PICK YOUR COMEDIAN One useful and enjoyable annual event put on for organisers is the Speaker Drinks evening staged at the Institute of Directors venue …

SEE YOU, JIMMY Tourism chiefs at VisitScotland used a picture of a Glencoe cottage once owned as a holiday home by disgraced BBC celebrity and sex offender Jimmy …

ART HISTORY COURSE A four-session course The Pre-Raphaelite Revolution is being offered by the Leighton House Museum in Kensington…

NEXT BIG THING? Plans are being considered for The Entertainment Resort, a world-class theme park with supporting hotels containing conference space, as well …

SOME ITALIAN WINE A recent tasting of nearly 100 wines from Italy, organised on behalf of Italian wine expert Daniele Cermilli (who styles himself Doctor Wine) …

NEW FOR MANCHESTER The 187 bedroom Hotel Indigo has opened close to Victoria Station in Manchester and claims to bring its brand of “contemporary …

THE HAPPY PRINCE This is the ironic title of the latest, and arguably the best of the bios of the famous and infamous author, playwright and bon viveur Oscar Wilde …

PUT PASSENGERS FIRST? THAT’S A GOOD ONE AT GOVIA… There was an “extraordinary complacency about protecting the interests of passengers” among …

BOUQUETS, AND BRICKBATS Impressed to note that charity Diabetes UK has just won the award from the Association of British Professional Conference Organisers …

ARE YOU AFFECTED? An estimated 500 million people who booked a Starwood branded hotel in the last four years have been affected by a massive data breach …

DRUNK PILOT JAILED A Japan Airlines pilot who was attempting to fly his Boeing 777 while more than nine times over the legal limit of alcohol in the blood has …

VENUE NEWS

o Plans are in hand for a new, 150-bedroom hotel in Church Street, Liverpool …
o The 334-bedroom Hotel Russell on London’s Russell Square “needs to sort …

TOP NOSH A Bristol restaurant has won the number one spot in the Harden’s 100 Best UK Restaurants list for this year. The food at Casamia, The General in …

OUR INDUSTRY CHANGES

o Centaur Media, publishers of Marketing Week are looking to sell The Meetings …
o After 13 years as editor of Conference News Paul Colston has left to work on …

EXCURSIONS Those involved in organising group travel are invited to attend Excursions, a free one-day exhibition at Alexandra Palace, London. This is running …

UNDER THE TREE Inga is the maliciously evil neighbour from hell in this dark and affecting cautionary tale of suburban warfare escalating out of control between …

WOMAN BLINDED TO SUE RYDER CUP ORGANISERS A woman golf fan who was blinded by a wayward golf ball whilst watching the Ryder Cup championship is …

DIRTY MONEY NOW REFUSED A British birdwatching exhibition, Birdfair, has cancelled its sponsorship agreement with binocular manufacturer Bushnell over …

CURBING THE DRUNKS Airport bars in the UK, which can sell alcohol round the clock, may soon be subject to the same licensing laws as high street bars, that is, no  …

CHOCOLATE MESS An event promoted as “A massive Willy Wonka inspired dreamland with a mouth-watering array of the finest cocoa money can buy” has …

HOTEL RATINGS Good customer satisfaction ratings were given to Premier Inn (79%) Hilton Garden Inn (77%), Fullers (75%), Marriott Renaissance (73%) in the latest …

TIME TO PULL OUT? The Swiss watch firm Swatch has pulled out of sponsoring next year’s Baselworld watch and jewellery trade fair, reportedly citing the high cost of …

NEW BIG ONE Las Vegas is to be the home of a large new conference and exhibition centre built by Caesar’s Entertainment. Caesar’s Forum will offer the two largest …

HITLER’S HOLLYWOOD Those with an interest in German films and their history will want to own two excellent and thought-provoking documentaries which cover the …

AUDIO VISUAL FIRM BETRAYED Audio visual and event production company Big Purple Productions were defrauded out of more than £200,000 by their trusted office …

NOISE OF KILLING A wealthy aristocrat with links back to Sir Frances Drake faces a noise abatement order over the lucrative organised game bird and clay pigeon …

STAY IN A BIT OF HISTORY Those who like to walk in the footsteps of the famous and infamous have been given a list of hotels in history by the Mail on Sunday …

TOP UK ATTRACTIONS The British Museum has retained its position as the most visited free UK attraction for the 10th consecutive year with 5,906,716 visitors in …

VENUE NEWS
o The owner of an historic wedding venue in Cheshire, Haslington Hall, near Crewe …
o Two new easyHotels have opened in Yorkshire offering budget accommodation in …
o The Good Pub Guide has named the Old Joint Stock in Birmingham city centre …

SALVADOR It is hard not to admire director Oliver Stone’s intense and thought-provoking Salvador (1986) – for many his best film – and the Oscar-nominated …

FAKE TRIPADVISOR REVIEWER JAILED The owner of an Italian marketing agency that wrote fake reviews for hotels and restaurants has been jailed for nine months …

VENUE “SHAMBLES” AT WREST PARK A Van Morrison concert at Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedfordshire has been widely condemned as a “shambles” Reportedly fans …

GREED IN UNI SECTOR REDUCING NOW The management of Bath University, who employed the greedy Dame Glynis Breakwell as a £470,000 a year Vice-Chancellor …

VENUE NEWS
o The 19-storey Lume Hotel has opened on Manchester’s Oxford Road, offering 12 …
o A clay pigeon shooter has been found dead during a shoot at Clandon Park House …
o Furious objections have been lodged over plans to demolish the current 906 …

TOP TUCKER Notting Hill restaurant Core has won the Harden’s Top Gastronomic award for this year. Core is the first venture of chef Clare Smyth, who formerly ran …

FREE SPEAKER FINDING OFFER Speaker website IWantASpeaker.com is looking to give a free speaker finding service to a few organisers who use outside guest …

WEIMAR ART Art in Germany between the wars is the subject of a free, long-running exhibition, “Magic Realism” at the Tate Modern. This includes around 70 artworks …

BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY To the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue for the West End debut of the Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons tribute Big Girls Don’t Cry, touring …

LUCKY Right at the end of Lucky, Harry Dean Stanton’s last, and for many the best, film role just before he died the actor turns to camera and gives a cheeky grin …

ONE WAS THERE, ACCIDENTALLY We’d decided to take a day trip by coach to Brighton, attracted by the £12 return fare for seniors and the convenient pick-up in … 

EJECTION FOR GRAPHIC TRUTH An anti-abortion group, Life, was kicked out of the Lambeth Country Show last month after a few of the 150,000 visitors complained …

ECOLI DEATH IN UNKNOWN CORFU HOTEL A fit and healthy mother died last August after eating “bloody” chicken infected with E.coli in a hotel buffet restaurant … 

TOP LOSSES The Shangri-La Hotel, which occupies floors 34-52 of the Shard has lost more than £60 million since it opened four years ago. The five-star hotel offers …

OLYMPIA MAKEOVER Olympia Exhibition and Conference Centre is to get a £1 billion refurbishment under plans drawn up by its new owners, Yoo Capital. (Evening …

VINHO VERDE To a tasting of Vinho Verde wines from quintas (farms) in North-West Portugal and available in the UK. The wines are increasingly popular in the UK as …

DE NIRO HOTEL SCRAPPED Plans by actor Robert De Niro and BD Hotels for a hotel in Covent Garden have been scrapped. The Wellington Hotel was to have 83 … 

NO NEPOTISM HERE, RIGHT BRUV? The former CEO of Excel exhibition and conference centre, David Pegler is to be sued for more than £2million by his former …

THE BUTTERFLY TREE If a bittersweet film about beauty, and the loss of it floats your boat then you’ll love The Butterfly Tree. This ravishingly-shot and quirky Australian …

A SERIOUS MESS There’s a joke going the rounds that the reason our railways have named their latest debacle “Railplan 20/20” is because 2020 is the year by which …

BREWERY CATERER SUED Two diners who suffered campylobacter poisoning after eating chicken liver parfait at The Brewery are suing the venue’s caterers at the time …

BA PILOT JAILED The BA pilot who was hauled out of his cockpit by police and found to be four times over the limit of alcohol for flying has been jailed for nine months …

HOTEL FIRES A major fire, origin unknown, damaged the five-star 12-storey Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Knightsbridge, London earlier this month with 120 firefighters and 20 …

TOP FOR MEETINGS Figures for 2017 released by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) indicate that the USA has hosted the most events …

CHASE 25 The Charities and Association event, Chase 25, takes place on Thursday July 5 at The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London on Thursday July 5. Registration is …

CONFEX FUTURE FOCUS This takes place on July 4-5 at the Victoria Warehouse, Manchester. The seminar programme promises that visitors attending can meet …

THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE Those who loved the 1969 film starring Maggie Smith in the Brodie title role, Celia Johnson as her sceptical headmistress, Robert …

KING OF HEARTS In 1966 this genial French anti-war comedy-drama starring a younger-looking 32 year old Alan Bates and featuring the beautiful 24 year-old …

TRUST YOUR PILOT Well? Of course you do – they transport millions of people every year from A to B in perfect safety, don’t they? Of course there are times it goes …

FLOORED AT GROSVENOR HOUSE The Royal Caledonian Ball, an exclusive £265 a ticket Scottish dancing event attracting 700 guests fell apart earlier this month as the …

BOAT SHOW SUNK The London Boat Show, due to be held at Excel, 9-13 January 2019 has been cancelled. Organisers British Marine say that there was little support …

MONET COLLECTION For lovers of art, especially that by a Claude Monet, 1840-1926, the National Gallery has an exhibition featuring more than 70 of the artist’s works…

MILLENNIALS An interesting discussion on managing and marketing to millennials was organised recently by speaker agency Performing Artistes. Held at the Institute of …

KRAKOW A highlight of our recent fam trip to five-star Marriott in Poland was the night and day spent in Krakow, a real jewel of a city in one of the most visited areas in the …

VODKA HEAVEN For those who like vodka a trip to Poland offers an opportunity to try some of the hundreds of types on offer and our recent fam trip to Warsaw and …

THE OLD DARK HOUSE Horror films used to frighten audiences to death, until comic send ups appeared at the cinema encouraging the frightened to not take it all too …

A MODERN CURSE? Is social media, which we have all been told we should be enthusiastically embracing, on the way out? Certainly the continued posting of racial …

THE SMELL WORSENS Another Liverpool couple have been caught out trying to defraud a travel company with false claims of holiday food poisoning, and this time …

MORE VENETIAN RIP-OFFS Another case of visitors to Venice being grossly overcharged for food in restaurants around St Marks Square has emerged …

THEFTS FROM EVENTS BUSINESS An event supplier specialised in providing cocktail and bartending expertise was robbed late last month. Two thieves broke into …

BIG CRUISERS FOR LIVERPOOL Liverpool will be able to handle the huge floating blocks of flats that these days pass for modern super liners with a new £50 million …

NIGHT NIGHT A sleeper mini-coach that can carry 12 passengers lying down has been launched for those travelling 300 miles or more. The berths on the coach come …

NEW MARRIOTT AT NEC Building of the new Marriott International Moxy Hotel will start at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in June this year and should be open …

FIVE-STAR WARSAW Joining a familiarisation trip to Poland as a guest of Marriott Hotels the writer enjoyed five-star accommodation at hotels in Warsaw, and Krakow …

HILTON AT HEATHROW There can’t be many airport hotels with a large and attractive outside area for al fresco barbecues and other eating in the warm months but the … 

BEER TASTING A recent cruise around Scotland and the Orkneys, the Shetlands and the Danish Faroe Islands gave the writer the chance to run a beer tasting of twelve … 

MARTY Only two films have ever won the double of the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Picture, and one was director Billy Wilder’s 1945 The Lost …

EVENT SLEAZE An undercover investigation by the Financial Times at a President’s Club fundraising dinner in January at the Dorchester Hotel, London, led to …

WHAT PRICE SOCIAL MEDIA? A very public row has been running since a blogger on social media asked the owner of a Dublin hotel for a free five-night stay for herself … 

WOMEN ONLY Britain’s first women only members club is set to open its doors in a townhouse at Rathbone Place, Bloomsbury, London on March 8, where facilities …

VENUE NEWS
o Three hotel groups have been named as supplying freebies to the UK’s serial …
o Travelodge have apologised for branding a 46 year old father a paedophile when …
o Blenheim Palace have apologised after organising a Chinese New Year party that …

MANCHESTER SNOWFLAKES MELT A stupid decision by precious souls at the Manchester City Art Gallery to remove its famous Victorian painting of Hylas and … 

FOCUS UP NORTH Event show Confex has announced a Future Focus of the London based exhibition to take place in Manchester, July 4-5. This will be at the Victoria …

CHASE PERSUED Organisers of events for charities and associations might be interested to hear that the dedicated exhibition for the non-profit sector, CHASE, is … 

THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA In 1954 director and screen-writer Joseph L Mankiewicz followed up his 1950 All About Eve biting satire of Broadway with a biting and …