I have never been moved to quote competitors before, but this time I think they deserve it. And you, dear reader, deserve the chance to see interest-protection at work, masquerading as journalism. I am speaking of Haymarket publications’ title Event and its toe-curlingly embarrassing support for Londonlaunch Live.

You will have seen our news story regarding the liquidation of Londonlaunch Ltd with debts of £1.2 million (news section). Well here is the Event version of events on their web site written by one Jeremy King - who should forever hang his head in shame:

“Exclusive: Will Broome refutes £1.2m liquidation rumour

In an exclusive conversation with Event magazine, London Launch Live CEO Will Broome has dismissed reports that his company has ever phoenixed, or has any trade creditors.

Hitting out at rumours in the industry, Broome explains that when he launched the Londonlaunch brand he created 14 different company names under the group name of WL Franchise, in a bid to own different aspects of the event industry from hospitality to ticketing.

After seven years some of these companies, which had included Hospitality Box, had not traded a single penny. As a result of this he made the decision more than 12 months ago to wind up the aforementioned companies and keep just three brands under the WL Franchise. These companies are Londonlaunch, Londonlaunch Live and Londonlaunch Learn.

"More than a year ago I took the decision to wind up the companies that were not relevant to us, or that had never traded," explains Broome.

"We did everything in the correct manner with our accountants. Any debts or money owed was to myself, my family and the bank. We have never had any trade creditors, and do not owe anyone in the industry any money. Our londonlaunch.com business and our forthcoming show, Londonlaunch Live are both doing extremely well."

Details on Companies House about the closing down of some WL Franchise's companies also back this up with the biggest creditors being cited as Broome, his family and Barclays Bank, which is normal for most small businesses.”

Well, can you believe it? No, you can't. I’ve got some more ‘rumours’ for Event to scotch:
1. The world is round
2. Grass is green
3. The sky is full of air

Nearly as much hot air as Event’s Mr King!

So it’s OK (according to Event) to wind up a company owing a bank £600K and the taxman (you and me, the taxpayers) more than £300K, so long as there are no ‘trade creditors’!

The reason there are no trade creditors, Mr King, was because Mr Broome used taxpayers’ and the bank’s money to pay off the trade creditors so that the liquidation would be as low profile as possible in our industry! Geddit?

Why would Event treat Mr Broome so kindly? Could it be because Mr King forgets to mention that Event’s logo is plastered all over Londonlaunch Live’s web site as sponsor or media partner of next month’s event? How embarrassing is that?

Astonishingly, London Mayor Boris Johnson is also booked to speak at Londonlaunch Live next month. I wonder if he knows that he will be supporting an event run by people who wound up a company with debts to the taxman of £300,000?

Answers, Mayor’s Office, please?

As elite events go, the Grand Prix is up there in the swanky-pants stakes – the cars, the noise, the grid girls, the champagne…Understandably I left some very green-eyed monsters in my wake as I hopped on the Eurostar to travel to the F1 at Spa Francorchamps, a very grateful guest of the Belgian Tourist Office Brussels & Wallonia.

Event organisers usually bemoan the rain, but it had two benefits on this occasion: wet track conditions made for an interesting battle on the course including a couple of terrifyingly fast and expensive fender benders; and retaining the invited guests inside the VIP lounge at mezzanine level to chat and network with the tourist office hosts. The hospitality was generous and the tourist board even provided little ear plugs in branded boxes to counter the (absolutely deafening) noise as the F1 superstars screamed past.

Certainly, looking across at the keen fans huddled under their umbrellas in the uncovered stand across the way, I felt a rather bashful frisson of glee at being one of the glorious few with the swing tag that opened doors to ensure I remained warm, dry, well fed and watered.

Corporate hospitality is often accused of being a waste of money and irrelevant but, done well, it comes with a cachet that's hard to beat. The group of trade and consumer journalists and group travel buyers, VIPs and other key clients from the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Germany were there to be entertained but also to enjoy the other less tangible but no less important parts of business - relationship building, brand association, the feeling of being recognised and rewarded by the Belgians.

As with most corporate hospitality events, the maths is tricky – on the quantitative side you could tot up the spend per invited guest and weigh that against the return in column inches, forthcoming group travel bookings, renewed contracts etc – but you might have to wait a few months, even years, for the picture to be truly accurate. As ever, the qualitative side is as relevant but rather more elusive to capture – the ‘feelings’ part, or as ROI king Elling Hamso puts it, ‘building trust or liking’.

I bypassed the €50 t-shirts on sale down at ground level but was quite satisfied with my corporate hospitality souvenirs – an extremely full belly, a number of new contacts and improved ties with current ones, a slight buzzing in the ears and, somewhat thrillingly the knowledge I had been somewhere far buzzier than my friends this Bank Holiday weekend. And how many times have visitors to Belgium been able to say that with certainty?

Belgium forever linked with glamour, excitement and fast-living: try putting a price on that.

I realise it is hardly news that the use of new media is rising inexorably. But, nevertheless, some recent figures caught my eye that I found truly startling. Did you know, for instance, that more than a quarter of UK citizens now own a smart phone? That’s double the number of just two years ago. Or that broadband take-up among the over-55s is rising faster than in any other group and has now topped 50 per cent?

Perhaps more exhausting than even those figures is the study that shows a fifth of all media is consumed at the same time as another form of communication, according to research compiled by Ofcom, the media regulator. That’s kids texting friends while surfing several websites at once or you on Rightmove to check what your neighbour’s house has gone on the market for while waiting for Match of the Day.

The same survey showed that we spend almost half of our waking hours glued to a screen, on the phone or listening to the radio. After initially thinking that was extraordinary, I thought about what I consider my own low-tech life and realised that way more than half my waking hours are spent doing one or other of these things – certainly on working days anyway.

What does any of this mean for the events industry? Well that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? There are many clever, creative and/or geeky types working on all sorts of ideas. But despite all the new technology that we seem to be resistant to putting down, to what extent has much really changed? Didn’t we always do the ironing, ring our Mum, read the newspaper or flick through a Littlewoods catalogue while watching telly?

It was predicted that time spent watching TV would fall as the internet grew in popularity but this hasn’t happened. In fact the latest viewing figures, published by Thinkbox, shows that average consumption of TV has risen two hours and two minutes a week over last year to 28 hours and 15 minutes. There are various plausible reasons for this: the World Cup, the wet weather, the recession encouraging everyone to stay home.

It seems to me that a lot of this technology allows us to do what we always did but in a more efficient way. Which is why it’s so popular.

From smart traffic systems to help keep us all moving in an age of increasing car use and scarce funds for infrastructure, to iPads being distributed by the Japan Sumo Association to its members who, let’s be honest, aren’t the only ones struggling with the keyboards of their tiny smartphones, and blood glucose meters for diabetics made to plug directly into a Nintendo DS gaming device, it’s all good news for a more efficient and possibly safer future.

And in our industry there’s still room for more efficiency of course – there always is. But maybe what we need to bring to the party is something a bit different – whether it’s time to think, digest, explore or something whizzbang and hugely memorable that has real impact and creates movement.

It’s a fast-moving world and shows no sign of slowing up anytime soon. Frankly, it makes me want to ditch the BlackBerry, the iPod, the satnav and the laptop and lie down in a leafy glade, if only it wasn’t pouring with rain…

Yesterday I went into town by train with my friend. Both of us were accompanied by our tiny terrors and loaded down with buggies, bags, ugly lumps of bright bleeping plastic, peanut butter sandwiches and all manner of stuff necessary for leaving the house with an under-two.

My friend and I live in a pleasant-but-average commuter town where we can get a lift to any of the platforms if we want to go somewhere a little more exciting. Perhaps I’ve taken this ease of accessibility in the provinces somewhat for granted or maybe I’m just a little naïve. Our destination station was Clapham Junction, touted as Britain’s busiest railway station.

I’m not a complete stranger to this station, but I’ve never visited it before with a buggy in tow. Having disembarked from the train and seeing no signage, I went to speak to a guard about the whereabouts of a lift or ramp, as there are in so many other, less busy stations. I was somewhat gobsmacked to be told, ‘Sorry, there isn’t one, you’ll have to take the stairs.’

Together, we managed to haul our little darlings in their buggies down two flights of stairs before continuing our onward journey. For us, at least there was an option, albeit one that probably would get you a slap on the wrist from a health & safety inspector. For a wheelchair user, it would surely be a different matter. I imagine their journey would stop on the platform.

On our return to the station (having negotiated the potential dangers in the capital of pedestrian crossings that don’t bleep and perilous pavements), I asked in the foyer whether there was a way of accessing the platforms without lugging the buggies up the stairs. I still couldn’t believe that in this busy transport hub you couldn’t access the platforms when there was a ramp bearing the disabled sign in the foyer. "Lifts won’t be finished until the end of the month," was the brief and gruff response. No further offer of help was forthcoming. Fantastic news about those lifts by the way, but actually we’d like to travel back today…

Psycho-babble aside, we all carry plenty of baggage with us throughout our lives. During this brief trip, I spotted all sorts of people as well as mummies (and daddies) with buggies who would benefit from public transport facilities with easier access. There was a family of three dragging two huge suitcases, a commuter with a bike, a woman with an assistance dog, a pregnant woman and an elderly gentleman walking with a stick, to name but a few. Not all of them had what is traditionally considered to be a mobility problem, rather their mobility was hindered by what they were carrying or pushing. Add all these together – and probably more - and I’ll bet there is a massive business case, as well as a moral one, for ensuring facilities are accessible to all.

Access Excellence is an issue that Meetings & Incentive Travel magazine is proud to campaign on. Since 2006, the M&IT Awards have honoured venues, transport providers and unusual venues which not only meet but exceed the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. During this ongoing campaign we’ve spoken to venues which have made the issue of accessibility a priority, not only in terms of facilities but in staff training, too. Overwhelmingly these venues are continuing to reap the benefits - one hotel I spoke to had managed to recoup its initial investment into providing fully accessible rooms three-fold in just one year.

So, to all at Clapham Junction Station and its management team at South West Trains: we won’t be expecting your entry when nominations open on September 1, but there’s plenty of time to shape up for next year. With your brand new lift facilities and a bit of added staff training, we hope that visiting your station will become a smoother, and more pleasant experience for everyone.

• Brian Seaman 25/08/2010 Of: Tourism for All Services Ltd
  

  Your article brings to the table a view that we share at Tourism for All.
  
  We sometimes refer to the principle of 'universal design' as this gives access for everyone (disabled or not). We talk about the benefits of meeting the needs of the older person and the very young. Being 'able-bodied' for many of us has been described as a period somewhere between childhood and old age - which you have highlighted in your blog very well.
  
  What your readers may not realise (and it is worth noting) is that Train Operating Companies now have a policy of helping disabled people reach their nearest accessible station by means of an accessible taxi - at no additional cost - although sadly that would not have helped in your case.
  
  Our local railway station is also having lifts fitted at long last - I've lost count of the number of mothers and fathers I have helped carry their children / buggies up and down the steps.
  
  Despite the difficulties you and I have experienced, there are some companies that have already gone the extra mile (you know who you are). Wouldn't it be great to have entries for the M&IT Access Award that demonstrate excellence in accessibility and recognise a welcoming service for all?
  
  

• Chris Bray 26/08/2010 Of: MS Society
  

  A very interesting observation.
  
  It is intensely frustrating that the speed of change to make adaptations and create accessible and inclusive environments is so slow. Whilst some organisations and venues have made fantastic improvements, infrastructure seems to working in its own little bubble.
  
  I dream of a day when there isn't the need to have step-free access icons on the London Underground map, as all stations have been made step-free... anyone prepared to guess a date when this will happen?
  
  Whilst we are waiting, I am confident there are many organisations around the country that are taking access and inclusion seriously and will be worthy candidates for recognition of M&IT's Access Excellence Award.
  

• Corinne O'Loughlin 26/08/2010 Of: Stagecoach Group
  

  Access at Clapham Junction is currently being improved with the installation of nine new lifts from the footbridge to the platforms and step-free access into and around the station. This is the biggest single project within the government’s nation-wide Access for All programme, which is being delivered by Network Rail. Station selection and prioritisation is made by the Department for Transport and to date, 148 stations in England, Wales and Scotland have been selected to receive step-free access improvements.
  
  Corinne O'Loughlin
  Group communications manager
  Stagecoach Group

The story on our news section about checking event agencies’ financial probity is a bit of a no-brainer. The first thing you should do with any potential new supplier is to run a credit check – obviously. And it makes huge sense in these dynamic times to check regularly on your existing suppliers, too.

The reason it’s a story now is because of the rash of tour operators and charter companies that have crashed (happily, not literally) in recent weeks. Motivcom’s Nigel Cooper points to the Air Tour Operator’s Licence scheme as the evidence of a safety net for travel operators (and many event agencies) but also points out that if an airline goes down, nobody catches it!

So while an ATOL bond is great for some agencies, it won’t cover the majority of event management companies in the chain, let alone the rest of the service providers employed. No, if you want to avoid the collapse of a supplier and all that entails, only good, old-fashioned research will do it. But with online services such as Companies House and web-based credit checks, it’s fast, cheap and easy. So cheap and fast, that it is unforgiveable not to do it.

So how come huge businesses such as BT plc can claim to employ a policy of a ‘preferred suppliers’ list while the evidence of financial probity of some companies on it is a mess or non-existent? At the time when BT was using THA Group’s services, the business was clearly insolvent with several years of losses. When it went down with debts of £6m, it included BT money. But now BT is trading with The Waterford House Partnership – a start-up company owned by former THA Group owner, Kevin Ingram.

So how do you get on BT’s ‘preferred supplier’ list? First you have to have a disastrous track record of financial mismanagement in your old business. Then you have to have no trading history in your current business with no accounts to show BT’s assiduous procurement people. Then you've got the job.

That’s the kind of company BT prefers to do business with.

EDITOR'S NOTE

I have received objections to the slant of the above piece from a couple of agencies that are on the BT roster. They feel they are 'tarred with the THA brush' by being bracketed with them in this blog.

One, who wishes to remain anonymous, wrote: "In your most recent commentary regarding BT and THA, I understand the underlying frustrations and sentiments but in so pointing the finger at one specific company and practice, (which I personally believe is moving to be historical not current), you have, intentionally or unintentionally, slurred every other company that is on BT’s roster – “So how do you get on BT’s ‘preferred supplier’ list? First you have to have a disastrous track record of financial mismanagement in your old business. Then you have to have no trading history in your current business with no accounts to show BT’s assiduous procurement people. Then you've got the job. That’s the kind of company BT prefers to do business with.”

Behind the scenes, we are working bloody hard to wrestle business that was traditionally the preserve of others, and it’s not through having a poor trading record but through creative, well-executed work at a competitive price. Reading such sweeping commentary destroys morale and motivation internally as much as it potentially damages us externally."

I can assure all other agencies on the BT roster that no criticism of their activities was implied and their financial probity was not questioned. "So how do you get on BT’s ‘preferred supplier’ list?" was clearly intended to be facetious and was wholly ironic.

Several years ago I invented a device for exercising while sat at your desk – I imaginatively called it the ‘Deskacise’. It consisted of two pedals that could be placed under the desk enabling you to cycle while you typed. That was the theory anyway.

When I took it into work I discovered the flaws in my design. Not only did I have to endure being ridiculed by my colleagues; every time I rotated the pedals my knees hit painfully (and noisily) on the desk. It was a disappointment because a) I wasn’t going to become a millionaire any time soon and b) because I hated the feeling of ‘bum spread’ caused by hours and hours of sitting down.

And it seems I’m not alone because someone has taken my idea one step further and invented a treadmill you can walk on while working at an elevated desk. Visit the website to watch a hilarious demo http://www.trekdesk.com. Incredibly this is not a spoof – apparently it’s being embraced by some top US firms including Google and GlaxoSmithKline!

The TrekDesk has been designed to help combat the rising tide of obesity and ill health caused by sedentary lives. The idea is for employees to use the desk for an hour a day, ensuring they maintain the daily activity level recommended by health professionals.

TrekDesk founder Steve Bordley says: “American businesses have recently discovered that walking while working has a benefit to their bottom line. Increased productivity, weight loss, improved moods, disease prevention, stress reduction, anger management, less absenteeism, and reduced health care costs are some of the benefits.”

For those poor event workers virtually chained to their desk answering endless requests for proposals, this sounds like a God-send. If you can get over the absurdity of the concept, I think Bordley could be right. Although I would advise users to pick their TrekDesk work tasks carefully and perhaps confine it to email admin only. Heavy breathing down the telephone may well leave your clients wondering what kind of company you work for…

One of the interesting points to emerge from InterContinental Hotels’ recent announcement of a bumper quarter thanks to resurgent business travel, is that while the hotel group used to know what occupancy would be 90 to 120 days in advance, now it only knows two to three weeks ahead.

Companies keeping their options open for as long as possible is nothing new in the events industry, of course, where lead times continue to get shorter.

InterConti’s figures were particularly boosted by the return of business travel and growth in China, helped by the World Expo, where revpar (revenues per available room) grew by 30 per cent. Corporate events and trade fairs in Germany contributed 16.5 per cent to the gains and London boasted a 10 per cent rise. The UK is the group’s third biggest market.

CEO Andrew Cosslett said leisure travel had also remained stable and pointed out that his company benefits from domestic as well as international travel. “We don’t need people to go anywhere to do business,” he said. “We’re like a balloon – you press on one end and it pops up somewhere else.”

Occupancy rates have fuelled the revpar growth while room rates have stabilised around much of the world or grew in some regions. For the six months to June 30, InterContinental reported pre-tax profits of $192m (£122m) compared with a loss of $50m (£32m) for the same period last year.

Despite the good news and recognition that the company appears to be doing all the right things, shares in the company have fallen recently – with worries about the sustainability of these figures to blame. If there is to be a double-dip in the economy, the hotel group would be vulnerable.

And signs that companies are fearing the worst have been reported in a new Bank of England survey, which shows that business confidence has fallen due to fears of the economic impact of public sector austerity.

“Many businesses linked the decline in confidence to the planned cuts in public sector spending, which were expected to lead to weaker demand both directly in those sectors with significant public sector exposure, and indirectly by reducing public sector employment and hence household income,” the Bank reported. The report added that there was little sign yet that businesses were altering their plans in response to June’s emergency Budget but are waiting to see how details of the cuts unfold in the October spending review.

The services sector purchasing managers’ index in June showed a record drop in expectations for business, larger even than during the depths of the recession, and there are growing reports of weaker demand from the public sector – already being felt in some parts of the events industry.

Even as the Bank of England revises down the likely path for growth to 2.8 per cent for next year, Mervyn King, Bank governor, has argued that the risk to growth from public spending cuts was “broadly offset” by the benefits of reassuring markets on the public finances and preventing interest rates spiralling upwards. Let’s hope he’s right.

I remember interviewing hotels guru John Jarvis (remember Jarvis Hotels?) about the future of the business. This was about 20 years ago – long before the current frugal fashion for famine. He said: “Do we really need the fifth fluffy towel? Do we really need to put unused, expensive cosmetics in the bathroom every day or a bar of soap that gets used once and is then thrown away? Do meeting delegates really want mints?”

Jarvis was years ahead of his time. He knew the corporate sector would wake up to the costs of unnecessary items one day (he was just a few years out on the date) but at least he saw it coming.

Compare this with Australian aviation guru Rod Eddington (now Sir Rod) who presided over British Airways for the first five years of this century. He said something very close to the following: “The corporate traveller will never migrate to the low-cost carrier.”

Ahem… presumably, Sir Rod wishes he hadn’t said that! Still if such extraordinary and fundamental misjudgement brings a knighthood, who cares? But I digress.

Let’s get back to people who do know what’s going on. There’s a story in our news section saying business is booming for three-star or ‘mid-range’ hotels because the public sector is down-trading from four-star. Jurys Inn, for example, says Government departments including the NHS, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, Department of Work and Pensions and the Department of Education had chosen to put executives and civil servants in Jurys Inns’ 31 city centre hotels across the UK and Ireland.

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats have chosen the Jurys Inn Liverpool as their main conference hotel for ministers and MPs. According to the hotel group it is the first time a political party in Government will not use a four or five-star hotel as its official conference base.

John Brennan, CEO of Jurys Inn, said that the company has recorded a 20 per cent increase in online corporate bookings over the last six months, including bookings from major blue chips such as HSBC and Santander.

So, happy days for the three-star merchants thanks to the latest migration! Now what did Eddington say about that?

The zeitgeist would suggest that the more high-tech your meeting the more high quality thinking will come out of it. All that whizz-bang social media immediacy and interaction allows everyone’s ideas to bounce around and off each other for the greater good.

Of course, the heightened ‘techie’ age also attracts a bit of a backlash, with some folk yearning for a simpler life. This might explain Crowne Plaza’s latest move to take meetings back to the ‘grass roots’ (no inference about large event management agencies intended).

For this week only, meeting rooms at Crowne Plaza London Docklands, Crowne Plaza Glasgow and Crowne Plaza Dublin Northwood will be ‘carpeted’ with living grass in a bid to encourage delegates to kick off their shoes and walk barefoot on the grass to inspire creativity.

According to research from InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns Crowne Plaza, 40 per cent of professionals lose focus within the first 20 minutes of a meeting, often as a result of their uninspiring surroundings. (As yet, no definitive statistics can be quoted regarding the loss of focus caused by sustained exposure to extreme foot odour.)

Angela Whitlock, author of Walk on the Grass and professional speaker, notes: “Research has shown that by the age of 25, as much as 98 per cent of our creativity has vanished.” Thankfully, there is hope for the miserable majority of us battling on with our feeble two per cent.

“The look and feel of the grass is said to remind guests of their childhood and therefore free them of societal barriers that restrict creativity. Everybody should kick off their shoes once in a while and walk barefoot on the grass to rekindle the creativity that was allowed to flow freely in childhood before too many rules got in the way.”

I agree that there is something quite liberating about a good barefoot walk around on the grass. I would, however, hope that delegates have been warned in advance in order to fix any odd sock/emergency pedicure issues before having to de-shoe in front of their colleagues.

You could argue that you can get a much cheaper day delegate rate, including free grass, by holding your meeting in a public park – though the facilities to plug in your projector are somewhat limited and the possibility of scoring a sunny day during ‘British Summer Time’ are exceptionally slim.

Southwark Council for instance, has been taking the public sector cuts to heart by debating whether to hold meetings in pubs or at picnics in parks to engage voters and boost ‘local democracy’. But I would hazard a guess that the combination of Southwark parks and naked feet does not make a happy pair.

Perhaps we should just keep the shoes on and take meetings down the pub to get creativity flowing? I've always found there's nothing like a few drinks to oil the cogs, and it would certainly help delegates overcome those societal barriers. Chuck in a few packets of peanuts to boost brain power and let the good ideas roll in. I think we'd all drink to that!

I wouldn’t normally stand up in defence of the Labour Party's spending activities but community secretary Eric Pickles’ recent attack on the party’s ‘culture of excess’ seems to be more of a point-scoring exercise than fair criticism.

His Department of Communities and Local Government has disclosed all spending on goods and services above £500 for 2009-10, which amounted to £314m. This transparency is clearly (no pun intended) a good thing, but it is the items Pickles has picked out to demonise that I take issue with.

These include: £17,000 on an event at a four-star hotel opposite Buckingham Palace; £3,450 on a session with Improwise to improve the mental faculties of employees; £1,000 to Illumine, a company which helps workers improve their practical skills; £1,600 on de-stressing massages for staff; £539 on an away day to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and £626 on a trip to a nature reserve in Nottingham.

Pickles fumed: “Labour ministers in charge of doubling council tax went on a spending spree with other people’s money; racking up massive debts on the nation’s credit card."

In the big scheme of things these are trifling amounts and in all likelihood delivered a decent return on investment, with happier, less stressed and more focused staff. What’s next: make civil servants’ buy their own loo roll? Charge them for biros? The picture Mr Pickles paints of public sector employees luxuriating in spas and visiting funfairs all day is a long way from the truth.

As one Guardian website user says: “In the three years I worked in the public sector I never so much as received a free cup of tea or coffee, let alone had a paid-for Christmas party. In the six years I worked in the private sector I had a three-day holiday in Malta, got tickets for Wembley and went out many times on the company credit card. All this money came from shareholders who accepted the argument that a happy workforce is more productive.”

Another added: “Team building exercises, despite sounding fun, are just another day at work talking about boring work stuff - and I know the private sector splash out a damn sight more than the paltry sums being bandied about here.”

Mr Pickles should think twice before taking a cheap shot at an industry which contributes massively to the UK economy.

The economic news in the UK is mixed but continues to be gloomy. The experience of those working in the events industry appears to be even more mixed, with some agencies very busy, some venues seeing bookings slashed and almost all worried about the effects of the UK coalition government decision to make swingeing cuts to public sector budgets.

Perhaps there has never been a more urgent time to produce a serious audit of the value of the meetings market to the UK economy. It has long been argued by Meetings & Incentive Travel magazine that until the events industry can put a well-researched price on its value to UK plc, it will struggle to be taken seriously by those that don’t understand its role and importance.

Interestingly, Rolls-Royce has just become one of the first companies to produce an audit of how its activities add value to the UK economy. The analysis carried out by the Oxford Economics consultancy put output from the activities of the aero-engine company last year at 0.56 per cent of UK GDP or £7.8bn. This is a huge figure, particularly given its workforce accounts for only one in 3,000 of the UK population.

But one of the key points of the audit is that only about a fifth of its impact is directly attributable to its workforce. Much of the rest comes from ‘mulitiplier’ effects ranging from employees leaving to set up their own businesses to suppliers working with the group learning about new processing techniques.

Just imagine what the ‘multiplier’ effects are likely to be for the events industry if one includes the venues and their staff, the catering and their suppliers, the agencies, the production companies, the AV, the transportation and then adds the value of the effects of each event. Imagine including the return on investment of every meeting, product launch, incentive programme. It makes me dizzy just to think about it.

A proper economic impact study would also help those corporates who currently understand how vital meetings and events are to their businesses but are terrified unless word gets out to the press and subsequently to a public that doesn’t understand the return on investment.

How mad is that? Serious companies vilified in the media for sound business practices.

Now for the good news. It seems we are about to have some serious research to help make the event industry’s case. M&IT has joined forces with Meeting Professionals International (MPI), InterContinental Hotels and VisitBritain to form a steering group to undertake the UK event industry’s first ever economic impact study employing the model devised by MPI with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (see news section). It is expected to be complete next year and then, finally, we will be in a position to talk about the wealth we create.

Can’t wait!

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the great fortune to speak to some very enthusiastic Danish meeting planners.

Both corporate and agency planners are flying the flag for Denmark’s very own meetings concept, known as Meetovation. For the past few years M&IT has been exploring different facets of effective learning in our regular series Anatomy of a Meeting.

With little independent research undertaken in the UK on the effectiveness of meetings, M&IT has had to look to Europe and, in particular Denmark, for inspiration. The Danes know very well that you can provide the perfect learning environment which has to satisfy five key criteria - participation, flexibility, responsibility, evaluation and relocation – but you cannot vouch for the success of your event unless you can measure it.

The Danish concept appears to be gaining ground with one major corporate choosing Meetovation as their global standard for meeting planning (read more in the September edition of M&IT). Both agency and corporate planners had genuine passion for the concept, citing a never-seen-before flexibility from venues and even the elevation of the status of professional meeting planner, now considered by their organisation as being on the frontline of customer communications.

It has to be said that this concept has been made possible with something UK planners can only dream of - funding from the Danish government which has helped fund a solid academic research project into successful learning meetings. But the reaction from western European delegates – and UK delegates in particular – has been overwhelmingly positive with most hankering for a change from what the Danes call ‘boring meetings’.

Even without the backing of government investment it makes good business sense to take a leaf out of the Danes’ book and take a fresh approach, ensuring that your delegates are actively participating in their own learning. The Danish meeting planners I spoke to say they have reaped the benefits of structuring events around the objectives and being mindful to the different learning styles of delegates.

Danish planners no longer have to cross their fingers and hope their delegates have learned, venues can offer creative solutions as well as rooms full of seats and the delegates leave their conference refreshed. In Denmark, improving the delegate experience has resulted in a win-win for everyone.

Two stories leaped from the pages at me this week: first the decision by The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to sell off its hotel interests in an attempt to return to profitability after two years of record losses.

It has put six Hilton hotels on the market for a total asking price of £200m and is also believed to be close to finalising the sale of the 494-bedroom Grosvenor House hotel in Park Lane, a JW Marriott hotel, for more than £500m. RBS has also recently sold the 1,019-bedroom Cumberland hotel in London, which is managed by Guoman Hotels, for around £215m. What? At the bottom of the market? Why? What are they up to?

But then I read the claim that boutique 'designer' hotels are more profitable than big, ugly hotels. Who says so? Ah, well, it was Lukas Hochedlinger, a Vienna-based associate with Christie & Co (why is it that central European names carry so much more gravitas than, say, Albert Snodgrass? But I digress…)

Herr Hochedlinger said 70 per cent of the properties outperformed their non-design competitors in terms of occupancy and 81 per cent were able to charge higher average room rates. At the same time, 62 per cent of design hotels boast similar or lower operating and maintenance costs, compared with their non-design counterparts.

So why, pray tell, does the industry keep on building big, ugly hotels if they are less profitable? I assumed that economies of scale are what deliver bottom-line benefits, but not according to Herr Hochedlinger.

"It appears that design hotels are able to achieve a better bottom-line performance than non-design hotels," said Hochedlinger, who performed the survey as part of a master’s thesis at Danube University in Austria.

So do we assume that this is the answer to the RBS sale? (Not that I am suggesting that Hiltons are ugly, you understand.) Has RBS read the Hochedlinger thesis and pressed the panic button? Or is there something more sinister afoot?

Bankers may be duplicitous, devious, greedy and insensitive - but they are not stupid.

It’s a worry.

They may well be good at gauging the market, but when it comes to gauging the current depth of public opinion it appears bankers don’t have much of a clue. Indeed, if Square Mile magazine’s ‘festival for bankers’ this week, with its champagne, burlesque dancers, casino and lingerie models was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek swipe at all the clichés of the mad, bad days of banking of yore, then it fell flat for a lot of people looking at it from the outside.

For months events agencies have been talking about how financial institutions are beginning to engage in live events again, albeit in a softly-softly, quiet and inconspicuous way, putting all the stomach-churning excesses of the past behind them. Ever-so-importantly, events now were to focus on business – meeting the right people to meet objectives. This of course, seems prudent after a recession which left economies teetering on the brink, caused widespread job losses and has led to restrictive public spending for the foreseeable future to dig the country out of debt.

Societies like ours rely on a thriving financial sector, but when the big banks posted profits of nearly £15bn this week, was there really cause for celebration? I’m no party pooper and having a close family member working in investment banking (unfortunately not close enough to reap any financial benefits), I know the hours are long and the work stressful. Joe Public, however, may well argue that holds true for nurses too, or soldiers, those who don’t expect a six-figure bonus and yet, despite the bank bounce back, still can’t seem to borrow any money or get a decent interest rate on their relatively meagre savings.

Square Mile’s editor Martin Deeson (and as someone who works in the media, someone who should be a bit more savvy about the vagaries of public opinion), said: “The City has been a public hate figure so it’s nice to give something back. While everyone else is busy bashing bankers we’re throwing a big bash for them.”

Fair enough Martin, celebrate by all means. But if any part of your objective was to go beyond a great party and challenge the public perception of bankers as over-paid ‘hate figures’, filling them with champagne and inviting them to have their photos taken with lingerie models isn’t quite the way to do it. That doesn’t make them look like heroic hard workers – it makes them look like dirty letches.

With perception more important than ever, this event – however fun it was to organise and attend - is not going to help public opinion of bankers. An Evening Standard report on the event saw one finance worker add: “Tonight’s fantastic. The City’s definitely getting back to normal again after the recession.” Another commodities trader, however, cautioned: “It’s much busier now, we’re back to our old ways like in the boom years with bonuses, going out, champagne. The public would be very against this because it encourages the same actions that created the mistakes in the first place (but) it will absolutely happen again.”

Hmmm. What reassuring message am I meant to get from that? Enjoy your bonuses and your parties City boys – just remember you’re not the only ones who suffer the hangovers.

Far out in the Masai Mara, amid the roars of lions and the snuffling of warthogs, a new and strange beeping and whirring joined the animal chorus – that of my BlackBerry merrily receiving emails at its regular rate of knots. My surprise at having access to my office life was outdone only by the sight of a Masai woman pushing aside her brightly beaded necklace to fish inside the folds of her dress and pull out her mobile ringing inside. If any evidence of the linked-up, always-on society we have now become was necessary, this was it.

At the recent combined ICCA/MIA/ABPCO/AIPCO event, presenter Gustaf Peterson of Congrex UK asked how many of the events industry professionals present had smartphones. About three-quarters raised their hands (those not busily checking emails, texting or tweeting on them already, that is).

Peterson then related the case study of the EAACI (European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology) event held at ExCeL London. Despite only being launched six days prior to the event, the conference's smartphone application attracted 475 new users out of 8,000 participants: admittedly only 5 per cent, but well up on the organiser’s goal of 250 people.

This group used their BlackBerry, iPhone or android technology to link up to interactive maps, event times and details, reminders, instant messaging, social networks and hotel and travel information, as well as communicating with other delegates and exhibitors for an average of 10.8 minutes each – a total of 50,000 minutes of ‘unscheduled’ engagement.

“It was a real success,” Peterson added. Not only that, it was environmentally friendly, cutting down on paper waste; it allowed updates or changes to be sent immediately and allowed feedback instantly on trends and surveys. Moreover, you could even sell sponsors banner time.

Of course you need free Wi-Fi across the venue (increasingly the norm in large conference venues) plus an application compatible across all platforms (not always so easy) to allow the engagement to flow. Future developments could include accessing presentations online and online voting via smartphone – "Actually, the possibilities are endless, if you are willing to pay for it. Mobile is everything,” Peterson concluded.

Exciting stuff indeed. But will these developments make all the voting tablet, interactivity software and delegate-spotting equipment currently on the market obsolete, I asked? No, Peterson ventured. Those without smartphones or the non-techie types would still need to be able to interact – at least for the foreseeable future.

Most event organisers I meet find their smartphone indispensible. We are not an industry of workers who sit at the same desk, or even in the same country, for the majority of our working week. I would hazard that we are only going to come to rely on them more and more.

Which makes news that the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia plan to ban BlackBerry use all the more baffling. Agreed, BlackBerry’s proprietary software encrypts wireless transmissions which the Gulf states can’t break, leading to the potential for misuse of the service “with serious social, judicial and national security repercussions” as is feared. But to ban them outright would no doubt leave a sour taste in the mouths of many 'CrackBerry' addicts who rely on the handsets for business on the go.

Clearly there are a few bridges to cross - but in our industry, I would suggest those not moving towards mobile technology are going nowhere.

Imagine my delight when I opened my email inbox this morning to discover I had been ‘officially approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria for a part-payment of $10 million’!

All I had to do to receive payment was respond with my name, country, phone number, address and occupation – amazing! I hit the ‘reply’ button quicker than you can say ‘Nigerian scam’… no, of course I didn’t.

It was impeccable timing, really, given the current activities of one 'Kennedy John' (let's assume that's not his real name) as he tries to secure credit card payments for conferences that will never see the light of day. Correspondence from M&IT readers has confirmed this activity is all too common - and not just for seeking money, but for invitation letters to get visas, too.

I really hate scam emails, not because they are trying to extort my hard earned money, but because the senders think we could be stupid enough to actually fall for them. Honestly, it’s insulting.

On the other hand, there must be some poor naive innocents who do take the bait or I’m sure the scammers would by now have stopped wasting their time and energy.

I’m pleased to say that those of us in the event industry seem to be far more streetwise. Last week we reported how ‘Kennedy John’ had contacted In2Global with a request for proposal,for the first ‘International Geological Conference’ to be held in the UK. When he asked the agency to deduct £13,000 from a credit card and send £8,000 to an external ‘logistics agent’, In2Global smelt a rat.

The same Kennedy John (he’s a very busy man) then contacted Outlook requesting a quote for the same event, but they also thought the enquiry was dubious. A check of his email address showed it was linked to a lottery scam. http://www.meetpie.com/Modules/NewsModule/newsdetails.aspx?newsid=13392

This could easily have gone the other way and left both firms out of pocket but luckily they were wise enough to trust their instincts. The old adage definitely rings true – if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

After last week’s report which showed 40 per cent of managers return from their holidays more stressed than before they went, a study that gives us some insight into the world of work in the UK helps cast some more light on to this bleak scenario.

According to a study for the Good Work Commission, employees are feeling the strain as work becomes more intense and people’s control over how they do their jobs has collapsed. The study also found that while companies complain of skill shortages, staff report that their talents are being under-used.

There can be no doubt that the recession has increased fears of job losses while the Coalition Government’s huge public sector spending cuts have caused further feelings of insecurity. But perhaps surprisingly, the study didn’t identify any long-term increase in casual or temporary jobs. Most jobs, including new ones, are traditional, full-time roles and most of us stay with one employer for about eight years – a period which has remained relatively stable.

Those working in the events industry might like to know that while UK working hours are long by European standards, the number of staff working more than 45 hours a week has fallen.

According to Stephen Overell, associate director of the Work Foundation, “The problems were within firms – how firms use their staff – and not to do with economic change making proper jobs redundant.”

Surely there must be opportunities for our industry here?

The study shows that work intensity increased between the 1980s and late 1990s – no surprises there to anyone old enough to have worked through those decades. In 1992 the proportion of employees who said they worried about their jobs after work was 13 per cent; by 2001 this had risen to 18 per cent. And this is a European trend so is not limited to the UK’s economic model.

The fact that autonomy, or people’s perception of their scope to exercise discretion over how to do a job, declined by 14 per cent between 1992 and 2006 seems to me to be crucial to contributing to feelings of stress at work.

But whether it is advancing technology, competitive pressures or a collapse of autonomy, or a mixture of all of these and more, the picture is one of a poor quality working life for many Brits.

The good news is that this survey was a study for the Good Work Commission, made up of top corporate executives from the likes of Barclays, Easyjet and ITV, who are due to make recommendations this autumn on how to make work more rewarding for business, society and individuals.

The bad news is that by the autumn, we may all just be thankful for the jobs we’ve managed to keep however stressful we find them. The latest British Retail Consortium index of consumer confidence (carried out online every quarter among 27,000 consumers in 55 markets) fell for the first time since April 2009. The research was carried out in May, although the results have only just been announced. The survey found that for the great majority of UK consumers, the economy still feels as though it is contracting. Only 17 per cent of those who believe the UK to be in recession think the country will return to growth in the next 12 months – a sharp fall since the last survey in March when nearly a third thought growth would return within a year.

Most UK consumers never felt or believed in a recovery and that pessimism appears to be on the rise. When asked what they would buy with spare cash, 22 per cent of UK respondents answered: “I have no spare cash.”

It seems our workforce has never been in greater need of reward and recognition, but at a time like this, will any budget holders be persuaded to make it a priority?

Two years from now, the Olympic flame will be lit in London’s Olympic Stadium, heralding the arrival of the world’s greatest athletes – and a £2bn-plus legacy for the UK, should all go according to plan.

Looking at the east London skyline, anyone familiar with the usual inertia of large-scale construction projects should be suitably astounded by how quickly, and how far ahead of time, the main venues have shot up. ‘Austerity Olympics’ it may be, but key venues look to be delivered on time, with latest reports adamant the £9.3bn budget will not be breached.

Transport remains the stickiest issue to date, with Londoners already shuddering at the potential for gridlock on the roads and overcrowded tube and rail lines should Network Rail, Transport for London, local boroughs, police and other key players fail to pull together for the city’s benefit. The Olympic Delivery Authority’s transport plan, with its controversial Olympic route network lanes for competitors, officials and the media, is set to be unveiled this week, no doubt causing more local consternation.

For all those Londoners mumbling murderously about quitting the capital come summer 2012, more than 1.4 million people have registered for tickets at www.tickets.london2012.com (including me, on day one). Hopefully, plans to fill the seats of tardy corporate ticket holders with ‘Ground ticket’ holders 45 minutes after the start of play will mean those who really want to be there will get a look in.

With the infrastructure in place, work on bolstering the event’s legacy is underway. The Fair Pricing Charter should help to keep the lid on spiralling prices for visitors, but with London hotel's already hitting pre-recession room rates, according to the latest news, the capital will struggle, as always, with its ‘expensive’ title. The onus is on the capital’s hoteliers, restaurateurs and other suppliers to deliver value (as it always should be) to retain any post-Olympic glow.

Perhaps more insidious and as equally hard to tackle, is warmth of welcome. The more vociferous ‘waste of taxpayer money’ moaners will have to eventually accept that the Games will go ahead, regardless of whether they’re happy about it or not. One can only hope lost tourists don’t stumble upon these sorts, however, when trying to negotiate London’s public transport system or dawdling down Oxford Street.

Summing up London as an event destination in 2012, will the venues be nice? It’s looking positive. Accommodation? They’re working on it. The capital’s room count is set to be 123,000 by 2012; that’s 23,000 new rooms on top of the current portfolio. How’s the access? Internationally, pretty sound; within the city, could be a little fraught. Value for money? It remains to be seen. London 2012 is not likely to be cheap – this is where the value part really needs to come to the fore. After hours options? London is excellent on this count, it's offer ranging from free parks and galleries to chichi shops and clubs. Weather? Ha – notoriously unreliable. Good service and warm and helpful locals? Hmm, could do with some work. Let’s hope the call for volunteers for the Games unearths some real enthusiasts. For those less enamoured of the whole idea, for £2bn of post-Games glow, it’s worth grinning and bearing it.

A large minority of managers return to work more stressed after taking a holiday than they were before they left. A survey of 2,500 managers found that two out of five report being more stressed when they get back to the office following a holiday and that one in three worked while they were on leave – usually responding to emails or answering work-related phone calls.

It seems we really are the Crackberry generation.

Penny de Valk, chief executive of The Institute of Leadership & Management, responsible for the survey, said: “Gone are the days when people cut off contact with work for a fortnight over the summer and made a complete break. While technology means that it is easier than ever to work remotely, it also makes it extremely hard to switch off.

“Uncertain economic times also mean that many UK employers are keeping one eye on their job at all times, when what they really need is time away from the office to rest and re-energise.”

I imagine it is the anticipation of an extremely heavy workload on returning to work that causes the anxiety - rather than having to get to know your partner and children again for the first time since last year. We also know that those involved in the events industry tend to work particularly long hours. Studies indicate that across all industries around 40 per cent of managers work more than 50 hours a week with 10 per cent working more than 60 hours. I’d guess these figures are higher in our industry – certainly during the peak conference months.

Of the third of respondents to the survey who work on holiday, 80 per cent ‘frequently’ respond to emails, nearly 50 per cent take phone calls and 10 per cent go in to the office.

Now although this report has driven the Daily Mail into a frenzy, if it is anxiety regarding the high workload awaiting your return that makes your holiday stressful, it could be a very rational response to deal with some of that while you’re away. And we all know that the technology that keeps us permanently connected to the office also allows many of us the freedom to attend a first day at school, sports day or long lunch with a friend knowing you can be contacted if necessary.

I feel sorry for those managers returning from their holidays more stressed – clearly that can’t be right. And in such high numbers, it does indicate what most of us already know – we all work too hard. I suspect that much of the stress that comes from work is as a result of fear - fear of redundancy, fear of being overlooked, fear of being found wanting in some crucial way. And I think this tends to decrease with the more control one has over one’s working hours and day.

Anyone working in the events industry who doesn’t love the business most of the time, would be well-advised to look elsewhere – it is rarely going to be 9-5.

That said, any role that cannot be completed in a normal working week and allow for holidays – including an annual fortnight’s holiday – most of the time, is unreasonable. And although we have been living through horrible economic times that have created a lot of very real fears about people’s jobs, there is something fundamentally anxiety-inducing about our society. A society that relys on aspiration, competition and materialism to keep the economic wheels turning and measures success against these benchmarks, can only be an anxious one.

And although many organisers are reporting an upsurge in events at the moment, concern over public sector cuts hangs over us all.

There’s no doubt, life is very tough out there. But, I would argue, there are those of us who love our jobs. We might work very long hours, we might find taking two weeks away from the office difficult, but much of that is of our own choosing. We are lucky enough to have the independence and freedom to choose to work in a dynamic, exciting industry that just happens to involve long hours and few holidays but plenty of fun – most of the time.

And long may that continue.

You have to feel for In2Global – up it pops in the inbox: a nice international event, £70,000 budget, four days in the UK, three parallel meeting sessions – it all sounded so promising at first. Questions were asked about number of delegates (90), number of posters (seven), relevant exhibition space (yes, probably five stands) but as the questioning went on, the answers, at first credible, became increasingly vague. And then, the kicker: “I have decided that only YOU will have to handle the credit card information. So, once you receive credit card informations (sic) you will be authorised to charge the total amount of £13,000 + bank charges then deduct your deposit £5,000 and send the balance of £8,000 to the logistics agent whose information will be forwarded to you once this is confirmed.”

Ah, in that case, no, thanks. In2Global asked the police for their advice and were told to steer clear of what looked like a fraudster in operation. (For the details, read news story ‘Agency warns of 'fraudulent' RFPs’.)

Just what our industry needs. It’s bad enough that our spam filters are clogged with long-lost Nigerian relatives ready to bequeath us ungodly sums of money should we stump up our bank account details.

The sheer volume of requests for proposals (RFPs)that seem to be sloshing around computer systems at present means agencies' time is already stretched. A procurement team will insist 10 pitches are needed instead of four – cue additional preparation work for already over-stretched staff. In a bid to find the best deal, venues are flooded with RFPs ‘fishing’ for details. Which ones are legitimate prospects? Which ones should get priority? Is it real business or are they just testing the waters?

And now this latest development, from fishing to the downright fishy. Admittedly, having seen the initial email, someone who spells ‘confrence’ wrong throughout their proposal would have me on guard straight away – but there are plenty of international association organisers who don’t have English as a first language and do have legitimate business (and, let’s be honest, there are plenty of born-and-bred Britons who can’t spell either).

Thankfully In2Global didn’t swallow it hook, line and sinker and escaped before any dodgy dealings could begin. Their only loss? Time – something most agencies have precious little of as it is.

It’s not surprising that the main concern voiced by In2Global’s Leisa Coates is that industry colleagues avoid the “time wasting” element of this kind of cynical ploy. "There are enough time wasters in this industry already," she points out. 'Frequent fishers' beware: it would be best not to be tagged as one of them.