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EUROPEAN CONFERENCES Three events planned for May/June


European parks and attractions professionals looking to educate themselves and network with peers from a range of associated industries have a series of events to consider over the next couple of months. Fresh from the success of its inaugural Leadership Conference last month in San Diego, California, IAAPA will be holding a new event for its German-speaking members in Europe. The IAAPA Europe Spring Forum will take place at Europa-Park near Freiburg, Germany, on May 17 and 18. A gala dinner on Tuesday night will be followed on Wednesday by a full seminar programme focusing on marketing and trends in the European entertainment industry, delivered in German. Delegates will be able to stay on site at one of Europa-Park’s excellent on-site hotels and there will, of course be an opportunity to visit the park itself. For more details, contact Jakob Wahl: jwahl@iaapa.org, +32 2 401 6161. Two years after a trial summer event at the Vienna Prater in 2009, the TEA (Themed Entertainment Association) will stage its first SATE (Storytelling, Architecture, Technology and Experience) conference for European members. SATE Europe will be hosted at the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam on Thursday and Friday, June 16 and 17, building on the success of the now established SATE in North America, which was held last month in California. This new spin-off should provide a welcome summer get-together for those European professionals still missing the old TiLE conference, which used to take place around the same time. “Bringing SATE to Europe confirms and expands upon the commitment of the association to the region and forms the basis of our expansion plans for the coming years,” says Phil Hartley, president of the TEA’s Europe and Middle East division.


The speaker programme was still being finalised at the time of writing, but registration is now open and more details can be acquired from emeevents@teaconnect.org Towards the end of June, a week after members of BALPPA (British Association of Amusement Parks, Piers and Attractions) meet for their Summer Conference in the English county of Cornwall, consultancy Vision XS will host its latest Leisure Operators’ Conference. Each year host Tony Sefton chooses a grand location close to Vision’s Oxfordshire base, and the venue for 2011 will be Heythrop Park Resort, Chipping Norton. This former aancestral home of the Earls of Shrewsbury now incorporates a Crowne Plaza Hotel, conference facilities and spa. While the main event is scheduled for June 29 (Wednesday), there is also a pre- conference golf day and dinner planned for June 28. Seminars and workshop sessions will be delivered by a wide range of speakers from a wide range of attractions, ranging from museums to theme parks. The event will also showcase


Vision XS’s “experience modelling” via a series of workshop sessions and even a live cooking demonstration in a session on food and beverage. A black tie dinner will round off the proceedings on Wednesday night. www.visionxs.co.uk


RIGHT: The Heineken Experience in Amsterdam, host venue for SATE Europe


New research for UK attractions


There’s good news and bad news for the attractions industry following two recent surveys in the UK.


Visitor attractions across Great Britain are witnessing an increase in membership subscriptions, according to the latest Holiday Survey from market research company BDRC Continental. The recession and the resultant tendency to holiday at home is also encouraging members (62% of them) to make greater use of their subscriptions compared to just a year ago. Conventional wisdom would suggest that this should result in additional secondary spend/incremental revenue for the attractions concerned.


All this reinforces earlier research from VisitEngland, which last summer found that a third of attractions with membership schemes reported an increase in subscriptions over the past year.


Meanwhile BDRC offers a warning for attractions without a membership scheme. A third (34%) of people surveyed that already had memberships said that they would, “visit places more often using my membership, but visit other attractions less.” “The increase in visits per member to attractions provides organisations with a much better opportunity to engage with these members and develop that elusive long term relationship” adds BRDC director Steve Mills. Meanwhile the hospitality industry has been singled out as a provider of, “unsustainable, unconventional jobs as the effects of the recession continue to impact the UK labour market,” in a survey from employment agency Kelly Services. According to Kelly’s latest Global Workforce Index, 36% of those employed in the hospitality sector are in such jobs, something it reckons could create a long term talent issue for the sector in the UK job market in general, where 49% or more of those surveyed are prepared to travel abroad for the right job. Nevertheless businesses across the country are aiming to drive up efficiency while lowering their costs.


www.bdrc-continental.com www.kellyservices.com


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APRIL 2011


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