You say jump, we say: how high? - by Ryan Johnson

They say that in order to succeed, any endeavour must adhere to the "5 P’s": planning and preparation prevent poor performance. In my house, this included an additional, colloquial, "P", and was often accompanied by "fail to prepare, prepare to fail" (my family is fond of appropriating slogans).

These have stuck with me throughout the years, and have never served me better than during the last month.

As regular readers will be aware, I have parachuted into the Conference Sales Office to assist during the busy conference season. As part of my development period, I decided it would be beneficial to work a conference from the enquiry stage right through to the completion of the event.

Courtesy of Youth Sport Trust

The victim of my undivided attention was to be the Youth Sports Trusts’ “Lead Your Generation” event. The Youth Sports Trust is a charity devoted to changing young people’s lives through sport, and the event is their personal London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic legacy commitment. The University of Leeds is no stranger to the 2012 Olympics, having hosted the Chinese Olympians and the Canadian Wheelchair Rugby Team in their pre-games training camps.

This, however, was a different challenge: 200 young people participating in a range of activities, from Boccia (no, me neither until I read this) to an inspirational speech by Jonathan Edwards, Olympic Gold medallist, current World Record holder and former Sports Personality of the year.

Meet in Leeds was able to meet the challenge as we have a wide range of venues on campus. The facilities at the School of Music and the Exhibition Centre were absolutely perfect for the clients’ needs, yet also within walking distance from each other. This ensured the event ran smoothly, according to schedule and without any of our young delegates straying.

I also saw first-hand the fruition of the hard work that is done by our catering team, for whom no individual dietary requirement is a chore and no delegate unimportant, regardless of age or how many records they hold.

Courtesy of Youth Sport Trust

I now appreciate the vital role of the Event Manager, from ensuring Wi-Fi access is available (of paramount importance to any self-respecting 15 year old with tweeting to be done) to securing easy access parking for VIP’s (did I mention Jonathan Edwards was in attendance?). I think that, in familial tradition, I would coin the slogan "The best event managers are rarely seen, yet always available."

Our future sports themed challenge now is preparing for the July 2014 Yorkshire Grand Depart, hotels for which can be booked via our website now!

Find out more about events for under 18’s and what venues Meet in Leeds can offer you by contacting our super sales team .

First Agency Fam Trip Goes Down a Storm - by Natalie Ruecroft

November 26^th saw Richard and I host Leeds University’s first ever agency fam trip. The purpose of this trip was for us to show off everything that the University has to offer when it comes to conference and events.

Outside Leeds Town Hall

Five agents joined us on our weekend of wine tasting, sight seeing and fine dining. Needless to say, the guests were extremely impressed with our facilities and even more impressed with our prices!

As hard as I tried to make a good impression it was Storm Jameson Court that stole the show.  I think our guests found it hard to believe that such high standard of accommodation was:

a) Student accommodation and 

b) Available to conference delegates at such a competitive price. 

With its 24hr reception, stylish rooms and larger beds, I think we can safely say that Storm Jameson Court will be an important part of our future!

A big thank you to all that helped put the trip together, it was a huge success and we will now hopefully see the enquiries start rolling in! 

I’ve seen the future! - by Richard Handscombe

You’ll be glad to know it’s not orange.

But Leeds is on the move!  Those who know about our conference facilities here at Leeds will be well aware that we are on the brink of a step change, with the impending completion of a new residence, Storm Jameson Court. 

What’s so special about this building?  Well, this contemporary hotel-style facility  has been designed throughout to appeal strongly to the conference market, as well as our student customers.  We will be blogging some more about Storm Jameson Court towards the opening, but yesterday I took a trip around it for the first time in a couple of weeks and my goodness, it looks great even without furniture!

The development is just days from being handed over to us so that we can complete the fitting out with furniture and soft furnishings.  The builders are currently busy cleaning and taking care of all the little finishing touches to the décor, as well as landscaping the grounds, and although there is a little way to go, it is looking stunning!  It’s remarkable how much it looks like the computer-design fly-through we commissioned all those months ago – viewable above or at: www.meetinleeds.com/stormjamesoncourt.  The change from building site to building has been remarkable in the last few weeks, and has all of us at meetinleeds confident that here we have a superb product, which combines with our other superb facilities to make Leeds and the University a must for organisers.

Watch this space for updates on the final stages of the project, towards its opening in September.