HORSES FOR COURSES
| Date | 01 May 1982 |
| Pages | 16-18 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057253 |
| Published date | 01 May 1982 |
| Author | Alec Snobel |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
CONFERENCE VENUES
HORSES FOR
COURSES
by Alec Snobel
Conferences, like the delegates atten-
ding them, come in a variety of
shapes, sizes and purposes. There is,
for instance, the reward conference, a
way of saying well-done to
employees, where after-class enter-
tainment is important and the bar
looms as large as the blackboard.
Then there is the spur, the seminar
for the company which wants to
motivate its sales force with the carrot
of the good things that success will
bring. A lesser grade of accommoda-
tion and catering at a top grade
venue may be appropriate, tantalising
the staff with a sight of the good life
but leaving them with the task of at-
taining it.
Back-to-school, the training con-
ference, is the one that blinkered
hoteliers confine themselves to in
their pitch for business. Yes, the syn-
dicate rooms, the overhead projec-
tors,
the videos, the flipboards and
the blackboards are indispensable
here,
just as are the strobes, stereo
and full MGM production in glorious
technicolor for the sales presentation.
But none of this is material for the
high-level seminar, the think tank
whose main demand is a sanctuary
shielded from the office telephone,
and wrapped in seclusion and serenity
. . . with equally civilised ambience
and cuisine and a range of clarets to
relieve the cerebral strain.
Thus there are horses for courses
that go beyond the "caring, friendly,
personal service" that hoteliers
universally claim and which con-
ference organisers universally expect
anyway. I certainly do. What I also
look at is price — is it good value for
money? Car parking
—
is it adequate
for the number of delegates and for
heavy transport if sales exhibits are
involved? Location
— is
the centre ac-
cessible to main routes and in all
weather? My favourite Cotswold
venue was snowbound for ten days in
January; imagine the potential havoc
in a company if its board and senior
executives were isolated in this way.
I also try to assess the trouble
shooting skills of the management;
can they cope with the things that in-
evitably go wrong — the mike that
doesn't work, the overlong speeches
that predicate re-scheduling of dinner
time,
the six extra delegates, the
chairman's wife lost on the ladies'
coach outing?
There is, however, an extra factor,
less definable, less tangible: the image
— Is this the kind of place delegates
would like to be associated with?
Does it have the appropriate ton?
It was with all these factors in mind
that I headed East and West from the
metropolis — I left the North and
South for separate treatment — on a
series of recent weekend forays to
check by my own criteria some venues
that had been highly commended by
corporate clients, and I struck gold
every time.
The common ground in the cases of
Seckford Hall, Cottage in the Wood,
De la Bere and The Close is that they
are essentially old English country
houses, stately to a varying degree,
rooted in history, blended into the
landscape, and lovingly cherished by
a proud proprietorial presence.
You don't find hotels like these
anywhere else in the world, because
they would probably fail disastrously
any Hilton proficiency test on cost
per cubic foot of heating, facility per
ascent of convoluted stairs by
chambermaid, speed per throughput
of diners. Purpose-built, standardis-
ed, easily-serviced units of occupancy
they are not.
Consider Seckford Hall first, an
Elizabeth mansion at Woodbridge,
Suffolk, run by Michael Bunn. The
Hall had the good fortune after
World War II to become the home of
Sir Ralph Harwood, whose hobby for
years had been restoring Tudor
houses and he had a mass of old oak.
So in addition to refurbishing the
original fabric, he brought in
treasures from elsewhere. Thus, we
sat in the main lounge — once the
Great Hall of Queen Elizabeth's
Master-in-Ordinary Thomas
16 INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT + DATA SYSTEMS
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