Venues of Excellence (VOE), the UK’s leading consortium for independent venues, specialising in conference and events, has announced outstanding success in its key business objectives over the past year.
The consortium, now in its third year of ownership with Mandy Jennings, CEO at the helm, has continued to expand the portfolio, introducing 14 new venues in the past 12 months. From exclusive use venues to large conference and event venues, the consortium now boasts its most diverse collection of independent venues in its history. The latest venues to join bringing a new dimension to membership are the luxurious 5-star Mar Hall Hotel Golf and Spa Resort near Glasgow, Friend’s House in Euston, offering a fantastic new London venue to the collection and to add to the unique offerings for clients we are proud to be working in partnership with Center Parcs Woburn and Center Parcs Sherwood. Jennings, reflecting on the significant growth and mix of venues signing up says: “We are absolutely delighted to see such diverse venues applying to join our membership collection. We are so proud to offer one of the most exciting conference and events portfolios across the UK, all offering the golden thread of excellence and working to the highest standards and ethics.”
There is a fine balance with independent consortiums, to support the membership with a range of tangible ROI’s, whilst marketing the venues to conference and event planners to choose something unique, diverse and different to traditional corporate venues to host their events.
For members, 2024 kicked off with The Power of Discovery Annual Conference, and the continued Journey of Excellence provides members with a range of benefits and opportunities underpinning the core principles of the consortium.
Quality – All new venues are assessed for quality prior to membership and in the past twelve months all our existing venues are going through an independent Quality Audit completed by an external Hospitality ambassador and ex-Chairman of Venues of Excellence, David Vaughton, to ensure they continue to deliver outstanding customer service.
Learning and Development – our new training course in conjunction with the Paje Learning and Development Academy has provided new content which has resulted in the highest delegate attendance since the VOE Academy was launched in 2018.
Communication – key to the success of an organisation is its ability to communicate to all levels at our member venues. VOE has introduced Senior Leadership Dinners, Senior Peer to Peer Meetings and Regional Meetings to engage across all levels within member venues. These events have been added to our programme of Member Forums and Sales and Marketing workshops to provide a forum to share knowledge and gain real insights on how business is for members which provides critical intel to the VOE team when planning how to carve out the business objectives going forward to deliver for its members.
Member Culinary Events – April saw the return of the esteemed Venues of Excellence Cook and Serve Challenge, returning after 4 years, where food and beverage teams competed in delivering an exquisite three-course lunch, and in the evening at a fantastic Awards Dinner the teams celebrated the exceptional culinary and food service skills within our member venues.
Enquiries ROI – From a customer perspective, the collective experience and knowledge within the Business Development and Venue Find Teams, provide clients with expert advice when sourcing conference and event venues, to help them find the right venue for their event each and every time. The past 12 months has seen a significant growth in the venue find, for face-to-face events, which is great news for the hospitality sector. Other client initiatives such as the #AgencyExcellence programme allows agents to engage with our member venues across a range of activities.
Taking time to reflect on the past 12 months, and look to the future, Jennings shared: “We are so proud to have achieved another year of membership and sales growth putting us in a wonderful position to start our new membership year. We are continuing to invest in our team and introduce new benefits to members which in turn has seen some amazing new venues join our exclusive mix of the best conference and events spaces across the UK. Our focus on quality investment over the last 12 months means we can really show that excellence is at the core of everything we do. We start our new membership year in a really strong position ready to deliver another highly successful year for all our members.”
Venues of Excellence will be exhibiting at The Meetings Show, ExCeL, London on stand E51, and welcomes delegates attending the show to pop by the stand and meet 16 venues stand partnering at the show, find out more about membership and to hear all the latest news from the consortium.
