EventUK 2010

Velvet Software's destination clients were out in force again at this year's EventUK exhibition.

Hosted at Birmingham's NEC, the show was well attended with many destinations reporting quality leads from visitors. Claire Williams of Staffordshire, Stoke on Trent and Ruth Robinson representing Blackpool and Lancashire Conferences were amongst those for who the show proved a success on the first day.

Both Eventia (Events Industry Association) and the MIA (Meetings Industry Association) had a presence at the show; supporting members and also generating leads for processing using Velvet's Chaser BUREAU system.

Velvet's Tim Clark and Chris Gibbs met with destination clients who were exhibiting and several who were attending the show as visitors. "Event UK has always been a great place to meet with clients", explained Tim. "Whilst the show may not be as large as in previous years, destinations have reported some excellent, quality enquiries and were upbeat about the level of potential business generated by the exhibition".

Velvet sponsor 2009 York Tourism Awards

Velvet Software are proud sponsors of this year's York Tourism Awards hosted at the prestigious York Race Course. This year's awards were presented by BBC's Look North host, Harry Gration.

The annual high profile event was organised by Visit York's Stuart Blackmore. Stuart's meticulous organisation made for a seamless event - the timing, awards ceremony, food and post event entertainment were all excellent. Velvet Software provided their professional event registration software, reg.istrations.com to Stuart and his team in 2008 to allow sponsors, attendees and organising members of Visit York to book their tickets for the event.

"Stuart had limited staffing resources and a relatively complex structure of attendees each of whom were able to book differing numbers of tickets at various rates", said Velvet's Tim Clark. Stuart attended a one day workshop during which he not only completed various sample exercises but also set up his complete event by the end of the day. "It's so easy to use", commented Stuart, "it's great! It does everything I need and more in one easy system - this was going to be such a headache to manage manually using spreadsheets".

 Following the main awards and dinner, Stuart had organsied a charity casino and live music - both of which were absolutely excellent.

Visit York are looking to use Velvet's reg.istrations.com system for other events. They join a number of growing UK destinations who are offering registration services in addition to accommodation booking and venue finding services using Velvet's other on-line systems.

Velvet's Tim Clark (pictured right) would like to thank the team at Visit York for their hospitality on the evening and looks forward to continuing to support them in the future.

Our congratulations go to all those who made it to the finals and in particular to the individual category winners. Of note were the York Marriott who won awards in no fewer than three categories including best sales office.

International Confex 2009

Award winning clients were order of the day at Confex 2009! Destination users of Velvet's Chaser BUREAU and ConferenceBOOKINGS systems were amongst those leading the judges' final choices for their exhibition presence at the show and their service offering throughout the year.

Our congratulations go to Sarah Bird and her team of Telford and Shropshire Conferences for "Best Stand" at this year's exhibition, and to Yorkshire South's impressive purpose-built display. In particular, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau's Scott Taylor and Molly Doheny were awarded best UK convention bureau for a second year running. Glasgow use Velvet's on-line accommodation booking system ConferenceBookings.co.uk to manage allocations for well over £1M of bookings each year.

Velvet Software's Chris Gibbs, Simon Hawkins and Tim Clark were all present at the exhibition and were kept busy throughout the duration. "It's my third Confex now", said Chris, "it's great now that I know all of the clients having worked with them remotely and a few on-site also!". Pictured on the Nottingham Convention Bureau stand, Tim said, "It's only an hour from our offices to Earls Court, so it's the ideal meeting point for us to catch up with clients, udpate them on our development work and obtain valuable feedback on the current systems and services we offer in addition to discussing new opportunities with them".

This year's exhibition felt busier than last, "I was surprised - and pleased - at the volume of visitors and, speaking with destinations, the volume of quality leads they all reported", said Velvet's Simon Hawkins. "Many of the stands were really innovative whilst offering an open forum to speak with visitors and promote destinations", Simon added.

Some destinations who hadn't been to Confex for a couple of years decided to exhibit, alongside the "regulars" many of whom use the event as their main marketing push for the year.

Not content with representation from the Conference desk, Chester grabbed visitors' attention with a couple of their stand sharing partners!

Kent Conference Bureau's Dawn Bowen was proud of her new marketing, brochure and web site, implemented to match new design them using Velvet's Chaser WEB module. Once back in the office, leads taken from the exhibition or via the Chaser WEB module are automatically de-duplicated and imported into the enquiry-handling CRM system Chaser BUREAU for processing.

We hope that all of the desintations present convert the excellent leads that they obtained and that levels of business are maintained throughout the forthcoming year.

National Conference Statistics 2008 published to UK Destiantions

Velvet Software published it's 2008 annual National Conference Statistics report to UK Conference Destinations today.

Rather than relying on sample surveys, as is the case with many quoted industry statistics, the report compiled by Velvet Software is based on actual enquiry data that is submitted by destinations via Velvet's Chaser BUREAU enquiry handling system. Data is submitted anonymously (no client or specific event details are collected) however enquiry values, lead times, sector and business type are collated and the figures aggregated by region.

The report is based on data submitted at the end of 2008 and details enquiries up to the end of October 2008. Interestingly, to the end of October 2008 there appears to be no let up in enquiry volume or conversion rates. Feedback from destinations at the start of 2009 reported no immediate let up in enquiry levels. Velvet will compile an updated report detailing figures to the end of 2008 following submission of updated data from destinations in Q1 2009.

The report is supplied free of charge to all destinations who submit their data. Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of the report should contact Velvet directly by clicking here

ChUG 2008 - The Best Yet! Annual Chaser User Group meeting success

Winter frost and warm food – all great ingredients for the 2008 Christmas Chaser User Group (ChUG) meeting! The Royal College of Physicians provided the perfect venue for this year's event – easily accessible with an excellent meeting room and superb food at lunchtime.

ChUG 2008 is possibly the most important user group meeting to date. A day packed with information about all three of Velvet's products; ConferenceBookings.co.uk, Reg.istrations.com and Chaser BUREAU, the main highlight and focus of the day was a preview of the new ChaserBureau.com system.

Chaser BUREAU originated in Conference Bristol (now Visit Bristol) in 1998. Ten years on, over fifty UK destinations have purchased the system. Velvet, working with Conference Leeds, are implementing a brand new version of Chaser as a web-based solution using the latest web 2.0 technology. Set to revolutionise the way in which destinations work with local providers, the system will enable quicker responses to enquiries, less data entry and professional on-line proposals for event clients.

Velvet's Tim Clark presented the new Chaser BUREAU system in the first afternoon session. The enthusiasm of the presentation was clearly shared by many of the delegates asking, “When can we have it!” and “wow - will it make the tea?!”. Tim talked through the work-flow of the new enquiry process, the method for adding new providers and the way in which the new actions list may be used to manage enquiry actions as well as general “to-dos” and appointments.

Velvet have always listened to their clients; throughout the year suggestions made by users are logged and evaluated for inclusion in forthcoming system releases. At ChUG, users have the opportunity to “Brainstrom” in groups. This is a great opportunity to generate new ideas for each system and also to share industry knowledge and experience with other destination colleagues.

Velvet's Simon Hawkins and Chris Gibbs helped facilitate the group brainstorming sessions. Simon presented the Google Analytics modules available for both ConferenceBOOKINGS and Reg.istrations.com – an invaluable tool to measure visitors, site referrals and booking value.

Velvet's annual National Conference Statistics were launched at ChUG this year. Simon presented the latest figures from destinations who have submitted anonymous data throughout the year. Possibly the only true and accurate measure of industry performance by destinations, the report is compiled from destinations' Chaser systems and is based on actual enquiry and conversion figures. Despite the “Credit Crunch”, figures to the year end 2008 are looking positive. A full copy of the report is sent to all destinations who have submitted their data.

Velvet would like to thank all of you who braved the cold for your very positive feedback and kind comments. Mostly, we'd like to thank you for attending the event and continuing to provide the invaluable feedback that have made our products a success and continue to be the preferred choice for Business Tourism professionals. Here's to ChUG 2009!

Roll out the red carpet!

Dressed to impress the Velvet team looked the part on the red carpet at the exclusive NSPCC premiere screening of the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace in Swindon.

The evening was organised by the Swindon and North Wiltshire branch of the NSPCC to help reach their target of £110,000 during its 110th anniversary and made over £3000.00 through ticket sales and raffle tickets.

The Empire Cinema in Swindon worked with the NSPCC to ensure the event was a sell out, Other audience members included the patron of the Swindon and North Wiltshire NSPCC branch, TV's Johnny Ball and players from Swindon Town Football Club. "We just couldn't resist attending the premiere,” explained Chris Gibbs, "It was the prefect excuse to get dressed up for a night out and support our local branch of the NSPCC."

Velvet @ Event UK 2008

Great anticipation awaited the new two day Event UK show at Birmingham's NEC on Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 September. A new format, new layout and new approach were very much evident at this year's event attended by Velvet's Chris Gibbs and Tim Clark.

Key Velvet clients Conference Leeds and HEY (Hull & East Yorkshire) held prominence of position with their stands at the main entrance to welcome visitors as they arrived. Yorkshire Tourist Board's (YTB) Nick Bond coordinated the Yorkshire show area grouping each of the region's destinations into one key area of the exhibition space. For the first time, YTB had their own stand space in amongst the exhibiting destinations.

"Event UK is a great opportunity for us to meet with existing clients and also to pre-arrange appointments with new clients" commented Velvet's Tim Clark. "The NEC is just over an hour from our offices in Swindon and is ideal for use to meet with almost half of our clients over the two day exhibition.".

BICB, Bournemouth's International Conference Bureau team member Suzy Wheeler used their award winning stand design to attract visitors. The innovative surf board themed stand won the "best at show" award at Confex earlier in the year. Maximising stand space and providing a welcoming open meeting area worked well again for Suzy and her team on the stand. "I love the design and the layout - simple, clean and clever", said Velvet's Chris Gibbs. Chris attended the show on Tuesday to meet with Worcester's Emma Robinson and Nottingham's Andy Melton. Chris was giving Emma some face-to-face support and help with Chaser BUREAU whilst her discussions with Andy were focused around Velvet's new on-line registration system reg.istrations.com and their web based accommodation booking system ConferenceBookings.co.uk.

The Velvet Touch in Conference News

The June 2008 issue of Conference News features a page article on Velvet Software's Tim Clark & Simon Hawkins.

Conference News' Rochelle Long met with Tim and Simon at Confex in February 2008 for an overview of the company's activities and to gain an understanding of Velvet's unique, long-standing working relationship with UK destinations and BACD (British Association of Conference Destinations).

Detailing their achievements with convention bureaus, the article reveals the technology behind Velvet's latest on-line delegate registration system, reg.istrations.com - a cutting edge web 2.0 application.

The article details how Velvet's on-line accommodation booking system ConferenceBOOKINGS.co.uk has taken destinations by storm over the past four years and how much business has been placed by Velvet's original enquiry handlings system Chaser BUREAU.

TMI Conference - Hot Topic Update

Sponsors of this year's TMI Hot Topic  "Successfully mixing business with pleasure"  Velvet Software attended the event alongside industry colleagues and clients at the impressive Royal Society of Medicine headquarters in London.

The one day seminar hosted jointly by TMI and BACD was introduced by Paul Hemphill, President TMI closely followed at a plenary session presented by VisitBritain's Kenny Boyle. Kenny stressed the role of business tourism in destination management and how the importance of business tourism is often overlooked and undervalued. Kenny's presentation came ahead of VisitBritain's publication of their national recommendation for conference desks.

Keynote speakers included Tony Rogers, Chief Executive of BACD (Birtish Association of Conference Destinations), VisitBritain's Kenny Boyle and Adam Bates, Head of Tourism at Visit Brighton. Tony presented the latest findings from recent research and the implications for destination managers. Representatives from destinations around the UK listened intently as Tony described the latest trends and ways in which destinations are working to maintain levels of business tourism.

Velvet sponsor the TMI Hot Topic 2008

This years Tourism Management Institute Hot Topic is a full day of seminars and networking looking to help destinations improve service levels and harness the benefits of business tourism working in harmony with leisure products.

As the largest supplier of Business Tourism software, sponsorship of the event and the Conference Desk seminar is only natural for us.

Our software is in use by over 50 destinations across the country. Providing management reporting and complete workflow for enquiry handling Chaser BUREAU is the solution for conference desks.

Our on-line accommodation booking system provides real time allocation management across multiple hotels with delegates booking themselves on-line.

Our latest product - web based event registration, providing all the functionality you require to handle event registration.

Together these software products provide a complete business tourism software solution.

The event is being held on the 21st May 2008 at the Royal Society of Medicine, London. More details can be found on the TMI Hot Topic 2008 web site.

If you would like to know more about what we do, Tim and Simon from Velvet will be available throughout the day, please come and talk to us.