhoul and has been acclaimed by most critics as his masterpiece, so it will be interesting to see if audiences generally agree. Critic Xan Brooks from the Guardian might have spoken for many when he wrote: "I can state without hesitation that this is a monumental piece of work and one I'm deeply glad to have seen. I can also say that I hope to never cross its path again".
 You'll need a strong stomach for this one.
  
 ALICE  What's a young married Mum to do when she finds that her bank cards suddenly don't work and, because her husband has spent all their money on expensive prostitutes, they are a year behind with the mortgage on their posh Paris apartment, with eviction looming a few weeks away? And what if her family refuse to take her back, her mother telling her that her husband strayed to get something he wasn't getting at home?
 This is the desperate situation facing young Parisian Alice, beautifully played by newcomer Emille Piponnier,( in her first lead role in a feature film) whose husband has disappeared to leave her in sole charge of her cute toddler son. Faithless husband Fracois is also well played as alternately confident, affectionate, doting and finally weak and pathetic by Martin Swabey, and son Jules is impressively cute as portrayed by Jules Milo Levy Mackerras, in reality the four year old son of the film's talented Australian writer and director of the film, Josephine Mackerras.
 When Alice starts going through some of her husband's telephone contacts, and calling them, she realises that one is an agency for high-priced prostitutes calling itself "Elegant Escorts", which happens to be recruiting. Intrigued and wanting to find out how her husband went through their money so quickly she goes along for an interview with some other hopefuls. and discovers that he was paying the agency between &pound;540 and &pound;720 per hour, with the agency paying the prostitute 70% of that, or &pound;378 to &pound;504. Faced with having to find &pound;7,000 in two weeks or lose her apartment, and an offer of employment as a highly-paid sex worker from the agency she sees only one course of action open to her and agrees to the offer. She later makes good friends with another of the agency workers, Lisa, a kindly and sexy Australian played memorably by Chloe Boreham, who takes her under her wing and gives her some practical advice on her new profession. ("You'll need better shoes" "Get the money first" "Cut the agency out to earn the real money").
 As Alice, working name Sofia, starts to satisfy clients it is striking how pleasant to her are the ones we see, and to an extent this has been criticised by some critics as a very rose-tinted view of a sleazy, empty and sordid, though highly lucrative, way to earn a living. However, growing in confidence, Alice stays with it and starts to pay off all the debts Francois has saddled her with. Eventually he grovels apologetically back to her and makes himself useful looking after Jules while he thinks his wife is out earning big money as a personal assistant to a very rich female executive, her story to cover up what she is really doing. In time he finds out the truth, about the same time as Alice finds out who he has been giving her money to for the last year, a delicious finishing double twist, this one, just before the happy ending&hellip;
 Alice was released by Eureka Entertainment late last month on selected digital platforms.
  
 BELA LUGOSI - THREE CLASSICS  Fans of the traditional horror genre will enjoy this trilogy of three black and white 1930's films from Universal Studios, based on stories and a poem by American writer and master of the macabre Edgar Allen Poe. All three were produced before a strict moral code was imposed on the industry and star the specialist in nasty villains at the time, Bela Lugosi, (Dracula) paired in two of the films with another giant of the Gothic genre, Boris Karloff. (Frankenstein)

 o  In THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE from 1932 Lugosi plays a mad and murderous scientist, Dr. Mirakle, who abducts young women in Paris and injects them with ape blood, trying to produce a mate for the ill-tempered chimpanzee, Erik, that he uses as a side show exhibit. When the blood of a number of women is found to be unsuitable Mirakle has his servant Janos (Noble Johnson) kill them and dump their bodies in a nearby river.
 One day the side show is visited by a young medical student, Pierre Dupin, played by Leon Ames, and his fiancee Camille. She is played by the petite, pert and appealingly coquettish 25 year old Sidney Fox, born Sarah Liefer, who beguiles Mirakle, which convinces the twisted doctor that he has now found the beauty for his beast. Will he now have his wicked way with the lovely ingenue?
  
 o  THE BLACK CAT  (1934) teamed Lugosi with Boris Karloff for the first time to produce a nightmarish psychodrama, with Karloff playing necrophiliac Austrian architect, Hjalmar Poelzig, who has a harem of beautiful and preserved dead women. His collection includes the former wife of his friend, Hungarian psychiatrist Vitus Werdegast, played by Lugosi, who was incarcerated for 15 years in a prison camp while Poelzig stole his wife, Karen.
 Werdegast travels to Poelzig's huge and luxurious home to have his revenge, bringing with him a young married couple he'd met on the train, with the young wife injured when the bus from the station crashes.Werdegast treats her injuries and then discovers that the mad Poelzig plans to sacrifice her, and add to his collection. Meanwhile it emerges that after Poelzig killed Karen he married Werdegast's daughter, also called Karen and who he has also killed for his sick collection. When Verdegast finds out he lashes Poelzig to an embalming rack and extracts a hideously sadistic revenge.
  
 o  THE RAVEN (1935) is based loosely on the poem by Poe and features Lugosi as Dr. Richard Vollin, a warped surgeon so obsessed with Poe that he has built a torture chamber in his basement. This contains the pendulum that swings a razor-sharp crecent-shaped blade to and fro as it slowly descends onto the chest of its terrified victim tied underneath, as well as the shrinking room where the hydraulically operated walls inexorably close in and crush anyone shut inside.
 Although retired Vollin agrees to perform a delicate operation on Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware) to restore her to health after a car accident and, when this is successful he falls in love with Jean. When he reveals this to her father, Judge Thatcher (Samuel S Hinds) the judge discourages him, which makes him angry and he plots to get the family into his dungeon. Meanwhile he is visited by a murderer on the run, Edmond Bateman (Karloff) who wants his face changed to make him handsome and ensure future anonymity .Vollin asks Bateman to help him get revenge on the Thatchers, which Bateman refuses to do, that is until Vollin operates on Bateman, disfiguring him and only agrees to alter his face again if Bateman helps him punish the Thatchers.

 The three horror classics, each around one hour long, were released last month in a 2-disc Blu-ray edition limited to 2,000 copies by Eureka Entertainment as part of their Masters of Cinema Series. The pack also contains audio commentaries, radio series episodes, video essays and a 48-page collectors booklet.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Monday  Begging the headline GOVERNMENT GOLF GAFFE IN GALWAY a number of high-profile Irish politicians and other high fliers have apologised, and some have resigned, after attending an Irish parliamentary golf society dinner for more than 80 diners at the Station House Hotel, Clifden, Co. Galway on Wednesday August 19.
 This was the day after the government there had tightened its Covid-19 restrictions following a worrying rise in cases, reducing the number of people allowed to attend indoor gatherings from 50 to six. The event split the 80 delegates across two rooms, on advice reportedly given to the hotel's management by the Irish Hotels Federation, advice presumably just out of date when the event, now dubbed "Golfgate" took place.
 So far the Minister for Agriculture, Dara Calleary, has resigned, as has Jerry Buttimer, deputy chairman of the Irish senate and EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan, who had previously simply apologised. with his spokesperson claiming he would unquestioningly not be resigning. Additionally Hogan, who was due to lead free trade negotiations with a post-Brexit UK, had reportedly not self-isolated for the required 14 days following his return from a trip to Brussels, and was caught by police using his mobile whilst driving on August 17. Seamus Wolfe, a Supreme Court judge who gives legal advice to government is one of a number who have apologised for their unwise attendance at the golf dinner.
  
 Tuesday  Amusing to note that KFC, purveyors of "fingerlickin' good" fried chicken are now backtracking on so endorsing customers to eat their product with their fingers and lick them afterwards.
 Obviously this eating mode, never the most hygienic anyway, is finding much less favour in these pandemic times, where a quick unlucky lick could kill.
 It will be interesting to see how KFC are going to change one of the most ingrained habits. Will we get disposable KFC gloves to keep the grease off our fingers while we pull and chew all the meat off the bones, or will we get KFC disposable plastic knives and forks to clumsily attempt the same operation, all without fingering the chicken?
 It's a whole new world&hellip;
  
 Wednesday  Sad to hear that one of our favourite trade publishers, Sydney Paulden of Incentive Travel and Corporate Meetings (ICTM) has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and is retiring at age 88, after more than three decades in the business. Sydney, who was always cheerful company when we met him on some press trips, is staying cheerful, wondering if the medical condition or old age will get him first.
 Sydney's 36 year old son Alexander will be taking over the business (alex@incentivetravel.co.uk) and Old Grit wishes them both well in these difficult times.
 In a note from Sydney he tells us: "Sharon and I have enjoyed receiving your newsletter and wish you continued success in being the sector's conscience and watchdog! It needs you."
 Cheerio to a real gentleman.
FOODIE NEWS

 o Like most we have managed to get some savings on eating out with our government's Eat Out To Help Out discount scheme, which has given a 50% discount up to &pound;10 on meals eaten in restaurants Mondays to Wednesdays in August.
 This was to encourage folk back into the habit of eating out and many restaurants have deemed it a success in terms of filling tables, with a reported 35 million meals served across the country in the first two weeks  Sadly a few restaurants have apparently withdrawn early from the scheme citing some rude and impatient customers who do not appreciate the pressure kitchens and serving staff face operating at high levels during the pandemic and who take out their impatience at having to wait, or not getting a table, on their waiters and waitresses. Some restaurants also report an increase in no-shows.
 Our own experiences across four discounted meals in August has been generally positive. We have mostly gone for an early (12.00 noon) lunch and opted to sit outside for safety where fortunately we have been lucky with weather, or an early (5.00pm) dinner. Two of the four places, a pub and a restaurant, were giving the discount on their normal menu. One hotel restaurant only offered a limited table d'h&ocirc;te menu with three choices of starter, main and dessert at &pound;15 for two courses and &pound;20 for three that seemed to be especially designed for the promotion. At another pub/restaurant all the special main courses were priced at &pound;15, meaning that a three-course meal was going to cost nearly &pound;30, without drinks.
 It will be interesting to see what happens to customer numbers after August 31, when the promotion finishes and prices go back up again.
  
 o  Meanwhile one tapas chain, Tapas Revolution, is extending the deal into the month of September in some of its branches, such as at the two London Westfield sites, Bluewater and Meadowhall.
 Most of the tapas there are around &pound;6 so 3/4 tapas and a soft drink should come to around &pound;20, less the &pound;10. discount. An example would be starting with some ciabatta bread with Alioli garlic mayo (&pound;2.25) and following with the Albondigas meatballs in salsa (&pound;5.95), Paella Valenciana chicken and saffron rice (&pound;5.95) and Patatas Bravas fried potato in hot sauce, or Tortilla Spanish omelette, (both &pound;4.50) totalling &pound;18.65.
 Let's hope the extension idea catches on at other eateries.

 NEXT ISSUE
 The Oriental bow to each other from two metres away replaces the handshake in all UK social and business circumstances, for safety&hellip; Event organisers originating and running events of more than six people are jailed, along with their delegates, in a tightening-up of lockdown rules&hellip; A spokesperson for the attendees at the Irish government golf dinner tells the press: "Actually we strongly feel that we are above the common herd, and certainly above the law, especially the laws that stop us having a good time, but by which all the peasants should be bound. We salute our hero and role model, Dominic Cummings and his faithful defender Boris. We made the trip to Galway for an essential check on our eyesight and we all wish to remain anonymous"... At KFC "Fingerlickinchicken soup" made by liquidising fried chicken and drunk from a bio-degradable, microwavable non-plastic carton through a non-plastic, bio-degradable and sanitised straw becomes a best seller. Popular flavours are Barbecue Baked Beans, Mushroom Medley and Chilli Conflagration&hellip; and much, much more&hellip;
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ARE YOU COMMUNICATING REGULARLY WITH YOUR TARGET MARKET?  SG7 Web Solutions email this Event Organisers Update newsletter every month to a list of  event organisers supplied by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). We receive the copy, check it, email it out to the list and send prompts advising recipients that their newsletter is residing in their inboxes. We also maintain the list, adding new subscribers and deleting unsubscribers.
 Could we do something like this for you?  We can handle any size of email list, and, as a small company based in Baldock, Herts, offer a friendly five-star mailing out service for two-star prices. Like a quote for your work? Contact Mark Ely by email at mark.ely@sg7.biz , or telephone on  07415865943, and start saving money on your customer communications. 
 Publisher's Note  The above is an example of our new Announcement advertisement. If you have a product, service, venue or event of interest to event organisers you can promote it as above for &pound;30 for up to 150 words. Contact Peter Cotterell on 01767 312986 or peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk for details and to book.
  
 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    Society of Event Organisers  29a Market Square, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 8AQ  Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - %%emailaddress%%  If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  %%unsubscribelink%%    %%emailaddress%% Subscription Options  Click here to update your details    Subscribe   eou.org.uk
 Newsletter distributed by SG7.biz for Society of Event Organisers





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			<title>Event Organisers Update July 2020 ISSUE 188</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update July 2020 ISSUE 188</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Fri, 31 Jul 2020 16:45:01 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update July 2020 ISSUE 188</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update July 2020 ISSUE 188 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
 To %%[001] Name%%

 
 %%emailaddress%%  Unsubscribe


 
 
Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 EVENTS TO START UP AGAIN  Conferences and exhibitions can take place again in England from Thursday October 1, the government has confirmed.
 However the staging will depend on the successful completion of some pilot events, the virus situation in the location, the Covid precautions at the event and the right of the Local Authority to close the event if there was a danger to the public.
 Boris Johnson won some industry hearts when he commented that there were limits to technology for meetings and that it was "no substitute for face-to-face meetings and interaction"
 According to the global trade show association, Ufi, the damage done by Covid 19 to the global exhibition industry amounts to &pound;144 billion, a contraction of 60% for 2020 compared with 2019. North America will take the biggest hit of &pound;61.1 billion, followed by Europe at &pound;47.4 billion, and Asia-Pacific at &pound;31.9 billion. Less affected are Central and South America at &pound;2.6 billion and Middle East and Africa at &pound;2 billion.
  
 FACE COVERING MESSAGE  After a stuttering start our government has finally decided that the face coverings that are still compulsory on public transport will also now be mandatory in shops from the 24th of this month. Retailers are expected to turn away non-compliant shoppers, and their money, unless they put on a face covering and to call the police if they don't comply or refuse to leave. And the police can impose a fine of up to &pound;100.
 Our own observations, based on the very few shop visits we have personally made is that probably less than 10% are currently covering up for the protection of other shoppers. It will therefore be interesting to see if the latest crystal-clear message from advertisements placed by HM Government and the NHS has any effect. It certainly deserves to, showing as it does a man in a face covering and the caption "I wear this to protect you. Please wear yours to protect me."
 No confusion there. The question for our events industry however, is whether we will be requiring all our valuable exhibition visitors and conference attendees to cover up or discuss their non-compliance with police officers.
 Views from readers, as always, welcome.
  
 CORRUPTION AT SWISS PHARMA GIANT  Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has recently agreed to pay a total of $678 million (&pound;542 million) to the US government and several states to settle a lawsuit against them for corruption.
 The lawsuit alleges that the firm, the second biggest in the World behind Pfizer, ran sham speaker programmes that were nothing more than a way of bribing doctors with cash and giving them expensive meals, golf and fishing trips and top-shelf alcohol to prescribe Novartis products in favour of those of the firm's competitors. The lawsuit, prompted by a whistle-blower back in 2001 accuses Novartis of violating the federal False Claims Act and an Anti-Kickback Statute. A spokesman for the FBI described the conduct of Novartis as "reprehensible and dishonest", a fair description of the conduct of all the bent doctors who benefitted from replacing their integrity with greed. 
 Meanwhile a Novartis subsidiary, Sandoz, has admitted conspiring with other drug companies to fix prices and rig bids for generic drugs from 2013 to 2015. The Novartis subsidiary is one of the largest makers of generic drugs in the US and has agreed to pay a penalty of $195 million (&pound;150 million), the largest fine ever levied in a domestic antitrust case.
  
 YOUNG BRITISH DRUNKS NOT WANTED  According to a recent report in the i paper most countries are happy to welcome back, post-lockdown, family groups, older tourists and business travellers, who all leave respectable sums of money in the local economy, and generally behave themselves.
  Very unwanted, but some countries seem unable or unwilling to say no, are the yobby young Brits who block book the cheaper hotels through their travel agent, get drunk on the flight over and then spend their days there drunkenly jumping off balconies into the hotel pool, fatal in some cases, and their nights on pub crawls around all the bars desperate to get on the route, which offer discounts for high alcohol consumption. 
 Young drunk's favoured places to get hammered include Magaluf in Mallorca, and Kos and Mykonos in Greece
  
 VIRTUALLY ALTERED PERMANENTLY?  Having got lots of us sold on the benefits of working from home our government now has the trickier task of enticing us back to the fun of commuting a few hours per day to work in buildings in our cities.
 Which could prove to be a long job. In a recent survey of white-collar workers 30 per cent of them wanted to continue working from home, clearly not missing the daily trek to place of work and back on our wonderful trains, buses and tubes.
 So will the new normal post-Covid commute just be from corn flakes and coffee to the computer?
  
 ETHICAL VIDEOCONFERENCING  For organisers concerned about the ethics of videoconferencing platforms Ethical Consumer magazine has produced a table of 21 brands, showing the best and worst in this respect. Scores are given for a company's lack of involvement in such aspects as tax avoidance, human, worker and animal rights abuses, political activity, anti-social financing, pollution and supplying the military, nineteen in all, and a total Ethiscore awarded.
 Those with a "Good" Ethiscore of 12 points or more are topped by Jami with 14, followed by Kopano and Whereby with 13, Cyberlink U with 12.5 and GoToMeeting, Houseparty and the popular Zoom with 12. The 13 platforms with an "Average" Ethiscore of 5 to 11.9 are topped by Jitsu with 11.5, Slack with 11 and Lifesize with 10.
 One platform, Amazon, scores zero and is the subject of a call to boycott for Amazon's tax avoidance activities.
  
 CMV IN ADMINISTRATION  Cruise operators Cruise and Maritime Voyages (CMV) were placed in administration on July 20, with all future cruises cancelled, a victim of the Covid19 pandemic that has hit the travel trade especially hard.
 The Essex-based firm is reported to have around 4,000 employees. It was forced to suspend all sailings between March 13 and August 25, resulting in the cancellation and refunding of 50,000 holidays .In a statement CMV chief executive Christian Verhounig paid tribute and apologised  to the company's "loyal and hardworking" staff,  travel trade partners and suppliers as well as to their valued passengers for the "disappointment and further disruption" of holiday plans.
 The writer has had more than a dozen enjoyable and reasonably priced cruises with CMV and always found the food special, the staff helpful and attentive, the evening floor shows very professional with some real talent and the shore excursions well worth the money
  
 NOW OPEN AGAIN  Many may not know the author, Alf Wight OBE, but may know his pen-name of James Herriot, and his very readable books about his life as a vet in Yorkshire, with this year as the 50th Anniversary of the publication of his first book, If Only They Could Talk.
 Wight's books were turned into a very popular TV sitcom, All Creatures Great And Small, which ran for seven series and 91 episodes totalling more than 75 hours. All this inspired a new visitor attraction, The World of James Herriot, a modern museum dedicated to the now world-famous vet and based at Wight's old 1940's home at 23, Kirkgate, Thirsk, Yorkshire, which for the books became the fictional Skeldale House, in the fictional town of Darrowby. To visit is to step back 80 years, to a more gentle time, and where it doesn't take much imagination from fans for the much-loved characters played on TV by Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy Carol Drinkwater, Lynda Bellingham, Peter Davidson and many others to come to life once again.
 Following the three-month lockdown we've all been under, the covid-aware World of James Herriot is set to open again on Wednesday, July 15th, with a new one-way route, mandatory social distancing of two metres and advice to visitors to bring their own face coverings. Entry is free to under 5s, &pound;5 for 5 -15s and &pound;8.50 for adults.
 Demand is expected to be enhanced with the news that a new series of All Creatures Great and Small has been filmed and will be screened on Channel 5 this autumn. Meanwhile those who would like to experience, or re-experience all the original 91 episodes over seven series and 75 hours can pick up the box set for &pound;20-&pound;30 from online retailers.
 Web. worldofjamesherriot.com
  
 o  MR VAMPIRE  Fans of Hong Kong cinema will know that this famous 1985 slapstick comedy-horror action flick, from director Ricky Lau, kick-started a whole new franchise featuring similar films from Lau and other directors, as well as a theatrical play, video games, board games and vampire dolls and toys. This original film is rated as the best by many and will doubtless strike some in the West as seriously entertaining - we enjoyed it - and others as seriously just silly.
 The story is of the menace of the jiangshi hopping vampires, the zombie-like undead who prey on the living, but who can't see them if they hold their breath. The Van Helsings of the tale are two Taoist priests who use their supernatural powers to battle the hopping corpses, Master Kau played by Lam Ching-ying and assisted by Priest Four-Eyes, played by Anthony Chan. Master Kau is blessed, or cursed, with two inept student assistants, Man-choi (Ricky Hui) and Chau-sang (Chin Siu-ho) who provide much of the comedy, as well as some impressive and unaided fighting acrobatics. Some other memorable comedy of misunderstanding is down to Ting Ting, the fresh-faced 20 year-old Moon Lee who pouts and flounces around looking innocent and lovely, gets mistaken for a prostitute and ignites the love, and probably lust of the amusingly incompetent police inspector Wai, who is also her cousin and played by Billy Lau. 
 Master Hau's current supernatural contract is with Ting Ting's father, the very rich businessman, Master Yam (Huang Ha) who retains Hau to dig up the coffin of his dead father and re-bury it somewhere else, which he hopes will bring his family increased prosperity. When the coffin is raised Hau notices that the body inside has not decomposed, and correctly concludes that he is looking at a vampire. For this reason he takes the coffin back to his house where he and his students seal the coffin with enchanted ink, but forget to use it on the coffin's base, allowing the vampire to break out and kill Yau's son before going into hiding. Coming back chez Kau's for more victims the vampire is fought off, but critically wounds Man-Choi, causing Kau to send out Chau-sang for a remedy to stop him becoming a vampire. On the way back home Chau-sang is distracted by Jade, a beautiful female spirit played by 23-year-old Wong Siu-fung, who lures him into her house and seduces him without too much protest. Sadly she turns out to be a vampire, a non-hopping type apart from into bed, and one of a number the team have to deal with before the end credits
 Mr Vampire was released on July 20 in Blu-ray format by Eureka Entertainment as part of its Eureka Classics range. The language is Cantonese with optional English sub-titles. The pack contains a feature-length audio commentary, three archival interviews with director Ricky Lau and actors Chin Siu-ho and Moon Lee and a collector's booklet.
  
 o  CRISS CROSS  In a 45-year career in nearly 80 films American actor and producer Burt Lancaster lent his talents for playing very different characters to such classics as From Here To Eternity (1953), Trapeze (1956), Gunfight At The OK Corral (1957), Sweet Smell Of Success (1957), Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), Elmer Gantry (1960), Judgment At Nuremberg (1961), Birdman Of Alcatraz (1962), Airport (1970), Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) and Atlantic City (1977), to name some of our favourites.
 Fans of early 1940's American films noir however will know that the actor, in his early career, starred in a number of them, including his debut in the highly-rated The Killers, based on an Ernest Hemingway story, in 1946 with Ava Gardner. This was followed by other memorable examples of the genre, such as the pitch-black prison movie Brute Force, and I Walk Alone in 1947, this last teamed up in the first of seven films with Kirk Douglas. In 1948 came Sorry, Wrong Number with Barbara Stanwyck, and in 1949, Criss Cross.
 In this Lancaster was teamed with Yvonne De Carlo in her first major role, and directed by Robert Siodmak, who also directed The Killers. Criss Cross, made in black and white also boasts a small piece of film history for buffs to watch out for - the non-speaking and uncredited screen debut of one Anthony Curtis, playing a gigolo and dancing with De Carlo in the early part of the film to the tune of Jungle Fantasy, performed by Esy Morales and his Rhumba Band. Sadly Morales, who suffered from diabetes died the following year, aged just 33.
 Lancaster plays Steve Thompson, an armoured truck driver who can't stop seeing his former wife, Anna, played by De Carlo, who is now married to a violent local hood, Slim Dundee, played by an actor specialising in villains in the genre, Dan Duryea. Other notable films noir he was featured in include Scarlet Street and The Woman in the Window, in 1945 and Too Late For Tears in 1949. In Criss Cross Slim Dundee catches Steve and Anna having a secret meeting, but buys Steve's hastily made up excuse that he did it to make contact with Dundee, who he now wants to work with to have his own armoured car hijacked during a wages delivery, so that he can steal from his employer. Of course, being film noir there cant be a happy ending and accordingly the thrilling climax goes very badly for all three.
 Criss Cross was released on Blu-ray format last month by Eureka Entertainment as part of its Masters of Cinema Series The pack includes a new audio commentary, a new video piece and a collector's booklet with new writings, and an essay.
  
 o  ARRIVEDERCI, MAESTRO  Sad news for film buffs was to hear of the recent death, at 91 years old from a fall, of maestro Ennio Morricone, the Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor and trumpet player who gave us over 400 scores for film and television, in a wide range of styles
 Notably he composed for Italian director Sergio Leone, whose Spaghetti Westerns were memorably enhanced by Morricone for such productions as the "dollars trilogy" with Clint Eastwood, the haunting  notes, whistles and grunts of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (1966) leading to it being considered one of the most influential soundtracks in history.
 Morricone also composed some of most stirring, dramatic and downright beautiful melodies for the movies. Our own personal favourites include the lovely Deborah's Theme for Leone's stunning Once Upon a Time in America (1984) this matched with worryingly beautiful images of former child model Jennifer Connelly, just 13 in her movie debut as a young gangster's young love interest, Deborah. Others, for us, were the haunting harmonica from Leone's Once Upon a Time In The West (1968), most of the music from The Mission (1986), the Maturita from Cinema Paradiso (1988) and the Romanza from Novocento (1976). But really there are lots more.
 He'll be sorely missed. 
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Monday  Macho movie man and Western legend "Duke" John Wayne, who died of stomach cancer aged 72 in 1979, is the subject of a bid to remove a statue and other references honouring him at John Wayne Airport, Orange County, USA. Local Democratic leaders also want the airport to revert to its original name of Orange County Airport.
 The reason given is the bigoted responses Wayne made for an interview with Playboy magazine in 1971 when he was 64, and nearly 50 years ago. At this time Wayne commented that he believed in white supremacy "until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility" and that he felt that white Americans did no wrong in taking land away from American Indians, land that the Indians were "selfishly trying to keep for themselves" He also opined that "opening doors and tipping your hat to ladies is uh, probably a thing of the past".
 Whilst, for many, the Duke's comments mark him out as a dinosaur in these more enlightened times there is, for our money, the possibility that Wayne's tongue was firmly in his cheek, and he was saying what he thought America's Playboy readers would like to read&hellip;
  
 Tuesday  Staying with the US it was edifying to read that on July 4 a new World record was set in Brooklyn, NY.
 This is for the 75 hot dogs consumed in ten minutes by competitive eater Joey Chestnut, 36, in this year's contest organised by Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs. This amounted to a total of 7.5 kilograms of processed meat and rolls, delivering 21,000 calories, for those counting. In a career spanning 15 years Chestnut, a construction engineer from Kentucky has consumed stellar quantities of food including deep fried asparagus, grilled cheese sandwiches, waffles, bratwurst sausages, chicken wings, matzo balls, pizza, chicken satay, goyoza, macaroni cheese, burritos, corned beef sandwiches, pulled pork and poutine, a dish of French fries, cheese curds and brown gravy, from Quebec.
 Chestnut holds more than 35 World records for scoffing and has won the Nathans Famous Hot Dogs eating title thirteen times. Nathans have been supplying their 100% beef frankfurters since 1916, from a recipe devised by co-founder Nathan Handwerker's wife Ada and flavoured with a secret spice recipe created by Ada's grandmother. For those visiting New York the original Nathan's restaurant is still at Coney Island, with branches, franchisees and grocery stores selling the product all over the US. Those staying in the UK can visit one of two Nathan's outlets, in Bournemouth and Southampton.
FOODIE NEWS

 o  As serious fans of rib-eye beef steak we ran a tasting at home recently featuring five different examples from three different sources and our personal scores for each are listed below. All the steaks were 8 ozs (227 gms) in weight, from which we cut off around 45 gms and cooked them all the same way - hot-fried in good olive oil for three minutes each side for medium to rare and rested for two minutes, before enjoying with some essential Colman's English Mustard. Scores are based on our ratings of taste and tenderness.

 1) Score 5 - Asda ribeye, &pound;2.95 per 227 gms/&pound;12.95 per kilo.
 2) Score 6 - Asda extra special 30-day matured Aberdeen Angus ribeye &pound;4.49 per 227 gms/&pound;19.77 per kilo. 
 3) Score 6 - Aldi ribeye 28-day matured &pound;3.69 per 227 gms/&pound;16.26 per kilo.
 4) Score 7 - Aldi Aberdeen Angus ribeye &pound;3.99 per 227 gms/&pound;17.58 per kilo.
 5) Score 8 - Warrendale Wagyu online supplier of British Wagyu ribeye &pound;11 per 227gms/&pound;48.46 per kilo.

 In addition to the above we also tried some British Wagyu rump steak from Warrendale on special offer at &pound;50 per box of 10, as below.

 6) Score 7 - Warrendale British Wagyu rump &pound;5 per 227 gms/&pound;22.03 per kilo.


 NEXT ISSUE
 Exhibition attendees and conference delegates snap up clever face masks with a zipped hole that can be unzipped to poke food through, and a straw for drinking&hellip; Doctors demand a substantial pay increase, to take into account the lack of cash and freebies coming from newly ethical drug companies. One complains "more than half my income and most of my holidays once came from all the lovely dropsy and kick backs supplied by that nice Swiss drug firm Novartis"... Hotels in Magaluf drain their pools in readiness for drunken Brits jumping off balconies&hellip; Chancellor Rishi Sunak imposes a huge Windfall Tax on Amazon, equivalent to the amount they've avoided since starting up, which pays for some of the Covid-19 aid programmes&hellip; John Wayne Airport is renamed Sitting Bull Airport&hellip; and much, much more&hellip;
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			<title>Event Organisers Update June 2020 ISSUE 187</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update June 2020 ISSUE 187</description>
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			<pubdate>Tue, 30 Jun 2020 09:20:02 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update June 2020 ISSUE 187</subject>
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Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update June 2020 ISSUE 187 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 BEWARE THE MAYORS OF AMITY  Those who have seen Steven Spielbergs 1975 blockbuster film Jaws (has anyone not?) will recall that a giant three-ton Great White shark is attacking and killing swimmers at the fictional seaside resort town of Amity Island, Massachusetts, actually a fishing village called Menemsha on Martha's Vineyard Island.
 Because of the dangers to life pressure from the police chief is put on Amity Island's mayor, Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) to close the beaches and save lives, but Vaughn refuses, citing the economic importance of tourists to the local economy, who will be arriving in large numbers on July 4th for the opening of the beach at the start of the economically important summer season. He has to change his mind when the shark attacks and kills a young boy and then a boater in full daylight on July 4th.
 Any of this ringing any warning bells?
  
 DEATHS FROM EVENTS  The staging of the Cheltenham Festival, and the Liverpool footbal match against Athletico Madrid, both held in March this year before the UK lockdown, "caused increased suffering and death that would otherwise not have occurred".
 This is the conclusion of Professor Tim Spector from Kings College, London, who says that both the Cheltenham and Liverpool areas become coronavirus "hotspots" two weeks after the events took place.
 There is now concern that large public protests in UK cities and towns by the Black Lives Matter movement a few weeks ago could have a similar effect on future infection rates, as could the dangerous overcrowding on Bournemouth beach a few days ago.
  
 CORONAVIRUS SCAMS  Fraudsters are posing as NHS contact tracers to trick victims into giving them money or confidential information.
 Some things that genuine tracers will never do, according to the police, are: -

 Ask you to call a premium rate number to speak to them, e.g. those starting 09 or 087. NHS tracers all work from 0300 013 5000
 Ask for payments for a product or service.
 Ask for bank account details.
 Ask for social media IDs, or log-in details, or those of contacts.
 Ask for passwords or PINs, or to set up these over phone.
 Give medical advice.
 Ask for personal or medical information.
 Ask to download software to your computer, or ask you to hand over control of a PC, smartphone or tablet.
 Ask you to access any non-NHS or non-government website

 Those who have experience of this scam are encouraged to report it to the police on phone 101 or to web actionfraud.police.uk
  
 BAN THE BUGGERS  Former Ritz Hotel owner Sir Frederick Barclay has called for a legal ban on "sophisticated spying devices" following his allegations that one of his nephews planted microphones in The Ritz to record private conversations between himself and his daughter Amanda.
 Sir Frederick has released a video purporting to show his nephew, Alistair placing a recording device in the hotel's conservatory.
  
 ZOOM AHEAD  With conference attendee levels due to drop, even when things slowly crawl back to a new normal, now is the time to master the art and science of staging virtual events.
 This is the view of motivational speaker and author Keith Abrahams, who recently presented a free Speaker Taster Session from a studio in Australia, on behalf of speaker agency Performing Artistes. This was a one-hour session which presented accessible material for corporates on goal-setting and focus for success, and in the process demonstrated how to stage an effective Zoom presentation. Certainly the importance of preparing the studio, having speakers adjusting from the big stage to the small screen, getting audience response with questions typed into a chatbox and keeping it succinct (one hour maximum) all came across strongly, as did Abraham's relaxed and personable style.
 For more information about upcoming free taster sessions contact ask@performingartistes.co.uk for log-in details.
  
 TITANIC HOTEL REOPENING  The Liverpool hotel at 30, James Street, formerly run by Signature Living and now in receivership, is to be operated by Legacy Hotels. (The Business Desk)
 The building was the former offices of the White Star Line, the owners of the ill-fated RMS Titanic, which sank on her maiden voyage in April 1912, killing more than 1500.
 It was opened as a four-star Grade 11-listed hotel with 63 nautical themed rooms in 2014.
 Its distinctive banded red and white striped brickwork facade has branded it the "streaky bacon building" amongst locals.
  
 EXHIBITIONS PLANNED

 September 22/23 2021 Venues and Events Live London
 September 28 2021 Venues and Events Live Manchester.

  
 A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE  It was a pleasure to watch a seriously good performance of Tennessee William's most famous and most performed play, part of the National Theatre at Home season, free on YouTube during the lockdown.
 This one starred the very talented Gillian Anderson as Blanche DuBois, the middle-aged, neurotic. Southern belle high-school English teacher for whom a chequered life had become too much and pushed her to the edge, And to the steamy French Quarter in New Orleans, where she rides the streetcar named Desire to enjoy the comforting company of her sister, Stella, well played here by Vanessa Kirby. Spoiling the cosy reunion, and the fantasy world that Blanche inhabits is Stella's brutish and violent husband, Stanley Kowalski played with very watchable sneer and swagger by Ben Foster, who makes it very clear he is not taken in by Blanche. One of Stanley's friends who is initially fooled is Mitch, who is the kind and dependable type, convincingly played by Corey Johnson, as he is flirted with and then rejected.
 Back in 1951 Elia Kazan directed the brilliant and definitive black and white film of the play, with the part of Blanche played faultlessly by English actress Vivien Leigh, who had portrayed a flighty Southern belle twelve years earlier as Scarlett O'Hara in another classic, Gone With The Wind. Her quieter sister Shella was played by Kim Hunter, who gave a smouldering performance just walking down some stairs with a triumphant expression on her face as she realises that a very drunk Stanley screaming for her after assaulting her, cannot actually do without her Stanley was unforgettably portrayed by Marlon Brando in his film debut, reprising the role he previously had in the 1948 Broadway production, along with Kim Hunter as Stella and Karl Malden as the decent Mitch, both also reprising their roles for the film. The original Blanche on Broadway was Jessica Tandy, who won a Tony award for her work but who lost the film role to Leigh.
 Meanwhile unforgettable moments from Leigh come when she exposes Blanche's alcoholism, her obsession with her fading looks - manifesting in never wanting to be seen in strong, bright light -and the attraction for her of very young men. This is shown when a young collector for a local newspaper comes in and she tells him how beautiful he is, offers him a drink of Stanley's liquor, gets him to light her cigarette and kisses him on the lips before telling him "Run along now. It would be nice to keep you, but I've got to be good and keep my hands off children" Brando plays Stanley as another drunk, prone to sudden violent outbursts, and a cynic who is not taken in by Blanche's airs and graces, especially after he makes enquiries around her former home town and discovers her stay in a hotel known for prostitution, and her affair with a 17 year old boy student at the high school where she taught. There is nevertheless a deal of sexual tension between him and Blanche and this culminates, towards the end with him raping her while Stella is in hospital having her baby.
 Stella and Stanley have a demonstrably physical relationship with Kim Hunter showing early on that it is his looks that she most admires, along with his occasional violence that she admits she finds "thrilling" And the dependable Mitch, played by Karl Malden shows how limited he is by showing Blanche his cigarette case with a sonnet inscribed in it, twice, and banging boringly on about his weight, and physical fitness.
 The finale to all this is simply heartbreaking as Blanche, expecting in her fantasy world that a millionaire former admirer is going to come and take her away for a world cruise on his luxury yacht is instead visited by a kindly doctor, and not so kindly nurse, who have come to take her to be committed to a mental hospital for treatment. After a struggle, during which the doctor tells the bullying nurse that a straitjacket is not necessary, Blanche eagerly takes the doctor's offered arm, saying "Whoever you are - I have always depended on the kindness of strangers".
 A Streetcar Named Desire won four Oscars in the 1951 Academy Awards - for Vivien Leigh as Best Actress, Kim Hunter as Best Supporting Actress, Karl Malden as Best Supporting Actor and Best Art Direction, Black and White for Richard Day and George James Hopkins. Of seven other nominees Elia Kazan was nominated for Best Director, but lost to George Stevens for A Place In The Sun, and Marlon Brando was nominated for Best Actor but lost out to Humphrey Bogart for African Queen.
 Highly recommended.
 (Note. Copy of DVD bought second-hand from CEX for &pound;2 plus &pound;1.99 p&amp;p)
  
 A FOREIGN AFFAIR  One thing that many top-rated films from 1944 - 1960 had was being directed, and written or co-written by Billy Wilder.
 We are talking about the film noir Double Indemnity from 1944, considered a classic of its genre, and The Lost Weekend (1945) about an alcoholic writer, which won Best Picture at the Oscars, and Best Director and Best Screenplay for Wilder, who shared the writing honour with co-writer Charles Brackett. We are also talking about the Sunset Boulevard film noir (1950) for which Wilder, along with co-writers Charles Brackett and D. M. Marshman Jr won the Best Story and Screenplay Oscar, Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954), Witness For The Prosecution (1957) and Some Like it Hot (1959), considered one of the best comedies of all time. And another comedy, The Apartment (1960) which Wilder directed and co-wrote picked up an Oscar for Best Picture, and another for Best Original Screenplay, an honour he shared with I. A. L. Diamond.
 One other not so famous comedy from Wilder was A Foreign Affair (1948) a black comedy in black and white about American troops in decadent Weimar Berlin in 1947. Much of it was shot on location in the Russian occupation zone and features a Berlin mostly reduced to rubble, its inhabitants having to confront the "wretched and terrifying problem of repairing the ravages of war" In the centre of all this is the fictitious Lorelei nightclub where sultry singer Erika von Schlutow, played by Marlene Dietrich, performs nightly with numbers like "Black Market", "Illusions" and "The Ruins of Berlin" and has captured the hearts of many, including a Captain John Pringle of the United States Army, played by the rarely seen John Lund, who is having an affair with her. Problem is that she is a former Nazi reputed to have been the mistress of either Hermann Goring or Joseph Goebbels, or perhaps both.
 Into all this flies an upright, uptight congresswoman, Iowan Phoebe Frost played by Jean Arthur, who is there with a group of congressmen to investigate the morale, and morals, of the American military. Frost enlists the help of a horrified Pringle, a fellow Iowan, to investigate Erika and discover the identity of the American officer who is having an affair with her and protecting her. The screenplay then becomes farcical comedy as Pringle does all he can to obstruct the probe, including faking a romantic play for Phoebe. This becomes too successful as Phoebe falls for him and complicates his life even further.
 As noted by Channel 4 this is "One of Wilder's great forgotten films" and "worthy of rapid rediscovery" It is being released by Eureka Entertainment on June 22 in Blu-ray format as part of its Masters of Cinema Series. The pack includes an audio commentary, a video essay, two radio adaptations of the film, (featuring the voices of Marlene Dietrich, Billy Wilder and John Lund), an archival interview with Billy Wilder and a collector's booklet.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Tuesday  One firm we were especially sorry to see collapse recently was coach and hotel company Shearings, with whom we enjoyed dozens of short, cheap breaks by coach over the last few years.
 Shearings owned a fleet of coaches and more than forty hotels in England, Scotland and Wales, all of a three-star standard and most located in prominent sea-front positions at coastal resorts. Winter prices, less than half that of summer rates, ran out around &pound;30 per person per night for half-board a price that included, for us, coach transport from our local town centre to the resort and back. One could also self-drive, and there was the option of some entertainment of evenings. Some deals even included four free drinks from the hotel bar, and the food was nearly always a highlight.
 We enjoyed some excellent and relaxing breaks in Eastbourne, Sandown IOW, Bournemouth, Exmouth, Paignton, Ilfracombe, Berkeley, Llandudno, Morecambe, Blackpool, Windemere, Harrogate and Scarborough, and were looking forward to more of these and some new ones.
 We'll miss them.
  
 Thursday  Expected silver linings from the Covid clouds are causing much gleeful hand-rubbing at banknote printers De La Rue.
 The company expects demand for polymer banknotes, which can be washed, to increase as governments seek "cleaner" currency. Apparently around 85% of the world's 150 billion banknotes are still printed on paper, thought to be more likely to carry harmful viruses than the plastic, washable versions.
 Could give a whole new boost to money laundering&hellip;
  
 Friday  Sad to see that our much-loved PM Boris does not cut the same dash with the thinking electorate that he used to, maybe a result of all the cummings and goings of some of his buddies.
 Opinion pieces in the media about him headed INCOMPETENCE PERSONIFIED can't help, especially when they go on to describe "evasive waffling" and "mumbling and bumbling" and "floundering" as well as his team's "dire response to deadly pandemic".
FOODIE NEWS

 o Another ready-meal option for the lockdown, delivered nationwide, is the range of 60 main courses, 7 sides, 3 soups, 3 desserts, 11 bakery items of cakes and slices and 8 wines in 187ml bottles, around a quarter of a bottle.
 The manufacturing company, Parsley Box, cooks the dishes and then vacuum packs them in trays ready for the microwave, where they cook in 2-3 minutes. Another real convenience is that, being vacuum packed they don't use fridge or freezer space - they can just be stored in a cupboard for up to six months.
 We tried their special introductory offer, advertised widely, of 10 of their &pound;2.99 main courses and 2 bottles of their &pound;2.99 wine, a value of &pound;35.88, for &pound;19.99 delivery inclusive and can report, after eating it all, that it is a real bargain. What we got for our money, as well as one red and one white wine in quarter bottles, was 2x beef mince cottage pie topped with mashed potato, 2x lamb hot-pot topped with sliced potato, 2x lasagne, 2x beef stew and 2x sweet and sour chicken with a microwavable pouch of boiled rice. We personally found all the food we had was tasty and very easy and quick to prepare. Alll came in portions of 270 gms (Approx 9.5 ounzes) which for us, with reasonably large appetites meant adding some vegetables to make a satisfying meal, or doubling up, still a reasonable cost at these reduced prices.
 Seven chicken main courses offered at normal price of &pound;2.99 include coq au vin, hunter's chicken, chicken supreme with potatoes and chicken casserole with dumplings. Higher priced chicken dishes include chicken a la king with rice and chicken with lemon and ginger sauce with rice, both at &pound;3.49, and chicken filllets in cognac and cream sauce and chicken in cider and bramley apple sauce, both new to the range at &pound;3.99, the top price. Beef dishes at &pound;2.99 include minced beef hotpot, mild chilli con carne, beef and mushroom stroganoff, slow cooked beef, root veg and basmati rice and savoury minced beef and potatoes, with &pound;3.99 beef dishes including a roast beef dinner, and two new dishes, beef bourguignon and slow cooked beef in diane sauce. Lamb/mutton dishes include shepherd's pie and Irish stew, both at &pound;2.99, and a Lancashire hot pot (new) at &pound;3.49.
 Tel 0800 612 7225 Web parsleybox.com

 NEXT ISSUE
 The movie Jaws heads a list of "Prescient Films"... It emerges that the Black Lives Matter protests in UK cities have caused a spike in the number of Covid 19 infections amongst the ethnic population... A survey of day trippers on the overcrowded Bournemouth beaches last weekend indicates that nearly half of them made the journey to test their eyesight... More rooms at the Ritz are found to have been bugged with microphones and cameras... Boris Johnson tells the press "Contrary to popular opinion I really do know my Rs from my elbow"... and much, much more...
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ARE YOU COMMUNICATING REGULARLY WITH YOUR TARGET MARKET?  SG7 Web Solutions email this Event Organisers Update newsletter every month to a list of  event organisers supplied by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). We receive the copy, check it, email it out to the list and send prompts advising recipients that their newsletter is residing in their inboxes. We also maintain the list, adding new subscribers and deleting unsubscribers.
 Could we do something like this for you?  We can handle any size of email list, and, as a small company based in Baldock, Herts, offer a friendly five-star mailing out service for two-star prices. Like a quote for your work? Contact Mark Ely by email at mark.ely@sg7.biz , or telephone on  07415865943, and start saving money on your customer communications. 
 Publisher's Note  The above is an example of our new Announcement advertisement. If you have a product, service, venue or event of interest to event organisers you can promote it as above for &pound;30 for up to 150 words. Contact Peter Cotterell on 01767 312986 or peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk for details and to book.
  
 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    Society of Event Organisers  29a Market Square, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 8AQ  Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - %%emailaddress%%  If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  %%unsubscribelink%%    %%emailaddress%% Subscription Options  Click here to update your details    Subscribe   eou.org.uk
 Newsletter distributed by SG7.biz for Society of Event Organisers





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			<title>Event Organisers Update May 2020 ISSUE 186</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update May 2020 ISSUE 186</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Wed, 27 May 2020 17:21:02 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update May 2020 ISSUE 186</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update May 2020 ISSUE 186 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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 %%emailaddress%%  Unsubscribe


 
 
Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 NO MORE BUFFETS?  Hotel guests who enjoy the help-yourself buffets and the quality food in some hotel restaurants could be disappointed when things normalise and we all start staying in hotels for our events once again.
 One major group, Intercontinental (IHG), which has 6,000 hotels worldwide and operates Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Regent Hotels and Restaurants has now banned buffets and closed all its restaurants on health and safety grounds in the current pandemic. Food service will be restricted to grab and go dining.
 Other hotels may well have to take the same approach and it is possible, but depressing, that we may never see buffets again.
  
 EARL'S COURT BACK?  Our government are currently being lobbied to build a temporary exhibition and conference venue on the old Earl's Court site. (Exhibition News)
 The previous venue was last used for volleyball for the 2012 London Olympics and then demolished in 2014, a move that it was estimated reduced London's exhibition capacity by 30%, and that of the UK by 16% 
 Another large London venue, Excel in Docklands was converted for use as a Nightingale hospital earlier this year for Covid 19 patients. Fortunately it has not been needed to the extent originally feared. Another London venue, Olympia is now in use as a temporary food depot for food banks.
  
 COVID EXPLOITERS  Which? consumer magazine has reported instances of rogue traders selling in-demand hand sanitiser online for many times its normal price.
 On Amazon Marketplace investigators found that 56% of the traders were selling Carex products for five times the normal price, and that 9% were selling them for ten times the normal price. One cowboy was selling a pack of two 50 ml bottles of Carex hand sanitiser for &pound;24.99, or twelve times the normal price.
 Don't get caught. 
  
 PLAYS ON YOUR SCREEN  The National Theatre is continuing its lockdown offering of some of its previous performances free on YouTube, with a first session on a Thursday evening and for six days thereafter on demand.
 So far the thespian delights have included  One Man, two Guvnors, Treasure Island, Frankenstein, Twelth Night, A Streetcar Named Desire  and Midnight Your Time, this last being a short  and entertaining 30 minute drama of a mother, Diana Quick, trying to get to grips with the long distance video call technology in London that will let her speak to her daughter in Palestine.
 Performances for June that readers might want to catch include This House, launched in 2012 and given four out of five stars by The Guardian and deemed a thoroughbred crowd pleaser, "lampooning a political system that is flawed but somehow still functioning" Others describe it as "timely, moving and funny" and it was voted "Play of the Decade" by the public in 2019. It screens on YouTube at 7.00pm on Thursday May 28 and is on demand till June 4.
 This is followed at 7.00pm on June 4 by the Shakespearian tragedy Coriolanus which launched in December 2013 with Tom Hiddleston in the title role and much praised. He plays the young and arrogant Roman general who, despite having won important victories abroad from Rome doesn't have much time for its people and turns against them with one of the enemies he formerly fought after he realises that the feeling is seriously mutual. In 2011 Coriolanus was also made into a well-regarded and modernised film directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes.
  
 LOOKING FOR SPEAKERS?  Speaker agency Performing Artistes offer free short taster presentations of their performers on Zoom during the lockdown.
 Email to ask@performingartistes.co.uk for more details and a sign-up link.
  
 THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR MABUSE  Those familiar with the work of Fritz Lang ("M", Metropolis, The Woman in the Window, The Big Heat) will know that the above was the last film he directed, in 1960, and that it was the last of his three crime thriller films featuring the evil master criminal, Dr Mabuse. The other two were Dr Mabuse the Gambler, a black and white silent from 1922, and The Testament of Dr Mabuse from 1932, a black and white film that was banned by Reich propagandist Joseph Goebbels because, as some claimed, of some similarities between Dr Mabuse and Adolph Hitler, although Goebbels said it was because it "showed that an extremely dedicated group of people are perfectly capable of overthrowing any state with violence" Now there's irony...
 So to the THOUSAND EYES production, another enjoyable black and white crime thriller taking its name from the multiple cameras and microphones that recorded the goings-on in every room at the Luxor Hotel, Berlin, installed by the Nazis during WW2 for surveillance. The film opens with a troubled, attractive young woman, Marian Menil played by the attractive Dawn Addams, perched swaying on  a narrow ledge on the outside of one of the hotel's high upper storeys and ready to plunge into the street far below, where fireman wait to catch her. Before she can jump Henry Travers a rich American industrialist played by Peter Van Eyck, talks her out of suicide and pulls her off the ledge and into his hotel room. Thereafter he gradually learns of her tragic marriage and how she hates her evil and abusive husband (Dr Mabuse?) and the film runs on as an enjoyable whodunnit and police procedural.
 For us what made this especially enjoyable was the appearance of Peter Van Eyck, in this film as on the side of good, and perhaps memorable as the nasty Hans Dieter Mundt turned good in the gritty Cold War thriller The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, with Richard Burton - never better - as the world-weary British spy Alec Leamus, and the lovely Claire Bloom, playing Liz Gold, a librarian and secretary of her local communist party. Gold and Leamus become unlikely lovers, an aspect that has dire consequences for them both.
 And another bonus for us was the casting of Karl Gerhart Frobe in the role of dogged police Inspector Kras. Gert Frobe, James Bond fans will remember, was everyone's favourite villain as gold tycoon Auric Goldfinger in what is widely acknowledged as the best Bond/Connery outing. This also starred action girl Honor Blackman who, amongst her other talents, managed the feat of saying the really silly "My name is Pussy Galore" whilst keeping a completely straight face. Frobe was a member of the Nazi party for eight years from 1929 to 1937, which got his films banned in Israel until a Jewish survivor revealed that Frobe hid him and his mother from the Nazis, probably saving their lives. He was picked for the Goldfinger role when the producers saw his performance as a very nasty child killer in It Happened in Broad Daylight. Frobe always regretted that since his Goldfinger role some people insisted on seeing him as a cold and ruthless killer, an image he probably shook off with his later appearances in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and Monte Carlo or Bust  
 The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse was released in Blu-Ray format on May 11 by Eureka Entertainment, and the pack contains a feature-length audio commentary by film scholar and Fritz Lang expert David Kalat, a 2002 interview with Wolfgang Preiss, who takes three roles in the film, an alternative ending and a collector's booklet.
  
 PARASITE  One rather good new film we saw at the cinema, just before the lockdown closed them all, was Parasite, a South Korean satire on class and wealth inequality, which did so well at this year's Oscars. Here it won Best Picture, Best Director for Bong Joon-ho, Best Original Screenplay, for writers Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won, and Best International Feature Film and is the first foreign film to win Best Picture in the 92 years of Oscar history. On top of all this it made Bong Joon-ho only the second person ever to collect four statuettes in one night, the first being a Mr W. Disney.
 So what's it all about? Well it starts off with the four-strong Kim family, who live on the edge of poverty and fold pizza boxes for a living, as well as thieving from their local coffee shop. The twentysomething son, Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-sik) gets a chance to improve his lot when he is asked by a friend to temporarily stand in for him as an English teacher to the young daughter, Park Da-hye (Jung Siso) of the very wealthy Park family. The friend, who is in love with the young girl, has to go away for a time and wants to make sure any new tutor wont be panting after the girl, hence his approach to Kim Ki-woo, who he trusts.
 This trust turns out to be misplaced as Kim changes his name to Kevin and starts the tutoring, during which time the impressionable Park Da-hye falls for him, a big mistake on her part as "Kevin" the Trojan Horse has plans to get his other three parasitic con-artist relatives into the Park house to suck the Parks dry. First our Kev suggests to the sweet and naive mother, Yeon Kyo. (Jo Yeo-jeong) that her son really needs an art tutor, cue his sister "Jessica" (Park So-dam) who quickly sets about conning the mother for outrageous fees for the "art-tutoring" she has quickly picked up from books. She is quickly followed by her father Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) as a chauffeur and her mother Chung Sook (Chang Hyae-jin) as housekeeper, once the confidence tricksters cruelly get rid of the old and trusted one.
 Top film critic Mark Kermode described Parasite as a "tragicomic gasp-inducing masterclass" and given that, after lots of things that subsequently go very wrong, it ends in bloody horror, we wouldn't argue with that. Go see something truly original, when our cinemas open again, or get the DVD
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Thursday  Given the number of euros relying on mega German exhibitions it is unsurprising that the business community there cant wait for the lockdown to end 
 To this end they have deemed that exhibitions are not classified as the "mass gatherings" that.many people think they are, since this classification remains banned in Germany until the end of August. Taking them out of the classification means that they could be running before then. (Exhibition World)
 Of course there will have to be some stringent regulations regarding health and safety in place, which may put many visitors off attending, especially those from overseas who, understandably, may not want to mix and mingle with many others from overseas. They may indeed prefer to not fly there in an aircraft with lots of other people's breath circulating around the cabin via the air conditioning. Or on a train where it will also be very difficult to maintain the social distancing that we are told is saving thousands of lives.
 Another fine messe, then?
  
 Friday  Publicans in the UK have had their licences to trade revoked, or have been served Prohibition Notices for flouting the lockdown measures.
 Police caught The Pendulum in Blaydon Road, Wolverhampton open last month and serving alcohol to customers, and its licence to trade was revoked. Prohibition Notices requiring pubs in the Rotherham area to close were served on the Red Lion at Wath, the Westville at West Melton and the Cutlers at North Anston.
 For our money the customers supporting the pub to break the law are just as guilty as the landlord, and hopefully will be organising a collection to compensate for the lost livelihood. Could it be they listened to, and were in agreement with a certain father of our PM who told the world "If I want to go to the pub, I'll go to the pub"?
  
 Saturday  The re-opening of 500 Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) fast food outlets has brought with it a racy plea from the firm, we hear.
 Noting that some intelligent customers were throwing used KFC branded packaging out of car windows they tweeted the polite request "Don't be a tosser".
 Now that's communication&hellip;   
FOODIE NEWS

 o One new service launched  early this year and delivering gourmet food is One Fine Dine, the brainchild of Daniel Hulme at On Air Dining, which specialises in supplying very high quality food to the private jet market. For event organisers this could be a way of treating those valued clients it is not currently possible to take out to a top restaurant during the lockdown.
 Food ordered from One Fine Dine is delivered cooked and chilled and with instructions, printed or on video, on how to finish it off in a microwave and arrange and serve it up "like a masterchef" so that it looks great on the plate and starts the "eat with the eyes, nose and mouth" sequence. For simplicity of choice there is an extensive set menu for &pound;59.95 for three courses, &pound;49.95 for two. This offers eight cold starters, including Scottish and smoked salmon choices, Cromer crab salad, duck and chicken liver parfait and vegetarian Scotch quail's egg, all supplied with appropriate accompaniments.
 Nine main courses include rack of lamb, duck breast, chicken ballantine, sea bass and salt-baked celeriac, and a beef fillet option carries a &pound;9 supplement charge, with a Wagyu Beef option an extra &pound;45, all supplied with appropriate vegetables. Eleven desserts include several for chocolate lovers, tiramisu, apple pie, honey and orange sponge, roasted pineapple and cheesecakes. In addition three pre-starter canapes can be supplied for &pound;7.50, and three post-dessert petit fours for &pound;6.50, to start and finish in style 
 From the two-course set menu we tried two of the mains. The line caught wild sea bass was a generous portion of two large fillets and came with cauliflower puree, wilted spinach, crispy polenta cubes -  a healthy alternative to potato - and a tangy fresh French sauce vierge of lemon, capers, tomato and coriander, which, for our money, would go well with any fish. The Gressingham duck breast was also a large, lean portion and came with artichoke puree, a very tasty duck croquette stuffed with leg meat, fine beans cooked firmly al dente, char-grilled artichoke, six sweet grilled cherry tomatoes and duck jus for pouring over. We would have been just as happy if the duck breast had come with a decent layer of wonderful tasting and probably deeply unhealthy duck fat, and found that our own teriyaki sauce with roast sesame seeds also made a very sweet and tasty addition to the duck. We also tried two of the desserts, on different nights as the mains were so filling, and enjoyed the rich old-fashionedness of a Granny Smith lattice-topped apple pie with piquant blackberry compote and some vanilla-flavoured Creme Anglaise pouring custard, and the sweet orange and honey steamed sponge with a fragrant thyme crumble and more vanilla custard.     
 As well as the set menu there is also a massive, 58 page a la carte menu detailing hundreds of items including breakfasts, lunches, dinners, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free choices, soups, pastas, salads, sandwiches, sharing platters, and Arabic, Japanese, Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, Thai and Russian dishes.
 Currently there is a delivery charge of &pound;29.95 for London deliveries within the M25 and this covers from 1-4 meals delivered to the same address in the same box. Other UK areas are subject to quote. Tel 020 3733 2303 email orders@onefinedine.com
 Note. Our food, and a bottle of white wine, was kindly supplied on a complimentary basis for review by One Fine Dine.
  
 o  An interesting survey by London foodie newsletter Hot Dinners asked 1,500 diners which London restaurants they were most looking forward to visiting, once the lockdown was over, and the top twenty, in descending order are below.

 Hawksmoor   433
 The Ivy   223
 Dishoom   345
 Brat   554
 Gymkhana   544
 Blacklock   344
 Quality Chop House   444
 Kiln   544
 Rules    335
 Savoy Grill   233
 Le Gavroche   454
 Aqua Shard   114
 Bao   433
 Flat Iron   444
 Mildreds   333
 Benares   222
 Padella   543
 Smoking Goat   544
 Brasserie Zedel   235
 Moro   332

 When the list is augmented with scores in the Harden's Restaurant Guide it seems that it isn't the food that some respondents are looking forward to going back for. The three figure scores above represent, in order, the Harden's reporter's evaluation of the food quality, the service and the ambience of the restaurants, in comparison with others in the same price bracket. A five denotes "Exceptional", a four "Very Good", a three "Good", a two "Average" and a one "Poor" So top choices for food lovers would be Brat, Gymkhana, Kiln, Padella and Smoking Goat, this last on the ground floor below the first floor Brat.
 On a lighter note Hot Dinners also published the fast food chains respondents were most looking forward to visiting after the lockdown and these were, in descending order below.

 Nandos
 McDonalds
 Wagamama
 Pizza Express
 KFC

 This writer's personal choices? Dim Sum and/or noodle dishes in London's Chinatown or at Royal China in Baker Street, and KFC

 NEXT ISSUE
 As buffets become a thing of the past in hotels many guests resort to collecting an in-room spread from the nearest fast food outlet... An ongoing virtual exhibition of all German suppliers in all categories, saving visitors the travel and accommodation costs, and the risks, takes off in Germany. Visitors ask "Whyever didn't they do this before?"... visitors to pubs illegally open during lockdown are fined for flouting distancing rules and lying too close together on the floor... KFCs "Don't be a tosser" sweeps the board at the annual advertising awards. Judges praise the firm's "intimate understanding of the language that reaches its market"... and much, much more...
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ARE YOU COMMUNICATING REGULARLY WITH YOUR TARGET MARKET?  SG7 Web Solutions email this Event Organisers Update newsletter every month to a list of  event organisers supplied by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). We receive the copy, check it, email it out to the list and send prompts advising recipients that their newsletter is residing in their inboxes. We also maintain the list, adding new subscribers and deleting unsubscribers.
 Could we do something like this for you?  We can handle any size of email list, and, as a small company based in Baldock, Herts, offer a friendly five-star mailing out service for two-star prices. Like a quote for your work? Contact Mark Ely by email at mark.ely@sg7.biz , or telephone on  07415865943, and start saving money on your customer communications. 
 Publisher's Note  The above is an example of our new Announcement advertisement. If you have a product, service, venue or event of interest to event organisers you can promote it as above for &pound;30 for up to 150 words. Contact Peter Cotterell on 01767 312986 or peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk for details and to book.
  
 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    Society of Event Organisers  29a Market Square, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 8AQ  Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - %%emailaddress%%  If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  %%unsubscribelink%%    %%emailaddress%% Subscription Options  Click here to update your details    Subscribe   eou.org.uk
 Newsletter distributed by SG7.biz for Society of Event Organisers





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			<title>Event Organisers Update April 2020 ISSUE 185</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update April 2020 ISSUE 185</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Thu, 30 Apr 2020 08:49:02 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update April 2020 ISSUE 185</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update April 2020 ISSUE 185 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
 To %%[001] Name%%

 
 %%emailaddress%%  Unsubscribe


 
 
Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 EVENTS IN THE FRAME  As the events industry lobbies our government for more financial support, and claims to be able to "kickstert the economy" when the current virus crisis is over, some events are being blamed for helping to kickstart the coronavirus in the early days of the worsening pandemic.
 A Champion's League football match at Anfield between Liverpool FC and Spanish team Atletico Madrid was allowed to go ahead on March 11. Around 3,000 Atletico fans were allowed to travel from Spain to join 49,000 spectators at the match and circulate in the city's pubs bars and restaurants. These Spanish fans were not being allowed to watch matches at home, due to the escalating virus crisis in Spain and the possibility that some might have Covid 19 and pass it on to others. On March 14, three days after the match, Spain imposed a nationwide lockdown and in Britain mass gatherings, including major sporting events were suspended. The mayors of Liverpool and Madrid both described the decision for the match to go ahead as "absurd" and "senseless" and Liverpool's  mayor Joe Anderson has commissioned a wide ranging public inquiry into any link between the Spanish fans coming to Liverpool and any increase in the number of infections and deaths.
 The four day Cheltenham Festival of horseracing went ahead from March 10 to March 13 this year and attracted 251,684 visitors from the UK and Southern Ireland. According to The Times newspaper hundreds of visitors to the event said they had developed Covid 19 symptoms. Virus expert and deputy chief medical officer professor Jonathan Van-Tam had already advised the events industry and the government, that there was "no clear rationale for closing events", this in a conference call on March 2, eight days before Cheltenham. On other March days prior to Cheltenham the professor was advising the public to continue to visit shopping centres and football matches. On March 16, three days after the last day at Cheltenham our government advised against large gatherings and imposed a lockdown on March 23, ten days after Cheltenham.
 The festival sees hundreds of millions of pounds bet on races over the week, so big losers in a cancellation would have been the bookies. It is also famous for the "Cheltenham roar", the enormous amount of cheering from the crowd at the first race of the festival and possibly an ideal opportunity for spectators to get a lethal lungful of the airbourne killer.
  
 CARE WITH VIDEOCONFERENCING  Police are warning those running videoconferences, using popular tools such as Zoom, about a new malicious manifestation dubbed "Zoom Bombing".
 This is where some sick individual joins a videoconference as a unknown participant and then displays disgusting and distressing images, such as child pornography. Police are issuing advice, particularly essential to those who may not be completely familiar with the technology they are using. This covers the use of passwords and "waiting rooms" as well as restriction of invitations and the recording of videoconferences, with the participant's permission, to pass to the police should any criminal activity take place.
 See the Zoom website for more information. 
  
 POPULARITY CRASH  With tax exile Sir Richard Branson begging the British tax-payer for millions to bail out his airline the formerly-high public esteem for him has slipped.
 Now other airlines are underwhelming their customers by delaying refunds for flights that have had to be cancelled, behaviour that consumer group Which? says is against the law. According to the Denied Boarding Regulations any passenger who suffers a cancelled flight within the legal time frame and who was flying from an EU or UK airport on an airline based in the EU or UK should be refunded within seven days. However Which? found that not one of the UK's ten largest airlines is complying.
 At Michael O'Blarney's Ryanair passengers are told to either accept a voucher valid for twelve months or join a queue to have the refund paid "when the coronavirus outbreak has passed". And at trustworthy British Airways some passengers, unable to complete refund forms online, have been directed to a busy telephone line that "is often not answered".
  
 AN ACE FOR WIMBLEDON?  The All England Lawn Tennis Club, which cancelled their Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon last month due to the coronavirus pandemic, is understood to have insurance against this eventuality and to be submitting a claim "in excess of &pound;100 million".
 The club has always had substantial insurance against rain stopping play, thought to cost around &pound;1.5 million, but in 2003, after an outbreak of SARS they had a clause covering cancellation due to a pandemic added. According to some reports "some brokers would have thrown it in for next to nothing" at the time.
  
 SILVER LINING FOR MARRIOTT?  A mega fine imposed on luxury hotel group Marriott could be drastically revised because of the current virus crisis.
 Marriott was fined &pound;100 million by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in July 2019 in respect of a serious cyber breach of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). This was the exposure of 339 million guest records globally, self-reported by Marriott, in which 7 million related to their UK customers. Both parties agreed to an extension of three months for the fine to be paid, this added to the statutory six months allowed for the ICO to serve the fine. This total meant that the fine had to be served by March 31 this year.
 However on March 31 Marriott International disclosed that they had suffered another cyber-attack in February that exposed an "unforseen amount" of personal information about 5.2 million Marriott guests, this being one of dozens of attacks on various businesses designed to reveal personal details, attacks thought to be by cyber criminals taking advantage of the current pandemic.
 There is a legal view that should any fines be imposed on Marriott by a public body that failed to take into account the Covid 19 emergency and its current and future effect on Marriott's finances, the imposition of those fines could be vulnerable to an appeal, or a successful application for a judicial review.
  
 ART ON YOUR SCREEN  One interesting aspect of the lockdown is the number of art galleries that, unable to open for visitors, are putting their exhibitions online, Tate Britain with a presentation of its Aubrey Beardsley event being just one example.
 Through this art lovers can learn that the decadent Beardsley was an enfant terrible of the Victorian art scene, shocking many with his erotic and exquisite black pen and ink drawings for Oscar Wilde's Salome, as well as pornographic renditions for the Yellow Book that more than touched on the Japanese art of Shunga. Sadly Beardsley was doomed to a short but prolific seven-year career, in which short time he became world - famous before tragically dying of tuberculosis in 1898 at the young age of 25.
 For this art fan the virtual approach has a number of benefits, beyond just being free. One can enjoy the pictures without someone walking in front of them, or taking a selfie with them, and one can pause the film and study the picture for as long as it takes. The same applies to the wealth of material on youtube.
 Question is, with all these benefits will art lovers want to go back to visiting galleries again when the lockdown is over?
  
 BUY BETTER AT AMAZON  With the closure of the High Street online firms such as Amazon are hoovering up many more millions, so a recent Channel 4 documentary "The Truth About Amazon" was a good watch.
 For those who are happy to financially support the UK tax-avoiding giant there were some interesting insights into saving money by ordering high ticket items from Amazon's overseas websites, which can be cheaper. In one example given a customer who admitted trusting Amazon totally had her eyes opened with the revelation that by ordering the washing machine she wanted from Amazon Germany she was able to pay &pound;121 less for it.
 Viewers were also shown how apps such as Keepa can help keep track of price changes by Amazon and identifying the best time to buy.
  
 ZU WARRIORS FROM THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN  For a film fan mostly into documentaries, comedies, dramas and film noir the above title didn't seem to promise much, but the reviews we saw were generally positive, so we played it.
 It's a 1983 fairy tale fantasy adventure from Hong Kong cinema about warring tribes, heroes, heroines and evil spirits to be vanquished in Tang Dynasty China, directed by Tsui Hark. It stars some well-known and experienced figures of the Asian action genre - such as Yuen Biao, Adam Cheng, Brigette Lin, Sammo Hung and Mang Hoi - as well as being the debut action film for the fresh-faced Hong Kong actress and dancer Moon Lee, 18 at the time but made up to look older, who went on to feature in more than 40 mostly action films and 400+ episodes of TV series over nearly two decades.  
 The plot is well-nigh impossible to follow so we stopped trying and instead enjoyed the dazzlingly choreographed swordfights, where no one seems to suffer as much as a nick, the tongue in cheek humour, the ground-breaking Hollywood-style special FX, the balletic wirework with Brigette Lin's lovely Ice Queen and her lovely fairy protectors sashaying sinuously all over the screen, brilliant art design and an epic score. Eventually the comic book heroes come up against the evil Blood Devil from the Dark Side and badly need the help of a man with mile-long eyebrows and the magic Dual Swords.........
 Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain is being released in Blu-ray format this month by Eureka Entertainment as part of its Eureka Classics range. The pack also contains a wealth of extras, including the 93 minute export cut of the film produced for European theatres, new audio commentary, an episode of Son of the Incredibly Strange Film Show (which aired on British TV in 1989), a 2020 interview with director Tsui Hark and archival interviews with Yuen Biao, Mang Hoi and Moon Lee
  
 KWAIDAN  A very different Asian production called Kwaidan (ghost stories) came from Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi in 1965.
 Sometimes described as a "horror anthology" this is in fact a collection of four separate and unrelated Japanese folk tales that concentrate on being hypnotic, spooky and beautiful, rather than gore-fests, which means they are thought-provoking rather than shocking. The films were shot in an aircraft hangar, even a battle scene on a lake, and featured beautiful hand-painted sets and some ghostly scores with natural and electronic music.
 o  The Black Hair  tells of a young Samurai warrior  who cruelly dumped his beautiful and devoted wife, who slaved over a loom to help him with a small income and left  to marry a new wife from a rich family. Over time the young man found his new partner to be hard and selfish and came to regret his bad decision as he was haunted by the memories of the blameless woman with the long, shiny black hair he had so badly wronged. Eventually he decided to go back to her and beg forgiveness. As he entered his old house on the night he returned he saw her, still sitting at her loom and so overjoyed to see him that they talked till dawn and then lay happily in each other&rsquo;s arms until the Samurai fell asleep. When he awoke he found to his horror that the ecstatic reconciliation was an illusion, and that what he thought was his wife was...........
 o  Woman of the Snow,  this writer's favourite, tells of a beautiful but deadly female spirit who appears to two woodcutters sheltering from a snowstorm and kills the older one of them with her frosty breath, leaving him drained of all his blood, but sparing the other because of his youth and good looks. However she tells him she will kill him if he ever tells anyone about her, and he believes her because of the utter cruelty in the eyes set in a beautiful face. As the years pass he meets and erotically enjoys a lovely and kind young woman who he marries and who gives him a number of children, though she never seems to get a day older. One day, as he looks at her in some candlelight he is struck by her resemblance to the snow spirit and starts to tell her the story, at which she furiously turns and reveals who she really is....... 
 o  Hoichi the Earless concerns a blind player of the biwa, a short-necked pear-shaped lute, whose speciality is chanting tales of ancient battles. He is visited by the ghost of an ancient Samurai warrior who was killed in the battle of Dan-No-Ura who instructs him to come and play his chant of this battle at the court of his dead master and his court of ghosts but to tell no-one. Hoichi. obeys and slips out regularly to play and chant but is soon discovered by friends at the temple where he is an attendant, who follow him one night. They tell Hooch that he is in considerable danger from the spirits, who will tear him to pieces now their secret is out, so they cover his body and face with holy texts that make those parts of the body invisible to the ghosts, but neglect to protect his ears, hence the title...
 o  In a Cup of Tea  is about an author and attendant to a Lord who looks into the teacup served to him at a teahouse and sees a stranger's face looking at him. Convinced he is seeing things he drinks the tea anyway. Later, when the attendant is guarding his Lord the man in the tea appears again, spooking him this time and causing him to run in fright and tell the other attendants, who laugh and tell him he is seeing things. At home later the attendant is visited by three ghostly attendants of teacup man who he fights and is almost defeated. The tale finishes at this point and viewers are told they can write their own ending. However it ends when the attendant's publisher arrives to find his author and flees in terror when he does...
 Kwaidan has been released in Blu-ray format by Eureka Entertainment as part of The Masters of Cinema series. It is a Limited Edition set of only 3,000 copies and is the original 183-minute Japanese cut - in some countries the film was butchered to shorten it by omitting the Woman of the Snow segment. The pack includes a new interview with film critic and writer Kim Hunter, a new 35-minute video essay, Shadowings, by David Cairns and Fiona Watson and a 100-page illustrated collector's book. 
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Monday  Sad it was to hear that the amazingly rich owners of the Daily Telegraph and the 114 years old Ritz Hotel in London's Piccadilly only made a profit of around &pound;680 million on the hotel's recent sale.
 Co-owner of the iconic property Sir Frederick Barclay bought it with his brother Sir David Barclay for &pound;80 million nearly twenty five years ago, in 1995, and spent &pound;40 million on its refurbishment, a total of &pound;120 million  Early last month Sir Frederick claimed that he would not sell it for less than &pound;1 billion and that there had been "a number of competing offers for this first class hotel in excess of &pound;1 billion".
 Sadly it seems the number of buyers at this price level have failed to materialise and it has now been reported that a figure "close to &pound;800 million" was paid by a relative of the Qatari royal family, Abdulhadi Mana Al-Hajri, on March 25. If the old calculation that money doubles in value every seven years still holds, based on historical inflation figures, then the crudely calculated worth of Ritz would be &pound;1.37 billion.
  
 Wednesday  Health ministers on opposite sides of the world have come across as hypocritical in the coronavirus lockdown they are urging us all to honour, and save lives.
 In Scotland the chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood was caught making non-essential trips to her second home, an hours drive from her main domicile in Edinburgh, after which she resigned. And over in New Zealand the health minister has admitted driving to a nearby park to go mountain biking, and driving twelve miles to a beach to take a walk with his family. "I've been an idiot" he said, as he was demoted, but not sacked, by New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.
 More "Do as we say, not as we do" from our trusted health experts it seems.
  
 Thursday  Meanwhile another interesting view of the Covid 19 tragedy and the lockdown comes from Boris Johnson's father, Stanley.
 Appearing on the ITV This Morning programme after some vitally important travel to get there our 79 year old Stanley reportedly claimed that "If I want to go to the pub, I'll go to the pub" despite the advice from the British government's Boris Johnson to avoid places such as pubs and clubs where it would be impossible to socially distance, a few days later all pubs and clubs were closed. Our Stan also apparantly said that he wanted everyone to get the potentially fatal disease to "get it over with".
 Now there's a good role model for us all...
FOODIE NEWS

 o Online newsletter Hot Dinners is still doing a much-appreciated job in reporting on sources of food that can be delivered in the London area. A recent example was a list of around 12 offering freshly made pastas, including crayfish and prawn tortelloni, ravioli with goats curd, honey and hazelnuts, lasagna with oxtail ragu, vegan pea and mint ravioli and squid ink linguine. Additionally covered by Hot Dinners in the past month has been where to get the best delivered cheese, chocolate, vegan and vegetarian treats and Sunday lunches.
 Customers can also send dishes to friends and relatives.
  
 o  Meanwhile for us folk in the Biggleswade area our local best Indian restaurant, Biggles Lounge is keeping going offering its dishes for home delivery, so we are ordering some to eat straight away, and more for the freezer, as we want our friends there around when the current crisis is finally over.
 Favourite dishes we are enjoying delivered to our door are the prawn bhuna and lamb rogan (&pound;8. 50), tandoori mixed grill of chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, sheek kebab and lamb tikka (&pound;13), tandoori king prawns (&pound;14) chicken mango delight with mango, cream and coconut (&pound;12), vegetable shathkora cooked with lime fruits (&pound;7) and deshi biriani with chicken or lamb (&pound;12).

 NEXT ISSUE
 Organisers of some large sporting events thank deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam for his wise guidance that let them go ahead... Airlines explain why they would rather break the law than give refunds on flights they cancel... Marriott explain why their systems are so vulnerable to cyber-attack... The very rich Barclays make it clear that the &pound;800 million they have reportedly accepted for the Ritz Hotel excludes breakfast... Prime Minister Boris Johnson denies that he ever told his father Stanley "I love you dearly, Dad, but sometimes you talk like a total twat"... and much, much more...
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ARE YOU COMMUNICATING REGULARLY WITH YOUR TARGET MARKET?  SG7 Web Solutions email this Event Organisers Update newsletter every month to a list of  event organisers supplied by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). We receive the copy, check it, email it out to the list and send prompts advising recipients that their newsletter is residing in their inboxes. We also maintain the list, adding new subscribers and deleting unsubscribers.
 Could we do something like this for you?  We can handle any size of email list, and, as a small company based in Baldock, Herts, offer a friendly five-star mailing out service for two-star prices. Like a quote for your work? Contact Mark Ely by email at mark.ely@sg7.biz , or telephone on  07415865943, and start saving money on your customer communications. 
 Publisher's Note  The above is an example of our new Announcement advertisement. If you have a product, service, venue or event of interest to event organisers you can promote it as above for &pound;30 for up to 150 words. Contact Peter Cotterell on 01767 312986 or peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk for details and to book.
  
 MORE FREE NEWSLETTERS

 Exhibitor Update for all those who exhibit. eou.org.uk
 Association News (AN) for all those who associate. associationnews.org.uk



 


 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    Society of Event Organisers  29a Market Square, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 8AQ  Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - %%emailaddress%%  If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  %%unsubscribelink%%    %%emailaddress%% Subscription Options  Click here to update your details    Subscribe   eou.org.uk
 Newsletter distributed by SG7.biz for Society of Event Organisers





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			<title>Event Organisers Update March 2020 ISSUE 184</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update March 2020 ISSUE 184</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Tue, 31 Mar 2020 12:12:02 +0100</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update March 2020 ISSUE 184</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update March 2020 ISSUE 184 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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 %%emailaddress%%  Unsubscribe


 
 
Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 OUR EVENTS INDUSTRY  It's a very tough call.
 Thousands of events worldwide must be cancelled or postponed because of the risk of giving the invisible killer the chance to be transmitted from one human being to another and kill more. Starving the virus of human hosts to infect and possibly kill is the only way to prevent massive loss of life until an effective vaccine appears, perhaps in a year.
 To achieve the minimum people contact to save lives, and to give the NHS time to re-arm and re-equip for the expected thousands needing hospital treatment we are all being told to stay indoors, except to take exercise or shop for essential food or medicine. And then we all have to keep a social distance of at least 2 metres from each other, more if possible, and not gather in groups of more than two, unless family. How can you run an event, any kind of event, with those vital rules? Meanwhile non-essential shops, pubs, libraries, cinemas museums, art galleries etc have all been forced to shut. Restaurants too, unless for take-away and delivery. How long can they survive on that level of trade?
 For our part we are continuing to write and publish our little newsletter, although we cannot visit restaurants, cinemas, museums or art galleries to write reviews, the most enjoyable part of the job. The news pages will continue, and we can still run film reviews from films supplied by our friends at Eureka Entertainment, and from our own extensive collection of DVD films collected over the years. Readers can also access films on Netflix and You Tube, and get second hand DVD and Blu-ray copies posted from the thousands offered by CEX, our own main source, with a &pound;1.95 post and packing charge per item. (Was &pound;1.50 until they had to close all their shops a few days ago).
 Stay safe and happy.
  
 NEW RISK TO INSURE  The organisers of a US music festival cancelled because of coronavirus have confirmed that their event insurance policy did not cover them for the cancellation.
 Organiser Roland Swenson of the South by Southwest music festival due to take place in Austin, Texas earlier this month told the Austin Chronicle newspaper that their policy did not cover loss due to "bacterial infections, communicable diseases, viruses and pandemics".
 It is thought that very few policies available currently include this coverage, because the risk is not fully understood and very difficult to price. One product, PathogenRX was launched two years ago and covers companies hit by a disease outbreak in the USA and Asia. However, sales until recently have been slow as it was perceived as expensive given the risk. Now with the eventuality more likely the insurers are witnessing a sharp rise in demand. 
 Reportedly by CNN the number of disease outbreaks is increasing and factors affecting this are increased human contact with wild animals (as natural habitats are destroyed to create agricultural land) the speed and frequency of global travel and the concentration of people in cities. It is thought that, for the future, coronavirus outbreaks could happen every 25 or 50 years, with other disease outbreaks such as malaria, cholera and ebola occurring more frequently.
  
 EXCEL BECOMES HOSPITAL  One way to deal with the expected hospitalisation of thousands for COVID 19 is to set up large temporary field hospitals and to this end the Excel Exhibition and Conference Centre in London's Docklands is to be converted to the Nightingale Hospital, specialising in treating the virus and offering two wards of 2,000 beds each. The NHS also has an arrangement with private UK hospitals that will give them 20,000 staff, 8,000 beds and 1,200 ventilators.
 There have additionally been reports that the Queen Elizabeth 2 Conference Centre in Westminster, and exhibition/conference venues in Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow will be converted to field hospitals to help cope with the crisis.
  
 NEW LUXURY FOR LONDON  The Old War Office in Whitehall, London, where Winston Churchill oversaw World War Two, is to be converted into a seven-floor luxury hotel.
 Opening in 2022 this will offer 125 rooms and will be called the OWO, using the initials of the Old War Office.
 The OWO is to be run by the Raffles Group and is set to incorporate boutique retailers, a spa, bars and nine restaurants. It will also include 85 luxury residences run by the Raffles Group in partnership with the Hinduja Group.
  
 JOJO RABBIT  The effect of WW2 on a 10-year-old German boy, Johannes "JoJo" Betzler, is the theme of this quirky, satirical and heart-warming film which has been in UK cinemas for a few months.
 This has scored a healthy 80% positive reviews from the critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website, and an impressive 94% from cinema audiences, suggesting that an unhealthy 15% or so of critics are out of touch with their market and wouldn't know a good film if it jumped up and broke wind at them, which is essentially what JoJo Rabbit does, and we personally loved it for that.
 JoJo (Roman Griffin Davis) is an innocent, sweet and compassionate boy in 1944 Berlin who wants to be a heroic Nazi and joins the Hitlerjugend as soon as he is able. It is at the Hitler Youth camp, under the watchful eye of the one-eyed Wehrmacht officer Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell) that JoJo is ordered to strangle a harmless bunny to prove how nasty a Nazi he can be. Well he can't, and tries to release it, leaving some young Nazi thugs to gleefully snap its neck, and picking up the jeering "JoJo Rabbit" nickname from the others there, apart from his friend, Yorki. (Archie Yates). After this JoJo is injured by a carelessly thrown hand grenade and spends the rest of the war on menial, non-combatative duties.
 However JoJo has other friends.  He has an imaginary one who pops up to give him bad advice from time to time (the film's director, Taika Waititi) who looks and sounds like a chummy Adolph Hitler. His Mum, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson), a secret member of the Resistance, gives him much good advice and risks her life hiding a beautiful young Jewish girl, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) in their attic, for JoJo to find. Having been indoctrinated into believing Jews were monsters JoJo is initially wary, but over time an affection develops, even though, or perhaps because, Elsa tells him: "You're not a Nazi, JoJo. You're a ten-year-old kid who likes dressing up in a funny uniform and wants to be part of a club."
 As events move on the film becomes much more bittersweet, with a tear-jerking tragedy, a funny cameo of an oily Gestapo officer (Stephen Merchant) and a shocking and seriously affecting ending involving the charismatic Klenzendorf, which we won&rsquo;t spoil by revealing. Go see, and enjoy.
  
 RIO GRANDE  Top director John Ford made three fine Westerns featuring the US cavalry fighting native Americans and starring John Wayne, all supported by character actor Victor McLaglen. These were Fort Apache in 1948, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon in 1948 and Rio Grande in 1950, the first pairing of the Duke with the flashing-eyed Maureen O'Hara. The first two were shot amid the stirring the Rio Grande's Monument Valley, Utah and this one around Moab, Utah, a smaller version of the Valley and with the Colorado River standing in for the Grande.
 This is the river that Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke (Wayne) must cross into Mexico to pursue marauding Apaches that have captured a group of fort children, holding them in a church. Yorke's life is further complicated by the arrival of a son he hasn't seen for 15 years - Jefferson Yorke played by Claude Jarmanj Junior -  and who has flunked out of college at West Point and enlisted in the Army as one of 18 recruits sent to Dad Yorke's regiment, where he is determined to stay and be treated like a regular soldier. Just as determined that he won&rsquo;t is his mother Kathleen, Yorke's estranged wife played by Maureen O'Hara, who has come to take him home, but he refuses to go.
 Throughout Rio Grande there are contrasting moments of excitement and calm.  As well as the fighting there is some seriously skilful "Roman Riding" or featuring riders standing up with one foot on the backs of each of two racing horses. And calmer moments come when on almost enough occasions to make the film a musical melodic cowboy singing breaks out, such as when Mr and Mrs Yorke are serenaded to the strains of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" a moment some will find deeply affecting, and some just a tad mawkish. However, it is a step on the road to the Yorke's reconciliation, so all's well&hellip;
 Rio Grande is being released on April 6 in a new Blu-ray edition by Eureka Entertainment as part of their Masters of Cinema series. Included in the pack are two audio commentaries, a video essay, an archival documentary, an archival featurette and a 50-page collector's booklet including two new essays, a transcript of an interview with director John Ford and the 1947 short story Mission With No Record by James Warner Bellah, on which Rio Grande was based.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Wednesday  The deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, has advised event organisers in a conference call that there will be no ban on live events and other large-scale mass gatherings in the UK, and said that there was "no clear rationale" for closing events in an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, despite events being banned in Switzerland, Italy and France.
 Professor Van-Tam's excellent and heart-warming advice was published by events magazine Access All Areas in a press release dated Wednesday March 4. Later, on March 8 the good Professor told the people of Norfolk not to avoid Norwich, going shopping or to football matches. And on March 10 that it was "perfectly safe" for the people of Yorkshire to visit their Meadowhall shopping centre in Leeds, and other crowded places, such as York station.
 A few days later the picture was very different as hundreds of events were sadly cancelled or postponed, and people sensibly avoided going shopping, going to football matches and to any busy places. And staying home as much as possible and keeping two metres away from others when out.
 "Misinformation is our greatest enemy as we work to contain the virus" says the good Prof.
  
 Thursday  Reportedly a doctor in Russia has been encouraging folk there to visit crowded churches, saying that they can't possibly pick up the virus in a holy place.
 Apparently, many folks are taking her advice so that they can be "close to their God."
 Don't go there.
FOODIE NEWS

 o With most of us now looking for delivery of food and meals a London-based foodie newsletter, Hot Dinners, is becoming an excellent information source.
 The current issue has a section for London's best food shops and restaurants that deliver, which includes offers from them.
 We'll raise a glass to editor Catherine Hanly.
 Meanwhile for food and meals delivery in other parts of the UK we will publish our reader's recommendations

 NEXT ISSUE
 The Raffles Group deny that their new hotel name was to use Winston Churchill's initials&hellip; Deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam explains why his medical advice supports so many large commercial ventures and why he keeps getting it dangerously wrong&hellip; A doctor in Russia tests positive for coronavirus after visiting a safe crowded church&hellip; and much, much more&hellip;
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ARE YOU COMMUNICATING REGULARLY WITH YOUR TARGET MARKET?  SG7 Web Solutions email this Event Organisers Update newsletter every month to a list of  event organisers supplied by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). We receive the copy, check it, email it out to the list and send prompts advising recipients that their newsletter is residing in their inboxes. We also maintain the list, adding new subscribers and deleting unsubscribers.
 Could we do something like this for you?  We can handle any size of email list, and, as a small company based in Baldock, Herts, offer a friendly five-star mailing out service for two-star prices. Like a quote for your work? Contact Mark Ely by email at mark.ely@sg7.biz , or telephone on  07415865943, and start saving money on your customer communications. 
 Publisher's Note  The above is an example of our new Announcement advertisement. If you have a product, service, venue or event of interest to event organisers you can promote it as above for &pound;30 for up to 150 words. Contact Peter Cotterell on 01767 312986 or peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk for details and to book.
  
 MORE FREE NEWSLETTERS

 Exhibitor Update for all those who exhibit. eou.org.uk
 Association News (AN) for all those who associate. associationnews.org.uk



 


 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    Society of Event Organisers  29a Market Square, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 8AQ  Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - %%emailaddress%%  If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  %%unsubscribelink%%    %%emailaddress%% Subscription Options  Click here to update your details    Subscribe   eou.org.uk
 Newsletter distributed by SG7.biz for Society of Event Organisers





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			<title>Event Organisers Update February 2020 ISSUE 183</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update February 2020 ISSUE 183</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Sat, 29 Feb 2020 18:56:02 +0000</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update February 2020 ISSUE 183</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update February 2020 ISSUE 183 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
 To %%[001] Name%%

 
 %%emailaddress%%  Unsubscribe


 
 
Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 STUPID PEOPLE  It is upsetting to hear of racist attacks in the UK on Chinese people over the coronavirus .
 The people can't help their government, any more than any people can, and it is their government that suppressed vital facts about the outbreak and did too little, too late
 Meanwhile owners of  restaurants in Chinatown, London are suffering a current loss of business as some of their customers decide, perhaps understandably, not to take the risk of contact with Chinese people, at this time. For us it is always the sign of a good Chinese restaurant if it is full of Chinese diners.
 The latest blow to Chinatown's Chinese restaurants, that they really don't need, has come from restaurant group Pachamama which is opening a restaurant, Yiu Fat Noodle in Newport Court, Chinatown later this year. To promote it ahead of opening the group saw fit to hand the area the worst possible racist insult, a claim that many Chinese chefs there use rat meat in their dishes. Pachamama's newsletter, sent out to celebrate the new Year of the Rat, stated "unlike many China Town restaurants, we intend to celebrate the rat, not catch it, kill it and mix it into a bowl of steaming noodles!"
 Challenged on this by the editor of the Hot Dinners publication Pachamama backed down and issued an apology, stating that they would be "heartbroken to think we offended anyone" , that the claim was "tongue in cheek" and the product of their "fun-loving team" and that they "could understand how this might not have come across as intended" for which "we can only apologise deeply."
 Sadly the damage has been done and Pachamama's founder and managing director Iska Narzi, and his fun-loving team, need to seriously look at how they might make amends, before some unfairly defamed Chinese chefs think a class libel action against his group might be a good starting point.
  
 RACIST CORONAVIRUS ATTACK IN BIRMINGHAM  A trainee lawyer was punched to the ground after she tried to stop her Chinese friend being racially abused by one of  a group of Asian men.
 The attacker called the Chinese woman, Mandy Huang,28, a "dirty c---" and told her "take your f------ coronavirus back home"  Meera Solenka, 28, who was celebrating her 29th birthday on Saturday February 28th at the Ana Roaha Bar and Gallery on Frederick Street, Birmingham tried to stop the abuse and the man punched her to the ground, leaving her needing hospital treatment for concussion and a week off work.
 Reports of coronavirus violence have already emerged from York, Newcastle and Manchester.
  
 CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) IMPACTS
 o  A major conference and exhibition, the Mobile World Congress due to take place in Barcelona, Spain later this month has been cancelled by its organisers, citing fears that it could speed the spread of the coronavirus. The event, which was hit by 40 exhibitors pulling out, was expected to host more than 100,000 delegates, including 6,000 from China, and 2,400 businesses from more than 200 countries.
 o  Italy has seen the largest rise in European cases with 220 infections and six deaths. The authorities there have banned gatherings and put parts of the Lombardy and Veneto regions on lockdown.
 o  Trade Show News in the USA has reported that major US shows are "forging ahead amidst coronavirus outbreak" although some are taking "extra precautions."
  
 NICE LITTLE EARNERS  Some BBC presenters have come under attack for the lucrative fees they command to participate in events, and the threat to their impartiality.
 According to reports in the Times, Radio 4 Today programme presenter Mishail Hussain has been paid to take part in at least ten private events organised by the Norwegian oil and gas industry, working as a moderator. Another is Jon Sopel, the BBC's North American editor who has appeared as a hired speaker for tobacco company Phillip Morris International and bankers J.P.Morgan.
 The concern for many, and perhaps the BBC, will be the question of what the companies booking the presenters will be expecting for their financial support, thought to be up to &pound;25,000 a time. Will they be looking for reciprocal support, or silence, if they are attacked by others at the BBC, or in the press? And doesn't the payment to BBC presenters undermine the impartiality they will want to bring to the table?
 The BBC's presenters are currently not required to declare their earners in any kind of "register of interests" to allow public scrutiny and establish transparency, despite pressure from MPs.
  
 MORE SCAMS
 o  Fraudsters are sending out automated phone messages advising that householders have been wrongly charged for an Amazon Prime subscription and that they should "press 1" to cancel the sale.  Doing so connects them to the fraudsters who claim they are from Amazon customer service and that they have to have access to the householder's computer to complete the cancellation.
 o  Meanwhile luxury hotels in the US have been defrauded by a gang who claimed to be from rapper group Wu-Tang Clan, and Roc Nation, the record group of Jay-Z.  The gang left unpaid bills at the Georgian Terrace and the Hyatt Regency hotels in Atlanta totalling $84,000 (&pound;65,000), and scammed two Atlanta recording studios for a total of $17,000 (&pound;13,000). A Rolls Royce Phantom worth $476,000 was fraudulently rented with a stolen credit card leaving the rental company with a loss of nearly $60,000 (&pound;46,000).
 When the gang booked 10 rooms at the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Augusta, Georgia, using Roc Nation and the Wu-Tang Clan staff at the hotel suspected a scam and checked with Roc Nation, who confirmed their suspicions. Accordingly police officers arrested the gang when they tried to check in.
  
 STAMPS UP  Those who buy postage stamps for their business, or personal use can save some money by purchasing before March 23.
 On this day the second class stamps will go up from 61pence to 65 pence and the first class stamps from 70pence to 76pence.
 The increases represent 6.5% and 8.5% rises respectively, well above the Consumer Prices Index inflation rate of 1.8%. Royal Mail, which was privatised in 2013, say that they are needed to maintain the quality of its services.
 So not to provide higher salaries and bigger pension pots for senior staff then?
  
 GOT BACK  One of the UK's most extravagant Victorian gin palaces, The Philharmonic Dining Rooms on Hope Street, Liverpool has been honoured by an upgrade to grade1 listed by Heritage England.
 It joins around 50 UK pubs to be awarded the status and is the first purpose-built Victorian pub to gain the status, due to its completely over the top decor, an amalgam of Scots baronial, Jacobean, Gothic, classical and art nouveau. The famous gents loos have rose-pink faux-marble urinals. (Ladies, get a chap to stand guard if you want to take a peek).
 Early fans who also played there were the Beatles and, asked if there was a price on fame John Lennon famously responded "no longer being able to have a pint in the Phil"  However in 2018 Sir Paul McCartney returned to play there.
  
 GET A VIEW  SquareMeal have published their selection of the three best London venues with views over the capital.
 They are the Shangri-La Hotel, which occupies floors 34 to 52 of the Shard, 14 Hills on the 14th floor of 120 Fenchurch Street and Plateau, which overlooks Canada Square in Docklands.
  
 THE MIRACLE WORKER  American actresses Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke both deservedly won Oscars for their powerhouse performances in the biographical and inspirational 1962 film, The Miracle Worker.The 16 year old Duke won hers for her portrayal as the unruly blind and deaf seven year old Helen Keller, and the 31 year old Bancroft for her portrayal as the 20 year old Anne Sullivan, the inspiring  teacher who reaches her through the power of touch, linking hands and spelling out words in sign language letters. The film, directed by Arthur Penn and loved by the critics,  scored a perfect 100% on the Rotten Tomatoes critic's website, and is ranked number 15 in the American Film Institute's 100  Most Inspiring American Movies.
 Keller, unruly because she is frustrated by her inability to communicate, needs help that her helpless parents are unable to give her, so they arrange for a teacher, Sullivan, to live with them and take on the challenge. This turns into a serious battle of wills, best illustrated by the intensely physical rough and tumble in which Sullivan tries to teach Keller proper table manners.Reportedly both actors wore padding under their clothes to prevent serious bruising and the nine-minute segment took five days and three cameras to film. Finally, after many setbacks, Sullivan's patience, love and downright stubbornness pays off and in an emotional finale Keller shows that the messages are received and understood.
 In real life Anne Sullivan went on to enjoy a fifty year relationship with Helen Keller, becoming her governess, and finally her close companion. Keller went on to become a world famous speaker, author and advocate for people with disabilities, raising awareness of the problems faced by deaf people. Meanwhile actor Patty Duke went on to star as herself in the US TV Patty Duke Show, which had a three year run from 1963, and to take a role in The Valley of the Dolls in 1967. Anne Bancroft went on to star as the troubled wife of a faithless husband in The Pumpkin Eater in 1964, and, possibly most memorably for many, as the predatory Mrs Robinson in The Graduate in 1967.
 The Miracle Worker was released last month in Blu-ray format by Eureka Entertainment as part of its Eureka Classics range, and featuring a new audio essay and a collectors' booklet.
  
 SONS OF DENMARK  This violent and affecting political thriller has been in cinemas since mid-December last and is being released this month in a Dual-Format Blu-ray and DVD edition by Eureka Entertainment as part of their Montage Pictures range.
 It's the year 2025 and racial tension in Copenhagen is high, with the murderous Sons of Denmark neo-Nazi terrorist group blaming Islamic immigrants for all the country's woes and attacking them, and a far-right nationalist demagogue politician, Martin Nordhal of the new National Movement,  advocating to an increasingly supportive populace, the forced repatriation of all the immigrants. A terrorist bombing in the city in 2024 by persona unknown claimed  23 lives and has increased Nordhal's populist following, and his rhetoric, resulting in an increasing climate of fear among the Immigrant population. Into this enters 19 year old Iraqi Zachariah who is recruited by community elder Hassan, and trained by his right-hand man Ali to assassinate Nordhal.
 It is hard to know whether Nordhal's party is the political wing of the terrorist party, or the Sons of Denmark are the terrorist wing of the Natioinal Movement - they both have the same ends, though it's the creepy and media-savvy Nordhal whose rhetoric gets his name in the papers and his face on groveling and surely paid for TV documentaries about him. The game changes however when the neo-Nazis break into the apartment of an undercover Islamic police officer, Malik, disfiguring his wife's face with acid and shooting dead his five year old son.
 Sons of Denmark is the debut film of director Ulaa Salim and stars Imad Abul-Foul as Hassan Rasmus Bjerg as Nordhal, Mohammed Ismail Mohammed as Zachariah and Zaki Youssef as Malik. Those who love Mozart's Lacrimosa from his Requiem as a beautiful piece of sacred music will find it used, several times in the soundtrack to devastating dramatic effect, ramping up the suspense.  
 If there is a frightening familiarity about the scenario and outcomes depicted in Sons of Denmark it will, hopefully, ring alarm bells for politicians and their voters all over Europe and beyond. And do some real good by strengthening resolve that it must never be allowed to happen.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Friday  One piece of information missing from the reams of stuff about HS2 and how much it is costing the taxpayer is what the increases in  ticket prices will be for passengers taking the faster journeys on faster, more expensive trains
 TheTimes has advised that the time savings, when HS2 is completed in 20 years from now will be 36 minutes on the London to Birmingham run, 53 minutes on London to Manchester, 50 minutes on London to Leeds, 45 minutes on Birminham to Manchester, 63 minutes on Birmingham to Leeds and 55 minutes on Birmingham to York. The real question is how much extra these faster sprints will cost and whether the extra cost is worth the time saved, especially for those who are now used to using train journeys to work. 
  
 Saturday  Sad news from America where it seems the vile killing of lions for fun in Africa is still a lucrative business.
 "Canned hunts" allow brave hunters to shoot captive-bred lions in an enclosure, and hack bits off them to take back to America as trophies, proving their courage. This year the organisers of the trophy hunting convention at the Safari Club International, Reno, Nevada, gave assurances that canned hunts would not be sold to visiting trophy hunters, only for undercover video footage to emerge of just that happening at the event.
 Pathetic or what? 
  
 Monday  Buggery has been rife at the Ritz Hotel, London, we hear. In a current High court action involving the Barclay brothers and various relatives it is alleged that Sir Frederick Barclay's nephew, Alistair, bugged rooms in the hotel over many months so that he and his brothers could spy on Sir Frederick and his daughter, and listen to private conversations between them in the Ritz conservatory.
 Those who have had "private" conversations at the Riitz last year might now reflect on how private they really were ...
FOODIE NEWS

 o The pleasant Suffolk town of Woodbridge is home, we've found, to an equally pleasant Brasserie-style restaurant, The Table at 3, Quay Street.
 Welcoming informality seems to be the motto here as anything from coffee and cake to full-on meals are served to satisfied customers. We stopped off for a light lunch recently and enjoyed a fusion bowl of Shetland mussels in a warm Thai sauce with chargrilled bread for dipping. (&pound;8 from the specials board) We also tried a &pound;1.50 portion of the kimchi from the Korean King Prawn special (&pound;8.50) and, being a big fan of the Korean cabbage pickled in unseemly and unsociable amounts of chilli and garlic, found the Table's version a bit sweet and mild. Another interesting starter or light bite dish on the specials was a seared pigeon breast with homous and pomegranate for &pound;8.50  Main course specials included a chicken, mushroom and leek pie  with vegetables for &pound;12.50, a Malaysian vegetable curry with Basmati rice and coriander chutney for &pound;11.50, a sea bream fillet and pearl barley risotto with poached fennel and cherry tomatoes for &pound;11.50 and a beef fillet with rosemary saute potatoes, vegetables and a peppercorn sauce for &pound;26.
 The main menu includes light bites/starters of an open bacon, brie and red onion marmalade sandwich for &pound;7, Serrano ham, poached plums and blue cheese salad with balsamic dressing for &pound;7.50, Goats cheese and red onion stuffed portobello mushroom, kale and miso jus for &pound;7.50 and Moroccan spiced minced lamb with harrisa yoghurt and flatbread for &pound;7.50. Main meals include chargrilled minute steak, fries, salad and slaw for &pound;13.50, aubergine, spinach and chickpea stew with Turkish slaw and flatbread for &pound;11.50, and a cassoulet of pork sausage, tomato and chorizo for &pound;12.50.
 The Table has an outside area for al fresco dining It welcomes groups who can be offered a bespoke menu. in one of the three inside rooms holding 16, 22 and 25.
 Web. thetablewoodbridge.co.uk  Tel 01394 382007
  
 o  One now-established local restaurant we've enjoyed since it opened just over a year ago at 50, High Street, Biggleswade is the Pera Kitchen.
 This serves a range of authentic Turkish food cooked in an open kitchen (always impressive, that) and is now offering winning low cost lunches Monday to Friday. These are 2 courses for &pound;9.95 or 3 courses for &pound;10.95.
 Meals start with soft, warm pitta bread , two dips and olives. Then there are 6 choices of cold starter, including Humus, Satsuka (oven-baked aubergines, courgettes and potatoes with tomato sauce and olive oil) and Dolma (stuffed vine leaves) There are 7 choices of hot starters, including tasty king prawns in a garlic, mushroom and parsley butter sauce, Falafel, Halloumi with tomato and cucumber, Izgara Kofte (minced beef with onion and parsley, grilled with herbs) and Sigara Boregi (Rolled pastry filled with feta cheese and parsley).
 A large choice of 16 main courses follows including both meat mussaka and vegetarian mussaka, and items grilled over charcoal such as lamb or chicken shish (kebab), marinated minced lamb kebab, marinated minced chicken kebab, marinated chicken wings and salmon. There is also Imam Bayaldi (half aubergine stuffed with tomato, garlic, onions and peppers and baked in the oven) Most dishes are served with rice and a tasty mixed salad with pickled cabbage and pomegranate, but chips can also be had. Desserts, for those on the 3 course menu comprise rice pudding, baklava, strawberry or chocolate cheesecake, chocolate fudge cake or mixed ice cream.
 Tel. 01767 313830 Web. perakitchen.com   

 NEXT ISSUE
 The Pachamama Group make a substantial payment to Chinatown Chinese restaurants as compensation for the stupid claim made ... Following a sharp drop in public trust of BBC presenters the corporation is forced into transparency and publishes a list of presenters paid for speaking at conferences, and revealing how much they earn for their services ... Hotels across the world start sharing CCTV images of scammers operating in their area ... Ticket prices for HS2 trips show that the service is only worthwhile for those on &pound;100,000 a year or more ... guests at the Ritz hotel insist on written assurances that their bedroom hasn't been bugged ... .and much, much more ...
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			<title>Event Organisers Update January 2010 ISSUE 182</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update January 2010 ISSUE 182</description>
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			<pubdate>Sat, 01 Feb 2020 09:25:02 +0000</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update January 2010 ISSUE 182</subject>
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Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update January 2020 ISSUE 182 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 CORONAVIRUS UPDATE  As the Coronavirus spreads from China, and worldwide deaths approach 150, the government there has banned, from January 27th all group tours from travelling outside the country (Conference and Meetings World)
 Hong Kong, which has had six reported cases so far has declared an emergency and a number of events have been cancelled, including an International carnival and an annual football tournament. The country suffered a 40% downturn in visitors in the second half of last year due to anti-government protesters clashing with police.
 Those still travelling to China are being advised to wear face masks in public areas and to seek immediate medical help if they have the symptoms of fever, diarrhoea, shortness of breath and coughing. As the virus spreads, and cases have been noted in Europe, this advice will apply to many more countries organisers and their delegates could travel to.
  
 GO SEE AUSTRALIA?  Australia's prime minister Scott Morrison has urged tourists not to be put off travelling to his country by the deadly wildfires that have razed vast areas.
 After meeting with tour operators and farmers on Kangaroo Island, the country's third largest island situated off the coast of South Australia and popular with tourists, Morrison declared "Australia is open, Australia is still a wonderful place to come and bring your family and enjoy your holidays. Even here on Kangaroo Island, where a third of the island has obviously been decimated (sic) two thirds of it is open and ready for business. It's important to keep the local economies vibrant at these times."
 Sadly two people died there as a result of the fires and the catastrophe may cause some rare wildlife species exclusive to Kangaroo Island to face extinction in the wild.
 Currently Australia tops the top ten list for long-stay breaks, defined as 28 days plus, for the over-50s, followed by Spain, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St Martin in the Leeward Islands, Panama, Portugal and USA, with January being the most popular time. (Source. Staysure travel insurance firm)
  
 ASKING FOR IT  Italian restaurant chain Ask, which has 112 outlets in the UK, has been fined &pound;40,000 at Swansea magistrates' court for misleading diners with its Aragosta e Gamberoni,( lobster and king prawns) dish. At &pound;14.95 this was the most expensive choice on the menu, and was served in Ask restaurants for five years, since 2014, until a Trading Standards officer visited the Swansea restaurant in March last year and found that the "lobster" in the pasta was actually only one third lobster meat, with the balance being surimi, potato starch and other fillers, moulded into a manufactured product called Lobster Sensations.
 Fish surimi is made by pounding and washing a range of white fish - such as pollock, cod, whiting, bream, shark, swordfish and tilapia - into a tasteless paste that can be moulded and flavoured to mimic the texture and taste of lobster meat and crab meat. The most common surimi products in the UK are crab flavoured surimi batons, often called crab stix, or seasticks. They retail at less than &pound;4 a kilo, against the price of real lobster meat at &pound;80 a kilo, so the potential profit to be gained by passing off surimi as lobster is considerable. In the case of the &pound;14.95 dish at Ask trading standards officers calculated that it contained just 70 pence worth of real lobster, or around 10 grams, and that the raw ingredient value in the dish was around &pound;2.84.
 On their website Ask, part of the Azzurri group which also includes Zizzi Italian restaurants, state: "Ask Italian offers Italian cuisine in a fun &amp; relaxing environment. Book a table, read the menus &amp; find out about the man behind the menu: Theo Randall"  As many foodies will know Randall is a well-known British-born chef who specialises in Italian cuisine and who is best known for being awarded a Michelin star at London's River Cafe, and for founding and running his Theo Randall at the Intercontinental Hotel, London since 2007 In 2009 it was named "Italian Restaurant of the Year" at the London Restaurant Awards. Here his linguine with lobster, surimi - free of course, costs &pound;36. In 2010 Randall started working with Ask Italian restaurants as their "expert friend", developing menus and coming up with new dishes, and in 2015 he became an investor in the Azzurri Group.     
 LOOKING FOR A LAUGH?  Organisers looking for comedians for their corporate events can attend the annual Speaker Drinks showcase events staged by agency Performing Artistes.
 This year&rsquo;s offering, presented at the Institute of Directors in Pall Mall featured five comedians, all with experience of live stand-up and some with track records on TV. The compere for the evening was Stephen K Amos, joined by Tania Edwards, Jon Long, Chris McCausland and Eleanor Tierman and readers can see video/audio showreels of the performers, and download their bios on the website: performingartistes.co.uk
 One aspect we personally found interesting this year was the number that included bad language in their presentations, something that this old male fuddy-duddy thought was not necessary, given their talent. This aspect however seemed to go down well with the audience of mainly young female organisers, who may not be the typical corporate group the comedians, when booked, would face. Tellingly compere Amos told us all "I don't swear at corporates" Perhaps the others don't too?
 One seasoned performer with a view on this was the late Nicholas Parsons who sadly died this week aged 96 with a career that spanned more than 70 years. The actor, comedian and presenter said "I see a lot of the young comedians think it is clever to use foul language and they think it is funny. It isn't."
  
 EVENTS FOR ORGANISERS 2020  Feb 12/13  Convene exhibition Vilnius, Lithuania. Email: hostedbuyer@convene.it
 Feb 25/26  Event Production Show Excel London. Web: eventproductionshow.co.uk
 Feb 26/27  Business Travel Show Olympia London. Web: businesstravelshow.com
  
 VENUE NEWS
 o  Five guests, including a child, died at the Mini Caramel Hotel, Perm, Russia, when a hot water pipe in the basement exploded in the middle of the night, filling rooms with scalding water. Three others were treated for burns in hospital.
 The nine-room hotel is located in the basement of a residential building and it is understood that the pipe had burst on previous occasions and had been repaired, but not replaced.
  
 o  The Hyatt Regency with 212 rooms and the 116-room Hyatt House, the first of the extended - stay brand in the UK, have opened at The Lume landmark building in Manchester (The Business Desk).
  
 o  The Carlauren Group, a Yeovil-based property firm which owns a string of UK hotels and care homes has gone into administration, reportedly owing millions.
 Hotels owned by, or associated with the group include Dean Valley Manor and Bermouth Sands in Wales, Lambert Manor and Abbot Hall hotel in the Lake District, Lindors Country House hotel in Gloucestershire and the Langdon Court hotel in Plymouth. Last year the group abandoned the building of a luxury hotel and beach club in Sandown, Isle of Wight.
  
 1917  It sometimes happens in war and it happens in 1917, the heroic and superb WW1 film from director Sam Mendes, currently playing in cinemas and already blessed with two Golden Globe awards.
 The Germans have abandoned a stretch of their trenches in France and moved back, leaving the gung-ho Colonel MacKenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) with two battalions totalling 1600 men to believe that they are on the run, and to mount a final heroic charge to wipe them out. But it's a clever trap and the Germans are waiting, with some very heavy artillery, for 1600 to charge into it.
 All this is known to the British command from aerial reconnaissance and, with phone lines cut, they send Lance Corporal William Schofield (George MacKay) and Lance Corporal Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) who has a brother in one of the doomed battalions, on a dangerous journey over the top and across the no-man's land open graveyard to the abandoned German trenches and beyond with an order from General Erinmore (Colin Firth) to Colonel MacKenzie to call off his attack.
 It is this journey that is the core of this immersive film, with the audience experiencing every muddy and deadly step of the way, along with some jolting shocks. It is cleverly filmed to look like one continuous take but is a number of long takes filmed in Surrey, Scotland, Shepperton Studios and Salisbury Plain and seamlessly fused together. Whilst the two leads are relatively unknown but utterly believable there is strong cameo support from some better known faces including Mark Strong, Andrew Scott and Richard Madden.
 See it on the big screen, as it was meant to be seen, to get the full effect.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Tuesday  Boozers are currently being targeted by Mendip District Council, which grants the licence for the Glastonbury Festival. Councillors say that they are considering a limit on how much alcohol guests can take into the event, this to improve safety and minimise disruption.
 Similar curbs on boozing have already been introduced by the regional government of the Balearic Islands. In what is thought to be the first legislation of its kind in Europe the organisation and promotion of pub crawls, open bars and happy hours has been outlawed, as has the drunk's sport of balconing - jumping from a hotel room balcony into a swimming pool. Covered by the ban are parts of Palma, Mallorca, the resort of Magaluf and the West End of Ibiza and it is expected to run for five years.
  
 Thursday  Also being targeted are some members of the "Instagram generation" who are annoying art lovers by taking selfies in front of works of art in galleries, particularly in exhibitions that are overcrowded. One critic described the practice as "narcissistic", believing that an iconic work of art is improved by having one's face in it. Others criticise the "posing and preening".
 Audience misbehaviour with their technology has also come under attack from the stage of theatres. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch had to ask some to stop photographing and video recording during his performance as Hamlet, after numerous productions at the Barbican were disrupted. And actor Bianca Del Rio, admired for her sharp tongue, stabbed it into a spectator who recorded a large part of her West End show on her phone, addressing her on social media as "Dear blonde bitch with glasses" and lambasting her for "distracting the entire cast" and several people around her, telling her "it's the theatre, respect it".
 No such respect came from the two women however who reportedly sat in the front row of the theatre in Nottingham during a performance of Titanic The Musical using their mobile phones to watch England's World Cup penalty shootout against Columbia and audibly celebrating each goal.
  
 Friday  Some clever marketing, we note, comes from haggis producers Macsween, who have named their vegetarian version "Scottish Veggie Crumble".
 This is to make the product more marketable in the USA where the liverish real haggis, made from the sheep's "pluck" of heart, liver and lungs cooked with onion, oatmeal and spices in a sheep's stomach has been banned from being imported to there since 1971 No doubt tall tales of haggis hunts told by mischievous Scots were partly to blame for the 33% of American visitors to Scotland believing that a haggis was a small animal with longer legs on one side so that it could run around the steep hills of Scotland without falling over.
 Macsweems are also hoping that "Veggie Crumble" will find more favour than Vegetarian Haggis among its vegetarian and vegan customers.
  
 Monday  Readers of the Metro free newspaper about to travel into the Eurozone will have been cheered to note the sharp jump in the value of their sterling, now worth 1.22 euros according to the Metro's published currency tourist rates on Wednesday January 15th and Thursday January 16th.
 Sadly for them it was just a silly printing error which Metro corrected back on Friday January 17th, without apology or comment, to 1.12 euros to the pound.
FOODIE NEWS

 o It is said that one should never eat at a place where there are photographs of the food. This obviously doesn't apply to many Chinese restaurants serving dim sum specialities, of which one of our favourite London places, Royal China in Baker Street, serves delicious traditional dim sum from 12.00 - 5.00pm, with beautiful colour pictures of many of the dishes.
 On a recent visit there we enjoyed the juicy paper-wrapped prawns in sesame seeds, each of the three large pieces delivering three good mouthfuls for &pound;4.90. As good were the three large pieces of fried minced cuttlefish balls worth two big mouthfuls each, and served with a sweet chilli sauce for &pound;5.10. Both of these came off the fried section of 12 dishes, which also included honeyroast pork puffs (&pound;4.30), crispy garlic prawn spring rolls (&pound;4.60), Vietnamese spring rolls (&pound;4.60), fried yam paste meat dumplings (&pound;4.30) and fried vegetarian spring rolls (&pound;4.30).
 Our choice from the 19 -dish steamed section was the 4 large and 8 mouthfuls of minced pork and shrimp dumplings (&pound;4.60) though after the first happy mouthful it was clear these were actually stuffed with whole prawns or shrimps and chunks of pork meat. Other steamed selections included dumplings filled with prawns, prawns and chives, prawns and coriander, pork and radish, Shanghai pork, scallops, vegetables and crab meat, costing from &pound;4.30 to &pound;5.60, and beef meat balls (&pound;4.30), a range of buns at &pound;4.30 - chicken and mushroom, roast pork, sweet lotus seed and sweet egg custard - black gold yolk lava buns (&pound;5.80), filled glutinous rice in lotus leaves.
 Our last choice was the minced beef rice bowl (&pound;6.60), a generous bowl of rice topped with minced beef in a thick gravy. Three other rice bowls are available for the same price - salted fish and pork, Chinese cured sausage and chicken (our choice for next visit) and spicy chicken feet and spare ribs (we'll pass).
 Other dim sum available is a range of cheung fun, (oriental cannelloni) with fillings such as honey roast pork, vegetable, beef or prawn, costing from &pound;4.60 - &pound;5.90, a range of 8 main course sized fried rice dishes from &pound;10.80 to &pound;15.80, a selection of 12 fried noodle dishes from &pound;10.80 to &pound;12.80, 4 E-Fu noodle dishes from &pound;10.80 to &pound;12.80, 4 braised noodle dishes from &pound;8.50 to &pound;10.80, 8 soup noodle dishes from &pound;10.80 to &pound;13.50 and a range of 6 desserts from &pound;3.90 to &pound;4.60. There are 136 choices in all. Our bill for the four dim sum came to &pound;21.20, and a "recommended gratuity" of 13% brought it up to &pound;23.96.
 There are four other Royal China restaurants in the London area, at Queensway, Harrow, Fulham and Canary Wharf Riverside. Each has its own dedicated dim sum chef, and, after our positive experience at Baker Street we'd say it shows.
 Web: royalchinagroup.co.uk
  
 o Those travelling to the Suffolk coast and visiting Aldburgh have a long-established restaurant there to enjoy.
 Regatta, at 171, High Street celebrates 27 years of ownership and running this year and offers a selection of 17 nibbles and starters, 10 main courses and specials, 6 side dishes and 5 desserts. Many of the dishes feature on the Early Bird Menu which offers 2 courses for &pound;16 and three courses for &pound;18.50 as a lunch or dinner choice to those who order by 7.00pm, except for Saturday dinners or Bank Holiday weekends. We went for this option for a recent lunch and enjoyed our two courses starting with the very smooth and silky celeriac and Stilton soup with a tangy ruby port glaze and croutons, and a tasty piece of the Regatta's home baked bread. Also on the starter menu were chicken liver parfait, prawn tempura (4) with dipping sauce and whole smoked prawns from the restaurant's own smokery, served with garlic mayonnaise.
 Our main course choice was a steamed rice fricassee of fat tiger prawns, peas and soft stem broccoli, all tossed in a tasty shellfish sauce. Other mains choices on the Early Bird menu included fish and chips with buttered peas and tartare sauce, butternut squash, sweet potato and chickpea curry and breast of pheasant stuffed with chestnuts and served with roast celeriac, cumin sauce and chips. Desserts offered included creme brulee, sticky toffee pudding and the restaurant's own fudge and Malteser ice cream.
 Fish is a strong point here. The smokery offers cooked smoked salmon fillet (&pound;9) and oak-smoked salmon (&pound;9.50) and on the specials board when we visited were grilled fillet of sea bass (&pound;15.50),  and seared tuna steak (&pound;18).
 Web: regattaaldburgh.com 

 NEXT ISSUE
 The Azzurri Group reveal how much profit they made in their Ask restaurants by serving cheap surimi as expensive lobster over a five year period and how they intend to give their valued customers their money back&hellip; A comedian claims "Every time I use the F-word or the C-word at one of my corporate gigs the sophisticated audience fall around laughing"&hellip; The British Teetotal Society book their 2020 conference into Magaluf as their organiser comments "It's now the perfect place for us"&hellip; Theatres, cinemas and art galleries install equipment that jams mobile phones&hellip; Donald Trump rubbishes stories of wild haggis running around the Scottish mountains on two short and two long legs, telling the press "I've been to Scotland for golf and I can tell you that the haggis forms itself into a round ball so that it can roll down the mountains and get away from the guns"&hellip; and much, much more&hellip;
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Text only ANNOUNCEMENTS can be run once for new products, new venues, venue refurbishments, new packages, organiser's trips, and industry showcases, receptions, seminars, conferences and exhibitions likely to be of high interest to event organisers.
 Sizes, when printed out on an A4 page, and prices of ANNOUNCEMENT boxes available are:
 One fifth page, 45mm x 170mm &pound;200   One quarter page, 60mm x 170mm &pound;250   One third page, 85mm x 170mm &pound;325   One half page, 120mm x 170mm &pound;400
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 Association News (AN) for all those who associate. associationnews.org.uk

MEMBER'S DIRECTORY
 This is published in every issue of Event Organisers Update and the cost to suppliers, based on a headline, forty words of text and contact details, is &pound;95 for one year (twelve issues) or &pound;65 for 6 months (six issues) Costs are being kept low to encourage small suppliers to participate.
 If, as an organiser you know of any good suppliers you feel other organisers should know about please forward this issue on to them, or refer them to the SEO website at seoevent.co.uk
  
 SEO SUPPLIERS DIRECTORY

 o AUDIO VISUAL AND IT COMPANIES


 EXHIBITIONS &amp; LIVE EVENT AUDIO VISUAL SUPPLIER COVERING UK &amp; EUROPE  Located in London and Birmingham, Computec AV cater for all your rental requirements. Equipment available includes LCD/Plasma screens, PA systems, Projection Equipment and Lighting. Also in-house we have our Set Creation company specialising in staging, bespoke set design and build. Tel 020 8807 2002, Fax 020 8807 3818, email: sales@computecgroup.com Web: computecgroup.com


 o EVENT TRAINING


 EVENT TRAINING - WITH A QUALIFICATION  The Society of Event Organisers, SEO, offers a four-day qualification course, the Certificate in Conference Organisation (CCO) running in Central London three times a year, and which can also be presented at your premesis - dates by arrangement. Contact Peter Cotterell Tel. 01767 312986, email peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk visit seoevent.co.uk


 o MAGICIANS


 TOP CLASS MAGIC AND ILLUSION ENTERTAINMENT FOR CORPORATE &amp; PRIVATE EVENTS  Specializing in cabaret shows and close up Magic for galas, charity events, weddings, &amp; corporate events Le Magician Dean Metcalfe is a master manipulator perfector of his own spectacular close-up Magic, performances worldwide, see website for live showreels and more details visit lemagicianilluminaire.com


 o MEDIA COMPANIES


 MOCHA:IDEAS, FILM AND MOTION CONTENT THAT CONNECT  Mocha offer a complete film and motion design service to corporate, association and charity event organisers, venues and others in the event sector. Mocha also offer a 10% discount to readers of this publication and visitors to seoevent.co.uk - just quote "SEO". Tel: 0151 706 0761 email: hq@mocha.tv Web: mocha.tv Vimeo:http://vimeo.com/user4995482/videos 


 o MEDICAL AND SECURITY COMPANIES


 OUT OF HOURS SUPPORT GROUP provides MEDICAL COVER and SECURITY SERVICES for the full range of events.  Based in Hampshire, but covers events across the country. Experienced staff include doctors, Emergency Nurse Practitioners &amp; Paramedics working with vehicles equipped to NHS specification, including an ambulance, 4x4s and all-terrain quad bike. Mobile medical centre available. Reliable and versatile staff are fully screened in line with enhanced DBS requirements with separate Disclosure and Barred list check.
 Out of Hours Security teams work separately or alongside the medical teams. Security staff are registered and licensed by the SIA. All staff wear visible ID at all times. Contact Leo Burdock at leo@outofhoursmedics.co.uk or visit outofhoursmedics.co.uk Tel: 07904033828 


 o NEWSLETTERS


 Association News  For all those who associate. associationnews.org.uk


 o VENUES. LEEDS


 CONFERENCES &amp; MEETINGS UP TO 90 DELEGATES  LCI offers conferencing with an ethical edge in Leeds City Centre. Five Rooms (Max 90 people) with Smartboards, loop systems, WIFI. Disabled access. LCI supports community/voluntary groups by offering significant discounts. Very close to railway &amp; bus stations. Contact Moira or Wendy on 0113 245 4700 or email conferencing@leedschurchinstitute.org


 o VENUES. LONDON. NON-RESIDENTIAL 


 BOARDROOM OFF CITY ROAD  Our pleasant boardroom is available for full or half day meetings. It seats 14 people, boardroom-style, or can be arranged to suit your needs. Catering and equipment is available on request. We are conveniently located just off City Road. Call Claire/Nora on 0207 324 0750; fax 0207 324 0760; email: enquiries@keyring.org; address: 27, Corsham Street, London, N1 6DR
 BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURE. BEAUTIFUL INTERIORS. HEART OF LONDON  The classical regency terrace at Park Crescent, near Regents Park includes number 16, which offers seven beautifully appointed meetings rooms, all with natural light and modern facilities, for up to 60 delegates, and a dedicated team to ensure event success. Tel. 020 7612 7070, Fax. 020 7612 7078, email. enquiries@16parkcrescent.co.uk visit 16parkcrescent.co.uk


 o VENUE TRAINING


 VENUE TRAINING, WITH A QUALIFICATION  The Society of Event Organisers, SEO, offers a four-day qualification course, the Certificate in Conference Venue Marketing (CCVM) running in Central London once a year, and which can also be presented at your premesis - dates by arrangement. Contact Peter Cotterell Tel. 01767 312986, email peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk visit seoevent.co.uk



 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    Society of Event Organisers  29a Market Square, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 8AQ  Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - %%emailaddress%%  If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  %%unsubscribelink%%    %%emailaddress%% Subscription Options  Click here to update your details    Subscribe   eou.org.uk
 Newsletter distributed by SG7.biz for Society of Event Organisers





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			<title>Event Organisers Update December 2019 ISSUE 181</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update December 2019 ISSUE 181</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Wed, 01 Jan 2020 14:11:02 +0000</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update December 2019 ISSUE 181</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update December 2019 ISSUE 181 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 NOTHING ORDINARY  A new 6-hour, 6 part dramatisation of the 1960's John Profumo scandal, which helped to discredit and bring down Harold Macmillan's Conservative government of 1963 is being aired on the BBC. The Trial of Christine Keeler started on December 29th and runs through into 2020.
 The scandal developed when society osteopath and artist Stephen Ward introduced teenage model Christine Keeler to the then secretary of state for war John Profumo. The couple, who were said to have first met in July 1961 as Keeler was trying to cover herself with a towel after skinny dipping in the swimming pool at Lord Astor's country estate of Cliveden, had a brief affair, which Profumo lied to his government had never happened. Things got more serious when it was discovered that Keeler was also entwined with Eugene Ivanov, a naval attach&eacute; at the Russian Embassy, and this in the depths of the Cold War, and Profumo resigned, his career over.
 The Profumo Affair, as it was dubbed, was the subject of a good 1988 film, Scandal, starring John Hurt as the louche Ward, Joanne Whalley as Keeler, Ian McKellan as Profumo, Leslie Phillips as Lord Astor and Bridget Fonda as Keeler's friend and fellow good-time girl, Mandy Rice-Davies. It was also made into a musical, Stephen Ward, by Andrew Lloyd-Webber in 2013. Meanwhile the main characters have now all died, Ward by his own hand in 1963 aged 50, Ivanov in 1994 aged 68, Profumo in 2006 aged 90, Rice-Davies in 2014 aged 70 and Keeler just two years ago in 2017 aged 75.
 On a lighter note Cliveden House Hotel later claimed another slice of history, as it were, by launching the "world's most expensive sandwich" for &pound;100 in 2007. Called the Von Essen Platinum Club Sandwich this was a triple decker made from three slices of sourdough bread and containing Poulet de Bresse French chicken, with rose tinted flesh, yellow fat and a gamey flavour and considered the best one could buy at nearly &pound;40 a kilo, slices of best Spanish Iberico ham at &pound;278 a kilo and Italian hard-boiled quails eggs at 30pence each. The real cost however was the 20 grams of gamey shavings of white truffle in each sandwich, said to cost &pound;25 then at the 2007 price of &pound;1,250 per pound, these days around &pound;1,720 per pound.
 The motto of the Cliveden House Hotel, with rooms currently on offer at &pound;297 per room, per night, is "Nothing ordinary ever happened here, nor could it".
  
 WELCOME CHANGE IN LAW FOR ALL TRAIN TRAVELLERS  Upcoming legislation preventing trade unions from closing down railway lines has been announced.
 The Trade Unions Bill will ban "all out" strikes and make it illegal for unions to halt all operations on a railway line.
  
 SEX TRAFFICKING IN THE US  Twelve hotel chains in the US are facing a lawsuit for sex trafficking on behalf of 13 women who claim they were sold for sex in hotel rooms.
 The lawsuit claims that the hotel chains knew of and ignored warning signs that women and children were being sold as sex slaves on their premises.
 According to the Global Slavery Index an estimated 400,000 people are believed to be trapped in slavery of various kinds in the US.
  
 CLUB FINED &pound;70,000 FOR DANGEROUS DANCING  The Coyote Ugly Saloon in Cardiff has been fined &pound;60,000 plus legal costs after two female staff members, who were required to dance in skimpy outfits on the bar top, slipped and fell, injuring themselves.
 The accidents happened in 2017, and one young woman fractured her spine and spent 12 weeks in a spinal brace, while the other fell on a glass and was treated for multiple cuts.
 The Magistrates' Court in Cardiff heard that staff were allowed to drink alcohol before and whilst dancing on the bar top and that they would sometimes spray each other with water, which made the bar top dangerously slippery. Fining the nightclub District Judge Shomon Khan told them "There was a culture of fun and health and safety got put to one side".
  
 TOP 100 RESTAURANTS  More than 50,000 reports from 7,500 diners comprise the scorings for the Harden's Best UK Restaurants 2020 directory and this year's submissions have placed a 14-seater Wirral restaurant, Fraiche, at the top of the Harden's 100 list. Run by chef Marc Wilkinson Fraiche offers four course lunch menus at &pound;48 and six course dinner menus at &pound;95, complemented with a wine flight for &pound;45.
 The top 100, which comprises 41 establishments in London, with strong showings of 14 from the South East, and 10 from the North West, includes 52 serving Modern British cuisine, 16 serving French, 10 serving Indian, 6 serving Japanese, 4 serving fish/seafood, 3 serving Chinese, 3 serving Scandinavian, 2 serving Mediterranean and 1 each serving Spanish, Portuguese, North African and West African.
  
 BA DROP DOWN  A survey of airlines by Which? in 2015 placed British Airways top of the short haul airlines. However the 2019 survey just four years later places BA, the self-styled "World's favourite airline" third from bottom.
 Reasons are thought to include strikes, IT failures and mass cancellations - aspects that also caused a slump to second worst in long-haul.
 For short haul Jet2 was highly regarded, and in long-haul Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines and Emirates.
  
 CHRISTMAS FARE WE'D LOVE  A survey of 2,000 people by sandwich chain Subway has found what alternatives to the traditional turkey and trimmings roast their responders would be happy to enjoy on Christmas day.
 Curry was favoured by 23% of them, with 18% plumping for steak, 18% for pizza, 13% for pasta, 13% for Chinese, 12% for fish and chips, 9% for Shepherd's or Cottage pie, 8% for a sandwich, 5% for a jacket potato and 5% for exotic beans on toast.
 The hot stuff may also have health benefits - an Italian study has found that the fiery capsaicin in chilli peppers can halve the risk of heart disease death, reducing the risk of a stroke by 61%
  
 VENUE NEWS
 o The Earl's Court site in West London has been sold by UK property developer Capital and Counties (Capco) for &pound;425 million to investment firm APG and Delancy.
 The old exhibition centre, formerly one of London's premier event venues was demolished in 2015. The sale price reportedly represents a substantial write down as the proposals for the site have faced falling demand for the luxury housing planned and a serious political dispute with the local Labour-run council.
  
 o Building has commenced on a new 143 bedroom &pound;25 million Hampton by Hilton York Piccadilly hotel. Completion of the city-centre unit will be in early 2021.
  
 o Sheffield's 123 bedroom Hilton hotel at Victoria Quays closed earlier this month (The Business Desk)
  
 PRE-RAPHAELITE SISTERS  This exhibition, at the National Portrait Gallery, London, until January 26 2020, looks at 12 women behind the art and times of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), whether as models, helpmeets, muses and artists.
 Through paintings, photographs, personal items and manuscripts Pre-Raphaelite Sisters explores and reveals the contributions made by such as former hat girl and muse of PRB artist Rosetti, Elizabeth Siddall; young wife of art critic and historian John Ruskin, Effie Gray, who had her marriage annulled after six years on the grounds of non-consummation and then married PRB artist John Millais; and Annie Miller, model and reputed lover of PRB artist William Holman Hunt.
 Entry to Pre-Raphaelite Sisters is &pound;18, cut to &pound;9 for holders of the National Art Pass and free to members.
  
 MONEY OFF THE "FOODIE'S BIBLE"  Copies of Hardens Best UK Restaurants 2020 are now available for &pound;13.99, UK post free, against the RRP of &pound;16.99
 Web: hardens.com
  
 THE IRISHMAN  Those who have enjoyed Martin Scorsese's famously violent and profane crime films - Mean Streets (1973), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995) - will enjoy his latest offering, The Irishman, which could arguably stand as the most documentary.
 It's the long three and a half hour story of Mafia hitman Frank Sheeran, played by Robert De Niro and is based on Charles Brandt's biography of Sheeran, I Heard You Paint Houses. This comprises highlights from five years of interviews Brandt conducted with Sheeran. The "paint houses" expression is a Mafia one meaning killing people and spilling their blood. Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran claimed to have carried out twenty five murders for his Mafia bosses, who included Russell Bufalino, played by Joe Pesci in his first collaboration with De Niro and Scorsese since Casino 24 years ago, and Angelo Bruno, played by Harvey Keitel, who was also with De Niro in Mean Streets and again in Scorsese's psychological drama, Taxi Driver (1978)
 The real puppet-master pulling Sheeran's strings is Bufalino, who maintains an image of kindness and compassion whilst ordering killings, and who introduces him to the infamous Teamsters union hothead, Jimmy Hoffa, played by Al Pacino. Sheeran is handed a phone by Bufalino who tells him that there is someone who would like to talk to him and Jimmy Hoffa tells Sheeran "I heard you paint houses" A shocked Sheeran then responds and stammers out that he does all his own carpentry work too, another Mafia reference to clearing up after a hit, if required.
 Employed by Hoffa, Sheeran, also a member of Teamsters, sorts out problems with Hoffa's opponents in his violent way. Hoffa had strong Mafia connections too and allowed interest-free loans to bosses from the Teamster's pension fund, taking a commission for himself. This was one of a number of illegal activities that attracted the attention of America's Attorney-General, Robert Kennedy and his team. at that time cracking down on organised crime.
 Eventually Hoffa was convicted of fraud and bribery in 1967 and drew a 13-year prison sentence, of which he served five after a deal with president Richard Nixon which included Hoffa not involving himself in the direct or indirect management of any labour organisation until 1980, when his original prison term would be completed. Hoffa wanted to regain his lost power at Teamsters but a caretaker President, Frank Fitzsimmonds had already proved himself to be more amenable to Mafia loans from the pension fund than Hoffa had been, and Hoffa was alarming his former mob friends by threatening to curb their advantageous financial arrangements with Teamsters.
 Thus with Hoffa pushing to get back into power, and powerful bosses in the mob not wanting him to, the stage was set for another Sheeran hit.
 The Irishman is currently out on general release and available on Netflix. The book "I heard you paint houses" is also a good read for fans of the genre.
  
 OPERATION PETTICOAT  Archibald Leach and Bernard Schwartz had never been in a film together but in 1959, under the direction of Blake Edwards, the two, with their better-known stage names of Cary Grant and Tomy Curtis starred in the well-regarded wartime farce Operation Petticoat.
 Grant plays the upright and amusingly uptight submarine Lt. Cmdr. Matt T Sherman, who takes command of a decrepit submarine, the USS Sea Tiger, and of a very dodgy Lt. JG Nicholas Holden, played by Curtis, for whom ducking, diving and thieving are a career. His dubious talents come in very handy when it comes to scavenging parts to keep the Sea Tiger chugging above and below the waves and the story gets funnier as it takes on board five stranded Army nurses who create, often accidentally, their own kind of mayhem. Warning: feminists probably won&rsquo;t warm to the stereotypes and innuendo.
 Everyone else however can enjoy this frothy, breezy and jaunty romp for what it is, and marvel at the superb comic timing of the two leads, who have solid support from Joan O'Brien, who went on to join John Wayne in The Alamo and The Commancheros, and Elvis Presley in It Happened at the World's Fair. Also on board are Dina Merrill, Madlyn Rhue, Gene Evans and Dick Sargent.
 Operation Petticoat was released earlier this month in a Dual Format (Blu-ray and DVD) edition by Eureka Entertainment, as part of their Eureka Classics range.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Sunday  Another nail for the coffin of celebrity endorsement, we note, has been hammered in by a sting on actress Lauren Goodger, formerly of reality show, The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE)
 The sting was for an upcoming BBC 3 documentary, Blindboy Undestroys the World, which looks at whether celebrities who take money for promoting products actually consume them. In Goodger's case that is arguably a no as she told the documentary makers that she had never tried a diet product she promoted called Skinny Coffee, despite claiming in January this year that it had helped her lose 12 pounds in three weeks, telling her gullible Instagram followers "I can't actually believe it".
 For the sting she was asked to plug a new diet drink called Cyanora, which contained hydrogen cyanide. Goodger was not told that this was a deadly poison but only that the drink would not be ready in time for her to try it before she promoted it on her Instagram. Goodger reassured the documentary makers that this would be "no problem", citing her non-consumption of Skinny Coffee. When exposed she said she would never promote something she hadn't consumed herself and that she only said she would to help her get the job.
 Question is, will there be anyone left out there stupid enough to believe Goodger's endorsements now the sting has been published? And she is not the only one.
  
 Wednesday  What do Jeremy Corbyn and teenage climate campaigner Greta Thunberg now have in common?
 Well they have both inaccurately promoted themselves on social media as having to sit on the floor of overcrowded trains. In Corbyn's case in 2016 this was proved to be untrue as CCTV footage from Virgin Trains showed him walking past empty seats before being found one by crew. Thunberg tweeted a selfie showing her sitting on the floor on her journey through Germany. However Deutsch Bahn pointed out that Thunberg had just 100 miles of squatting on the floor and the rest of the time in a first class seat they had provided for her, nibbling the free chocolate inscribed "Lieblingsgast", or "favourite guest" they gave her.
 The martyr mentality runs deep in some.
  
 Thursday  We hear that cruise company MSC is building a name for its ships, er, bumping into things. Last year the MSC Armonia smashed into the pier at Roatan, Honduras, an incident caught on YouTube. Then just before the Christmas break this year the MSC Orchestra collided with sister ship the MSC Poesia in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and bumped into the pier there for good measure.
 In neither incident was anyone hurt, and the only damage was to property, and corporate pride.
FOODIE NEWS

 o The Bun House opened a few months ago at 26-27 Lisle Street, in London's Chinatown.
 It gets a "Very good" for its food from Harden's reviewers in the 2020 Best UK Restaurants guide and serves a small range of light, fluffy buns the size of cricket balls filled with meats and vegetables along with some dim sum choices, to take away or to eat in. One reviewer colourfully described the dough of the buns as "so soft it feels like you're eating clouds!" Were they the ones that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was sitting on at the time, we wondered...
 However we enjoyed a bun with lamb filling (&pound;2.50), and one with a chicken filling (&pound;2.50) along with a side dish of three solid and excellent Sui Mai pork and prawn dim sum (&pound;4.50) washed down with some free tap water and felt we'd had a decent and filling lunch for our &pound;9.50. It's all finger food, or you can use chopsticks.
 Unusually for Chinatown Bun House doesn't accept cash, only cards, and you buy your items and carry them through to the small downstairs eating area, holding around 12, or the much larger one upstairs, holding 30+ It opens at 11.00am and offers a range of craft Chinese bottled beers for &pound;5.
  
 o Similarly getting a "Very good" for its food from Harden's reviewers for 2020 is Master Wei, located at 13, Cosmo Place, off London's Russell Square and open for 9 months.
 We enjoyed a large and warming bowl of Qishan hand-pulled noodles with braised pork and vegetables in a sour and spicy soup (&pound;9.20) and found it not unlike Tom Yum. Other choices from the 11 in the noodles section include vegetarian, beef or pork biang-biang noodles, (&pound;9.20 - &pound;11.80) hand-pulled noodles Xinjiang style with bone-in chicken and potato in spicy sauce (&pound;10.90 for one, &pound;17.90 for two) and a spicy hot dish of hand-pulled noodles with minced beef and vegetables (&pound;10.80) Also available for main courses are 9 Other Dishes including Stir-fried Ho Fun rice noodles with beef (&pound;7.90) and sweet-and-sour pork, or chicken (both at &pound;8.50) and a selection of 11 dishes of Xi'an Street Food, including home-made pork and prawn wontons in chicken broth (&pound;7.90) and fried pork and seaweed, or fried chicken and mushroom "pot-sticker" dumplings. (both at &pound;7.80)
 For serious consumers of Oriental cuisine there are four soups, including hot and sour and bean-thread noodle and seaweed (all at &pound;4.80) along with 11 cold starters, including boneless chicken in ginger sauce, Xi'an hand-shredded chicken in spicy sauce, Xi'an spicy sliced beef and spicy pig's ears with cucumber, (all at &pound;7.90) and spicy wood-ear mushrooms with coriander (&pound;6.80). These are complemented with a range of 6 hot starters, including salt and pepper spare ribs, and sweet and sour pork ribs, (both at &pound;7.90), vegetarian spring rolls (&pound;6.50) and salt and pepper squid with onion and green and red peppers (&pound;9.80)
 Web: masterwei.co.uk

 FROM OUR READERS
 From Ian Whettingstall  I am sure that you will have received many comments following your statement that 'Radio-controlled drones or model aircraft flying at over 400 feet away become impossible to control&rsquo;.
 Whilst it illegal to fly a drone higher than 400 feet above ground level (without the CAA&rsquo;s permission) they are able to be controlled much further away, with the stipulation that the pilot keeps it in their line of sight.
 I have attached the most recent Drone Code and links to some further reading for your enjoyment here   Web:  caa.co.uk/Consumers/Unmanned-aircraft-and-drones   and here  Web:  register-drones.caa.co.uk/drone-code
 Regards  Ian
 NEXT ISSUE
 Fans of The Trial of Christine Keeler flock to book bedrooms at Cliveden House Hotel, to see where it all happened. Young men hang around the pool, in case any ladies go skinny-dipping&hellip; All celebrity endorsements are dropped after research shows that the number of people who believe them has now dropped to zero&hellip; Jeremy Corbyn and Greta Thunburg are banned from travelling by rail as rail firms realise they are only sitting on the floor to pose for naff selfies for Instagram... "Have a smashing trip with MSC" is the cruise company's 2020 tagline&hellip; and much, much more&hellip;
 Event Organisers Update hopes all readers have had an enjoyable Christmas in 2019 and will have a happy and prosperous New Year in 2020.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Text only ANNOUNCEMENTS can be run once for new products, new venues, venue refurbishments, new packages, organiser's trips, and industry showcases, receptions, seminars, conferences and exhibitions likely to be of high interest to event organisers.
 Sizes, when printed out on an A4 page, and prices of ANNOUNCEMENT boxes available are:
 One fifth page, 45mm x 170mm &pound;200   One quarter page, 60mm x 170mm &pound;250   One third page, 85mm x 170mm &pound;325   One half page, 120mm x 170mm &pound;400
 To book email peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk
  
 MORE FREE NEWSLETTERS

 Exhibitor Update for all those who exhibit. eou.org.uk
 Association News (AN) for all those who associate. associationnews.org.uk

MEMBER'S DIRECTORY
 This is published in every issue of Event Organisers Update and the cost to suppliers, based on a headline, forty words of text and contact details, is &pound;95 for one year (twelve issues) or &pound;65 for 6 months (six issues) Costs are being kept low to encourage small suppliers to participate.
 If, as an organiser you know of any good suppliers you feel other organisers should know about please forward this issue on to them, or refer them to the SEO website at seoevent.co.uk
  
 SEO SUPPLIERS DIRECTORY

 o AUDIO VISUAL AND IT COMPANIES


 EXHIBITIONS &amp; LIVE EVENT AUDIO VISUAL SUPPLIER COVERING UK &amp; EUROPE  Located in London and Birmingham, Computec AV cater for all your rental requirements. Equipment available includes LCD/Plasma screens, PA systems, Projection Equipment and Lighting. Also in-house we have our Set Creation company specialising in staging, bespoke set design and build. Tel 020 8807 2002, Fax 020 8807 3818, email: sales@computecgroup.com Web: computecgroup.com


 o EVENT TRAINING


 EVENT TRAINING - WITH A QUALIFICATION  The Society of Event Organisers, SEO, offers a four-day qualification course, the Certificate in Conference Organisation (CCO) running in Central London three times a year, and which can also be presented at your premesis - dates by arrangement. Contact Peter Cotterell Tel. 01767 312986, email peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk visit seoevent.co.uk


 o MAGICIANS


 TOP CLASS MAGIC AND ILLUSION ENTERTAINMENT FOR CORPORATE &amp; PRIVATE EVENTS  Specializing in cabaret shows and close up Magic for galas, charity events, weddings, &amp; corporate events Le Magician Dean Metcalfe is a master manipulator perfector of his own spectacular close-up Magic, performances worldwide, see website for live showreels and more details visit lemagicianilluminaire.com


 o MEDIA COMPANIES


 MOCHA:IDEAS, FILM AND MOTION CONTENT THAT CONNECT  Mocha offer a complete film and motion design service to corporate, association and charity event organisers, venues and others in the event sector. Mocha also offer a 10% discount to readers of this publication and visitors to seoevent.co.uk - just quote "SEO". Tel: 0151 706 0761 email: hq@mocha.tv Web: mocha.tv Vimeo:http://vimeo.com/user4995482/videos 


 o MEDICAL AND SECURITY COMPANIES


 OUT OF HOURS SUPPORT GROUP provides MEDICAL COVER and SECURITY SERVICES for the full range of events.  Based in Hampshire, but covers events across the country. Experienced staff include doctors, Emergency Nurse Practitioners &amp; Paramedics working with vehicles equipped to NHS specification, including an ambulance, 4x4s and all-terrain quad bike. Mobile medical centre available. Reliable and versatile staff are fully screened in line with enhanced DBS requirements with separate Disclosure and Barred list check.
 Out of Hours Security teams work separately or alongside the medical teams. Security staff are registered and licensed by the SIA. All staff wear visible ID at all times. Contact Leo Burdock at leo@outofhoursmedics.co.uk or visit outofhoursmedics.co.uk Tel: 07904033828 


 o NEWSLETTERS


 Association News  For all those who associate. associationnews.org.uk


 o VENUES. LEEDS


 CONFERENCES &amp; MEETINGS UP TO 90 DELEGATES  LCI offers conferencing with an ethical edge in Leeds City Centre. Five Rooms (Max 90 people) with Smartboards, loop systems, WIFI. Disabled access. LCI supports community/voluntary groups by offering significant discounts. Very close to railway &amp; bus stations. Contact Moira or Wendy on 0113 245 4700 or email conferencing@leedschurchinstitute.org


 o VENUES. LONDON. NON-RESIDENTIAL 


 BOARDROOM OFF CITY ROAD  Our pleasant boardroom is available for full or half day meetings. It seats 14 people, boardroom-style, or can be arranged to suit your needs. Catering and equipment is available on request. We are conveniently located just off City Road. Call Claire/Nora on 0207 324 0750; fax 0207 324 0760; email: enquiries@keyring.org; address: 27, Corsham Street, London, N1 6DR
 BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURE. BEAUTIFUL INTERIORS. HEART OF LONDON  The classical regency terrace at Park Crescent, near Regents Park includes number 16, which offers seven beautifully appointed meetings rooms, all with natural light and modern facilities, for up to 60 delegates, and a dedicated team to ensure event success. Tel. 020 7612 7070, Fax. 020 7612 7078, email. enquiries@16parkcrescent.co.uk visit 16parkcrescent.co.uk


 o VENUE TRAINING


 VENUE TRAINING, WITH A QUALIFICATION  The Society of Event Organisers, SEO, offers a four-day qualification course, the Certificate in Conference Venue Marketing (CCVM) running in Central London once a year, and which can also be presented at your premesis - dates by arrangement. Contact Peter Cotterell Tel. 01767 312986, email peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk visit seoevent.co.uk



 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 9,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    Society of Event Organisers  29a Market Square, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 8AQ  Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - %%emailaddress%%  If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  %%unsubscribelink%%    %%emailaddress%% Subscription Options  Click here to update your details    Subscribe   eou.org.uk
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			<title>Event Organisers Update November 2019 ISSUE 180</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update November 2019 ISSUE 180</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Mon, 02 Dec 2019 21:10:02 +0000</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update November 2019 ISSUE 180</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update November 2019 ISSUE 180 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
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Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 NOT BEFORE TIME  Owners of drones are facing tough new curbs to ensure that the chaos at Gatwick Airport a year ago over a drone flying nearby - more than 1,000 flights were grounded - is never repeated.
 Owners of drones in the UK must register their aircraft with an operator ID displayed on the drone by the end of this month with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) or risk a heavy fine. Operators are also required to pass a theory test before drones weighing 250gms to 20kg can be flown.
 Radio-controlled drones or model aircraft flying at over 400 feet away become impossible to control. Both Heathrow and Gatwick Airports say they have invested millions of pounds in "military-grade" anti-drone equipment following last year's incident.
  
 MORE RAIL MISERY FOR CHRISTMAS  Customers of South Western Railway are facing 27 days of damaging industrial action from the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) in a long-running dispute over the role of guards on trains.
 The action is due to commence on Monday December 2 and run till New Years Day.
  
 UBER STRIPPED OF LONDON LICENCE  Giant US ride-hailing operator, Uber, has been stripped of its licence to operate in London after regulators found that 14,000 uninsured rides had been provided by 43 drivers using bogus identification. One of the Uber drivers had been stripped of his private hire licence after receiving a caution for distributing indecent images of children.
 Uber have previously been banned from operating in Brighton and York amid customer safety concerns.
 For its failure to stop the frauds Uber has been branded "not a fit and proper operator" by Transport for London (TfL) but is reportedly free to continue trading pending the result of an appeal, which it has three weeks to activate. If Uber loses the appeal the main beneficiaries will be London's black cab drivers, who have lost millions of customers to Uber from 2011.
  
 NOROVIRUS AT BRISTOL EXHIBITION?  An exhibition of "all things Lego" at the Action Indoor Sports Centre in Hengrove, South Bristol, saw some visitors and some exhibitors hit with diarrhoea and sickness symptoms, both at and shortly after the event. (Bristol Live).
 Public Health officials are investigating the incidents, which happened at the weekend Bristol Brick Show, November 16 and 17, and in the few days afterwards. Organisers Bristol Lego Users Group say they were "devastated" by the incidents, which affected dozens of the 4,000 attendees and exhibitors. Reportedly there have been outbreaks of Norovirus at Bristol schools, hospitals and some businesses.
  
 THE RIGHT THING FOR THE WRONG REASON?  Around one in three of us buy second-hand items, with 70% of these regularly buying used goods doing it to save money, not the planet.
 A recent survey conducted by mobile phone network giffgaff found that only 30% of consumers were likely to buy a used phone. This contrasted with those who would buy used books (74%), collectables (62%), cars (60%), furniture (58%), pieces of artwork (56%), DVD/Blu-ray discs (53%), bicycles (45%) and clothing, excluding shoes (38%).
  
 PROFITABLE PUNT ON RITZ HOTEL  The 5-star West End hotel and casino, The Ritz, is up for sale from the billionaire Barclay Brothers, along with their three other businesses, the Telegraph Media Group, Shop Direct online retail group, which includes Littlewoods, and courier service Yodel.
 The Ritz was bought in 1995 for &pound;75 million. This was 24 years ago and based on the old premise that the value of money doubles every 7 years the hotel should be worth around &pound;800 million today, which is what the Barclays are reportedly looking for.
  
 MODERN ART MASTERS IN AMSTERDAM  Fans of the modern art master Chagall can view the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam's large collection of the artist's work for the first time in nearly 70 years.
 The occasion is an exhibition, Chagall, Picasso, Mondrian and Others: Migrant Artists in Paris, running at the Stedelijk, Museumplein until February 2, 2020. It features more than 50 artists. photographers and graphic designers living and working in Paris between 1900 and 1950, and highlights the challenges faced by them from a society that was increasingly nationalistic, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic, this last in particular to Chagall, a Jewish-Russian in exile, who was asked to illustrate the fables of La Fontaine and caused outrage in the Paris press that French national heritage was being depicted by a foreign Jew.
 Admission, Adults Euro 18.50. Timings Daily 10.00 - 18.00pm, Fridays 10.00 - 22.00pm.
  
 DER GOLEM  Golem is a Hebrew word meaning "shapeless thing" and in Jewish mythology golems were giants created from clay, mud, earth etc. and given life and some human characteristics by a demon spirit.
 Today's golem-like entities include Gollom from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of The Rings trilogy, Frankenstein's monster, and Arnold Schwartzenegger's Terminator, but one of the first cinematic manifestations was inspired by a 1914 novel, Der Golem, from Gustav Meyrink. Director and actor Paul Wegener first directed and starred as the monster in Der Golem in 1915 and then as a parody in 1917, The Golem and the Dancer. Both films are sadly now lost but it was Wegener's third silent film on the subject, The Golem:How He Came into the World released nearly a century ago in 1920 which has survived to please fans of horror and German Expressionist movies alike.
 The story is of late 16th century Prague where Rabbi Loew sees a warning in the stars that the Jews in the city's ghetto are about to be attacked by the anti-Semitic Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, and either killed or expelled, so he creates a golem from clay and gives it life to protect his people. The creature, which is activated by a five-pointed star amulet containing a magic word and mounted on its chest, and de-activated by it being taken away, first performs a series of domestic tasks before Rabbi Loew is invited to bring it to the palace of Rudolf, for the entertainment of his court.
 While there the Rabbi uses his magic powers to project some history of his people on a wall, warning the Emperor and the audience that they mustn't laugh at any time or great calamity will befall them. At the appearance of the Wandering Jew in the film a court jester makes a remark to one of the ladies there, who starts to giggle, which gets the Emperor and everyone else laughing, until the roof starts to move down to crush them. The golem steps up and holds up the roof, saving everyone and resulting in a shaken Rudolf giving all the previously doomed Jews a pardon. Sadly the Rabbi's evil assistant then starts to control the golem for his own purposes, which causes it to run amok, throwing the assistant from a tower and destroying some of the town's buildings before it meets one of the town's angelic children, who unwittingly pulls of the amulet, collapsing the golem.
 Der Golem was released on Blu-ray earlier this month by Eureka Entertainment as part of its Masters of Cinema Series. The pack includes a choice of three musical scores, a new audio commentary, new video essays, a collector's booklet and the 60-minute US version of the film.
  
 WEREWOLF  Of all the concentration camps operated by the Nazis during WW2, Gross-Rosen, a complex of 100 forced labour camps in the south-west of Poland was one of the largest, holding around 11% of all those held captive by the Nazis. It was, by accounts also one of the cruellest, being the final destination of those Jews and political enemies of the Nazis ordered to disappear without trace in Hitler's Night and Fog decrees. Soviet POWs were also killed there. One surviving inmate was Simon Wiesenthal, well-known for his effective Nazi-hunting after the end of the war.
 As in all camps the SS used dogs trained to attack and kill prisoners in Gross-Rosen, one of the bestial atrocities that camp commandant at Plaszov, Amon Goeth also inflicted on prisoners, a sadistic inhuman made infamous by the film Schindler's List. Goeth then suffered a botched execution by the Poles, experiencing two un-successful hangings before the third attempt broke his neck.
 So it's Gross-Rosen and SS dogs that feature so strongly in Werewolf, an affecting and horrifying wartime thriller from Polish director Adrian Panek and released this month. Opening inside the camp as the Russians move closer in the summer of 1945 the film shows the Nazi guards, and their savage dogs, indulge in final acts of bloody violence against their helpless captives, mostly Polish Jews.
 After the Nazis have fled, and the camp is liberated, eight children and young people who have survived are driven deep into the surrounding forest by the Russians and dumped at an abandoned mansion nearby, with no electricity, no running water and little food. The fleeing SS, meanwhile, have let slip their dogs, and these, crazed with hunger, surround the mansion, trapping the children inside and exchanging one set of horrors for another. As the children are terrified by the slavering hounds jumping at the windows and doors from outside they realise they will have to work together to survive.
 Werewolf, with its cast of mostly non-professional child actors acting naturally, has its share of psychological tension, jump scares and, unbelievably, has a happy and hopeful ending as the children finally realise how they can control the murderous, feral dogs. And it is beautifully shot, with a score that ranges from melancholic to heart-pounding. It has been released by Eureka Entertainments as part of their Montage Pictures range.
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Monday  Delegates to events are not eating up their greens, according to the results of a survey on food waste conducted by Lime Venue Portfolio and BCD Meetings and Events.
 In the survey around a third of organisers admitted to throwing away at least 15% of the food they commission, with salads accounting for 40% of the total waste. Other categories were breads at 16%, desserts at 13% and vegetable side dishes at 11%.
  
 Thursday  We here that a motorist who was stuck in the car park at Bristol Airport due to a faulty barrier and was let out by the attendant without his number plate being recorded received a bill for &pound;490.
 The car park operators accepted this was their error and not a result of the new car parking charges at the airport which have been the reason for "massive dissatisfaction" from customers. This could be due to the ambiguous presentation of prices for the Drop and Go car park where Up to 10 mins is &pound;3, 10 to 20 mins is &pound;5, 20 to 40 mins is &pound;7, 40 to 60 mins is &pound;20 and every hour, or part of thereafter is &pound;20. Questions are if you stay 10 mins do you pay &pound;3 or &pound;5? And for a stay of 20 mins is the fee &pound;5 or &pound;7? And for 40 mins is it &pound;7 or &pound;20? The only clear price is the one for 61 mins which is &pound;40, possibly making little Bristol Airport the World's most expensive airport car parking.
FOODIE NEWS

 o It has been our pleasure over the last two years to attend an enjoyable annual group evening outing, midweek, to Peterborough Greyhounds organised by our local Sandy Probus business/luncheon club.
 Inclusive of the 1 hour plus return coach journey the price for the evening is &pound;25, which gets us entry, a race programme, an inside table space by the track for the evening and a two-course dinner comprising a starter and main course. On both occasions the food has been substantial and very good. Starters (5) now include a tasty Savoury Prawn Mayonnaise served with salad and brown bread and butter, Jerk Chicken Drumsticks with sliced onion and peppers and a choice of dip and Rosemary and Garlic Crusted Brie Wedges served with a tangy relish and mixed leaves. There is also a vegetarian soup and vegetarian seasonal melon.
 Main course choices (8) include a shortcrust pastry Steak and Ale Pie with Doombar gravy, and a Redcurrant Roasted Lamb Shank, both served with potatoes and seasonal vegetables, a chicken breast with wine sauce and wild mushrooms served with new potatoes and seasonal vegetables, or white rice, and Steamed Cod Romesco on a bed of spinach with the Romesco tomato and almond sauce, garden peas and new potatoes, or white rice, There are also two vegetarian choices, a Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables and Bell Pepper Pie with shortcrust pastry and served with peas and vegan gravy, and a Mexican Bean Burger served in a toasted roll with salad garnish, relish and fries. For non-vegetarians there is also a thick-cut Gammon Steak, or Maple Gammon Steak, with tomato, onion rings, garden peas and chips, this same selection offered with a field mushroom for the 8 oz English Fillet Steak dish, which is charged at &pound;4.50 extra. Diners can also order extra side dishes such as Potato Chips, Sweet Potato Fries, Potato Wedges or Jacket Potato, all at &pound;2.50, as well as Side Salad (&pound;2.75), Beer Battered Onion Rings (&pound;2), Corn on the Cob (&pound;1.95), Mushrooms (&pound;1.75) and Peas (&pound;1).
 Desserts are also available for an extra cost of around &pound;5 on our package and the range of five includes Blackberry and Apple Crumble. Baked Caramel Vanilla Cheesecake, Lemon Meringue Pie, and Chocolate Fudge Gateaux, all served with a choice of custard, fresh cream or ice cream.
 The packages for groups offered by the venue comprise Bronze, which covers entry, race programme, starter, and main course costs &pound;14.95 on Wednesdays, &pound;16.95 on Fridays and &pound;23.95 on Saturdays. The Silver option adds a dessert and hot drink and costs &pound;19.95 on Wednesdays, &pound;21.95 on Fridays and &pound;27.95 on Saturdays. And the Gold option adds dessert, cheeses and biscuits, hot drink and a table near the winning post, and costs &pound;25.95 for Wednesdays, &pound;28.95 for Fridays and &pound;36.95 for Saturdays. All options include the service of a venue staff member to collect your bets and monies and bring you your winnings, if any, to your table.
 Reservations. Tel: 01733 296939 Web: peterboroughgreyhounds.com
  
 o Some cheerful Christmas news for foodies comes from the Good Housekeeping's annual taste tests of Xmas fare, which shows that you don't have to spend fortunes to enjoy the tastiest treats. The Institute blind tasted 383 products across 20 categories this year and noted how well 26 products mostly from the likes of Tesco, Lidl, Iceland, Marks and Spencers and others scored.
 For starters the FishRjumpin' smoked salmon from the Fish Society scored 78% and costs &pound;8.90 for 200 grammes, while the Scottish Gravadlax from Lidl scored 86% and cost &pound;3.49 for 100 grammes.
 Moving on to the meat the frozen turkey breast crown with pork, sage and onion stuffing from M&amp;S scored 84% and cost &pound;14.40 for 1.2 kilos, the Crackling Gammon Joint with maple and bourbon glaze from Tesco cost &pound;16 for 2.8 kilo and scored 84%, as did the British Smoked Strung gammon joint from Aldi costing &pound;5.49 per kilo. Separate stuffing treats comprising pigs in blankets (OK sausages in bacon) came from Tesco for its finest stuffing wreath with pigs and cranberry compote at &pound;5 for 534 grammes scoring 80%, as did ASDA extra special pigs on Festive Feast at &pound;5 for 694 grammes, these two just topped by Sainsburys Taste The Difference 6 outdoor bred pork chipolatas in bacon, scoring 83% and costing &pound;3 for 260 grammes. Vegetarians can enjoy Tescos Finest butternut squash, mushroom and chestnut wreath, which cost &pound;2.50 for 250 grammes and scored 82%, as did the Portobello Mushroom Wellington from Cook at &pound;10 for 360 grammes. A vegan choice is ASDA's Vegan Festive Wellington which scored 77% and cost &pound;3 for 500 grammes.
 Going for the puddings the Iceland 12 month matured Christmas Pudding cost &pound;4 for 400 grammes and scored 79%, as did Lidl's 24 month matured at &pound;11.99 for 907 grammes. Something a bit different was Aldi's Specially Selected morello cherry Christmas pudding, which scored 81% and cost &pound;6.99 for 800 grammes. A dessert centrepiece was M&amp;S Sticky Toffee Pudding Trifle which scored 86% and cost &pound;12 for 1 kilo. The mince pie sector was topped by Baking Agents mini bake at home mince pies (Ocado) which scored 90% and cost &pound;3.79 for 12. Also doing well were Eat's mince pies which cost &pound;1.50 each and scored 82%. For the gluten free versions Tesco's Free From deep filled mince pies cost &pound;1.50 for 4 and scored 79%, as did Costa Coffee's mincemeat tart at &pound;2.10 each. A Christmas cake option was Waitrose richly fruited at &pound;16 for 1.3 kilos and scoring 79%. Those liking something seriously sweet are offered a chocolate praline yule log from Paul, perhaps pricey at &pound;35.95 for 805 grammes and scoring 83%, while those looking for savoury to finish can enjoy Lidl's Deluxe mature blue stilton at &pound;2.99 for 220 grammes and scoring 86%.
 Finally to wash it all down in style Morrissons have their Best Prosecco DOCG Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore at &pound;10 for 75 cl and scoring 89%, and their Mulled wine at &pound;3.75 for 75cl and scoring 88%. Or you could splash out on Waitrose Champagne Bollinger at &pound;45 for 75cl and scoring 83%.
 Happy shopping&hellip;

 NEXT ISSUE
 Armed fighter drones are scrambled at Heathrow airport to gun down drones that have strayed into the airport's exclusion zone, and to terminate the operators&hellip; A statement from the RMT union on the eve of its current strike states "We believe it is fair and entirely justifiable to knowingly damage the lives of others in order to improve our own, and that knowingly putting the jobs of innocent others at risk is entirely right and proper when it serves to protect the well-paid jobs of our own members and the generous salaries expenses and pension pots of RMT officials" and is signed by the union's general secretary, Nick Cash&hellip; London's black cabs come back into favour as travellers begin to appreciate the increased safety and security offered&hellip; Event organisers refuse to serve desserts to naughty delegates who haven't eaten up all their main course&hellip; and much, much more&hellip;
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Text only ANNOUNCEMENTS can be run once for new products, new venues, venue refurbishments, new packages, organiser's trips, and industry showcases, receptions, seminars, conferences and exhibitions likely to be of high interest to event organisers.
 Sizes, when printed out on an A4 page, and prices of ANNOUNCEMENT boxes available are:
 One fifth page, 45mm x 170mm &pound;200   One quarter page, 60mm x 170mm &pound;250   One third page, 85mm x 170mm &pound;325   One half page, 120mm x 170mm &pound;400
 To book email peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk
  
 MORE FREE NEWSLETTERS

 Exhibitor Update for all those who exhibit. eou.org.uk
 Association News (AN) for all those who associate. associationnews.org.uk

MEMBER'S DIRECTORY
 This is published in every issue of Event Organisers Update and the cost to suppliers, based on a headline, forty words of text and contact details, is &pound;95 for one year (twelve issues) or &pound;65 for 6 months (six issues) Costs are being kept low to encourage small suppliers to participate.
 If, as an organiser you know of any good suppliers you feel other organisers should know about please forward this issue on to them, or refer them to the SEO website at seoevent.co.uk
  
 SEO SUPPLIERS DIRECTORY

 o AUDIO VISUAL AND IT COMPANIES


 EXHIBITIONS &amp; LIVE EVENT AUDIO VISUAL SUPPLIER COVERING UK &amp; EUROPE  Located in London and Birmingham, Computec AV cater for all your rental requirements. Equipment available includes LCD/Plasma screens, PA systems, Projection Equipment and Lighting. Also in-house we have our Set Creation company specialising in staging, bespoke set design and build. Tel 020 8807 2002, Fax 020 8807 3818, email: sales@computecgroup.com Web: computecgroup.com


 o EVENT TRAINING


 EVENT TRAINING - WITH A QUALIFICATION  The Society of Event Organisers, SEO, offers a four-day qualification course, the Certificate in Conference Organisation (CCO) running in Central London three times a year, and which can also be presented at your premesis - dates by arrangement. Contact Peter Cotterell Tel. 01767 312986, email peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk visit seoevent.co.uk


 o MAGICIANS


 TOP CLASS MAGIC AND ILLUSION ENTERTAINMENT FOR CORPORATE &amp; PRIVATE EVENTS  Specializing in cabaret shows and close up Magic for galas, charity events, weddings, &amp; corporate events Le Magician Dean Metcalfe is a master manipulator perfector of his own spectacular close-up Magic, performances worldwide, see website for live showreels and more details visit lemagicianilluminaire.com


 o MEDIA COMPANIES


 MOCHA:IDEAS, FILM AND MOTION CONTENT THAT CONNECT  Mocha offer a complete film and motion design service to corporate, association and charity event organisers, venues and others in the event sector. Mocha also offer a 10% discount to readers of this publication and visitors to seoevent.co.uk - just quote "SEO". Tel: 0151 706 0761 email: hq@mocha.tv Web: mocha.tv Vimeo:http://vimeo.com/user4995482/videos 


 o MEDICAL AND SECURITY COMPANIES


 OUT OF HOURS SUPPORT GROUP provides MEDICAL COVER and SECURITY SERVICES for the full range of events.  Based in Hampshire, but covers events across the country. Experienced staff include doctors, Emergency Nurse Practitioners &amp; Paramedics working with vehicles equipped to NHS specification, including an ambulance, 4x4s and all-terrain quad bike. Mobile medical centre available. Reliable and versatile staff are fully screened in line with enhanced DBS requirements with separate Disclosure and Barred list check.
 Out of Hours Security teams work separately or alongside the medical teams. Security staff are registered and licensed by the SIA. All staff wear visible ID at all times. Contact Leo Burdock at leo@outofhoursmedics.co.uk or visit outofhoursmedics.co.uk Tel: 07904033828 


 o NEWSLETTERS


 Association News  For all those who associate. associationnews.org.uk


 o VENUES. LEEDS


 CONFERENCES &amp; MEETINGS UP TO 90 DELEGATES  LCI offers conferencing with an ethical edge in Leeds City Centre. Five Rooms (Max 90 people) with Smartboards, loop systems, WIFI. Disabled access. LCI supports community/voluntary groups by offering significant discounts. Very close to railway &amp; bus stations. Contact Moira or Wendy on 0113 245 4700 or email conferencing@leedschurchinstitute.org


 o VENUES. LONDON. NON-RESIDENTIAL 


 BOARDROOM OFF CITY ROAD  Our pleasant boardroom is available for full or half day meetings. It seats 14 people, boardroom-style, or can be arranged to suit your needs. Catering and equipment is available on request. We are conveniently located just off City Road. Call Claire/Nora on 0207 324 0750; fax 0207 324 0760; email: enquiries@keyring.org; address: 27, Corsham Street, London, N1 6DR
 BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURE. BEAUTIFUL INTERIORS. HEART OF LONDON  The classical regency terrace at Park Crescent, near Regents Park includes number 16, which offers seven beautifully appointed meetings rooms, all with natural light and modern facilities, for up to 60 delegates, and a dedicated team to ensure event success. Tel. 020 7612 7070, Fax. 020 7612 7078, email. enquiries@16parkcrescent.co.uk visit 16parkcrescent.co.uk


 o VENUE TRAINING


 VENUE TRAINING, WITH A QUALIFICATION  The Society of Event Organisers, SEO, offers a four-day qualification course, the Certificate in Conference Venue Marketing (CCVM) running in Central London once a year, and which can also be presented at your premesis - dates by arrangement. Contact Peter Cotterell Tel. 01767 312986, email peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk visit seoevent.co.uk



 Event Organisers Update (EOU) is an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO). EOU is FREE and circulated monthly to more than 14,000 selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the event industry (includes conferences, incentive travel, training events, etc.)    If you have any views on how our newsletter could be more useful to you please e-mail us at info@eou.org.uk    Edited and distributed by:    Society of Event Organisers  29a Market Square, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 8AQ  Tel: +44(0)1767 312986   Privacy Policy    Subscription Options    Unsubscribe - %%emailaddress%%  If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter please either visit eou.org.uk or use this link:  %%unsubscribelink%%    %%emailaddress%% Subscription Options  Click here to update your details    Subscribe   eou.org.uk
 Newsletter distributed by SG7.biz for Society of Event Organisers





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			<title>Event Organisers Update October 2019 ISSUE 179</title>
			<description>Event Organisers Update October 2019 ISSUE 179</description>
			<author>admin</author>
			<pubdate>Wed, 30 Oct 2019 20:00:02 +0000</pubdate>
			<subject>Event Organisers Update October 2019 ISSUE 179</subject>
			<content><![CDATA[

Event Organisers Update



 Event Organisers Update October 2019 ISSUE 179 - an independent information source published by the Society of Event Organisers (SEO).


 
 
 To %%[001] Name%%

 
 %%emailaddress%%  Unsubscribe


 
 
Event Organisers Update
The newsletter for organisers of events.






 
 
NEWS
 FIGHT BACK  Those who like to travel around our cities without their plans being disrupted by yet more deliberately damaging and potentially dangerous stunts by eco-activists will have been cheered by the recent set-backs experienced by demonstrators trying to hold innocent people who cant possibly help their cause to ransom for publicity purposes.
 There was first widespread relief that our authorities finally clamped down on stupid stunts that could kill hundreds, such as flying drones above airports, and those that deliberately cause traffic jams, stopping ambulances and other emergency services from getting through. More recently there were angry and violent scenes at tube stations when activists tried to disrupt the Underground by climbing on top of tube trains, and were quickly pulled down by commuters who were furious that they were being prevented from getting to work, or getting home from work. The commuter's actions have been widely praised, even by London's mayor, Sadiq U-Turn, who only days before had ill-advisedly defended the activist's right to protest.
 Celebs have been getting a kicking in some of our media for supporting the activists. These include Peter Capaldi, Jarvis Cocker, Lily Cole, Olivia Colman, Steve Coogan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Poppy Delevingne, Stephen Fry, Nick Hornby, Natalie Imbruglia, Jude Law, Daisy Lowe, Sienna Miller, Mark Rylance and Ray Winstone.
 Meanwhile those running events at hotels might need to be especially vigilant. Apparently an elderly couple sat down to breakfast in mid-October at the Intercontinental Hotel, Mayfair, before walking into the lobby and setting off the fire alarms, screaming "This hotel's on fire" necessitating a full evacuation. An Oil &amp; Money conference was taking place at the time.
  
 WHICH? WINNERS AND LOSERS  The annual Which? Travel poll of UK hotel groups has placed budget brands Wetherspoons and Premier Inn at the top with a customer score of 79% each, and Britannia Hotels at the bottom, for the seventh year running, with 39%. Wetherspoons was the only hotel group to score five stars for value for money.
 The survey is carried out annually with around 8,000 consumers rating the hotels they use, and other large groups doing well this year were Hilton Garden Inn with 78%, Radisson Blu Edwardian with 77%, Hilton Hampton with 74% and Holiday Inn Express with 73%. Also highly rated in a separate small groups list were Apex and Warner Leisure with 76% each and Q Hotels with 74%.
 The customer score ratings for the 34 large hotel chains (minimum 31 or more hotels worldwide) were, with the number of hotels in the group bracketed : Premier Inn (2,664) 79%, Wetherspoon Hotels (63) 79%, Hilton Garden Inn (87) 78%, Radisson Blu Edwardian (60) 77%, Hilton Hampton (174) 74%, Holiday Inn Express (428) 73%, PH Principal Hayley Hotels (42) 73%, Crowne Plaza (204) 72%, Ibis Styles (80) 72%, Novotel (136) 72%, Ramada Encore (57) 72%, Marriott Renaissance Hotels (53)71%, Hilton Doubletree (222) 70%, Best Western (429) 69%, Fullers Hotels (52) 69%, Holiday Inn (422) 69%, Marriott (170) 69%, Marriott Autograph Collection (44) 68%,Radisson Blu (137) 67%, Ramada (46) 67%, Hilton (200) 66%MacDonald (79) 66%, Ibis (203) 65%, Old English Inn Hotels (49) 65%, Thistle (34) 65%, Travelodge (879) 65%, Days Inn Hotels (60) 64%, Jury's Inn (113) 64%, Radisson Park Inn (45) 64%, Copthorne (53) 63%, Mercure (217) 62%, Ibis Budget (82) 60%, Easyhotel (70) 58%, Britannia Hotels (111) 39%
 Customer score ratings for 8 small and medium hotel chains.(Maximum 30 hotels worldwide) were Apex Hotels (53) 76%, Warner Leisure (183) 76%, Q Hotels (67) 74%, Hotel du Vin (60) 72%, Village Hotel Club (73) 72%, Youngs Hotels (45) 71%, Malmaison (66) 67%, Abode (52) 66%
  
 FARE DEALS  Those looking for some extra value for their flight charges are advised to consider Premium Economy seats, particularly when booking is being made a few weeks before flying.
 This, advises Elizabeth Monahan from the SeatGuru comparison site, is when the difference between Standard Economy and Premium Economy prices can be as little as 15%, rather than the normal 200-300% more.
 Differences to check are seat pitch, seat width, food and drink offered and the number of luggage items carried free.
  
 POWER STATION VENUE  Battersea Power Station is launching some venue spaces for events in 2021.
 There is a total of 70,000 square feet, or 6,503 square metres available in total, across five spaces. The largest is the Generator Hall, holding 1,400 delegates, with the next down, the Control Room A holding 250, with Art Deco interiors. There is also a terrace area with views over the banks of the Thames and a small lounge area.
 Tel 0207 062 1870
  
 CHANCELLORS TO CLOSE  The well-regarded Chancellors Hotel in Fallowfield, Manchester is to close at the end of this year, when its owners, Manchester University, will turn it into student accommodation for 64 students, with a study space and cafe. (The Business Desk)
 The historic Grade 11-listed building was once the vice-chancellor's residence but was converted into a hotel in 1997 and underwent a &pound;4 million face lift two years ago. The increasing competitiveness of the current market and the South-Manchester location have been blamed for the closure.
  
 NEW SPACE IN MANCHESTER  The Blackfriars House building, just off Deansgate in Manchester has been granted planning permission for a rooftop restaurant, garden and event space overlooking the city.
 The event space will hold up to 55 people and will be available from mid-2020.
  
 NO MORE RED CROSS FIRST AID  The Red Cross is to cease providing first aid at events such as festivals, marathons and concerts from March 2020.
 According to CEO Michael Adamson their event first aid section has been running at a loss for some time and cost them &pound;1.8 million this year.
  
 THE AFRICAN QUEEN  This classic adventure/romance of 1951 may well be one of the most loved, starring as it does Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, voted the two greatest film legends of all time by the American Film Institute (AFI).
 In addition Bogart got his only Best Actor Oscar ever for his portrayal of Charlie Allnut, the grizzled, cantankerous, gin-swilling soak at the helm of the African Queen tramp steamer, beating Marlon Brando's impressive nominated performance as the brutish, mumbling Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire That 1951 film featured Vivien Leigh as the troubled Blanche Dubois, whose performance won her a Best Actress Oscar, beating the nominated Katharine Hepburn that year for her part as the African Queen's passenger, the stiff and upright British Methodist missionary Rose Sayer.
 The story begins when WW1 breaks out in September 1914 and German colonial troops invade the village of Kungdo, where Rose Sayer and her brother Samuel (Robert Morley) are missionaries, and burn it down, forcibly recruiting the natives as soldiers.. When Samuel protests he is beaten, develops a fever and dies, leaving Rose to fend for herself, with some un-Christian revenge in her heart. Visiting the village soon afterwards the good-natured Charlie helps Rose bury her brother and they set out down the river in the African Queen for safety. However Rose has no intention of letting the Germans get away with killing her brother. She learns from Charlie that the lake the river eventually runs into is patrolled by a powerful German gunboat, the Konigin Louise, which prevents any British attacks, so hatches a cleverly thought out and most un-Christian plan to convert the old tramp steamer into a kamikaze boat with home-made torpedoes, and ram the gunship on the lake, blowing it out of the water.
 As Charlie points out however the lake is several hundred miles down river and there are crocodiles, violent rapids and a German fort on the bank to be negotiated. To cope with this he consults his old friend, the gin bottle, becomes drunk and insults Rose and her plan. When he wakes up with a splitting head she is vengefully pouring the last of his gin store into the river. Shortly after that they have to cope with being fired on from the German fort, followed by some seriously steep and rough rapids to ride down. With some classy tiller work from Rose, the mechanical skills of Charlie and some luck they make it through to calm water prompting them to spontaneously hug and kiss in triumph, proving that opposites really do attract and leaving them to part in embarrassment and wonder how it all happened. Thereafter they accept that they have fallen heavily for each other and work together as a willing team to make Rose's revenge a reality. Bless.
 The African Queen was directed by John Huston, who had already directed Bogart in The Maltese Falcon (1941 - Huston's directorial debut), and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Key Largo, both in 1948. Shooting of the film in Uganda and the Congo over four months brought its own set of difficulties, with the cast and crew battling heat, torrential rain, invading soldier ants, bad food and water and much disease, such as malaria and dysentery. Huston and Bogart kept well throughout however due, they said, to only eating canned food such as asparagus and baked beans and refusing the water in favour of the Scotch whisky they had brought, a well-known traveller's preventative of stomach upsets. Tetotaller Kate Hepburn however caught dysentery spent much of the time feeling and being nauseous and having a bucket placed near for use between takes, which should have secured her the Oscar for her heroic professionalism.
 The film's other heroine is, of course, the boat itself, now 107 years old. This started life at Lytham Shipbuilding, Lancashire in 1912 as the S/L Livingstone and was shipped out for work on Lake Albert, on the border of the Belgian Congo and Uganda, and was used to carry cargo, hunting parties, mercenaries and missionaries on voyages. After the film it had a number of owners but was bought and restored in 2011 by movie fans Suzanne and Lance Holmquist who give it an easy life chugging around the rapid-free canals of Key Largo, Florida and charging 49 dollars for a 1.5 hours cruise and 89 dollars for a 2 hour dinner cruise. So if you're ever down Key Largo way...
 The African Queen is being released in a Blu-ray version by Eureka Entertainment on November 18 as part of its Masters of Cinema series and the pack includes an Audio Commentary by cinematographer Jack Cardiff, new interviews with film critic and writer Kim Newman and film historian Neil Sinyard and a 59 minute documentary, Embracing Chaos, about the making of the film.
  
 JUDY  So who can say they've never seen The Wizard of Oz (1939) and enjoyed the acting of Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion looking for courage, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow looking for a heart, Jack Haley as the Tin Woodman looking for a brain, all folowing the Yellow Brick Road and hoping the wonderful Wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan) can help them? And who can forget the Wicked Witch of The West (Margaret Hamilton), the Good Witch (Billie Burke) and the diminutive Munchkins? And last but not least who can forget Dorothy Gale, the sweet, pigtailed little girl next door, played by a 17 year old girl who was once Frances Gumm, who gets caught up in all the surreal adventures and who sings like a much older angel in the song Over the Rainbow. Frances Gumm, who had been on the stage since the tender age of two and a half had, of course, changed her name five years earlier, to Judy Garland.
 Judy, a new biopic featuring Renee Zellveger was released in the UK earlier this month and concentrates on the five week run Garland performed at London's Talk of the Town nightclub, now The Hippodrome, in early 1969, 30 years after her famous debut as Dorothy. Here she still thrills with Over the Rainbow, The Trolley Song and Get Happy but her consumption of amphetamines to keep her awake and sleeping pills to counter her insomnia, said to have been given to her from her teenage years by her past studio, Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer (MGM) take their toll on her reliability. Her audiences start to grow restless as she appears drunk, slurs her words, wonders whether she is performing in London, San Francisco or Chicago, and staggers when walking. Flashbacks show Garland as a wide - eyed teenager, played by Darci Shaw, terrified by studio head Louis.B.Meyer, played as a controlling bully by Richard Cordery.
 Other strong support in the film comes from Jessie Buckley as Rosalyn Wilder, Garland's sensible and unflappable stage manager for her Talk of the Town run, Michael Gambon as Bernard Delfont, Rufus Sewell as the third and longest - lasting of her five husbands, Sidney Luft (m.1952: div. 1965) and Finn Wittrock as nightclub manager Mickey Deans, who married her just after the end of the Talk of the Town run, in March 1969 at Chelsea Register Office. They lived in a rented mews house in Cadogan Lane, Belgravia, where Deans found her dead in the bathroom on June 22, 1969, 12 days after her 47th birthday. The inquest found that her death was caused by an accidental overdose of barbiturates.
 Back in the film Garland has just finished a rendition of Over the Rainbow, assisted by a supportive and loving audience. And the last words she utters are "You wont forget me, will you?"
 Some hope...
 OLD GRIT'S DIARY
 Monday  Not all cruises go as planned, or as customers have paid for, it seems. On September 27 the Norwegian Spirit, one of the ships of the US based Norwegian Cruise Line, sailed from Southampton for a 14-night "Mystical Fjords" cruise taking in ports in France, Holland, Norway and Iceland. High winds and high seas, apparently caused by Hurricane Lorenzo, prevented safe docking in Amsterdam, and then Le Havre. Plans to sail to Iceland were also thwarted by the weather and the ship was heading to Greenock in Scotland as an alternative. This was also aborted and the ship sailed instead to Belfast, where some passengers got off and made their own way back to London, rather than stay on any longer.
 Angry passengers, most of whom would have paid around &pound;1,000 but some up to &pound;5,000 for a luxury suite, staged noisy demonstrations to demand full refunds claiming that some of the toilets were overflowing and that due to the delays they were offered three day old food to eat. Norwegian Cruise Line has declined refunds but.has offered passengers 25% off their next cruise with the company, offer valid for two years.
 Question is, what rights have passengers on cruises when unpredictably bad weather makes docking unsafe? And is it really the cruise operator's fault?
  
 Thursday  We hear that pub and hotel operator Wetherspoon is being illegally copied around the world.
 A recent piece in the firm's magazine identified passers-off in Oludeniz, Turkey in 2000, Benalmadena, Andalusia, Southern Spain in 2002, Goa, India in 2003 and 2007, Tenerife, Canary Islands in 2007 and Bagan, Myanmar in 2017.
 Wetherspoon's chairman Tim Martin warns that his company has no outlets outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland and that the above are all fakes.
  
 Friday  Amusing to read that go-ahead, modern, young politician, Jacob Rees-Mogg, was enjoying a quiet drink recently with his wife Helena in the bar of the Radisson Blu hotel in Manchester when someone with an axe to grind yelled at him "You piece of s***, you've lost touch with the people".
 Apparently Mrs Rees-Mogg merely turned to her startled husband and cooly remarked "What wonderful hospitality".
FOODIE NEWS

 o Lovers of good Italian food will want to know about Isolabella a well-regarded 10 year-old restaurant at 45, Red Lion Street, Holborn, London, with the same name as Isola Bella, a "beautiful island" at Lake Maggiore, Northern Italy.
 One big attraction for us was that the restaurant accepts the Tastecard discount dining card and offers the best deal - 50% off all food for up to 4 people. Unlike some restaurants on the Tastecard list they also accept bookings for one person to enjoy the discount so we picked a 12.00pm slot on a Monday and started with the Antipasto All' Italiano (&pound;9.25/&pound;4.62) This comprised three Italian sliced meats - a sweet and salty cured Parma Ham, or prosciutto, from the Po Valley, Mortadella, a mildly spicy pork luncheon meat from Bologna and a slice of Bresaola, the tasty air-dried beef rubbed with cinnamon and nutmeg, from Lombardy. These were served with grilled marinated courgettes and aubergines. In fact there is a large choice of 21 starters here including a Caesar Salad (&pound;6.25/&pound;3.12) deep fried calamari (&pound;6.95/&pound;3.47) chicken livers (&pound;8.25/&pound;4.12) and king prawns in a tomato sauce (&pound;9.50/&pound;4.75)
 The choice of mains here runs to 25 risottos and pastas, 8 pizzas, 22 meat and fish dishes and 11 side dishes, so, spoiled for choice we plumped for our all-time favourite pasta, the linguine al.scoglio mixed seafood. (&pound;15.95/&pound;7.97) This was a generous and filling portion of linguine, perfectly cooked al dente, stuffed with clams, mussels, squid and prawns in a garlicky tomato sauce with a good fix of chilli and was one of the best we've had. Other choices were a risotto and seafood version (&pound;15.75/&pound;762), a tagliatelle with duck ragu (&pound;13.95/&pound;6.97) black scabbard fish fillets with lobster and crab sauce (&pound;17.95/&pound;8.97) grilled fresh Dover Sole (&pound;24.95/&pound;12.47) and braised lamb shank on a bed of mushroom risotto (&pound;18.95/&pound;9.47)
 Sadly, on this occasion we had no time to enjoy one of the 15 desserts on offer but we'll make more time on a future visit, and try some other starters and mains too. The staff here were helpful and friendly and our bill for the two courses came to &pound;12.60 with the 50% off, and service charge was left to customer's discretion, another plus that will get us back.
  
 o A good Pan-Asian place we've found in London's Charlotte Street is Dim t.
 This accepts the Tastecard for 241 eating and we recently enjoyed what looked like a generous half aromatic duck, with the pancakes, hoi-sin sauce, spring onion and cucumber batons. This was one of the classics range, which included seven chicken dishes, a barbecue roast pork, crispy beef, crispy sea bass, two prawn options and three vegetable options. priced from &pound;8.55 to &pound;12.75, the price of the aromatic duck.
 We followed this massive starter with one of the "superfood" teriyaki stir fries from the noodles and rice section, in our case a bowl of carrot, pak choi, butternut squash, chinese leaf, broccoli, courgette and spinach with the "carb option" of egg noodles in soup topped with a large chunk of salmon with teriyaki . We also had the choice of Japanese rice noodles, or udon, and toppings of prawn, chicken or tofu. Also in the section were Singapore fried noodles, Nasi Goreng (nixed meats and fish with fried rice) sweet coconut stir fry with chicken, tofu or prawns, Phad Thai noodles with chicken, tofu, prawn or chicken and prawn and chicken or tofu chow mein, priced from &pound;8.55 to &pound;11.95.
 In addition there is a section for Ramen noodles in soup, with BBQ roast pork, tofu, chicken or vegetable, and spicy Tom Yum with chicken, salmon or prawn, priced from &pound;8.95 to &pound;11.45. There is a range of four salads at &pound;8.75 to &pound;9.95, and a range of seven "Small Eats" that could make a tasty tapas style option with four or six on the 241 basis.( Chicken Satay, Five spiced squid, Sichuan beef wonton, vegetable or duck spring rools, chicken or vegetable Goyoza, &pound;5.25 to &pound;6.95) Sadly Dim t's range of fifteen hand-made Dim Sum steamed dumpling selections are excluded from the Tastecard 241 offer.
 However, we were pleased with what we had and with the 241 and the cheapest free our bill was just the &pound;12.75 for that excellent crispy duck. There is also no service charge added, a big plus given that some Tastecard places put a 12.5% charge on the full amount before they discount it, meaning that the service charge is actually nearer 25%

 NEXT ISSUE
 Irate members of the public who have had their lives disrupted by climate change activists start finding their addresses and visiting them at home for some frank discussion... The number of demonstrations plummets... London's mayor, Sadiq U-Turn, explains why he goes anyway the wind blows... Cruise operators agree on a passenger compensation scheme to address what they will do in the event of bad weather and other happenings outside their control, and publish this to passengers before they book... In a new scandal dubbed "Todgergate" by the tabloid press PM Boris Johnson claims that an unspecified number of unidentified Westminster women grabbed his manhood when he was trying to sort out Brexit... and much, much more...
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Text only ANNOUNCEMENTS can be run once for new products, new venues, venue refurbishments, new packages, organiser's trips, and industry showcases, receptions, seminars, conferences and exhibitions likely to be of high interest to event organisers.
 Sizes, when printed out on an A4 page, and prices of ANNOUNCEMENT boxes available are:
 One fifth page, 45mm x 170mm &pound;200   One quarter page, 60mm x 170mm &pound;250   One third page, 85mm x 170mm &pound;325   One half page, 120mm x 170mm &pound;400
 To book email peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk
  
 MORE FREE NEWSLETTERS

 Exhibitor Update for all those who exhibit. eou.org.uk
 Association News (AN) for all those who associate. associationnews.org.uk

MEMBER'S DIRECTORY
 This is published in every issue of Event Organisers Update and the cost to suppliers, based on a headline, forty words of text and contact details, is &pound;95 for one year (twelve issues) or &pound;65 for 6 months (six issues) Costs are being kept low to encourage small suppliers to participate.
 If, as an organiser you know of any good suppliers you feel other organisers should know about please forward this issue on to them, or refer them to the SEO website at seoevent.co.uk
  
 SEO SUPPLIERS DIRECTORY

 o AUDIO VISUAL AND IT COMPANIES


 EXHIBITIONS &amp; LIVE EVENT AUDIO VISUAL SUPPLIER COVERING UK &amp; EUROPE  Located in London and Birmingham, Computec AV cater for all your rental requirements. Equipment available includes LCD/Plasma screens, PA systems, Projection Equipment and Lighting. Also in-house we have our Set Creation company specialising in staging, bespoke set design and build. Tel 020 8807 2002, Fax 020 8807 3818, email: sales@computecgroup.com Web: computecgroup.com


 o EVENT TRAINING


 EVENT TRAINING - WITH A QUALIFICATION  The Society of Event Organisers, SEO, offers a four-day qualification course, the Certificate in Conference Organisation (CCO) running in Central London three times a year, and which can also be presented at your premesis - dates by arrangement. Contact Peter Cotterell Tel. 01767 312986, email peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk visit seoevent.co.uk


 o MAGICIANS


 TOP CLASS MAGIC AND ILLUSION ENTERTAINMENT FOR CORPORATE &amp; PRIVATE EVENTS  Specializing in cabaret shows and close up Magic for galas, charity events, weddings, &amp; corporate events Le Magician Dean Metcalfe is a master manipulator perfector of his own spectacular close-up Magic, performances worldwide, see website for live showreels and more details visit lemagicianilluminaire.com


 o MEDIA COMPANIES


 MOCHA:IDEAS, FILM AND MOTION CONTENT THAT CONNECT  Mocha offer a complete film and motion design service to corporate, association and charity event organisers, venues and others in the event sector. Mocha also offer a 10% discount to readers of this publication and visitors to seoevent.co.uk - just quote "SEO". Tel: 0151 706 0761 email: hq@mocha.tv Web: mocha.tv Vimeo:http://vimeo.com/user4995482/videos 


 o MEDICAL AND SECURITY COMPANIES


 OUT OF HOURS SUPPORT GROUP provides MEDICAL COVER and SECURITY SERVICES for the full range of events.  Based in Hampshire, but covers events across the country. Experienced staff include doctors, Emergency Nurse Practitioners &amp; Paramedics working with vehicles equipped to NHS specification, including an ambulance, 4x4s and all-terrain quad bike. Mobile medical centre available. Reliable and versatile staff are fully screened in line with enhanced DBS requirements with separate Disclosure and Barred list check.
 Out of Hours Security teams work separately or alongside the medical teams. Security staff are registered and licensed by the SIA. All staff wear visible ID at all times. Contact Leo Burdock at leo@outofhoursmedics.co.uk or visit outofhoursmedics.co.uk Tel: 07904033828 


 o NEWSLETTERS


 Association News  For all those who associate. associationnews.org.uk


 o VENUES. LEEDS


 CONFERENCES &amp; MEETINGS UP TO 90 DELEGATES  LCI offers conferencing with an ethical edge in Leeds City Centre. Five Rooms (Max 90 people) with Smartboards, loop systems, WIFI. Disabled access. LCI supports community/voluntary groups by offering significant discounts. Very close to railway &amp; bus stations. Contact Moira or Wendy on 0113 245 4700 or email conferencing@leedschurchinstitute.org


 o VENUES. LONDON. NON-RESIDENTIAL 


 BOARDROOM OFF CITY ROAD  Our pleasant boardroom is available for full or half day meetings. It seats 14 people, boardroom-style, or can be arranged to suit your needs. Catering and equipment is available on request. We are conveniently located just off City Road. Call Claire/Nora on 0207 324 0750; fax 0207 324 0760; email: enquiries@keyring.org; address: 27, Corsham Street, London, N1 6DR
 BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURE. BEAUTIFUL INTERIORS. HEART OF LONDON  The classical regency terrace at Park Crescent, near Regents Park includes number 16, which offers seven beautifully appointed meetings rooms, all with natural light and modern facilities, for up to 60 delegates, and a dedicated team to ensure event success. Tel. 020 7612 7070, Fax. 020 7612 7078, email. enquiries@16parkcrescent.co.uk visit 16parkcrescent.co.uk


 o VENUE TRAINING


 VENUE TRAINING, WITH A QUALIFICATION  The Society of Event Organisers, SEO, offers a four-day qualification course, the Certificate in Conference Venue Marketing (CCVM) running in Central London once a year, and which can also be presented at your premesis - dates by arrangement. Contact Peter Cotterell Tel. 01767 312986, email peter.cotterell@eou.org.uk visit seoevent.co.uk



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