Venues of Excellence, (VOE) the UK’s leading sales and marketing consortium for independent venues is focused on supporting their member venues by sourcing suppliers who are at the top of their field and excellent in the services and products they supply to join their Preferred Partner programme and Supplier Directory.
Mandy Jennings, CEO of Venues of Excellence, continually strives to position key industry suppliers with the programme, so recently took time out with Noel Sexton, Director of View It 360 to talk through his journey with VOE as a Preferred Partner. Noel has recently chosen to enhance the partnership by requesting to go to the highest level of partner as our Premium Partner within the programme.
View It 360 joined the Preferred Partner Programme in 2019 providing Digital Media solutions, and in 2023 due to the success of the partnership has upgraded to our Premium Partnership level, providing services to member venues and VOE and in is integral to our Technology and Innovation Focus Group giving members key insights to trends and future developments, helping them gain and maintain a competitive edge for their business. This demonstrates how both View It 360 has developed their partnership and how VOE continues to develop the consortium as a key voice within the hospitality sector.
Noel, can you share with us how you initially heard about VOE and why our consortium was of interest to View It 360?
I was introduced to the VOE via a mutual contact who had seen our works and we had recently produced a virtual tour for his hotel. He identified how our service would be of huge benefit to the members of the VOE and kindly introduced me to yourself and the board. When I then started to research the VOE venues, I was hugely excited to see the high calibre of membership.
What are the three key benefits you feel View It 360 has working in partnership with VOE?
The first and most obvious would be having the ability to speak directly to leading venues and hotels across the UK which otherwise would be difficult to speak directly to the right people.
Having the opportunity to present at Member forums and to attend as an exhibitor at the Annual Conference is another great opportunity for us to showcase what we do and how we can ensure the members are ahead of their competition in terms of their marketing media. Thirdly, working directly with the team at the VOE; they are greatly experienced in their industry and are dynamic in their approach to venue marketing which is a real benefit.
How do you feel you benefit from being part of our Annual Conference and Member Forums?
As mentioned on the previous question, having the opportunity to stand in front of so many top-class venues to discuss and showcase what we offer is invaluable. These events allow me to have one to one conversation with the right people and to show our experience and knowledge within our industry, therefore opening numerous opportunities that would typically be very difficult to achieve.
We value your contribution to our Innovation and Technology Focus Group. Can you share why you feel this is important to the hospitality sector?
Our business is all about innovation and creating the very latest in interactive media so for me, it is a great opportunity to share my knowledge and look at how this can improve and assist the hospitality sector, ensuring VOE members stay ahead of trends.
In your speciality as a business, what do you think are the new upcoming trends our member venues need to embrace?
Members and the hospitality industry in general have had to deal with extremely tough times during the Covid pandemic. Many venues realised during this time that ‘virtual’ was the way forward. The technology sector has now evolved to the needs of businesses as we have seen a big uplift in creating virtual tour that are compatible with VR headsets.
Businesses that couldn’t travel during the pandemic now choose not to travel as we are all mindful of our carbon footprint and are aware that for an introduction to a venue, they don’t need to travel to various venues across the UK as a good quality virtual experience gives them a great understanding from the comfort of their home or office. With the upcoming release of Apples new Vison Pro headsets,
