Blog
Meet the Member: Martin Gaisford
Name: Martin Gaisford Agency: ADP Events What is your favourite song of all time? The Boys Are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy Who would play you in a film about your life? David Suchet What would your last meal on Earth be? One with salmonella probably - steak, chips,...
Meet the Member: Nicola Miller
Name: Nicola Miller Agency: Lime Blue Solutions What is your favourite song of all time? Vienna by Ultravox Who would play you in a film about your life? Kristen Scott Thomas (because The English Patient is one of my favourite films!) What would your last meal on...
Meet the Member: Kerry Walsh
Name: Kerry Walsh Agency: Hatch Events Ltd What is your favourite song of all time? Never Forget by Take That Who would play you in a film about your life? Bette Midler What would your last meal on Earth be? Sushi Whats your tipple? Beer, wine, Champers? Champers by...
NICOLA REFLECTS ON HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED AT LIME BLUE SOLUTIONS IN THE LAST 15 YEARS
As we head towards our 15th birthday in June, I have been reflecting on how things have changed for Lime Blue Solutions over the years. We are continually adapting as a company to meet the ever-changing needs of not only our clients, but technology advancements and...
Meet the Member: Sylvain Bouteiller
Name: Sylvain Bouteiller Agency: Nexusvenue What is your favourite song of all time? Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode and Save a Prayer by Duran Duran Who would play you in a film about your life? Alain Delon (but with brown eyes LOL) What would your last meal on...
We Have the Technology…
Paula Kelsey of Cloud 9 Event Management, and current AIEA Chair looks at the use of Robots and AI at Events and in Hotels: At a recent public sector client event which was focused on the food and drink sector, it wasn’t the wonderful displays of breads, cheeses and...
Meet the Member: Martin Ellis
Name: Martin Ellis Agency: Team Umbrella Ltd What is your favourite song of all time? Tempted - Squeeze Who would play you in a film about your life? A young Brad Pitt of course! Although some might say Hugh Jackman... What would your last meal...
Continuing to bring new life to the events industry in the Southeast of England
There are literally over 100 events industry exhibitions of varying sizes every year in the UK, showcasing the fabulous venues & suppliers available to everyone who books, organises or runs events for the corporate world. Predominately they happen in London,...
Meetings sandwiched with fun!
Times are now changing within the world of meetings and hospitality. Gone are the days when meeting attendees were content inside a hotel meeting room for the day. Over a period of time, meeting requirements have evolved and delegates are looking for enhanced...
Ellis Salsby Ltd 30 years and counting…
2019 represents another milestone in the journey of Ellis Salsby Ltd having been trading for 30 years. Ellis set the company up from home in 1989 with the first mobile phone not attached to a battery pack (NEC 9A for any techies reading this, was an amazing phone for...
To blog or not to blog – how are you using social media?
Have you ever heard of James Charles? No, I hadn't either. But your children and the young folk have. A young lad of around 20 years who is not on TV, lives in America, and is Youtube star known for doing really good make up. Look him up if you haven’t; his makeup is...
Chew’s Top Tips for a Sizzling Summer Party
With Christmas over, and the days starting to get longer, Chew are thinking ahead to the summer. So with Pimm's in the forefront of our minds, we wanted to share our top tips on how to make your summer party SIZZLING HOT. Why not shake things up this year, with a...
Keeping Annual Conferences Fresh
Sonia Sansom, AIEA Committee Member from E2E Events offers advice on keeping annual conferences fresh and ensuring they feel different to past events. When a client holds an event every year, it's easy to keep things the same. But if many of their delegates are the...
ATOL – Air Travel Organisers Licence – Trading Within the Law
Our member blog this week comes from member Nick Wilson who runs Creative Travel & Event Management. 'We have been operating in this manifestation since 1993 as an Incentive Travel Company and have been trading legally by holding an ATOL Licence in all those 25...
The AIEA New Years Honours 2019
Congratulations to all of the winners at the 2019 AIEA New Years Honours which were held on Friday at the fabulous Hilton Doubletree in Chester. We don't take ourselves too seriously at the Alliance and it's good to allow suppliers to poke a little fun at us once in a...
A Busy Year Ahead
Along with a packed schedule of Industry Events for 2019, the AIEA has a busy year planned with lots of engaging events for members. You can find additional details on SLACK but we thought this handy guide would come in useful and enable members to save the dates for...
The Moral Compass
Stephen Morton-Prior, AIEA Member from Clearwater Events shares a view on destination selection, and the role that ethics play in the decision making process. As Event Managers, I believe we have a moral obligation to select destinations that embrace equal human...
Happy New AIEA Year
Paula Kelsey, of Cloud 9 Event Management Ltd, and incoming chair of the Alliance, looks forward to the year ahead. Firstly a very Happy New Year to all of the members, suppliers and event professionals around the globe. The Alliance has changed beyond all recognition...
Selling a Service Rather Than A Venue
Adam Roberts, Marketing & Business Development Manager at AGM Event and Travel Solutions, AIEA Members, shares his take on how it feels to change from the supplier side to the agency side of our industry. As a recent newcomer to the agency side of the hospitality...
AIEA Members Ball Associates share an update on a great way to deliver Team Building with a difference.
Team Building that Keeps on Giving We have recently completed an annual event, which is one that always likes to ‘test our creativeness !’. A few years ago one of our clients raised the question of finding a solution for team building but wanted an activity that also...
AIEA Members Event Works Europe Celebrate 10 Successful Years
Event Works Europe, the event management specialists, and member of the AIEA, are delighted to announce the achievement of a very significant milestone: they are celebrating 10 successful years in business this year. In a competitive industry, and despite periods of...
The AIEA in St Andrews
In the first formal hosted buyer group, Fairmont St Andrews kindly looked after eight-member agents in November with an amazing display of hospitality. With half of the group flying from Heathrow and the others from East Midlands we rendezvoused in Edinburgh for the...
Fit for Networking- Guest blog from current chair of the AIEA, Nick Milas of Blue Line Events
There are so many industry networking events it’s difficult to know which one to choose. They mostly follow the same format; welcome party, meetings, team build, dinner, more meetings, so it’s usually the destination that makes our decision for us. It’s was therefore...
Jo Wilson from Ace Bookings is presenting a blog featuring the JG Collection.
JG Collection live and breathe Hotels and whilst many of you will have your go to’s John and Jo have built there business working a curated collection of luxury independently owned hotels that will inspire and surprise in more ways than one for your next meeting or...
AIEA Carnival Video
Is focus on ROI killing meetings?
AIEA member Performance and Event Management Limited (PAEM) reflects on the significance of ROI methodology in planning events. This blog is a response to questions raised by an Association Meetings specialist about whether focus on Return On Investment was having a...
It’s Fore from the AIEA
Many of the member agencies within the Alliance are often tasked with finding the unique or unusual venues for clients, and whilst each of us will often have our favourite or go to properties for these sort of requests, it is occasionally nice to go out of our comfort...
Warwick Conferences Motivating Delegates in 2018
The next of our guest blogs comes from the team at Warwick Conferences who are looking ahead at ways to improve their offerings in 2018 With 2018 upon us, Warwick Conferences have reflected on the constantly changing landscape of the conference and meetings industry,...
Together we build stronger relationships
As part of our New Year’s Honours initiative, we are delighted to feature the first of our supplier guest blogs, from the Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel, part of the Arora Group. Here at the Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel, we understand the importance of...
Marketing Your Event
Another guest blog from our pals at Pereception with thanks to Siân Peak- In today’s tough economic times, and thanks to the continued emergence of bigger, better and more cutting-edge business events, event planners need to stay ahead of the game. Strategically...
Event Hosting Tips
We've another guest blog from Siân Peak | Perception this week Planning a business event, whether large or small, requires meticulous organisation, time management and research. All the makings of a great event planner. Though when it comes to hosting the event,...
Event Technology Trends
Our guest blog this week comes from Siân Peak at Perception Long gone are the days of pens and paper, A1 flipcharts and overhead projectors. Business meetings and events today are much slicker thanks to the continual evolvement of event technology. Business...
The Future of Fams?
On Tuesday 26 September we co-hosted a breakfast forum in London with MiceBlog, on an #EventPlannersTalk event. The discussion topic was “Hosted Buyer Programmes and Fam Trips – Is It Time For A Change?” It’s an issue that has been discussed at length recently, ever...
A Guest Perception on Networking
Our guest blog this week comes from The Perception Team, who along with Jury's who have been looking at all important tips for networking. The Perception team love to network. We understand the importance of building strong relationships both inside and out of the...
New Orleans and All That Jazz!
Lauretthe McClellan shares news of her experience in New Orleans. I recently attended the Hosts Global Forum in New Orleans - a network of 50 Global DMC’S, now recently represented by Nicola Chater in the UK, whom I’m sure many of you know. What an amazing destination...
Apprenticeships for AIEA Members?
We are pleased to feature a guest blog from Realise, who are already helping some of our members structure appropriate programmes for apprentices in the Event Industry. Realise are the ONLY approved providers of the events apprenticeship programme. The start of our...
AIEA – The New Voice in the Industry
The Alliance of Independent Event Agencies consolidated future plans and strategies at the inaugural AGM and was brilliantly hosted by the Park Regis Hotel in Birmingham last Friday. What a great venue and what a great team in control! Together we are stronger. So...
Make Your Voice Count
Although officially the Alliance has only been up and running since February, the planning and background work of the committee has been in place for almost two years, so this August when we all get together, it's really important that our members share their views....
Some hot air from thestudio!
We're delighted to welcome another guest blog to the AIEA this week with our thanks to Julian and the team at studio venues... I’m sure as “modestly sized” agents you know as much as anyone how your priorities can change at the drop of a hat; that sudden last minute...
Our First Guest Blog
We are delighted this week to share our first official guest Blog from our friends at Trident Hospitality: It’s an old cliché, but it happens to be very true in the Hotel & Events industry that ‘people buy from people’…. It may sound trite but clients like to know...
All the Event Industry Statistics You Need To Know
Are you ahead or behind the curve when it comes to adopting event technology? What talent are #eventprofs looking to hire in 2017? How much do others spend on hiring venues, event promotion or content? What trends are other organisers paying the most attention to this...
What Future for the Independent Event Agency?
An article last week in M&IT caused a fair bit of a stir when a relatively new Event Agency claimed "There is no future in Venue Finding". The initial reaction by many in the industry was one of outrage and certainly many independent event agencies and members of...
The Questions You Should Be Asking
As busy event professionals most of us know the core questions to ask once we have sourced a venue, and the 101 questions we have asked to get to the contract stage. However, there are some key questions which we should be asking our venues and the answers might just...
We’re Partners!
We're delighted to announce that the AIEA is working with The Meetings Show, now in it's 5th year, and we will be hosting our very own Hosted buyer Group at the event. The show takes place from 13-15 June at Olympia in London, and has really established itself as the...
What’s App?
Event technology goes hand in hand with events these days and it’s rare for any event not to incorporate some sort of digital element, even if its electronic evaluation post event. Additionally, many events have their own App in addition to the more traditional...
Awards Awards Awards
Yes it’s true, we are officially in Awards season with the BAFTA’s, Oscars and numerous other ceremonies celebrating the stars of stage and screen, and it’s no different for the event industry either at this time of year. The M&IT Awards which is undoubtedly the...
Six Compelling Reasons to Work with a Boutique Agency
Smaller agencies can offer big brands as much, if not more than larger agencies, in terms of value for their events and creative needs. The real appeal of a boutique agency; being able to deliver a more personalised service as well as being more flexible and...
Life is Grand in Zurich
March 2015 saw the unveiling of the fabulous Grand Kameha Hotel in Zurich. This stunning hotel is managed by the creative and fabulous Carsten K Rath and his team, and is beautifully designed by the world renowned Marcel Wanders. With contemporary and neo-Baroque...
New London Hotels, December 2016
As Agents, we never stop learning and always remain pleasantly surprised when we discover amazing new venues that can accommodate our clients, so the raft of new hotels coming to London in 2017 is great news for all of our members. The Ned, due to launch in the Spring...
I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members
Groucho Marx immortalised these words and although it’s never stopped me being a member of various organisations personally over the years, when it comes to business and company membership, it’s a whole different story. There are already lots of budgetary demands when...