What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 23 June 2017

Welcome to another week and even though our #VenueTipoftheDay this week will feature some stunning properties in Edinburgh to coincide with the Festival, we are in fact starting in China!

We're taking part in a Symposium this morning to strengthen our relationship with China as Nottingham has strong ties to the country and our current work with the Unversities locally on a collaborative Microfilm Festival has opened up all sorts of new opportunities. 

Following the recent signing of a partnership agreement between Nottinghamshire and Zhejiang province, Nottinghamshire County Council and partners are welcoming Zhejiang CCPIT (China Council for the Promotion of International Trade) and a delegation of over 60 Chinese companies to the Midlands to explore opportunities for business collaboration, both export and investment across a range of sectors.  

Following a plenary session where speakers representing the UK and China will discuss the abundance of opportunities that exist for business engagement, delegates will be able to pre-book appointments with members of the Chinese delegation and we are keen to speak with the Tourism & Culture companies attending.

If you know little about Zhejiang (and to be honest we didn't either) then it was host to the G20 summit in 2016, last year Zhejiang ranked 4th in terms of provincial GDP with an economy equivalent to that of Austria. With 90% of that economy privately owned, the province ranked 3rd behind Shanghai and Beijing in terms of disposable income per capita, and was 2nd in terms of the number of incorporated listed companies (2015)

Pillar sectors in the province are: light textiles, machinery, building materials, chemicals, ICT and medical devices which is why Zhejiang companies are looking to EU for investment collaboration. 

New and rapidly growing sectors include e-commerce (Alibaba Group is based in provincial capital, Hangzhou) and creative (second largest film and television making region in China).

We also keen to know if our free venue finding service will be useful for the Chinese contingent.

So could we be seeing a Cloud 9 in China in the future? Who knows - watch this space!

Have a great week...

 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? W/c 19 June 2017

Welcome to another week and following last weeks successful visit to the Meetings Show, our recent post on the Mailbag Section of Meetpie may have been a little hasty! Just in case you hadn't seen it, let us remind you of what Paula wrote....

Why Don't We Count?

There seems to be an increasing and troubling trend among some of the bigger venue and hotel chains to remove a direct contact or account manager from servicing smaller or independent agencies – or those whose annual spend does not reach a dictated level.
While we fully appreciate that suppliers only have so much time and resource to service independent agencies, it seems terribly short-sighted to adopt this policy.
We’re not asking to be cosseted or even for a quarterly review, but knowing that you have a direct and reliable contact makes all the difference for most venue finders. Our industry is all about people after all.
The popularity of social media sites does make finding someone suitable to help you with an enquiry much easier, but a working relationship built on trust is far more valuable than a name on a Facebook group.
Many boutique agencies, including ours, don’t have preferred supplier lists and we don’t work to override contracts as our business is based on finding the right fit for the right brief, irrespective of the client. Our spend with some of the larger chains might be erratic and this may well be a situation that many independent agencies share. On this basis can the larger chains really abandon us? Who knows what business they might miss out on if it’s a collective issue.
I know we’re far more likely to steer a client towards a venue with whom we have a contact, so any potential issues or problems can be quickly addressed – and - I’d far rather speak to someone I’ve met than ring a central call centre who don’t consider our enquiry with the same priority as some of the bigger agencies.
Business for many agencies like ours is fluid and the right brief for one of the bigger chains might hit our desk tomorrow – but if we don’t count, then you won’t either.

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So the reason for this little rant from our erstwhile leader was that we had an enquiry, we knew a suitable venue but we couldn't find a suitable contact to speak to with regards to our RFP. Central sales units are all well and good, but if you phone back, it's unlikely you get to speak with the same person twice and whilst you can of course go direct to a hotel, this is not always easy when the enquiry is for international business.

I know this is a view taken by many small agencies, and fortunately, events like the Meetings Show, do help us to discover just who we should be talking with - especially at some of the larger chains.

That said, a little rant now and again is probably good for the soul and its not like we do it very often here at Cloud 9 Towers!

Have a great week.

 

 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? Week Commencing 12 June 2017

Welcome to another week and it's a busy one as The Meetings Show will take up the majority of the week. The Meetings Show is now in it's 5th edition and is the premier event for the meetings industry based in the UK. 

 
In today's world it's difficult to commit to even a day away from the office, but being placed within an industry that demands face-to-face interaction, the show offers an opportunity to connect with over 3,000 meetings industry professionals to source new suppliers, learn about the latest innovations and grow your network - all in one go.
It features more than 700 of the finest destinations, hotels, venues, DMCs and technology providers exhibiting on the show floor. All looking to meet with premium-level MICE buyers under one roof. Exhibiting provides the opportunity to get ahead of your competition and put yourselves in the minds of the buyers looking to place business with new suppliers at the show.

Over 3,000 meetings industry professionals visit the show to take advantage of the new connections, networking opportunities and education programme we offer across the three days of the show. Visiting companies typically feature event management companies, agencies, corporates, associations, charities and not-for-profits, PAs and EAs and many more. 

The show features over 80 free-to-attend educational sessions in ten dedicated content streams delivered by the most creative thinkers in the industry. Visitors, hosted buyers and exhibitors alike can attend the sessions most relevant to them and learn more about the latest trends & innovations affecting their sector right now. 

As a team we're particularly invested in some of the educational sessions and we'll be checking out the AIEA Session delivered by Martin Ellis from Team Umbrella on Tuesday who is looking at whether progress has slowed us down.

We're all hosted buyers at the show and in addition to the exhibition itself, there are range of great social events surrounding the show.

In an new addition to the event for 2017 is The Meetings Show monthly news which features a range of authors including a regular monthly post from Event Director, Steve Knight, as well as guest pieces from partners and friends from the industry and beyond.

We're sure Steve won't mind us blatantly copying his content from his June edition:

"The doors will soon open at Olympia for the fifth edition of The Meetings Show. The stage is set for another successful show with more than 700 exhibitors, including many who are new to the show. 

Over the last five years, The Meetings Show has gone from strength to strength as we have cemented its position as a market place, meeting place and learning place with a wealth of opportunities for everybody from the industry to come together to do business. We have a lot of support from the industry, and I would particularly like to thank Dubai Business Events, as sponsors of our hosted buyer lounges, and the Barbican and Searcys, who are hosting our Association Meetings Conference. 

But The Meetings Show is not just about doing business. It’s a place to network with your peers, and there are many events taking place throughout the week where this can happen. In particular, we have once again partnered with MPI for the Post Show Charity Party. In support of The Event Apprenticeships Support Scheme, the Post Show Charity Party is a great opportunity to relax and network with industry friends, hosted buyers and exhibitors, whilst enjoying an open bar and complimentary food. Attend the show on Tuesday 13 June and cross the road to join us at 6pm at the Hand & Flower pub. Tickers are only £50 and can be purchased here [insert link].  

In this month’s newsletter we get Splash Event Solution’s top tips for generating effective event feedback, find out more about the ICE Awards, talk to Advisory Board member Christian Mutschlechner and LiveBuzz tells us more about its new Dynamic Email Builder (DEB) tool. And as always we bring you the latest news from the exhibitors you can meet on the show floor. 

The whole team at The Meetings Show is looking forward to welcoming you to Olympia. But remember, to avoid the £20 onsite registration fee make sure you register today – www.themeetingsshow.com/register! Make sure you keep up with everything that happens throughout the week and join the conversation by following us on Twitter @meetingsshow – don’t forget to us the hashtag TMS17. 

We look forward to seeing you!"

Steve Knight
Event Director

Well said Steve - we look forward to seeing you and all of our fellow #EventProfs this coming week!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? Week Commencing 5 June 2017

Welcome to another week and our focus is very much Awards, Awards, Awards this week as we'd like to mention the inaugural UK Awards Conference which we've launched in conjunction with Boost Marketing. 

The forum of education, energy & exploration for awards & events organisers in all key sectors. Refresh, renew and revitalise your brand, learn how to improve your core delivery programme and the steps to increase both market awareness and the bottom line.

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With an array of incredible speakers, the opportunity to attend workshops that are relevant to you and your awards, a wealth of useful new suppliers, the UK Awards Conference is also introducing a revolutionary new bench marking scheme for awards organisers, based on the core principals of the event.

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Increase the credibility of your event, improve your education and innovate your next programme all in one day.

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Delegates also have the opportunity to shape future content of the event as this conference is designed to share best practice and improve industry standards.

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One of the initiatives we are aiming to unveil at the Conference is a new code of conduct, best practice policy and accreditation for anyone running or managing awards events and programmes. 

This national recognition will demonstrate your ethics, commitment and your professional approach to delivery. Above all, the charter will show your brand is alinged with trust, with transparency & technology which will benefit your business, your audience and your awards.

We're delighted to be working with a host of professional and passionate organisations all of whom share the vision and values of both a new charter for awards organisers and the inaugural conference. We welcome any comments, suggestions or feedback you may have and with your support we look forward to growing and improving the event each year.

Scheduled for 7 November, the event is sure to create a buzz around the industry so if you work in the Awards sector, please make sure you register online for this event, being held at the Cavendish Conference Centre in London. 

Whilst we are on the subject of Awards we are also pleased to be involved in a new initiative for for one of our clients which is the National Acute Pain Awards, part of the National Acute Pain Symposium, scheduled for September in Harrogate.

Recognising the great work of the Pain Departments around the UK, the awards will be an important part of the event this year, so for additional details please take a look at the website.

Lastly, a little call for help please. As part of the Awards initiative, we're asking anyone involved in Awards to take part in a little survey please, just to let us get a better idea of the industry and it's structure. You could win a place at the Conference by completing the survey, so if you can spare us five minutes, well maybe ten, that would be great!

Have a fabulous week!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? Week commencing 29 May 2017

Welcome to another week, this post is bought to you by a newbie, my name is Emma, I am currently at Cloud 9 helping out, getting some invaluable experience and knowledge from Paula and the rest of the amazing team! I am just about to go into my 4^th year of study at university, and somehow managed to flip my whole degree over in my 3^rd year deciding I no longer wanted to do a specialist PR degree I wanted to do what I enjoyed and have a go events and exhibition management! 

First event I ever organised was a tea party for my hostess badge at brownies, I baked and prepared food, made tea and coffee, all of this was a pretty big deal for a 7-year-old. Since then I have helped to organise my school prom which was a complete nightmare as Venue finding was almost impossible on such short notice during prom season! But it turned out well and we got a lovely location, despite the Olympic torch touring through Nottingham that day and many the roads we needed to get to the venue being closed, but we all got there in the end!
In the 3 years, I have attended Birmingham City University, I have had the chance to have a go at everything the media communication degree offers, such as: Print design and copy writing, PR, TV, photography, radio, marketing, events, new media and coding and some film making. I have done some of these things reluctantly, however, I am so grateful I’ve had these opportunities to try everything and know what I enjoy and am good at. It’s through these exploratory years I have stumbled into the world of events, right before it all starts to matter, for my final year of study! 

As long as I can remember I have always liked to plan, it doesn’t matter what for I always generate a plan of action, so naturally now my diary is my life. So understandably I’ve got my eyes and heart set on a career path with deep roots in planning ahead and being as organised as possible. Originally events was not the pathway I was going to take I wanted to study fashion communication at Nottingham Trent. After I reviewed all my options alongside my A-level results I decided the broad discipline of PR was probably a better fit with more diversity and potentially more opportunities long term. I really enjoy PR but since having a multitude of options to specialise the route of my degree I have ended up taking the path of events/exhibition management and visual design. 

One reason I have changed my mind is that Venue finding is a practice I have always found so interesting, understanding needs of the client to find the perfect space to bring your vision to life is so exciting to me. I am forever looking at hotels in various locations globally, either planning a holiday or a trip or simply being nosy to see what style and facilities they can offer. So, venue finding never feels like work to me when I get to research venues!

Much like the rest of the creative sectors the events industry is forever developing, utilising trends and evolving to fit with and use new media developments too. The opportunity to work in such a diverse environment is a challenge I will welcome with open arms!

The events industry has always sounded very glamourous, lots of travel, lots of meetings, having clients, it really does sound exciting. I now understand after experiencing it somewhat It may not always be glamorous and fun day to day, but the events industry is one which pushes you to challenge yourself. The more you get out of your comfort zone the better your work I find. You have to put so much more into the job, more research, more time, more understanding and ultimately it all leads to a better sense of achievement afterwards too.

 As a community #EventsProfs are so supportive and interconnected, there is competition but mostly companionship, that is a dynamic I wanted to be a part of!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 22 May 2017

Welcome to another week and if you caught our blog last week you will know that were mentioned films where the hotels are almost as important as the plot, story line and characters. 

This started a debate here at Cloud 9 Towers about whether hotels featured more in films than in songs and guess what - films win!  

However, there are some very iconic songs which mention hotels including some pretty famous ones -It’s well over 40 years since Hotel California was released by The Eagles and this is probably the most famous of all songs with a hotel in the title. 

The album's lead single has since become one of the most celebrated rock 'n' roll songs, as well as the most important tune referencing the hospitality industry - even if in a slightly weird sort of way. Hotel California was not about a specific accommodation choice but the line "you can check out but never leave" more about living in LA in the 70's.

There are some actual hotels called Hotel California dotted about the world including  one in Santa Monica, California, one in Palm Springs, Florida, and another in Baja, Mexico. We bet the people who look after their SEO have a terrible job trying to get the properties to rank highly given that a search simply brings up the Eagles!

Another fictional hotel, Heartbreak Hotel was instead inspired by the story of a man who leapt to his death from a hotel in Miami, leaving a single line suicide note: “I walk a lonely street.” Elvis had a top hit with this song and even though the King is no longer with us, there are Heartbreak Hotel-themed stays available for fans, including the 128-room, boutique offering on Elvis’s Graceland estate in Memphis.

Copacabana Palace in Rio, which is looked after by the lovely people at Bellmond Hotels, inspired Barry Manilow to create his 1978 hit - and although a nightclub in New York also claims inspiration, we like to think that Rio is a more glamorous setting for the story in the song! 

Perhaps a little less known and certainly less of a hit was Blue Hotel by Chris Isaak. There are a few Blue Hotels dotted around the world so whether any of these inspired the song we don't know -  we like to think that if the hotel did inspire the song that it was likely to be the Blue Hotel in Sydney and not the Big Blue Hotel in Blackpool but who knows?!

Lastly anyone under 40 probably wont even know this song but Pennsylvania 6-5000 by Glen Miller,  is the phone number of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City. Before area codes, the first two numbers were called the "Exchange Code," and were represented by a word whose first two letters were used as the numbers. Thus, "Pennsylvania" represented the PE exchange code, which translates to the number 73 (P=7, E=3). The number today, complete with area code, is (212) 736-5000.

You see, we don't just know our hotels here at Cloud 9, we also know our numbers!

Have a great week!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 15 May 2017

Welcome to another week and this week we'd like to talk about hotels, which is not unusual we know, but more about hotels which are the back drop for films. 

The reason for our interest in this subject is that doing a little research recently into hotel facts for Fiona's #LittleFactsat5, we discovered some rather unusual and interesting information about film stars and hotels which got us thinking! From legendary love stories to tales of drunken and debauched behaviour, there are numerous anecdotes which we could share, but we wouldn't want to make anyone blush so instead, we'll look at some of the films which are almost secondary to the hotels! 

A relatively recent favourite has to be the fabulous Grand Budapest Hotel, which is a stylish and funny film from director, Wes Anderson. It features the adventures of Gustave H., a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the trainee lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune.

The cities of Görlitz and Dresden in Germany, along with some other spots in Saxony, were the  main film location for the film  and although the Director took inspiration from a cocktail between Vienna, Prague and Budapest to create the city of Lutz, in the invented Republic of Zubrowka. The plot occurs in a background with clear references to the history of Central Europe, during the interwar period of the 20th century and the hotel itself - was an an old abandoned department store!
The production team did a magnificent job recreating a fictional universe, that is at the same time familiar to the public. Also the shooting locations are not very difficult to recognise for those who have been there. Many films try to mask or hide the real film locations. In The Grand Budapest Hotel, on many occasions the camera was pointing at the same perspective as postcards do:

Perhaps one of the most famous, and certainly unsettling (which means downright scary) films about a hotel is The Shining with Jack Nicholson. Based on the book  by Stephen King, Nicholson goes mad after he and his family look after a remote hotel in the Rockies and its probably one of the greatest horror films of all time. Far too scary for the team here at Cloud 9 Towers!

More up our street it has to be said is Carry On Abroad which features a very dodgy hotel, still being built, in the Spanish Resort of Elsbells. With bad weather, bad food and some very odd staff, it's perhaps a representation of hotel that most Spanish Tourist Authorities would best forget! Whilst some of the team at Cloud 9 are too young to enjoy the Carry On genre, some of the older, more distinguished members of our team love them!

Animated film Hotel Transylvania features the voices of Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, and CeeLo Green, and it tells the tale of a five-star resort where monsters can go to—get this—be safe from us humans. We're unlikely to ever make a booking here but the film is enormous fun anyway!

The Regent Beverly Wilshire in Pretty Woman features Garry Marshall's biggest hit and although Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) doesn't give the friendly staff the time of day, Vivian (Julia Roberts) cosies up to the bellhop, Edward's driver, and the benevolent hotel manager, memorably played by an on-point Hector Elizondo. 

In a similar genre is Maid in Manhattan. Set in  the Waldorf Astoria in New York, it features
Marisa Ventura (Jennifer Lopez) as a single mother born and bred in the boroughs of New York City, who works as a maid in a first-class Manhattan hotel. By a twist of fate and mistaken identity, Marisa meets Christopher Marshall (Ralph Fiennes), a handsome heir to a political dynasty, who believes that she is a guest at the hotel. Fate steps in and throws the unlikely pair together for one night. When Marisa's true identity is revealed, the two find that they are worlds apart, even though the distance separating them is just a subway ride between Manhattan and the Bronx.

However a firm favourite with the team here at Cloud 9 has to be The Hotel del Coronado in Some Like it Hot (1959). When Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis assume the identities of female musicians Josephine and Daphne, their on-the-run ruse—sparked by fear of having witnessed mob killings—takes them to Miami's fictitious Seminole Ritz resort, which was in fact California's Hotel del Coronado. It'd be the setting for countless classic moments, from the advances of Joe E. Brown's ageing millionaire to the beach frolics of Marilyn Monroe's Sugar Kane, whom the lead duo observe walks like “jello on springs.”

We bet you never think about hotels in the same way again! Have a great week!