Conference News October 2022 | Page 16

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nstant Book for small meetings is right up with rising costs and sustainability as the three hot topics being discussed within the meetings and events sector . It ’ s an ideas that offers so many benefits right across the industry at a time when they are very much required . So it was no surprise when nearly 150 staff from agencies , venues and technology providers came together at the beam Instant Book Summit , organised by venuedirectory . com , to discuss how to increase the momentum behind action to implement it everywhere .
James Turner , CEO Calder Conferences & World of Travel is a passionate advocate of Instant Book . Michael Begley , Managing Director of venuedirectory . com recently interviewed him to capture his thoughts .
MB : Based on your booking requests , how do you define small meetings ?
JT : Up to 20 people , either room rate or DDR
“ Instant Book is years behind where it should be and needs to move forward urgently right across the industry .”
MB : Instant Book is simple meetings usually 1 day , no accommodation and with minimal catering and equipment needs , do you agree with this ?
JT : Yes
MB : We now have over 800 venues on Instant Book - are they the right venues ?
JT : Not yet , there needs to be a much greater variety of venues available . Sometimes the options it provides are dominated by similar venues run by a small number of organisations who have made their properties available on Instant Book .
MB : How important is Instant Book to the meetings sector ?
JT : It is essential for its future but at the moment it is not influential enough because of the lack of inventory .
MB : How do you view its current position ?
JT : It is years behind where it should be and needs to move forward urgently right across the industry . I ’ ve been in the industry
James Turner , CEO Calder Conferences & World of Travel
30 years and it has been possible to book hotel bedrooms instantly for nearly all that time . There is no logical reason why rooms for small meetings should not have bookable in the same way as well . It is transactional and we should treat it as that .
MB : What is holding it up ?
JT : Currently staff shortages and venues being precious about controlling their inventory .
MB : What benefits can it bring ?
JT : It can bring important benefits to both agencies and venues , particularly in helping to overcome the issues created by staff shortages . They are the reason why many venues are struggling to meet SLAs and , consequently , agencies are finding difficulty to meet SLAs with clients .
As about 80 per cent of meetings bookings are for small meetings , if Instant Book was used to make them simple transactions , then the issue of staff shortages would no longer be holding up the process and SLA pressures would be reduced .
It would also enable staff to focus on more satisfying work dealing with larger events .
MB : Any venue can have Instant Book from us for £ 120 a year and we are integrating with many diary systems so what could be the reason for not engaging with this technology solution ?
JT : There are two main reasons , both about lack of trust . It is
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