There’s a never ending stream of lists, notes, RSVPs and charts for all of you that have to organise your company’s Christmas Party. Whether you’re a seasoned planner and already have everything at your fingertips or you’ve just been assigned this task but don’t know where to start, here is a useful checklist to make sure you’re on the right track.

1. Time

Timing is everything. Many companies book the date for the next Christmas Party months in advance to make sure guests (more…)

A few months before the London 2012 Olympics a Key Note press release announced that the UK Corporate Hospitality Market fell by 2.5% to 1.b billion between 2007 and 2011. However, the same press release remained hopeful about the market’s ability to gradually recover in the aftermath of the Olympics and the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Although Corporate Hospitality was controversial (more…)

This year has been a great one so far with lots of good news for our growth and development plans. Our business has grown with the opening of a new floor in Birmingham and now we’re exploring expanding our venue in Manchester so that we can accommodate many different size events.

The expansion of the studio was naturally followed by a growth in our team members. We originally (more…)

There’s been a lot of debate regarding the link between our brains and food. The food we eat influences our brain.  Refined sugars give an energy boost but after a short while they cause drowsiness, proteins keep us active longer and the right mix of carbs (sugars), protein and fat benefits our health; and it’s not just us saying that. It’s science!

Now, we tend to take science very seriously here @thestudio and ever since we opened our first venue in Birmingham we’ve made sure that we build our menus with everything that we need in order to keep our brains working (more…)

Had an interesting read this week about social media and content on the Event Magazine’s blog and it got me thinking about content and our business.  Thestudio’s mission statement is customer first and everything revolves around our customers’ experience. Since the explosion of the social media we too have joined in the millions that are using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to keep in touch with our clients.

Looking back through our blog’s archive or Twitter history one word stands out more than any: Engage. Our small but steadily growing community keeps connected, lets others know about different events of interest for their particular business, helps with recommendations, advice and suggestions about any topic of interest. Our team keeps their ears and eyes peeled to anything that happens around the business that might affect how delegates travel from traffic news to the recent developments in New Street in Birmingham.

Social media advocates (I dare not call them experts since there is social media is so versatile and volatile that hardly anyone can be called and expert) call on relevant and insightful content to be delivered to consumers, a content that carries with it what the brand stands for. With so many companies that are in the game how do you keep content relevant: how not to be pushed into the shallows, how not to take after so many others that offer small rewards for tweeting and retweeting, or promote exclusive social media offers?

Well, if Scott Stratten is right “to be great at customer service, you only need to be mediocre, because everyone else sucks” then what are we doing? Nothing more than to treat people like we would like to be treated; everyday; in our venues and outside them. Do you think we could do more? Please share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment here or tweet @studiovenues.

Later edit: 1st of May  – it’s official. Director Emma Jennings graduates the Goldman Sachs 10000 small business programme. More about this here.

In the good spirit of team building, thestudio team away day was organised this year, unlike the previous years, in March instead of January. No more bitterly cold days, fresh air and spring all around…or so we thought.

The weather, however, didn’t bring spirits down and at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning we were all (Birmingham and Manchester) having a lovely warm breakfast in the Quarnford Lodge , Buxton in the beautiful Peak District wondering what secret activities were planned for us. The morning fog made it even spookier as we were driven away to an (more…)

Sourcing a venue is no easy task and even more so in Birmingham or Manchester where you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to finding a venue. After finding the venue, hiring the right room for your event is just as important to make a good impression on your delegates.

Here are a few tips from the studio team to help you choose the right room for your event. (more…)