Latest / Event Industry News Podcast / Inside 50 Years of Hilton Birmingham Metropole: Memories, Teams and Milestones

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Inside 50 Years of Hilton Birmingham Metropole: Memories, Teams and Milestones · Event Industry News Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello everybody, welcome to the Event Industry News podcast. My name is James Dixon, wishing
• 0:10
  you all a very good morning, afternoon or evening, wherever or whenever you tune in
• 0:14
  to today's podcast from. And I am tuning in to the podcast from a very different location
• 0:20
  today. We've been given an invitation to come down to the Hilton Birmingham Metropole. They
• 0:26
  are celebrating their 50th anniversary, 50 years as a hotel, but more importantly, 50
• 0:31
  years as a key part of the UK event's infrastructure and business. I would guess that most of the
• 0:39
  people who listen to this podcast and watch this podcast on a regular basis will either
• 0:44
  have attended or worked in this amazing place at some point during their careers. And as
• 0:51
  part of those sort of anniversary celebrations, Event Industry News was given an invitation
• 0:55
  to come down here today, record some episodes of the podcast in this amazing space. We're
• 1:00
  in the Brightsmiths Restaurant and Bar, overlooking the beautiful lake at the heart of the NEC.
• 1:06
  And we've been blessed with a glorious, glorious day to do it on. We've taken advantage of
• 1:11
  a little bit of the hospitality here. And I'm delighted to say that joining me on today's
• 1:16
  podcast is the Area General Manager, Nicola Betley. Nicola, welcome.
• 1:22
  Thank you, James. Welcome, more importantly, to you, to the hotel as well.
• 1:26
  Thanks for having us here. Genuinely, it's so good. Nicola and I, Nicola has been on
• 1:31
  the podcast before. Nicola was a returning guest, but joined us four years ago, about
• 1:37
  four years ago, latter part of 2021. And we did it sort of via the remote, you know, video
• 1:44
  method. So it's great to be sat here across the table. We've recorded a couple of great
• 1:48
  episodes here already today. Thanks for having us, as I said, but, you know, more importantly,
• 1:54
  congratulations. 50 years as a venue for people who work in the industry, who may not be aware
• 2:02
  of its significance and its place within the events industry. Frame the hotel a little
• 2:06
  bit for us. Oh, well, I mean, first off, who doesn't know this hotel and event space? So
• 2:13
  Hilton Birmingham Metropole is, in my opinion, and many people's opinions, iconic in the
• 2:20
  events industry. We are the largest hotel and largest event space outside of London.
• 2:27
  And I mean, if you just think of the last 50 years, and the amount of people that have
• 2:30
  been through these doors and held their events here, I can honestly say we have touched so
• 2:34
  many people's lives over those 50 years, whether it be team members or clients or, or whoever
• 2:39
  it might be. And it's at the heart of the NEC, which is still very much almost at the
• 2:47
  heart of the UK events industry in many respects. Geographically, we're right in the centre
• 2:52
  of the country. It's it's very easy to get to, which is one of the reasons why it was
• 2:57
  it was built and created in the first place. So it does mean a lot of things to a lot of
• 3:02
  people, doesn't it? This this location when when you talk to people in the industry about
• 3:06
  this place, they've all got a memory of it. They've all got a memory. They've all got
• 3:10
  a story. I remember, I remember receiving an email not so long ago from a lady who said,
• 3:18
  my husband and I are celebrating our 25 years married. And we met in your hotel. Wow. And
• 3:25
  we wondered if you could do anything special for us when we come back. And they actually
• 3:30
  met at an event that was here. And so they both attended the same event. And after the
• 3:38
  event, they went into what we now call Guild Bar. I can't remember what the bar was named
• 3:42
  back in those days 25 years ago. And they both shared a love of cocktails. And they
• 3:49
  both had a sea breeze cocktail together over the bar, sea breeze. And apparently they had
• 3:54
  a cheeky kiss in the lift on the way back upstairs. And as they tell me the rest is
• 3:58
  history. And I mean, that's just one story of what what this hotel means to that couple. Yeah,
• 4:05
  yeah. But as well, it's we have shaped so many people's lives, so many team, so many team members
• 4:11
  have started their careers here, and ended their careers with retirement here. I mean,
• 4:17
  we've got team members here, James that have got 49 years service, a couple of team members
• 4:23
  started literally a few months after the hotel opened its doors. That's so interesting,
• 4:28
  because you know, one that you often hear nowadays about this, this, people won't have
• 4:34
  jobs for their entire career like they did back in the day and in previous generations. So it's
• 4:41
  really interesting to hear that people have maybe not maybe ended up here almost by accident. I
• 4:47
  didn't say they've come here for a job. And 49 years later, they're still here. There must be
• 4:50
  something about it that they love. Absolutely. And even that, so those people have been here
• 4:55
  for 49 years, they may have started in one job, and then they've worked their way through many
• 4:58
  departments within in the hotel and the event space. Culture is absolutely key. I actually
• 5:05
  think that the people in this hotel is what separates us from anywhere else. And our events
• 5:10
  are second to none. And that is down to the people. And I love the fact that we have team
• 5:16
  members here who've got 49 years of experience mixed with the team members who've been here a
• 5:23
  week, because I think we get the experience with the new ideas. And I think that's what creates
• 5:30
  the magic. That's got to be good as well in this type of venue, because inevitably, in a venue like
• 5:35
  this, you're going to get there's a certain amount of staff that will always be transient, younger
• 5:39
  people working here for for all sorts of different reasons. So you know, like any good business,
• 5:44
  having that combination of really experienced staff to settle the new people in, yeah, it must
• 5:48
  be a great thing to have also to deliver the events themselves, right. So we are very, very aware that
• 5:55
  we have to stay relevant and ahead of our competitors all the time. So we have the experienced
• 6:02
  hands who know how to deliver an event with their eyes closed, mixed with the newbies that come in
• 6:10
  bringing fresh ideas or best practice from other venues. And that combination in my mind is what
• 6:16
  delivers us the best best experiences for everyone.
• 6:19
  I would urge anybody who's watching and listening today to go back and listen to the to the previous
• 6:24
  two episodes of the podcast that we've recorded here today with Simon from ProTech and with Rita
• 6:30
  from Eventologists, who will definitely frame and give a bit of context to the conversation that
• 6:36
  we're having today in terms of the partnerships in terms of those ongoing relationships, but also in
• 6:41
  terms of the inspiration that they take from the clients who are coming through the door. You'll
• 6:45
  have a lot of repeat clients and people have used the space, but they're always evolving. They're
• 6:48
  always coming to you with new ideas.
• 6:50
  You have to, otherwise, the repeat customers, they're like our bread and butter, right? And you
• 6:55
  wouldn't want them to go anywhere else. But you don't want their events to go stale either. And we
• 6:59
  work so well with ProTech and Eventologists, Simon and Rita, they're like part of my team, to be
• 7:05
  honest. And I think, again, from a client perspective, they love that. Yeah, because it's like a one
• 7:11
  stop shop.
• 7:12
  Well, of course. And if you can present, you know, a joined up way of thinking, that clients are very,
• 7:19
  very quick, I think, to pick up on what they feel is really safe. People who organise events can feel
• 7:26
  very nervous about it, it's a daunting thing. And they're not always necessarily really experienced,
• 7:31
  and so if they can come into a space where they feel instantly at ease, relaxed, comfortable, secure,
• 7:36
  and also guided. Sometimes people come in, actually not knowing what they want, or having a partial
• 7:45
  vision. And then you throw in my team, ProTech team, Eventologist team, and we take what they thought
• 7:53
  that they wanted to something absolutely beyond their wildest imagination. And that's where the
• 8:00
  magic comes from.
• 8:01
  All this talk about events, you know, today, and in the previous episodes I've referenced, it's important
• 8:07
  to ask, it's your 50th birthday. So are you organising your own events? Are you now on the opposite side
• 8:13
  of the fence this year, where you're actually getting to organise some of your own things?
• 8:16
  We are. And do you know what, that's really, really nice. So yeah, we're celebrating 50 years this year.
• 8:21
  I noticed that you guys are celebrating 15 years this year.
• 8:24
  Well, 15 years at the end of last year. But yeah, broadly speaking, it's about 15 years, and I think
• 8:29
  over 10 years of doing this podcast. But yeah, 15 years certainly is event-initiated news.
• 8:33
  Listen, and you guys are probably hopefully get to 50 years as well. But so we are actually, we are
• 8:39
  actually organising a load of events this year. I mean, 50 years is a big deal, I think. The hotel itself
• 8:46
  turned 50 in February. And we have done a whole load of stuff, team member events, because it's really
• 8:53
  important. For me, it's the team member that make it, the team members that make it happen, right. So
• 8:58
  we're doing events for them. We're actually inviting some of the team members from the past.
• 9:03
  Oh, great. Yeah.
• 9:04
  So there's so many people who started their careers here or passed through here as part of their
• 9:09
  careers have gone on to do really amazing things. So we're going to have an event for them. And we're
• 9:13
  having a huge birthday party at the end of August, where we're inviting a lot of our key suppliers and
• 9:20
  there's a big thank you. Lots of stuff for our own hotel guests as well, or conference delegates. We're
• 9:26
  doing lots of little pieces of bits and pieces. Just loads of great stuff across the year.
• 9:32
  It's a busy year. And I guess exciting in one respect, but in and amongst all of the...
• 9:36
  Normal stuff.
• 9:37
  Normal stuff. As normal as it can be working in a place like this, where every day is different.
• 9:44
  A huge diary, a bit busy diary for this year then for you.
• 9:47
  Yes. And it's a good job I've got an amazing team to do it all, right?
• 9:50
  Absolutely. Yeah. The one thing that I noticed as soon as I came in this morning,
• 9:55
  and we looked out and we'll do some B-roll footage because we filmed some bits to give people context
• 10:01
  because when you're sort of sat here and the camera's there, it doesn't quite show everything.
• 10:05
  No.
• 10:06
  And we are in the Brightsmiths restaurant and bar, which is really groovy.
• 10:13
  Yeah.
• 10:13
  It looks out over this lake.
• 10:15
  Yeah.
• 10:15
  But I can see on the just across the water.
• 10:18
  Yeah.
• 10:18
  These glamping pods. I thought, hold on, we're in the middle of the NEC.
• 10:22
  Yeah.
• 10:23
  Why are there glamping pods in a beautiful kind of wooded woodland area?
• 10:28
  They're part of the hotel now.
• 10:30
  Well, technically, so they're not part of the hotel as in they don't belong to Hilton.
• 10:35
  Right.
• 10:35
  They don't belong to the Hilton Birmingham Metropole. They are a company within their
• 10:39
  own right to have taken some land from the NEC.
• 10:45
  However, when we learned about the fact that these glamping pods were being built.
• 10:50
  Sure.
• 10:50
  I mean, you could go two ways with this. You could go,
• 10:53
  well, that's bedrooms. That's going to compete against us.
• 10:57
  Of course.
• 10:57
  Or the way we went was, oh, brilliant. Another new partnership.
• 11:01
  Let's embrace this.
• 11:02
  Let's embrace this. So we have partnered with Avant Glamp, the company.
• 11:06
  Wow. Okay, great.
• 11:08
  Because they are self-catering. I mean, they're brilliant pods.
• 11:12
  But we then provide food and drink for their clients.
• 11:19
  They can get to come over to Brightsmith. They can get to come over to the Leisure Club.
• 11:22
  We can then say to our events and our clients, look, when you next bring your event to us,
• 11:28
  how about this?
• 11:29
  You could take, oh, I don't know, 600 of our bedrooms,
• 11:32
  but why don't you put some of your VIPs in some of the glamping pods?
• 11:35
  What an amazing thing.
• 11:36
  And also, how different is that? Do you know what I mean?
• 11:39
  To keep keeping this different and all this kind of stuff involving events.
• 11:42
  Well, you mentioned just a few minutes ago, you've got to come back with fresh ideas.
• 11:46
  And if there's an opportunity to inject some fresh ideas,
• 11:48
  an opportunity that benefits different partners and parties,
• 11:53
  you've got to have a look at stuff like that.
• 11:55
  But you mentioned the Leisure Centre, you know, and I know that,
• 11:59
  it's a hotel, of course, it's got some leisure facilities.
• 12:02
  But when we were talking to Rita on the previous episode,
• 12:05
  about catering for attendees and the different needs of attendees nowadays,
• 12:11
  compared to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago,
• 12:15
  event organisers want to know that for those attendees who might enjoy a morning workout,
• 12:20
  that you've got those facilities.
• 12:22
  It's not just something that you feel you,
• 12:23
  oh, we're a token gesture, we've got to have a leisure facility.
• 12:25
  No.
• 12:25
  That plays a role in the events now.
• 12:27
  And do you know what?
• 12:29
  So during COVID, when we closed, and then we had the refurbishment in 2021,
• 12:34
  I know that it was discussed, should we close the health club
• 12:40
  and turn it into more event space?
• 12:41
  I mean, we've got a lot of event space anyway, but we can always do it more, right?
• 12:45
  Of course, yeah.
• 12:47
  But the value that that health club and the space and the facilities bring to the clients,
• 12:56
  the organisers, we have got a few treatment rooms over there as well.
• 13:01
  So we're in the process of just changing what their usage is.
• 13:07
  But a couple of months ago, we had like, say, massages and stuff.
• 13:12
  Now, if you've got an organiser of an event who is really like,
• 13:16
  quite stressed because of all the stuff they've done up to the run up of the event,
• 13:20
  for us to say, listen, hey, why don't you take time out,
• 13:23
  put yourself in, or go for a swim, or go sit in a jacuzzi,
• 13:26
  that we've got you, we've got this, we'll deliver your event for you.
• 13:30
  They love that.
• 13:31
  There's event organisers who will bite your hand off at that.
• 13:35
  Exactly.
• 13:35
  And do you know what, my next question was going to be,
• 13:37
  well, I was just going to reference international visitors.
• 13:40
  And literally in the background, an A380 has taken off from the airport
• 13:46
  and flown just over the building that's on the opposite side of the lake.
• 13:50
  And again, the leisure facility, when you have so many international visitors,
• 13:54
  great, isn't it?
• 13:55
  Because they've stepped off an international flight now.
• 13:57
  The airport is 10 minutes away.
• 13:59
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:00
  And they love that as well.
• 14:02
  But also, they love that.
• 14:05
  Some of our clients that we get love that,
• 14:07
  in terms of the kind of events that we do.
• 14:09
  We do quite a lot of sporting events.
• 14:10
  So obviously, they've got facilities to work out in the morning or afterwards.
• 14:14
  I think we've got one of the largest swimming pools actually for a hotel.
• 14:17
  What is it in the country?
• 14:20
  It's a big old pool, that one.
• 14:23
  Let's get the pool stats.
• 14:24
  Ah, yeah, let's get the pool stats.
• 14:25
  Let's get the pool stats.
• 14:27
  We'll get them in the edit.
• 14:28
  We'll get the pool stats on there.
• 14:30
  I'm going to say something, but it's a bit random to begin with.
• 14:33
  But bear with me where I go with this.
• 14:34
  I will.
• 14:36
  My secondary school.
• 14:37
  Yes.
• 14:38
  I stayed in secondary school up until sixth form.
• 14:41
  Yes.
• 14:41
  And every year, the upper sixth formers had to put on a show
• 14:45
  and a big kind of celebration day for the school.
• 14:47
  And it was their responsibility to program it, design and everything.
• 14:50
  And it just so happened that the year that fell on my school year
• 14:53
  was the 100th anniversary of the school.
• 14:55
  And we felt like a real sort of sense of responsibility
• 14:58
  that we had the privilege and sort of the opportunity
• 15:02
  to deliver not just that annual celebration,
• 15:05
  but one that marked a certain thing.
• 15:07
  You see where I'm going with this?
• 15:08
  I do.
• 15:08
  What's it like to sort of, you know, you've worked your way through your career,
• 15:11
  found yourself here today,
• 15:12
  but you're now the one that's kind of overseen the 50th anniversary?
• 15:16
  Honestly, it's a huge privilege.
• 15:20
  Also a huge responsibility, right?
• 15:22
  Because there's so many people, as we've mentioned earlier,
• 15:27
  that the Birmingham Met has touched in terms of
• 15:30
  whether they're clients or guests or team members.
• 15:35
  And I need to make sure that we get it right in terms of celebration
• 15:43
  recognition, involvement of everybody.
• 15:47
  There's a lot of stuff going on in the local community as well,
• 15:49
  because they've seen this hotel evolve over those 50 years.
• 15:54
  The local community saw it get built and they've seen it get extended.
• 15:59
  We've employed a lot of people from the local community.
• 16:02
  So yeah, it's a huge privilege, James.
• 16:04
  Have you been able to look back on any photos
• 16:07
  and look back on actual material from 50 years ago
• 16:09
  and think, wow, look how it's changed?
• 16:11
  Where we're sat right now,
• 16:14
  this used to be a meeting room a little while ago.
• 16:17
  Before that, it was a banqueting space.
• 16:20
  And I've got team members in this hotel
• 16:22
  who got married in this space where we're sat.
• 16:25
  Never looked anything like it does right now.
• 16:28
  Some of the old photographs are hilarious.
• 16:32
  Some of the uniforms that the team used to wear.
• 16:36
  I think there used to be a big grand piano somewhere in the lobby.
• 16:40
  I mean, I think to myself,
• 16:43
  if you think about hotels 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago,
• 16:48
  I think they were for the elite.
• 16:53
  There was a certain glamour with them.
• 16:54
  There was.
• 16:55
  And if you were to ask me,
• 16:57
  how do I think the industry has evolved over the last 50 years?
• 17:01
  I definitely think it's more...
• 17:04
  Hotels are now a place for everyone, right?
• 17:06
  Back in the day, you used to have to save up a lot of money
• 17:10
  and it used to be something very big and very special.
• 17:12
  And only a certain privileged few could get to stay in a hotel.
• 17:15
  Now, I just think it's evolved
• 17:17
  and we've become accessible for everybody,
• 17:20
  which is what I love, right?
• 17:22
  I love the fact that absolutely everybody and anybody can come here
• 17:26
  and be who they want to be for 24 hours or 48 hours or whatever it is.
• 17:30
  You're right.
• 17:30
  But by the same token, when you walk into a space like this,
• 17:34
  and I felt it today when I walked into the Brightspace,
• 17:36
  I went, oh, wow.
• 17:38
  And if I was staying here for a weekend with my wife, for example,
• 17:41
  I'd feel like, wouldn't it be lovely to go and have a cocktail there
• 17:43
  and like glam up for the night, a little beer.
• 17:45
  But I think whereas before, 50 years ago,
• 17:47
  you probably could have only dreamt of that.
• 17:49
  Whereas now, you get to be able to come somewhere like this,
• 17:56
  as anybody, and experience that sort of bit of luxury, bit of vibe.
• 18:02
  And to go off piste for a second,
• 18:05
  every person walking through the door of the hotel as a guest
• 18:09
  is potentially an event customer as well.
• 18:12
  You never know, do you?
• 18:13
  Whether a wedding, they run a business,
• 18:15
  there's a lot of business guests that stay here.
• 18:17
  They might look at a space like this and go,
• 18:19
  oh, wow, this would be great for our next meeting.
• 18:21
  So I guess part of the infrastructure of the hotel
• 18:25
  and why the guests are so important
• 18:27
  is that they're all potentially event clients.
• 18:30
  Yes, they're all future clients, future business.
• 18:33
  And that's what we always have to always remember.
• 18:35
  And it is about showcasing every single area of the hotel
• 18:38
  to every single person that comes through those doors
• 18:40
  because you never know, like you say,
• 18:42
  they could be, for all we know,
• 18:43
  they could be the chief operating officer
• 18:49
  for whatever company, right?
• 18:50
  Looking for the next annual conference
• 18:52
  for all of their own team members and stuff.
• 18:54
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 18:56
  How long have you been at the hotel?
• 18:58
  Ah, so bizarrely, this year,
• 19:01
  1st of September this year marks my five-year anniversary.
• 19:05
  So yeah.
• 19:05
  It's an anniversary for you personally as well.
• 19:07
  It is, yeah, it is.
• 19:08
  Five years I've been here in September.
• 19:10
  And how many, I mean, five years is a long time,
• 19:15
  but it's also a fairly quick period of time
• 19:17
  if you think about it.
• 19:17
  That's just post-COVID, that's 2021.
• 19:20
  September 21, yeah.
• 19:23
  How much, when you started here,
• 19:26
  how many changes have you seen
• 19:28
  and sort of seen undertaken within the hotel
• 19:31
  in just five years?
• 19:32
  So many, like so many.
• 19:37
  I arrived halfway through the refurb,
• 19:39
  so obviously we completed that.
• 19:43
  But then just in terms of, again,
• 19:44
  going back to my earlier point,
• 19:45
  it's so important that we stay relevant, James.
• 19:48
  Yeah, of course, yeah, yeah.
• 19:49
  So we're forever talking about new things
• 19:52
  or how can we make sure the building stays
• 19:54
  in a good condition?
• 19:55
  There's loads of projects going on this year
• 19:57
  to elevate the facilities for the clients, the guests,
• 20:01
  also just to make the building look better.
• 20:05
  We're talking about having a little shop
• 20:08
  put into the lobby.
• 20:09
  Because again, we know that the way the world works today,
• 20:12
  convenience is really important to people.
• 20:14
  Of course it is, yeah.
• 20:15
  If you come as a conference delegate
• 20:18
  and you've forgotten your toothbrush, deodorant, whatever.
• 20:21
  Now, yes, there are places to get that from around,
• 20:24
  but how much better would it be
• 20:25
  if you could just go,
• 20:27
  oh, I'm just gonna go get one from there.
• 20:28
  Or they've made it easy for me, oh, that's great.
• 20:30
  Right, so these are, again, we're trying to keep
• 20:33
  thinking of new, fresh ideas
• 20:35
  to make the experience better for everybody all the time.
• 20:38
  I've seen so many changes, I can't even tell you.
• 20:41
  And it strikes me as well that a hotel and a venue space
• 20:45
  or venue spaces that are as busy as this,
• 20:49
  you know, the brutality is they will take some hammer.
• 20:51
  Oh, they do.
• 20:51
  You've got people, you've got thousands of people
• 20:54
  walking through the doors.
• 20:55
  And when you think about the capacity of the hotel for guests
• 20:58
  and then you add into it the thousands of people
• 21:00
  who are walking through the door as event delegates
• 21:02
  who might not be staying in the hotel,
• 21:04
  the footfall is huge, isn't it?
• 21:06
  And the thousand health club members we have
• 21:08
  from the local community who also come in.
• 21:12
  The footfall's massive.
• 21:13
  And so you have to keep on top of things,
• 21:15
  don't you, from just a building maintenance point of view,
• 21:20
  a tech point of view.
• 21:21
  People want to stay checking their emails all the time.
• 21:25
  It must be, I always think of it like the fourth road bridge,
• 21:27
  like the rail bridge, when they're painting it,
• 21:29
  you finish that job and then there's another one
• 21:31
  that pops its head up.
• 21:32
  That is exactly what it's like.
• 21:34
  Whack-a-mole.
• 21:34
  Yeah, it is.
• 21:34
  I think somebody said to me once in a space like this,
• 21:37
  you're constantly, right, that's dealt with.
• 21:39
  Oh, there's something else to do.
• 21:40
  I like to think of it as, you know, those tennis ball machines?
• 21:44
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 21:45
  Where they're shooting tennis balls at you,
• 21:46
  and you're literally just batting them away, right?
• 21:48
  That's how I actually see it.
• 21:49
  But no, the job is never finished.
• 21:51
  Of course.
• 21:52
  But I like that though.
• 21:53
  No, and again, it's so great.
• 21:55
  I've spoken to, now you're the third person individually
• 21:59
  on the podcast that we've recorded today.
• 22:01
  And it's so interesting to now be sat with the third guest
• 22:05
  and see how everybody is kind of saying the same thing.
• 22:08
  And we haven't, honestly, if you've watched all three of these,
• 22:11
  there's been no kind of team meeting beforehand.
• 22:13
  Here's what we're going to talk about.
• 22:14
  So it's always great when that story evolves
• 22:18
  over three different people and everybody's saying the same thing.
• 22:20
  It's genuine, right?
• 22:21
  Like, and actually, if you were to do a fourth podcast today
• 22:24
  with myself, Rita and Simon,
• 22:26
  you would see the bond and the relationship that we have
• 22:31
  as three different companies and the partnership that we have.
• 22:35
  It's, I mean, like I say, I consider those as my own team.
• 22:39
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 22:41
  We're, where are we now?
• 22:42
  End of April.
• 22:43
  Yeah.
• 22:44
  So we're a third of the way through the year already.
• 22:48
  Um, how far in advance do plans evolve in a place like this
• 22:53
  for your plans for future, for the event spaces,
• 22:55
  for the overall event offering?
• 22:57
  Is there always a short, a medium and a long-term kind of,
• 23:00
  you know, whiteboard in the office somewhere with what you'd like to do?
• 23:04
  We, the way our business works,
• 23:06
  we have to always think quite long-term.
• 23:09
  If we have to think short-term,
• 23:10
  it's to be reactive to any situations that are happening.
• 23:13
  Of course, yeah.
• 23:14
  But because people are inquiring now for events in 2028, 2029,
• 23:20
  it's really important for us to plan long-term
• 23:23
  because we need to be thinking, right,
• 23:25
  well, what are these clients wanting in three, four years' time?
• 23:29
  So that's how far our plans go.
• 23:31
  And I guess if you want to undertake any changes,
• 23:33
  like the restaurant and bar that we're sat in right now,
• 23:36
  there has to be two, three, four years' advance planning
• 23:39
  because the space could be booked up in its old guise.
• 23:42
  It would have been booked up two or three years in advance.
• 23:44
  There's so much because one,
• 23:45
  there's the investment that first of all has to obviously be planned too.
• 23:48
  Then there's the design and all of that.
• 23:50
  And then, that takes so much time.
• 23:53
  Then, once you've got the contractors booked,
• 23:55
  that's when you have to think about the business levels
• 23:56
  and all that kind of stuff.
• 23:57
  Of course, yeah.
• 23:58
  We've currently got a capital plan that spans over the next four years
• 24:02
  because this is how far in advance we have to plan
• 24:06
  what changes we want to make to the building.
• 24:09
  Is it scary in any way thinking,
• 24:11
  or looking at a piece of paper or an email that says 2030?
• 24:16
  Ah.
• 24:17
  Because I see that on a piece of paper and I think,
• 24:18
  well, that's the future.
• 24:20
  You know, that's back to the future too, flying cars.
• 24:23
  Yeah, that's true.
• 24:25
  That's scary.
• 24:27
  And that was 11 years ago when we should have had flying cars.
• 24:30
  Yeah, that's very scary.
• 24:30
  Devastated, I couldn't come in my flying car today.
• 24:32
  Or my hoverboard.
• 24:33
  Yeah, or the hoverboard indeed.
• 24:35
  Yeah, yeah.
• 24:35
  But no, I think before I got here,
• 24:38
  if I saw 2030 on a piece of paper, I'd be like, what?
• 24:41
  Once you're in this business and that's how this business works,
• 24:46
  people, you know, it doesn't faze anybody if they see 2030, 2031, 2032.
• 24:50
  People are looking at events way into the future, especially the big ones.
• 24:56
  When you are doing that long-term planning,
• 24:59
  how much is it shaped by you observing event clients and thinking,
• 25:04
  oh, yes, noted, we need to factor that in.
• 25:06
  And how much is it shaped by your event clients proactively saying to you,
• 25:11
  this is what we would like going forward?
• 25:12
  I would say both.
• 25:13
  So it's not necessarily me.
• 25:15
  It's shaped by my team observing because they're the ones in it.
• 25:19
  They're the ones delivering the events.
• 25:22
  I'm just the lucky person who gets to have this chat with you, James, right?
• 25:25
  They do the work.
• 25:27
  But then we always gather feedback after every single event from all our clients
• 25:32
  because we want to know what we can do in the future to make the event different,
• 25:37
  better, special.
• 25:38
  So a mixture of both, I would say.
• 25:42
  Honestly, I'm not just blowing smoke.
• 25:44
  It's been a privilege today to have the chance to come and set up here in a great space.
• 25:48
  It's so relaxed.
• 25:49
  And I always think that the conversations are always so much better
• 25:53
  when you're in a lovely, relaxed environment
• 25:54
  and you can talk to somebody across the table.
• 25:56
  And I always reference my notes back at the end of recording a series of podcasts.
• 26:02
  I'll look at my little notebook that I've got just here that I might scribble ideas in.
• 26:06
  And I've got hardly any notes at all.
• 26:08
  All I've got is people's names.
• 26:10
  And that's when I know I can reference back and think,
• 26:12
  we've had three great guests
• 26:13
  and we've had three great conversations with people in a great space.
• 26:17
  So I suppose it would be foolish for me not to say congratulations to the venue for 50 years.
• 26:24
  Congratulations to you for five years.
• 26:26
  Area General Manager now as well.
• 26:28
  So congratulations all around there.
• 26:30
  And thank you for having us today.
• 26:31
  It's been a real privilege to host the podcast here.
• 26:34
  We have loved having you, James.
• 26:35
  And you're welcome anytime.
• 26:36
  Absolutely.
• 26:37
  Thanks very much for tuning in, everybody.
• 26:39
  We'll see you on the next edition of the Event Industry News podcast.