North in Brief

The Belfry Wins Big at Tourism Awards

The Belfry Hotel & Resort, located in Royal Sutton Coldfield, North Warwickshire, has added two more awards to its trophy cabinet, winning the West Midlands Tourism Awards ‘Business Events Venue of The Year’ and the Midlands Service Excellence Awards ‘Team of the Year’.

These acknowledgements of the resort’s outstanding facilities and its excellent customer service are the latest in an impressive track record of over 15 award wins in the past 12 months alone.

The Belfry saw off stiff competition to win ‘Business Events Venue of the Year’ at The West Midlands Tourism Awards, with judges commenting that the resort is: “a world-class venue which manages to effectively combine a variety of different offers in one brilliant location, making it the perfect location for a business event… It is ultimately The Belfry staff and their passion to give the very best level of service to all guests, whether big or small events, that gives this venue the wow factor.”

Cloth Hall Court to Host CHS Leeds Reception

CHS Leeds has announced a new partnership that will see the show’s legendary Welcome Reception take place at the University of Leeds’ new venue, Cloth Hall Court. The reception will take place on the evening of 24th April, before the show opens, and gives Hosted Buyers and exhibitors a chance to network informally ahead of the event.

The Welcome Reception at CHS events has always kicked off the event with an innovative, creative, and valuable networking opportunity for exhibitors and Hosted Buyers. Meanwhile, Cloth Hall Court itself represents a taste of Leeds heritage, a fully restored Grade II listed building steeped in rich and fascinating history, vital to Leeds becoming a global centre of commerce and trade in textiles.

The event will be a celebration, both of Leeds and the surrounding area, but also the city’s growing business events scene. Cloth Hall Court is representative of this scene, following investments into the venue, it now has state-of-the art technical facilities including, assisted accessibility, excellent catering options, and a synergy with businesses and brands from a diverse range of industries, all in keeping with Leeds’s industrial heritage and reputation for innovation.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming everyone connected to CHS Leeds to Cloth Hall Court,” commented Sam Glenister-Batey, Head of Conferences and Events at the University of Leeds. “We’re really excited about what we have here, and we know everyone will be bowled over by the venue, the work we’ve done on our meetings and events product, and the quality of the hospitality we provide. It will be a great night.”

Beam Appoints New Marketing Director

The trade association for the business events, accommodation, and meetings industry, beam, has appointed Ian Brown, the Venues and Events Director of vbx, to its board as Marketing Director.

Brown, who founded the events arm of vbx with business partner Jess Hobday in 2021, has more than 15 years of experience in the industry, working for several agencies. Alongside Hobday, Brown has established vbx Events with a focus on corporate event production and venue sourcing for a plethora of clients in the UK and globally. He will continue in this role, alongside his new position with beam.

Reflecting on his new board role for beam, Brown commented: “Being appointed to the beam board is a huge honour for me and something I have long had the ambition to achieve. It’s an inspiring time for the association as we look to further establish beam as a brand, expand our members across new and different specialities and support our industry with the challenges the past two years have thrown at us.”

Sian Sayward, Chair of beam, added: “beam has a talented board in place, which will now be strengthened further by the insight and experience that Ian brings with him to the role of Marketing Director. We would like to welcome him on board at an exciting and ambitious time for the association as we sharpen our focus, and our membership becomes more diverse.”

Athena Events Venue Celebrates 18th Birthday

Athena, the Art Deco Grade II-listed events venue located in Leicester’s cultural quarter, is celebrating its 18th birthday this year with a major event to mark 18 years of trading in the events space.

Originally designed in 1936 by Robert Arthur Bullivant as an Odeon Cinema, the venue represented one of the largest, most extravagant buildings within the region seating over 3,000 guests. Remaining closed throughout much of the ‘90s, the venue was then restored to its former art deco glory and now combines history with state of the art technology, hosting exhibitions, sporting events, festivals, conferences, and shows.

Hira Ram, Head of Events at Athena, said: “We are thrilled to be celebrating our 18th birthday this year with a space that provides state of the art technology following major investments and upgrades. We look forward to continuing our service for delegates both locally and nationally.”

Agents and Venues Connect in Sheffield

The Meetings Industry Association (mia) will be uniting the industry in Sheffield later this month, as it partners with Vine Hotels and Marketing Sheffield to facilitate the association’s largest gathering of booking agents.

Taking place at the DoubleTree by Hilton Sheffield Park, part of the Vine Hotels group, the mia’s latest Connect Day on 28th March will provide a unique platform for those working in business meetings and events to engage and build mutually beneficial relationships with 25 leading booking agents, while also gaining exclusive insights.

The programme will kick off with an interactive presentation from the highly acclaimed professional relationships strategist Andy Lopata, in which he will explore the importance of seeing things from different perspectives. An enlightening panel discussion led by Edge Venue’s Jacqui Kavanagh will then explore the status quo of commissions before the agents reveal what’s important to them in a quickfire debate.

Kerrin MacPhie, Chief Executive of the mia, said: “Our Connect events have continued to evolve into highly soughtafter networking opportunities for agents and venues alike. We’re really looking forward to taking the event to Sheffield as, thanks to their highly regarded reputation, it promises to be the association’s largest gathering of booking agents, which is fantastic and will make for an engaging day for all.”

In our previous edition, we erroneously stated that the work Relocatable Structures described specifically in the case study we featured was undertaken for broadcasting company ITV. This was not the case, and we apologise for this error.

Get

Situated in a prime location in the South East of England, close to London and major transport links, Bisham Abbey is a unique setting for any meeting or conference.

Discover our state of the art hybrid office & meeting space or explore the Abbey, a Grade I listed building overlooking the River Thames.

Built in 1831, Lilleshall House stands in Grade II listed grounds, located in Shropshire, centrally located and easily accessible with good transport links.

Our Main House offers newly refurbished elegant rooms, with a range of conference & meeting spaces to accommodate events of all sizes.