Discovering Devonshire as a Wedding Venue - by Ryan Johnson

Over the past few months we've been working hard on a new project that has added an extra dimension to the event facilities we can offer: weddings!  Whilst the University has hosted these special days in the past this is the first time that MEETinLEEDS will have hosted a wedding fayre.

Devonshire Hall offers brides and grooms a beautiful and unique location to create their fairy-tale wedding and will be the scene for our first Wedding Fayre this Sunday September 1st.

The event is free to enter and takes place between 11am and 4pm and we think it’s the perfect opportunity to see the venue in all its splendour, as well as offering the opportunity for couples to find inspiration as they meet a number of our hand-picked wedding suppliers.

A champagne reception will be the start of the experience where brides and grooms-to-be can view wedding cars in the courtyard, listen to the live band playing throughout the day and speak to the exhibitors including cake designers, florists, a photographer and wedding venue dresser as well as stands with wedding gowns and a photo booth.

Should you choose to book an exhibitor for your wedding day, for your convenience all of the suppliers are located in Yorkshire.

During the wedding fayre people can picture themselves on their special day as they ascend the winding stone staircase, stand by the open fireplace and take a stroll through the picture-perfect courtyard and lawns.

Couples can also see Devonshire Hall dressed for an evening reception as well as meet our wedding team who will be on hand to help you plan your special day.

I've been working with Natalie Ruecroft, Sales Executive in our very own office, on this project and she’s really looking forward to showcasing the picturesque location. She said: “Devonshire Hall really is a hidden gem in Leeds and the fayre will showcase exactly what can be achieved here for that special day – in fact a one-stop wedding shop”.

The wedding fayre will be held at Devonshire Hall, Cumberland Road, Leeds, LS6 2EQ on Sunday September 1 between 11am and 4pm.


For more details visit the website at www.meetinleeds.co.uk/weddings, visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/meetinleeds or follow on Twitter @meetinleeds and use the hashtag #wedinleeds.

The University of Leeds is taking bookings now for 2014 onwards for June to September and the Christmas period. University term-time dates are unavailable.

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 .

Leeds Taking the Lead - by Richard Handscombe

I was at school in Leeds and spent my very important formative teenage years living here during the 1960’s.  That’s so far back now, that it really does qualify as the “black and white days”.  I remember the city as a fairly grim place – blackened from the soot of industry, with journeys home from school through dense “pea-souper” fogs;  The high street food offer back then was limited to prawn cocktail, steak and chips and Black Forest gateau at Jacomelli’s, or the delights of the Wimpy Bar – oh yes, and there was one Chinese Restaurant!

But my, how things have changed…..
The big changes began around 17 years ago, with the completion of the Victoria Quarter retail development.  Quite quickly, Leeds became a mecca for trendy shoppers visiting the growing number of designer shops, and of course Harvey Nick’s.  Retail growth continued strongly and today Leeds leads the retail race in the north.  In the same year (1996) the Royal Armouries Museum, a spectacular extension of the Tower of London’s collections opened, bringing a truly remarkable tourist attraction into Leeds.

The city now has a vibrant, continental feel, with dozens of quality restaurants, and alfresco dining wherever you look – something that would have led to ridicule had you suggested it in the ‘60’s!  Nightlife is also superb, with top quality theatres, dining and clubs.

But recent times have seen a step-change in the city’s fortunes and ambitions, and the future is much more than just rosy….

The huge Trinity shopping mall opened its doors in March this year, boosting the already strong retail offer of this great city.  The spectacular 12,000-seat First Direct Arena, a long-overdue major entertainment venue for Leeds, opens in September, a development which is already catalysing hotel and restaurant developments around it.  The NGT (New Generation Transport) system is at an advanced stage of planning with construction beginning in the next couple of years, bringing space-age electric-powered buses running in exclusive bus lanes in several directions across the city.  In July 2014, the world’s biggest annual sporting event, the Tour de France starts right here in Leeds, with a potential 3 billion TV viewers enjoying the sights and sounds of Leeds and Yorkshire, apart from the excitement of the race itself!

The Leeds of today is almost unrecognisable from the town I grew up in – thank goodness.  Leeds is ambitious and confident, and it shows!  I’m not normally known for banging on about my old home town but looking around, I really am proud to be from Leeds, and to be promoting the benefits of Leeds as a venue for major conferences and events.

And if you’ve not been to Leeds, don’t take my word for it – come and see for yourself!

Top Conference Sales Team - by Richard Handscombe

Teamwork is defined as “the combined action of a group of people, especially when effective and efficient” (Oxford Dictionary).

In my earlier years in business I worked in several teams that would struggle hard to justify that definition.  In fact, I’d go so far as suggesting that effective and efficient are words that struggled to exist until at least the 1990's!  But today's world demands levels of effectiveness and efficiency far ahead of where we were in the last century.

Thankfully since then I have worked in, and led, some fantastic sales teams, none more so than my current sales and marketing team here at MEETinLEEDS, to whom I’d like to introduce you.

In the picture (l to r) are:

• Lisa (Woody) Wood, Conferences Sales Exec extraordinaire, dressed today in black but with an incredibly colourful personality that fills the office with fun.
• Matt (Dot Com) Hamnett, who speaks fluent cyberspeak and operates silently and black magically to bring us to prominence in the online world
• Natalie (Ginger) Ruecroft, Conference Sales Executive, whose natural flair for comedy keep us enthralled as she determinedly closes business.

Missing from the picture is our Sales Manager, Harriet (“H”) Boatwright, currently on maternity leave, and whose vast knowledge and skill we look forward to regaining toward the end of the year.

Finally, also missing from the picture is Ryan (Ry-Ry) Johnson, a practitioner of the Barnsley accent, and promoter of good coffee, who parachuted into our team to assist in Harriet’s absence.

The skills and personalities embodied in the above team come together in a really great way.  In sales, first impressions are everything and we're totally confident on this score.  So, when looking for your next venue, why not give us a call and experience the “Leeds Hug”?

Canadian Wheelchair Rugby Team visit for second training camp

The Canadian Wheelchair Rugby Team have just completed the second of their three pre-London 2012 training camps at the University of Leeds before travelling to London to take part in the Wheelchair Rugby Paralympic Test events held at the Olympic Park.

The team held their first training camp in August where they were able to get a feel for the facilities available to them and get used to the campus, in particular Storm Jameson Court – the hotel-style accommodation that has been made available to them.

Andy Van Neutegem, performance director for Canadian Wheelchair Rugby, has been particularly pleased with what he’s seen so far “Our preparation for the Paralympic Games and the Test Match could not be any better as a result of the services and support from the University of Leeds. Our accommodation was exceptional and the catering and food were superb! Above all, the catering and accommodation staff could not do enough to make Leeds our home away from home. Their attention to detail and level of service is beyond comparison!”

The Events, Sports, Catering and Accommodation teams are all looking forward to welcoming them back again later this year as they make their final preparations for the Paralympic Games in August.

Find out more about Storm Jameson Court.

Year of the Dragon - by Richard Handscombe

This year, the Year of the Dragon, is considered the luckiest Chinese year, which bodes well for the Chinese athletes who are training in Leeds ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.  Not that they seem to need much luck, as they topped the medal tables at the last Games in Beijing.

Seven years of work came good late last year when Leeds was finally announced as the training base for this “superteam”, but that’s when the really hard work begins!

Think about it – nearly 300 Chinese people, with us for almost a month, many of whom will never have visited the UK, or eaten European food, don’t speak English and are, well, Olympians!  These boys and girls are at the highest possible level of their sport.  This will be their last training camp before the Games, so stress levels will be high.  This is set to be an interesting year full of challenges for the events department, catering services and Sport.

Bev Kenny has accepted the considerable menu challenge, and as I write this is in the midst of organising some pretty exotic offerings which will be delivered by our own chefs aided by some of the Chinese team’s chefs.  Residences are gearing up to welcome around 10 disciplines to Storm Jameson Court, all of whom come and go on different dates during July.  Sport and Physical Activity (SPA) is planning to install specialised equipment for such sports as fencing, taekwondo and table tennis.  And these are just some of the issues to be covered.  

BBC cameras broadcast the show live to China.

At the beginning of February, the BBC broadcast a variety show from the Refectory, live to China in celebration of the Leeds training camp.  The show was presented by one of our own students, Marie Tulloch, speaking in fluent Mandarin Chinese.  This was incredibly impressive but did nothing to ease my own worries about my own challenge to learn basic Mandarin so that I can at least greet our guests, and maybe even answer simple questions.  The one thing I’ve learnt so far, after just two lessons, is that there is no such thing as a simple question in Chinese.  Just one small two-letter word can have six meanings depending on how it is pronounced, and many of these will probably be offensive!

So, this is going to be a great year to be in Leeds, with the University playing a valuable part in the Olympics – Bev can be happy in the knowledge that she has helped fuel every medal won by the Chinese.  Residences and SPA will know that they have played an important part in preparing the athletes for every gold, silver and bronze they take back to China.   And I’ll probably have insulted everyone in every possible way, as I stumble thorough the Mandarin minefield.  But it will be a year we will remember forever…  

Find out more about the event at the Refectory:

• Read an article in the Yorkshire Post
• View the video
• Take a look at some pictures

Marketing? It’s a piece of cake! - by Natasha Rahanu

As those of you who know me are aware, as well as promoting the sale of delicious food all around the University care of our delivered catering, I’m no stranger to the inside of a kitchen myself.

My forte is desserts, specifically cakes (past triumphs have included an elephant lemon cake and a 3D train cake complete with carriages stuffed full of gummy bear passengers).

So the other weekend when I went to my niece’s  (Imogen, or Immy for short) fourth birthday party and my sister asked me to make the cake I was only too happy to oblige. Little did I know at this point that the design of the cake was to be a scaled down version of the gym in which the party was taking place!

Anyway, following a day spent with Immy watching films and making things out of paper and glitter, at 5pm I started on the cake, finally finishing at 2am the morning of the party!

Cake or gym - which is which?!

It was all worth it when Immy saw the cake but to top it off, shortly after we arrived at the gym, the manager approached me and asked for my permission to put a photo of the cake on their website as part of their promotional campaign for parties.

Oh okay... one square apple pie coming up!