Feeling Croqued by Richard Handscombe

Until last night, I never thought you could make a ham and cheese toastie and sell it for eight pounds. Had I realised that when I was, say, 22, it could have changed my life. I could've been "the toastie millionaire", famous for that one thing.   I'd probably get a knighthood.

The hotel I was at has definitely realised the attraction of a toastie. They've also realised that in order to jack up the price they need to call it something French. So it's a Croque Monsieur.

And it's eight quid.

If you had one for lunch every day, it would cost £2,555.00. That would be £155,855.00 I'd have spent on them in my lifetime. Mind you, I'm not sure what effect eating all that cheese, ham and toast would have had on my health, let alone my bank account. I 've a hunch it would make me fat. And it had too much bread anyway according to my wife.

I had burger and chips and it was stunning. So was the hotel by the way. That's what you get when you sell toasties at eight quid - a great big stylish fabulous hotel. All from selling toasties.

I took the wrong course in life.

How Busy Was I last Week? By Natalie Ruecroft, Sales Exec

Monday was a typical Monday so busy- busy right up until 5pm! Then on Tuesday morning, Richard, Harriet and I headed down to London for the Academic Venues Show, organised by Venuemasters. Richard and Harriet are old pro’s so they knew exactly what to expect but this was the first time I’d been to the show (or worked at any exhibition!) so I was a wee bit nervous!

After a 4 hour drive which mainly consisted of me sleeping in the back and listening to Richard’s sat-nav make weird speed camera warning noises every 2 minutes, we arrived at the Emirates Stadium and set up the stand for the following day. Tuesday evening was spent at Brown’s - where I enjoyed the Salmon in soy sauce – before heading back to the hotel for a cup of tea and a bit of Road Wars on the telly!

On Wednesday the show itself was great – really busy, producing loads of conference leads to chase which should keep me busy for the next couple of weeks!

Thursday was mainly a catch up day from being out of the office and therefore was super-busy again!

On Friday I headed across to Manchester for a sales training course. I arrived in Manchester at about 8am, and after about 35mins of wandering around looking lost (despite being given a hand drawn map from Richard on Thursday evening), I found the hotel at which course was being held (not quite as easy as Richard and Matt made out, but I found it in the end!). It was a really good, fun course and I took away some very helpful sales tips from it.

I arrived back in Leeds about 3.30pm on Friday and after a quite a hectic but productive week I was ready to head home to settle down with a cup of tea, bakewell tart and Eastenders!!

First Sight of Second Site - by Matt Hamnett

When our new MEETinLEEDS brand launched 8 months ago we quickly ‘re-skinned’ our website to suit the new look: the way that the website worked, and the information that was on it, stayed the same.

Since then we’ve added a number of new features that we hope have helped our visitors learn more about the University’s facilities (maps, image galleries and even twitter updates!) but we always knew that we had to create a brand new website.  We wanted to create a site that would reach out to all of our customers.

So began the research process and gradually we began to see how many different groups of people our website had to appeal to; conference delegates, event organisers, training managers, people looking for city centre accommodation, large associations and University staff are just SOME of the many visitors that use our website.  We ended up with a surprisingly large list.

Yesterday I got to see the designs for our new website for the first time and was blown away by the stunning impact that it has with its large images and brighter colours.  What I enjoyed seeing the most though was how easy it would be for someone to find what they were looking for!

It's "NO!" to Gnocchi! By Paul Ellingham, Conference & Events Coordinator

My girlfriend and I occasionally try to cook something we've never made before, ideally using ingredients we've never used before. This has led to some triumphs. This Saturday was not a triumph!

Neither of us really like gnocchi, so I don't know why we decided to make this. It was flavourless and wierdly textured. I think, next time, I'm going to ask our head chef for some advice in advance.

On the plus side, the mint and cream sauce was lovely. Also the Eton Mess (a recipe I did steal from our chef) was excellent.

I'm a bit hungry now, but the wine is helping and there's cheese and biscuits in the fridge...

Service - the recession-beater - By Richard Handscombe

If asked, I’d guess that most meetings professionals would say that the most important element to concentrate on in a recession, is customer service, and if they don’t consider it important , that they need to reassess their priorities! In a shrunken market, with every business wanting to be a conference venue, and all increasingly vigorously seeking to get hold of our customer, we need to ensure that the experience we give to him/her is top notch all round.


Sad to say I’m old enough to remember the days when cordials on the meeting table were considered exotic, mints outrageously luxurious, and the venue coordinator said “hello” in the morning and “bye” in the evening (if they were still there). Happily, we’ve come a long way in the UK in the last few decades. The meetings industry has responded to the increasing demands of a more sophisticated and well-travelled clientele. The need for better service is well recognised, and training has become ingrained in modern business culture and more available than ever before. Better service is evident throughout our industry, not least in my own university sector, which was slow to get going but which I’m glad to say is now up there with the very best.


But it’s not enough just to put fruit on the meeting table and check if the organiser is OK a couple of times during the day. We need to concentrate on every single aspect of a client’s experience with us, and seek to improve. We need to look at the competition, and find ways of differentiating our service from theirs (in a good way!), and we need to constantly monitor how our clients see us, so that we can quickly see where change is needed, and then make the changes. Hanging on to our customers, and gaining a reputation for better value, and high levels of service than our competitors has never been more important.
At a large four star hotel recently, when I asked for a drink in the bar, I was told by a scruffy youth with a dirty collar, “be with you in a minute mate” as he continued to thumb a text into his mobile phone. I’m sooooo glad he works for them and not us!