The 8th annual National Marketing Conference took place at the St Georges Hotel, in Burton on Trent, at the home of the National Football Centre just two days before the world cup kick off.
We – Geanina Lungu, Sasha Glucksmann-Smith, Hannah Stephenson, and Heather Taylor – students from the Edge Hotel School, were asked by Martin Evans to attend the conference and assist with the running of the event. We were accompanied by our lecturer in Marketing and Guest Experience, Kelly Vadukar and the marketing director of Wivenhoe House, Eleanor Totman.
This would be the second hospitality event in a little over a month we were asked to participate in and we were very excited for the opportunity to gain further experience in our field whilst representing the Edge Hotel School and Wivenhoe House hotel.
The preparation for the event began a few weeks prior; we had multiple meetings to discuss our role in the conference as well as preparing our own marketing material for the ‘avenue of excellence’ exhibition. Our lecturer was a vital member of our team, as she instilled confidence and supported us throughout the journey. She was especially important as she was the one who managed to organize for us to take part in the first place, ensuring we benefited throughout from the opportunity.
The event was a huge success with over 150 delegates attending with specialists in marketing and sales, including Warren Elliott from Elite Hotels and Lauren Fitzgerald from Marriott. Also attending were general managers and hotel owners. Suppliers exhibiting included HTK, Digital Alchemy, Wedding Dates and us; the Edge Hotel School and Wivenhoe House hotel.
Our stand looked fabulous and we had a lot of interest from delegates speaking to us about the course and hotel and graduate recruitment. Multiple marketers commented on how great the Wivenhoe House hotel branding is, including Gilly Batchelor, Head of Business Development of Reech Leisure. We are all very proud of our hotel and School, and grateful to be able to promote ourselves at an industry event.
There were multiple talks to kick off the conference. We started with ‘Hancock’s half hour’ by Peter Hancock, which was an extremely fascinating discussion of the importance of luxury and making the most of your product by not devaluing you brand.
Ben Gateley, who works closely with our lecturer Kelly to deliver a two day work shop on Social Media as part of our Guest Experience module, also presented a memorable speech on ‘Social Media – a Brave New World’. We are sure that he won’t be forgotten in a while!
There were multiple interesting seminars which we all attended on topics ranging from social media, building direct business through direct relationships, how to monetize your website, getting more from the lucrative weddings market and better spa marketing.
Hannah, Heather and Eleanor attended the seminar on ‘Make review sites work for you!’. Pamela Carvell, president of the HMA emphasised the importance of collecting feedback and analysis of the credibility of comments and reviews – something which we at Wivenhoe House do constantly!
Sasha, Geanina and Kelly attended a seminar on how to ‘turn one-off bookings into loyal customers’. This was hosted by Justin Bowser of HTK and Cara Beggerow from Gough Hotel – hopefully we will be going on a field trip there soon!
The conference was rounded off by a talk from Martin Evans discussing the importance of 360* marketing, which left us inspired and eager to get back to the Edge Hotel School to pitch our marketing ideas for Wivenhoe House hotel at the innovation forum! As we had marketing material left over at the end of the conference, Kelly suggested we make up packs and hand them out to delegates as they left – multiple marketers and exhibitors said ‘Wish we’d thought of that!’.
The National Hotel Marketing Conference has given us inspiration and passion for marketing within hospitality and demonstrated the impact of new age social media while preparing us with bright new ideas for our future careers. We, as the Edge Hotel School students, have our fingers on the pulse and are eager to see you at future hospitality conferences!
Some comments from student attendees follow:
“It was a privilege to work alongside so many industry professionals and leaders, I only hope that I can return in a few years’ time discussing my own innovative ideas!” – Hannah Stephenson
“This event taught me a lot about how to develop industry related skills and knowledge, as well as learning about marketing, a topic I absolutely love!” – Sasha Glucksmann- Smith
“The conference was a really great experience, which will be very valuable for my future career. It was excellent to network with leading industry figures.” – Heather Taylor
“My involvement began whilst at the Boutique Hotel Summit, which Kelly and I attended in May. Through networking I met Martin Evans, who asked me to attend the National Hotel Marketing conference and as they say ‘the rest is history!’ I had a great time, and the experience was second to none. I can’t wait to graduate in a few months and go out into the big, bad world!!” – Geanina Lungu
About the author
Geanina Lungu is in her final year studying for the BA (Hons) Hotel Management degree at the EDGE Hotel School.
