Tag Archives: Newsletter

Event Organisers Update November 2018 ISSUE 168

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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 …

Charity Matters Aug/Sep 2018 ISSUE 80

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TERRORIST ATROCITY TRIGGERS NEW CHARITY The grieving Australian parents of a 21 year old woman who was one of seven killed at London Bridge and Borough …

MOTABILITY EXPOSED The Daily Mail has been praised for exposing the greed of those running the Motability charitable scheme whereby vehicles are supplied to …

STEALING FROM CHARITIES
o A six year jail sentence has been handed down to Nadia Ali, finance officer for …
o A one year jail sentence has been handed down to Akbar Siddiqi, a fundraising …

MALE SUICIDE DROPS The number of male suicides last year dropped to 4,382, the lowest since data was first recorded in 1981, against a total suicide toll of 5,821 …

BIG GAIN FOR OXFAM The death of Richard Cousins, 58, the multi-millionaire CEO of catering firm Compass has resulted in a £41 million payment of most of his fortune to …

MOBILE PHONE SCAM? Charity Citizens Advice are advising all those with mobile phones and a “bundled” contract for handset, data and call charges to check whether …

ABANDONED AT CHARITY SHOP The RSPCA are looking for a person who cruelly abandoned an eight-week old border terrier cross puppy in a hand bag, with its paws …

Event Organisers Update October 2018 ISSUE 167

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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 …

Event Organisers Update September 2018 ISSUE 166

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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 …

Marketing Matters Jul/Aug 2018 ISSUE 63

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WORTHLESS The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating claims that some advertisers are using participants in reality TV shows to plug products or …

GATWICK PARKING PROBLEMS A company director who ran a “meet and greet” service at Gatwick and then parked customer’s cars in muddy fields and public car …

RECORD FINE FOR GOOGLE A fine of £3.8 billion has been handed down to Google by the European Commission for breaches of competition law. The Commission says …

A KICKING FOR HERMES Staff at delivery company Hermes were filmed in January punching customer parcels and throwing and kicking them around the depot in …

TURKEY BEFORE CHRISTMAS? The fall in value of the Turkish lira has made a cheap break in the country a real possibility for those hunting a bargain. Despite …

BRING A BOTTLE One piece of railway marketing not thought through is from the clever people who have ordered the smart, new £1billion Bombardier Class 345 …

STUPID MARKETING Learn from their mistakes.
o Wiscombe Cider’s Suicider brand has been banned from sale at a festival following …
o The Bristol Dry Gin distillery was criticised for calling a new vodka Novichok.
o Airline Tui handed out badges to boys saying “Future Tui Captain” and badges to …

Event Organisers Update August 2018 ISSUE 165

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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 …

Charity Matters Jun/Jul 2018 ISSUE 79

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HEARTLESS FRAUD Charitable donations and public money has been sponged up by fraudsters claiming to have been involved in the Greenfell Tower tragedy, to get …

NO ONE TO TURN TO A report for Save The Children into the abuse of children by charity aid workers, No One To Turn To, contains horrific accounts of instances …

NICE WORK Fundraising companies are doing rather well out of charities that employ them and their teams of “chuggers” (charity muggers). A report last month in the …

DEATH OF RSPCA SAVIOUR An RSPCA inspector died trying to save 40 gannets that had been trapped on a rock at Porthchapel Beach, Cornwall during Storm Imogen in …

BIAS COULD LOSE CHARITY STATUS The Legatum Institute, a charity think tank, has been warned by the Charity Commission that it could lose its charitable status if …

KNOW YOUR KNOTWEED Conservation charity Plantlife has issued some information about Japanese knotweed following research which showed that less than 20% of …

NO SKINNY-DIPPING The National Trust has issued warnings based on Health and Safety to members of the public seen swimming naked in its lakes at Woodchester …

Marketing Matters May/Jun 2018 ISSUE 62

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ITALY LEADS THE WAY Italy has become the first European country to ban all advertising for gambling. TV, radio and internet promotions will be halted from …

BAD PR FOR BA British Airways has apologised for cancelling the flights of 2,000 passengers after it discovered that the cheap fares offered were a mistake made by …

TRUST GEORGE OSBOURNE AND EVENING STANDARD? Concerns over the editorial credibility of the London Evening Standard and its editor George Osbourne …

SELF- SERVICE SCAMMERS More shoppers are stealing from supermarkets by putting loose avocados and other expensive fruit and veg through self-service tills …

CENTER PARCS UK RIP-OFFS The price of a 7-day stay at a Center Parc holiday park in the UK can be double that charged in some European destinations, and …

W H SMITH STATIONARY Retailers W H Smith have won yet another least-liked position in the annual Which? survey of customer satisfaction, the eighth year it …

COURT BONUSSING A whistle-blower at Capita, the firm paid £59million a year by the BBC to collect TV licence fees, has told the Daily Mail that large bonuses were paid …

DOWN AT WETHERSPOONS This month sees the selling of more British drinks and less from the other countries in the EU at Weatherspoon’s. The 880 pub chain will …

Event Organisers Update June 2018 ISSUE 164

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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 …

Charity Matters Apr/May 2018 ISSUE 78

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DAZED AND CONFUSED Some small charities in the sector admit that they are unsure whether or not they are compliant with the new GDPR standards (General Data …

RNIB INVESTIGATED Investigations are taking place at the Royal National Institute for Blind People’s (RNIB) Pears Centre for Specialist Learning near Coventry following a …

CHARITIES TOO? The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is set to get new powers to hold directors of nuisance call companies personally liable for payment of …

BLIND STUPIDITY? Two in three of the UK’s health trusts are ignoring new orders to offer cataract surgery to all those sufferers whose doctors believe they would benefit…

FILLING THEIR BOOTS FROM CHARITY A charitable scheme to supply cars for disabled people in exchange for their state disability allowance has been slammed …

KILL A BADGER FOR £50 A new government scheme has been launched to kill badgers, a protected species, in areas of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) outbreaks, even …

CHARITY OFFICER JAILED A jail sentence of one year has been given to a charity finance officer who stole more than £53,000. Gemma Mason, 36, bought more than …

DO AS WE SAY, NOT DO The Church of England has been accused of hypocrisy for attacking greedy City bonus cultures after it has emerged that their charity …