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Commercial meeting spaces are no longer the exclusive domain of large convention centers and hotels, as has been the case in previous years. Increasingly commercial meetings and events are taking place in unique venues, such as museums, galleries and libraries.
It's clear that this trend is happening due to a substantial rise in demand on the part of the meeting planner or event organizer who is becoming more adventurous and looking for something unique; something that will give their event an edge and make it memorable. In addition, by using a unique venue as a backdrop, organizers save time and money by reducing the need for expensive dressing, and can leverage the reputation of an established brand to market their event.
The people who plan meetings at unique venues do so because they are just that - they are unique. This could be because of their structure, history or location, but whatever the uniqueness, these venues are becoming increasingly popular with the corporate meeting sector. Of course it could be that the event itself, for example a small arts-based conference, is well suited to the museum or library environment. Meetings of this nature can be combined with, for example, an exhibition, a reading or a recital - giving meeting goers a very different overall experience.
The venues themselves are also driving this growing trend. Reduced government funding has encouraged many to widen their revenue-generation activities, and corporate meetings provide lucrative and unprecedented opportunities. "Venues are becoming more astute at promoting their uniqueness as a unique selling point," says Charlotte Reeves, Director of Corporate Relations at Somerset House and Chairman of Unique Venues of London.
This move towards hosting commercial events is a relatively new concept for many unique venues, and means that their technology requirements have changed. For example, a core library system would historically be organized around the library itself. But as unique venues now start to compete in the broader market, they require dedicated systems that can efficiently manage their expanding operations.
To help unique venues such as libraries stage corporate meetings and events, NFS offer an integrated solution for venue and events management. Rendezvous is a powerful, browser-based solution with a strong self-service module and Outlook integration, fully integrated into a single package. The solution includes a CRM module that captures all client and booking information, which can be used to generate new business and also market the various events taking place at a unique venue to existing customers.
Rendezvous also includes Event Booking, of both the venue space and the catering required; Billing and Accounting, allowing for fast creation of contracts, deposits and final bills; Management of Customer Inquiries; and Diary Management, so that users can easily view availability and maximize space utilization and revenue potential.
Rendezvous enables unique venues, such as libraries, museums and galleries, to manage all these essential elements of events management, in one single solution.
A global company, NFS has many venue clients in the US, including Oasis Events, an exclusive venue management company and caterer for three of Indianapolis’ most prominent special event venues: The Terrace at Market Tower, the Murat Shrine Temple and One Indiana Square. Patti Stowers, Owner of the company, says Rendezvous is used at two locations primarily to schedule all corporate catering orders from the Oasis Café or the Terrace Restaurant, which are the amenity restaurants they run for the tenants of both buildings. "We also use Rendezvous to reserve rooms for corporate clients in the different rooms that make up the Conference Centers at each of the buildings," she comments.
"For all three locations , Rendezvous’ Booking Sheet Report serves as the actual contract for our clients, and we use the Confirmation Sheets as event orders that are shared with our internal staff as well as our clients. The Contact Communication Register provides a record of what has been last sent to our customers," continues Patti.
 Oasis Events is a small company and as a result, relies heavily on hosted applications in order to avoid the costs of installing and maintaining their own wide area network. "Being able to access this application via the internet on any computer is the first benefit we enjoy," says Patti, adding that Rendezvous is also easy for her to administrate and maintain. "I find it to be very intuitive to use, which is essential as we do not have dedicated staff to manage these types of applications."
Rendezvous allows Oasis Events’ internal staff to see everything there is to know about an event from the time it is proposed to the client until the event order is finalized.
"Using the system as our calendar for all catering orders and/or reserved rooms ensures that everyone knows about prospective bookings as well as the resources that are going to be required on a given day," says Patti. "Furthermore, because the application manages an event from the proposal stage to completion, our staff don’t have to duplicate information in separate and disparate systems, which is a great time saver for us."
 One of NFS’ most prestigious library clients in the UK is The British Library, next to London’s Kings Cross Station, which recently selected Rendezvous to drive its thriving meeting room and conference business. The British Library’s Business & IP Center supports entrepreneurs, inventors and small businesses by offering library resources and holding regular workshops and events, as well as advice sessions with experts and e-Courses on intellectual property. Since launching in March 2006, over 32,000 entrepreneurs have used the Center every year.
George Hanna, Project Manager at the British Library, comments that the implementation of Rendezvous has allowed the organization to replace many legacy systems, streamline and simplify their booking process and improve self-service booking. "We looked at the functionality of the software and listened to the recommendations of our catering company, Peyton & Byrne, about how improved processes could help with better management of the Library’s facilities and catering," he comments.
Prior to deployment of Rendezvous, British Library managers were using Excel to run the conference center, and as some facilities within their organization are shared, they wanted to bring together Meeting Room, Conference and F&B Management in one integrated system.
NFS Hospitality's gallery clients in the UK include Tate Liverpool and Tate Modern, and our museum clients include the National Museum of Scotland and the National Museum of Wales. All of these venues use Rendezvous to efficiently manage their available space.
 Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales have been using the Rendezvous system very successfully for the last few years as a means of booking their education spaces. According to Ffion Fielding, Learning Officer at the museum, Rendezvous is mostly used at St Fagans National History Museum, a large open-air museum exhibiting nearly 50 re-erected buildings from all over Wales.
"We welcome over 90,000 education visitors a year, so sourcing an accurate, dependable system was vital," she says. "Given the complexity of many of our bookings, the support that we’ve received from NFS has been very important in making the system work for us."
Ffion adds that although all their education activities are free, "as an organization spending public money, we have very strict reporting criteria for performance indicators. Over the years we have been able to develop the system to provide us with this information quickly and efficiently."
Further afield, the NFS team based in South Africa work with a range of unique venues, most notably the Atlas Studios, located in Milpark, Johannesburg. As well as regular television broadcasts, the Atlas Studios have also become renowned for hosting prestigious and memorable corporate and social events, and clients have the opportunity to hire these unique premises for special functions.
Atlas Studios is the perfect venue to host events of all sizes from 10 to 1,000 people. Some of the spectacular events hosted here include fashion shows, car launches, year-end events, gala award dinners and product launches - which can all be staged in a striking, almost futuristic setting.
NFS completed the installation of the Rendezvous software at Atlas Studios in September 2005 and within a week of dedicated training by NFS, all staff were completely comfortable using the simple and intuitive solution for their entire conference, catering and meeting room booking needs. According to Sunil Menon, Managing Director of NFS, South Africa, Rendezvous provides that critical integrated approach that clients need to organize all aspects of the event, from booking venue space to all catering and other resources required.
"At a venue which has gained such a favorable reputation, the client required nothing but the best in terms of a hospitality software solution, and after carefully consulting with the client regarding their requirements, a decision was taken to facilitate the installation of Rendezvous," he says.
"This effective meeting planning tool maximizes resource utilization and streamlines communication, allowing users to provide the ultimate service to their clients. The powerful automated sales function and management of meeting rooms, including required resources and catering needs, insures that any event large or small is a success each and every time," Sunil adds.
"Looking forward," comments Luis De Souza, NFS Group CEO, "the need for venues to maximize the use of integrated technology will only increase. The key business drivers will be the growth in business meetings moving more online, 24/7 service expectations of customers, and clients increasingly expecting to deal with all aspects of their meetings whilst on the move." |
