- THE MEETING PLACE IN BRIEF
• THE Sugnall Estate, near Eccleshall in Staffordshire, is now offering a number of meetings and event venues for hire, including the two-acre walled kitchen garden, with a marquee, the recently refurbished Carpenter's Shed, and the impressive Billiard Room. The estate is located 12 miles from junction 15 on the M6 and around an hour's drive from Telford, Stoke-on- Trent and Birmingham.
• LEEDS Castle in Kent is now offering its historic Maiden Tower as an unusual venue for residential and day conferences, meetings and corporate hospitality. Suitable for product launches, presentations, business lunches, meetings, seminars or conferences, a multimillion pound investment has combined its original Tudor splendour with modern business amenities including AV equipment and wireless broadband connection.
• THE Good Companions family-run restaurant in Nethertown, Cumbria, has transformed part of its venue into a function room for training, meetings and conferences. The room, with overhead projector screen, flipchart and stationery, is priced from £15 a day per delegate including refresh- ments and a buffet style lunch.
• EVENTS and entertainment company Keith Prowse has expanded its range of hospitality deals to cover over 40 new cultural and sporting events. Upscale hospitality packages now span sporting stadia, racecourses and performing arts venues across the UK. Events available include golf's Open Championship and BMW PGA Championship, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Royal Ascot, Cowes Week and Cirque du Soleil. Keith Prowse already offered hospitality access to iconic events including Twickenham rugby stadium, Cartier International Polo and Wimbledon.
• FORMER Cavendish Hospitality managing director, Simon Gillespie, has launched eVent Advisors, a specialist independent consultancy providing event management, advice and marketing services to the events industry. The company also provides access to a network of events industry professionals, with extensive experience and broad industry background, offering a range of services from business development to live event solutions.
• THE headquarters of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 41 Portland Place in London, has reopened and now offers seven meeting rooms, an open plan exhibition area, a purpose built conference suite for up to 50 delegates, an outdoor terrace and reception rooms.
THE newly-refurbished Audi quattro rooms have opened in London’s West End. The new-look venue features a striking plum, red and burgundy floral design, designer furniture and lighting, all chosen to best showcase the classic Auto Union Wanderer and iconic Quattro 20v, two of the vintage cars normally on display at the Audi quattro rooms. The rooms were reopened with a
glitzy client launch party which saw 80 buyers attend from the financial, pharmaceutical, media, consultancy, and IT sectors. Spanning two floors, the venue
in Piccadilly can accommodate up to 200 guests for exclusive events, and includes a boardroom which
can host up to 24 delegates for private meetings and presen- tations. Hire of the facilities ranges from £300 up to £4,000. Charlotte Reeves, commercial manager of the Audi quattro rooms, says “Our buyers often tell us that they are under pressure to find venues of superior quality and specification which reflect their brand values. Reeves adds, “The Audi quattro rooms' style and quality epitomises the Audi brand and with the positive feedback we received at the party, we’re confident that our London venues will continue to represent the high end of the industry and go from strength to strength.”
SAVOY RAISES THE BAR
LONDON'S Savoy Hotel, a British icon since 1889, has now emerged from a £100million, three-year restoration project which has seen its classic, original elements blended with modern additions, giving new sparkle to the stunning English Edwardian and Art Deco interiors. Its meetings and events facilities include a range of Private and Banqueting rooms, while the famous American Bar, brand new Beaufort Bar, Savoy Grill and River Restaurant present further options for corporate gatherings. The hotel also has a separate River Entrance for event delegates, on a quiet road on the Thames side of the building.
Event specialist venuedirectory.
com has welcomed the reopening of the Savoy as a landmark moment in the upgrading of meetings and events standards in the capital city. Its managing director, Michael Begley, says, “Let's face it, the Savoy Hotel is a destination in itself – it was our capital's first purpose-built luxury hotel. With such a comprehensive and expensive refurbishment overseen by one of the industry’s most successful management companies, Fairmont Hotels, The Savoy will continue to raise the standard of meeting and conference facilities in the capital and across the UK.”
➔ Audi lays on the style at London venue
EVENTIA UPDATE
DAVID BENNETT VAT PARTNER WITH SAFFERY CHAMPNESS AND MEMBER OF THE EVENTIA REGULATION COMMITTEE
READERS may be aware of the negative effect of TOMS (Tour Operators Margin Scheme) on business travel – it makes business travel and events more expensive as travel buyers are denied their right to recover VAT costs and inevitably budgets suffer. It is therefore in the interest of both supplier and purchaser that TOMS is avoided. Many Eventia members have suffered lost business, reduced margins and real frustration with TOMS. Those responsible for purchasing business travel have similarly faced situations in which costs were higher than they should have been and many have been asked to agree an approach which exists merely to avoid the VAT problem. The agreement with HMRC on hotel billback is a good example of the complexities. There is some light at the end of
the tunnel, however, in the form of the current EU discussions on TOMS reform. This is a delicate situation and it is not clear whether there will be change and, if so, what form that change will take. Eventia has recently submitted proposals to the Treasury which emphasise how important it is that TOMS does not apply and should be confined to the leisure travel market where it belongs. And we know these goals are shared by other bodies in the business travel sector. We must find a way to exclude business travel from TOMS. Hope exists in the form of a voluntary opt-out which would allow business travel suppliers to choose not to apply TOMS, but that opt-out has recently been removed from the proposals as some member states did not approve. We are trying to convince member
states of the hugely counterproductive and inequitable effects if business travel is in TOMS, but we need your help. Any examples you can give of any situations in which the effect of TOMS has influenced your buying decision will be very welcome. In particular, if you have decided not to purchase a service due to the effects of irrecoverable VAT, or chosen a location for an event or similar on the basis of differences in VAT costs. Please send any examples to me by emailing
david.bennett@
saffery.com or call on 020 7841 4052.
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