MAGIC WEARS OFF FOR MERLIN A boycott of Merlin Entertainment brands has been called for by the Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS) over Merlin’s running of …

NIGHT TUBE SERVICE LAUNCHED Transport For London (TFL) are launching a night tube service for Friday and Saturday nights. Commencing in the wee hours of Saturday …

HOTEL NEWS o The Radisson Blu hotel in Leeds is spending £3.5 million on a revamp, due to be completed in 2016. Half of the hotel’s 147 bedrooms have been refurbished…

GRAND IN LISBON One of the best-placed five-star hotels in Lisbon is the Altis Grand, a business and conference property located between two Metro stations just off the North …

SAME OLD SAME OLD COMFORT IN BRUSSELS Fans of Hilton hotels looking for the group’s high levels of comfort in Brussels won’t be disappointed with the Hilton Brussels …

CLICK IN CAMBRIDGE The free one-day conference for event organisers, clic+ 2015, is taking place at Robinson College, Cambridge, on Thursday October 1st. …

MEMPHIS Those who enjoy whoopingly feel-good musicals with exuberant vocal gymnastics and great dancing will be truly sorry if they don’t catch MEMPHIS, the story …

LIFE OF RILEY Those who enjoy Mike Leigh’s intelligent and bitter-sweet dissections of humanity will enjoy Life of Riley, the last film made by the famed French “New Wave” …

WOW Alongside the news that a serious malfunction and crash on the extreme Smiler roller-coaster at Alton Towers theme park on Tuesday June 2 has left four young …

THOMAS COOK PROBE Travel firm Thomas Cook faces a new investigation by the Crown Prosecution Service into the deaths of two children during a £2,000 holiday …

DON’T DIE OF A DVT Those who smoke, women who are pregnant or taking the contraceptive pill or hormone replacement therapy (HRT), those who have recently …

LISTEN UP PHILIP For an amusingly acerbic look at the dark side of the artistic mentality LISTEN UP PHILIP, a stiletto-sharp study of self-absorbed and misanthropic New …

AN EVENTS TALE A group of intelligent, articulate and highly-talented students are just finishing their degree course in event management and are talking in the pub about jobs…

SHARK’S FINS CONFISCATED The Royal China restaurant group in London has had illegally imported shark fins confiscated by Westminster Council. Jason Chan …

HOTEL NEWS A rally of Neo-Nazis, Holocaust-deniers, and members of the National Front and BNP at the Grosvenor Hotel, Victoria on April 11 has angered the Campaign…

MEET VICTORIANA Those organising events in venues with some history will want to know about Clevedon Hall, a beautifully preserved 150 year-old Victorian mansion…

HISTORIC COMFORT IN YORKSHIRE Those looking for a base for a small residential event or executive retreat in Yorkshire can consider the Old Lodge hotel at Malton, a …

PEACE NEAR ROYSTON The Sheene Mill is a Grade II Listed 16th Century Mill House on the river Mel in the village of Melbourne, on the Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and …

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS This 1932 black and white science fiction horror shocker was the first, and far and away the best of three Hollywood adaptations of the 1896 H.G.Wells …

KNOW MY NAME AND REMEMBER The tragedy of the 150 dead victims of the Germanwings flight deliberately crashed in the French Alps by a co-pilot reportedly …

ONE TO EVICT, NOW One association understandably having problems staging some of its events is the Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM). Over the years its …

PROTESTS AS EVENTS Meanwhile those organisers who want, or need to know more about protests, and how they fit or not into the events industry can buy a fascinating …

CAMBRIDGE COLLEGE VENUE RIPPED OFF A former purchase ledger clerk at Pembroke College, Cambridge stole £286,000 from her employer to help finance a …

VENUE REVIEW SITE LAUNCHED A new venue review site for London venues, Eventopedia, has been launched. Unlike Tripadvisor those event organisers posting …

WOODEN CROSSES Those interested in the First World War and what it was really like in the trenches will want to see the searing depiction of Wooden Crosses, a recently …

KILLER IN CAPITAL Those organising events in London might want to advise their delegates that the 50 worst blackspots in the country for illegally polluted air are all in …

MORE SPEAKER PROBLEMS A speaker who had been banned from speaking at the University of East Anglia for calling homosexuality “a filthy disease” was subsequently …

VINOPOLIS TO CLOSE Vinopolis, the wine tasting venue near London Bridge is to close at the end of this year, after 16 years trading, with the loss of 180 jobs. The 2.5 acre …

MAN OF THE WEST Those who like their westerns raw and gritty will enjoy Man of the West (1958) Giving a nervy, twitchy performance as Link Jones, a former family gang …

PARADISE, FOR SOME Campaigners opposing Germany’s legal brothels are concerned that some companies there view it as just another type of corporate hospitality they can …

VIRUS? Some in the events industry have been getting an email, styled as from MBL (Seminars) Ltd of Manchester advising them that they are overdue on payment for a …

HOTEL NEWS  Local residents are vociferously opposing a plan by Genting Casinos to install a 30,000 square foot, 24-hour casino, restaurant and bar on the ground and first …

EVENT CATERING TRENDS FOR 2015 These include, according to event caterers Tapenade :  Middle Eastern grain freekeh (pronounced fari-kah) to replace quinoa …

LOTS AT WHITTLEBURY Organisers wanting big spaces, or lots of little ones should view Whittlebury Hall Conference, Training Centre and Hotel, located near Towcester …

SCANDIC IN COPENHAGEN The Scandic Hotel Group have five properties in the Danish capital, giving organisers more than 1,000 bedrooms and 50 meetings rooms …

LET’S KISS BADGES One nifty encouragement to networking we recently experienced was the electronic delegate badge system used at the Clic+ organisers conference at …

THE OFFENCE Those who enjoy gritty psychological dramas will want to see The Offence (1972), a bleak and harrowing story of a detective-sergeant (Sean Connery) …

BUSINESS AS USUAL? Visitors to riot-damaged Thailand, once again under martial law since the bloodless coup to restore order on May 22, are being advised of the serious…

SPEAKING OF WHICH… Old Grit’s vitriolic rant about speakers who sell from their stages in Issue 123 touched a nerve, it seems, amongst professional speakers. When …

GO LARGE IN COPENHAGEN Those running, or looking at running events in Denmark will need to know about the modern Bella Center, and the adjacent Bella Sky Comwell …

OASIS AT HEATHROW Those wanting to run an event near Heathrow Airport will want to include the Marriott London Heathrow hotel in the list of options. This modern …

TEA FOR TWO FOR ONE Patisserie Valerie, the continental-style cafe and cake-shop chain, is to offer traditional English afternoon tea at its branches. This is for a charge …

DESTINATION SHOWCASE Featuring a range of 50 hotels, hotel groups, convention bureaux and DMC’s from 20 countries the Moulden Marketing B2B Destination …

SHOAH Shoah, a nine-hour, ten-minute documentary detailing the horrors of the Holocaust from interviews with survivors and perpetrators is not easy to watch, but …