Latest / Event Industry News Podcast / Putting Delegates First: How Venues Lead the Way on Welfare

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Putting Delegates First: How Venues Lead the Way on Welfare · Event Industry News Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, everybody.
• 0:08
  Welcome along to the Event Industry News podcast with me, James Dixon, wishing you all a very
• 0:13
  good morning, afternoon, or evening, whenever or wherever you tune into today's podcast
• 0:17
  from.
• 0:18
  They have let me out of the proverbial asylum that I usually record the podcast in.
• 0:24
  The viewers will be used to seeing me on a screen, sat at my upright piano in the living
• 0:31
  room at home in South Yorkshire, and we're back out on the road.
• 0:36
  We're at Confex and the event production show 2026 down at Excel.
• 0:41
  We are in an evolution dome, inflatable meeting structure.
• 0:46
  There is a lot of background noise.
• 0:48
  There is a little bit of background noise because obviously we're surrounded by other
• 0:51
  exhibitors at a trade show, but first things first on today's podcast, thank you to the
• 0:56
  team at Evolution Dome for letting us do this.
• 0:59
  We're right in the middle of their exhibition stand, and they basically closed off this
• 1:03
  brand new meeting pod that they're here to showcase so that we can do these podcasts
• 1:07
  today.
• 1:08
  So yeah, big thanks to Ash and all the team at Evo Dome for letting us do this and go
• 1:12
  check those guys out.
• 1:14
  So on with today's episode.
• 1:15
  My guest today is Katie Whitby.
• 1:17
  Katie is the head of sales for the Venues Collection.
• 1:20
  And first of all, Katie, welcome along.
• 1:22
  Thank you very much, James.
• 1:23
  Thanks for joining us today.
• 1:24
  And we're going to be talking about delegate welfare, which is sort of the loose topic
• 1:29
  of conversation for our chat today, because there's a few things that you guys have been
• 1:34
  doing.
• 1:35
  I don't know whether we call them initiatives or just new practices that you're instigating.
• 1:41
  Let's start by giving people some context, I suppose, of the Venue Collection, if that's
• 1:46
  all right.
• 1:47
  Yeah, sure.
• 1:48
  So the Venues Collection is a group of five venues, three hotels and two training centers,
• 1:53
  large training centers.
• 1:55
  And yeah, so we make up a group of five in the UK, really Midlands locations of venues.
• 2:01
  And we're here today to talk about delegate well-being, because there is quite a big misconception
• 2:06
  in the industry around what delegate wellness is about and their well-being.
• 2:10
  So I think that's kind of what I'm going to talk about a bit.
• 2:12
  Yeah, and I suppose when people hear that phrase initially, delegate well-being, delegate
• 2:17
  welfare, they think, well, what does that mean?
• 2:19
  But I guess, could you maybe just elaborate a little bit on the content, give us some
• 2:23
  context on the type of venues that you're actually operating?
• 2:27
  Are they hotels?
• 2:28
  Are they standalone conference venues?
• 2:30
  Our venues?
• 2:31
  Absolutely.
• 2:32
  So three of our venues are four-star, sort of the equivalent of four-star hotels, all
• 2:36
  with around 120 to 150 bedrooms, all have meeting space as well, and leisure facilities
• 2:42
  and outdoor space as well.
• 2:44
  And then we've got two training centers, which are Yarnfield Park and Kent's Hill Park.
• 2:49
  And they're really big training centers, 300 bedrooms, but 70-odd meeting spaces.
• 2:55
  So really, a real mixture of training and development programs, but also large conferences
• 3:02
  and large events.
• 3:03
  And when we say sort of training centers, what we mean is, again, for anybody who might
• 3:06
  be unfamiliar, is for sort of maybe big corporate companies who are looking to take all their
• 3:10
  staff on a week's sort of retreat training and development, CPD, so they can do it in
• 3:16
  a residential setting effectively.
• 3:17
  Absolutely.
• 3:18
  And it doesn't necessarily need to be a corporate business.
• 3:19
  It can be an association.
• 3:21
  We do do quite a lot of associations as well.
• 3:23
  So membership-based organizations.
• 3:26
  So the companies do have to sort of give back quite a lot, because obviously, and they need
• 3:29
  to see the benefit of those events when they're coming on site.
• 3:33
  Absolutely.
• 3:34
  When we talk about delegate welfare, I suppose there are different levels of delegate, depending
• 3:41
  on which sort of end of the industry that you're working in.
• 3:44
  You could be at the sort of the absolute top-end blue-chip companies, global events with multi-million
• 3:49
  pound budgets and senior execs flying in on private jets.
• 3:52
  You could be talking about a small middle management conference for 50 people at a hotel
• 3:57
  just off the M1.
• 3:58
  Absolutely.
• 3:59
  It shouldn't change, should it?
• 4:00
  No, not at all.
• 4:02
  And I think that's a really good point, actually, because when you are talking about different
• 4:05
  levels of people, and when you say different levels, you are talking about different characters
• 4:11
  attending these events.
• 4:12
  And whilst there are certain nuances that you need to make sure they're looked after,
• 4:17
  ultimately, it's about human decency.
• 4:19
  And it's about looking after the delegates and how they feel coming to an event.
• 4:24
  Are we talking about the subject of delegate welfare because things haven't changed significantly
• 4:30
  enough in the last 10 years?
• 4:31
  I think my worry and what I still feel is it's not just a fruit bowl and a yoga session.
• 4:37
  There really is so much more to delegate well-being from pre-event, looking at things pre-event
• 4:45
  to on the day when you're there at the event to after the event.
• 4:49
  And I do just feel like we are as a company, but I think there's a lot more you can actually
• 4:56
  do as organizers to support your delegates in coming to those events.
• 5:02
  For example, today, there's quite a few ladies that have come up to me and said, gosh, this
• 5:07
  is so overwhelming coming to one of these big events.
• 5:10
  So I've literally just said, can you just stop for a second, just have a minute?
• 5:13
  There's absolutely no rush.
• 5:14
  We don't even need to talk about business.
• 5:15
  Just sit down calmly and have a minute and recollect your thoughts.
• 5:18
  Because actually coming into an environment like where we are at Convex and the PA show,
• 5:23
  it can be really overwhelming.
• 5:25
  There's noise everywhere and you know people are looking at your badge and thinking, oh,
• 5:29
  can I talk to you, a potential buyer?
• 5:30
  And I think it's really understanding from their perspective how they're feeling.
• 5:34
  And it's about feeling over anything else.
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  And of course, when we look at a delegate in any shape, form, size of event, regardless
• 5:44
  of the nature of the event that they're attending, they've stepped away from their normal day-to-day
• 5:49
  sort of work responsibilities or work routine in order to go to an event.
• 5:55
  And so that is not just an opportunity for them to learn about their business, but it's
• 5:58
  an opportunity to literally take a step back from their day-to-day practices.
• 6:02
  And you've got an opportunity there to not so much educate, but to maybe give them a
• 6:06
  little bit of a break as well.
• 6:07
  Absolutely.
• 6:08
  And I think that's really important.
• 6:09
  And I think one of the key elements of organizing an event is giving your delegates time to
• 6:15
  think.
• 6:16
  And I think that's really important.
• 6:18
  And I think sometimes we end up doing, we see some agendas that are 12-hour long agendas,
• 6:24
  because we're taking them out of the office and we've got to see value for money and ROI.
• 6:28
  And actually, what they do, they do, you know, it's like, how much ROI, what are we going
• 6:33
  to get out of these delegates?
• 6:34
  But actually, is it, going back to the very beginning, what is the content of the event
• 6:39
  you're organizing?
• 6:40
  Because actually, if you're organizing an event just to communicate information, why?
• 6:44
  Actually, you can just do that over Teams.
• 6:46
  Actually bringing them to an event is about engaging.
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  It's about bringing the focus back to them and, you know, and bringing collaboration
• 6:54
  and teamwork together, not just literally bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
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  This is your information.
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  This is what you're going to take away with you.
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  And this is how we're going to get ROI on this event.
• 7:02
  It's actually, you know, spending time with them, talking to them.
• 7:05
  It's the ad hoc conversations over coffee or on a wellness walk that, you know, we do
• 7:09
  at the Venues Collection.
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  We do, you know, we encourage you to go out at lunchtime and go and have a walk because
• 7:15
  actually those conversations that are done, those ad hoc conversations, are a little bit
• 7:19
  like the ones that are done at, you know, over a photocopier.
• 7:22
  But because we're all working from home now, it doesn't happen as much.
• 7:26
  You're the Venues Collection.
• 7:27
  We are.
• 7:28
  You are the venue.
• 7:29
  Why aren't the clients who are delivering the events in your venues leading this sort
• 7:33
  of conversation?
• 7:34
  Why aren't, sorry.
• 7:35
  Why aren't they?
• 7:36
  Why aren't they?
• 7:37
  I think if I'm honest, it's expectation, pressure.
• 7:42
  I think there's the pressure of when, you know, budget restraints.
• 7:45
  So, you know, you've got a certain budget that you've got to adhere to and actually
• 7:48
  we've got this money.
• 7:49
  We want to do, we want to do a meetup, but we need to really make sure that we've got
• 7:53
  everything covered.
• 7:54
  And, you know, you can, you can have everything covered.
• 7:57
  I mean, just trying to think, people that do, we do have a lot of learning and development
• 8:03
  companies that come and, but a lot of our customers that come use our venues for the
• 8:09
  outdoor space.
• 8:10
  So actually we're probably seeing more people using our outdoor space than ever before.
• 8:16
  Yeah.
• 8:17
  And I mean, sort of prodding you in a way with a proverbial stick, it is loaded in some
• 8:24
  respects because it's great to see a venue actually leading this type of conversation
• 8:29
  because historically a lot of venues, once, you know, they're there to deal with the
• 8:33
  booking, to provide the space that you need, to provide the catering that you need and
• 8:37
  the organisation and the welfare of the actual delegates who are attending remains the responsibility
• 8:43
  of the event organiser.
• 8:44
  So actually, if you forgive me for sort of poking you a little bit, it's good to see
• 8:47
  the venues actually trying to support the organisers.
• 8:49
  And I think it's a responsibility of everybody.
• 8:51
  I think delegate wellbeing is the responsibility of everybody.
• 8:54
  Everybody sees it as a HR responsibility and actually it's not, it is everybody's responsibility
• 8:59
  to look after those, to look after them.
• 9:01
  So from the team organiser, from perhaps an agency who has booked their business travel
• 9:07
  so that they know when they get there that they're safe and they've organised that for them.
• 9:10
  So it's a responsibility for everybody.
• 9:14
  And we do take that very seriously.
• 9:15
  For example, you know, making sure you've got quiet spaces for delegates to relax, you know,
• 9:21
  and they can actually come out of the meeting room and there is a quiet space or perhaps
• 9:24
  there's a prayer room or perhaps, you know, all these other things that you can add from
• 9:29
  a venue's perspective or you can suggest to customers and to say, perhaps have you thought
• 9:35
  about, you know, the inclusive part of your event?
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  Because actually it's not just about a ramp and being able to get wheelchairs, wheelchair
• 9:42
  access, which I think in so many ways, that's all people see.
• 9:46
  And actually it's educating them and we need to educate more about inclusion and about
• 9:51
  neurodiversity and thinking about the content of their events.
• 9:55
  For example, sensory overload, captioning, gender neutral toilets, all this sort of thing.
• 10:01
  It's, oh, the list is endless.
• 10:03
  And it's all doable.
• 10:04
  But I had a request for a small event last year from a delegate who wanted to register,
• 10:10
  but who was hard of hearing and wanted to know, could they come along and could it be
• 10:15
  accessible?
• 10:16
  Now, 10 years ago, that would have been really difficult for the size of event that it was.
• 10:20
  It was what I would call a provincial event.
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  It was your classic hotel function suite set up in the morning, 80 or 90 delegates coming
• 10:28
  from a particular industry for the day, finishing up around three o'clock in the afternoon,
• 10:33
  a separate room with a few tabletop exhibitors.
• 10:35
  So I would say it's almost sort of textbook, small size, one day conference of which there
• 10:41
  are probably a thousand of those taking place on any given day around the UK.
• 10:45
  Ten years ago, that technology would have been available.
• 10:48
  I could now, I was able to hop on a laptop, set up a session on a tech platform, connect
• 10:55
  that via a QR code to an iPad, give that iPad to the delegates so they could sit there and
• 11:01
  follow real-time closed captioning, as well as set up a little monitor, just using an
• 11:05
  old PC monitor on a stand next to the lectern so that if they wanted to actually look up
• 11:11
  and look at the person speaking, they had a monitor immediately next to them to see
• 11:15
  the caption.
• 11:16
  And it was all done with a couple of devices that are in my backpack anyway and an internet
• 11:20
  connection.
• 11:21
  That is so good, isn't it?
• 11:23
  It's great.
• 11:24
  It's just so much better.
• 11:25
  It is good.
• 11:26
  I suppose the point I'm making is that it shouldn't need to feel like it's a burden
• 11:31
  anymore because not just that as an example, I'm using that as an example, but with anything
• 11:35
  that includes people, it's so much easier to do nowadays than it was ten years ago.
• 11:40
  Absolutely.
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  And technology has come on so much.
• 11:42
  So it really does, it really does take us, it just, it isn't, you can keep it simple,
• 11:47
  it's not difficult.
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  And what you want people to, what you want delegates to feel is that it's not uncomfortable
• 11:52
  to ask for those things or it's not, you don't feel different to everybody else because
• 11:56
  you've got that technology, for example.
• 11:58
  You just want to feel the same as everybody else.
• 12:01
  And actually the fact that you can do that so quickly with technology just is fantastic,
• 12:05
  isn't it?
• 12:06
  It's absolutely fantastic.
• 12:07
  And actually, you know, I'm not going to say who it was, but their first instinct was actually
• 12:12
  to say to the person, oh, we can't afford that.
• 12:16
  And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, do not go back to them and say that you can't
• 12:20
  afford that.
• 12:21
  I said, would you say to somebody who is, you know, who is a wheelchair user, would
• 12:26
  you say you can't afford a ram?
• 12:28
  That's awful.
• 12:29
  I said, because it's no different at all.
• 12:30
  If somebody with a recognised disability who's wanting to engage with your event, you need
• 12:36
  to be doing everything you can to facilitate that.
• 12:39
  Totally.
• 12:40
  And you don't necessarily have to go to the nth degree of maybe having, you know, BSL
• 12:44
  translation and stuff like that.
• 12:45
  No, not at all.
• 12:47
  Something that allows them to participate is absolutely acceptable and crucial.
• 12:52
  And that's the thing.
• 12:53
  It maybe doesn't have to be as sophisticated or as expensive as you think.
• 12:58
  But again, when we look at dietary, for example, it doesn't have to be complicated, does it
• 13:03
  or expensive?
• 13:04
  Absolutely.
• 13:05
  And I think with, you know, but you do have to take dietary requirements seriously.
• 13:11
  You know, allergens are life threatening.
• 13:13
  They, you know, we have life threatening, you know, allergens.
• 13:16
  We have medical diets, so many more medical diets, you know, with all due respect, there's
• 13:20
  a lot of people on the jabs these days that don't eat as much or that have had gastric
• 13:24
  bands or all these different things where it's a medical diet and they can carry cards
• 13:29
  around with them.
• 13:30
  Very true.
• 13:31
  Very true.
• 13:32
  Yeah.
• 13:33
  I mean, we've just launched, actually, we've just launched allergen kits.
• 13:37
  We're in partnership with Kit because two and a half million people in the UK are living
• 13:42
  with a diagnosed allergy.
• 13:44
  And half of these people don't actually carry the injections with them to support them.
• 13:49
  So in every one of our five venues, we now have an allergen kit stored behind reception.
• 13:55
  And actually, if we do have a crisis while a delegate is on site, we are able to offer
• 14:00
  that allergen kit to them.
• 14:02
  I didn't know these things even existed, I'll be honest, until I read some of the notes
• 14:08
  and stuff that before we were meeting today, because we hear stories about defibrillators,
• 14:13
  for example.
• 14:14
  Sure.
• 14:15
  You know, and there's been loads of sort of campaigns.
• 14:18
  You'll see sort of local pubs or village shops campaigning for defibrillators and raising
• 14:22
  money because they're so important now and we know that they save lives.
• 14:27
  Allergen kits, I didn't know was a thing that really existed at all.
• 14:30
  But when you hear it, you think, well, of course, that just seems obvious.
• 14:34
  It just seems, it just makes sense.
• 14:35
  And you know, as part of Levy, who we are obviously part of a large organisation, they
• 14:40
  just, we take it so seriously and you just, you can't take a risk.
• 14:44
  And that's why it's so important to label the food.
• 14:47
  You know, even just a tiny microscopic bit of mayonnaise can send you into an anaphylactic
• 14:52
  shock, you know, and you just can't take that risk.
• 14:55
  It's so important.
• 14:56
  So it really reinforces our responsibility to our guests to look after them.
• 15:01
  Yeah.
• 15:02
  And when I mentioned the sort of subject of, you know, the dietary or, you know, delegate
• 15:06
  buffets don't have to be complicated.
• 15:07
  I was really looking at actually suggesting that the choices, you know, the people who
• 15:11
  are, you know, meat free, vegan, dairy free, whatever.
• 15:16
  And it used to be that they get given, you know, oh, there's your end down there.
• 15:19
  Yeah.
• 15:20
  You're down that end of the buffet.
• 15:22
  That's your little, that's your little piece.
• 15:25
  It's so much better to see that venues now are thinking about it in a way that integrates
• 15:29
  everything together.
• 15:30
  Oh, totally.
• 15:31
  And it is easier to do now.
• 15:33
  It is.
• 15:34
  Particularly part of the venues collection, we really focus on brain food and protein,
• 15:38
  which, you know, protein, which food and even even, you know, the sustainability piece comes
• 15:43
  into it as well, because 50 percent of our of our food is plant based.
• 15:48
  So therefore, we're reducing the emissions.
• 15:50
  You know, you're increasing inclusivity and also the allergen confusion in that whole
• 15:54
  piece.
• 15:55
  It just alleviates the risk, you know, because you are labeling it, etc.
• 15:59
  So, yeah, it works.
• 16:00
  Yeah.
• 16:02
  And, you know, the welfare aspect, it's good to see that.
• 16:06
  I know that there have been organizations involved in some of the bigger event events
• 16:11
  for quite a few years now promoting wellness and well-being and quiet spaces.
• 16:17
  And you talk about sort of the overwhelming nature of being in an event like this and
• 16:22
  you are being bombarded, you know, visually, mentally, from the moment you're looking through
• 16:26
  the door.
• 16:27
  Information overload.
• 16:29
  And one thing I never like to underestimate is the fact that people are often walking
• 16:34
  into an event, and again, even the smaller ones, and they might have had an hour and
• 16:39
  a half's worth of travel to get there.
• 16:41
  Absolutely.
• 16:42
  They walk in, you give them a coffee, then tell them to sit down and then tell them to
• 16:46
  listen to some really important person for an hour with a keynote speech.
• 16:50
  And I think that sometimes as well with the planning of events, sometimes the planning
• 16:55
  can be very archaic in terms of the structural thinking of how these days and events need
• 17:00
  to manifest themselves.
• 17:01
  I totally agree.
• 17:03
  And I think that's one of the benefits of perhaps instead of just having like a days
• 17:06
  meeting, for example, is you do include an overnight, you do include residential, because
• 17:10
  actually if you stay over, you haven't got that rush, the travel pressures, you haven't
• 17:15
  got to rush.
• 17:16
  You just, you can just get there calmly either the night before or you can travel in your
• 17:20
  own time, and actually it gives you better mental bandwidth because you're not panicking
• 17:25
  to get there and to get there on time.
• 17:28
  And actually your sort of cognitive energy can be used in other ways.
• 17:31
  And actually, you know, you can have had a meeting in the morning or a catch up in the
• 17:34
  morning over breakfast, and actually then you've got, you've had that internal sort
• 17:38
  of networking piece.
• 17:40
  And then you can come into the meeting calm, no stress, and actually you've already had
• 17:45
  a coffee earlier on, and actually you're ready to take on the day.
• 17:49
  And I do think there is definitely an element of, you know, you do need to think about the
• 17:54
  content and the amount of breaks that you have and, you know, all that, because actually
• 17:58
  really everybody's concentrating, you only have 20 minute concentration, nobody, I can't
• 18:02
  concentrate for anything over 20 minutes, so you've lost me, you know.
• 18:05
  Why do you think these are, yeah, why do you think we reduced the podcast, Stan?
• 18:09
  Yeah.
• 18:10
  Because you, yeah.
• 18:11
  When we first started doing these, on a serious note, you know, we thought, oh, were they
• 18:13
  going to be an hour long?
• 18:15
  Wow.
• 18:16
  But, you know, if you look back to some of the earliest episodes of this podcast, you
• 18:20
  know, I might be there with two or three guests, and you can see me fighting for content, because
• 18:25
  I'm like, oh, well, they've got to be an hour long.
• 18:27
  It took a couple of years to actually realise, actually, look at how people digest media
• 18:34
  now.
• 18:35
  They're watching videos and news clips that are only 60 seconds, you know, two minutes
• 18:39
  sometimes on news clips.
• 18:41
  So, again, I just think that sometimes there needs to be a readjustment amongst a lot of
• 18:47
  organisers, in terms of how they think about things, and as I said, I'm fortunate enough
• 18:55
  to work at a level where I see a lot of this manifesting itself, so I can see firsthand
• 19:01
  what some of the pitfalls are, and being in sort of those different, I don't say it in
• 19:06
  any disparaging way, but I always say the bread and butter of the UK events industry
• 19:10
  is at that lower level.
• 19:11
  Yeah, it really is.
• 19:12
  The 10,000 small events that are taking place every day, not the one or two massive events
• 19:16
  that take place every year.
• 19:17
  And that's what we do, and we do a lot of them, and I think what you need to do as an
• 19:21
  event organiser in a venue is you need to become their trusted advisor.
• 19:24
  Yes.
• 19:25
  So, when, you know, when somebody comes in to talk to you about an event, and they start
• 19:28
  talking about the agenda items and things, and I think that's where you add value, because
• 19:34
  you are doing all those tens of thousands of events every week, and then you see people
• 19:39
  coming out absolutely drained and mentally exhausted, and actually really think about
• 19:43
  the content that you're wanting to get across in those events, because actually, and think
• 19:48
  about how you want that delegate to go away.
• 19:51
  How do you want them to go away thinking?
• 19:53
  Do you want them to go away feeling absolutely exhausted and drained, or do you want them
• 19:57
  to be feeling energised and motivated, and actually just really think about the content
• 20:02
  that you're doing and how you're structuring the day, and that's where I think venues add
• 20:06
  value, because we're doing it day in, day out.
• 20:08
  This is it.
• 20:09
  You've literally just taken away what I was going to say.
• 20:11
  I was going to say that, you know, you take an event organiser from a company, there might
• 20:17
  not even be an event organiser day to day.
• 20:19
  There might be the person that does the marketing, or the business development, but once a year,
• 20:24
  the boss says, we need to have that conference, and we need to invite some clients down, and
• 20:27
  we need to whatever.
• 20:29
  So once a year, they're tasked with doing this, whereas as a venue, that goes back to
• 20:34
  one of my original questions, so why are you leading this and not the organisers?
• 20:37
  And it's because you're seeing it day in, day out, so you have the wealth of experience,
• 20:42
  the data to back it up, you have all of the pain points that you see, and you can analyse
• 20:47
  what you're seeing from different clients and feed that back to that one person who
• 20:51
  might only be doing it once a year.
• 20:53
  Really good point, yeah, really good point, and it is our job, that's our job, and that's
• 20:56
  where we add value, and I think that's really important, and that we get the message out
• 21:00
  there.
• 21:01
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:02
  Right, let's get to Nitty Gritty.
• 21:03
  If people want to find out about this, if people want to find out about Venues Collection,
• 21:06
  where do they go, how do they find you?
• 21:08
  www.thevenuescollection.co.uk, or you can find me on LinkedIn, Katie Whitby, just on
• 21:13
  LinkedIn, and come and talk to me.
• 21:15
  Fabulous.
• 21:16
  Or all other socials as well, I think I had a quick Google, so yeah.
• 21:19
  Oh, hashtag.
• 21:20
  Websites and everything now.
• 21:21
  I know that they're important, but in some respects they're old hat, because who can't,
• 21:25
  as long as you go to the Venues Collection and you search for it on something, you'll
• 21:30
  find the guys.
• 21:31
  Go and check them out, learn about the venues that they've got, have a little look at the
• 21:37
  There's information, there's an article on Event Industry News about the allergen kits
• 21:41
  that we've touched on today in a little bit more detail, so if you want to find out a
• 21:44
  bit more specifically about that, the article is on Event Industry News, and we may well
• 21:49
  put a link underneath the video of this, so you've got a link to it.
• 21:55
  My thanks to Katie Whitby, Head of Sales at the Venues Collection.
• 21:59
  My thanks as well to our friends at Evolution Dome.
• 22:02
  We are in their brand new meeting pod, and I say brand new, you might have seen their
• 22:07
  structures before, but this is unique in that it's surrounded on four sides with a proper
• 22:11
  door at the end opposite where I'm sat at the moment, and they've been kind enough to
• 22:17
  let us set up the podcast in this structure at their stand at Confex in the Event Production
• 22:21
  Show and the PA Show 2026, so thanks very much to Ash and all the team at Evo for letting
• 22:26
  us do this, and thanks very much for tuning into the podcast.
• 22:30
  If you've been listening to this on your audio podcast platform, please do make sure
• 22:33
  that when you finish listening, you head over to eventindustrynews.com to watch the video
• 22:38
  versions of the podcast, and also to check out the A to Z Supply Directory.
• 22:42
  If you work in the events industry and you're looking for a product, a supplier, a service,
• 22:47
  the chances are you will find it within the A to Z Supply Directory on eventindustrynews.com,
• 22:52
  so please do go and check it out.
• 22:53
  Thanks very much to everybody for tuning in.
• 22:55
  Thanks very much again to Katie, and we'll see you on the next edition.
• 22:57
  Cheers, everybody.