VisitBritain & Harvey Nichols Meet With Stadium Experience Venues

Stadium Experience logoVisitBritain and Harvey Nichols have met with the venues of Stadium Experience recently. The not-for-profit association held one of its busiest ever Members Meetings with delegates from different stadium venues across the UK and Ireland. The meetings, currently held in a virtual format, are a regular opportunity for stadium venues to join together to hear from key speakers, provide business updates, and share ideas amongst like-minded colleagues facing the same challenges across the industry.

VisitBritain

Kerrin MacPhie, Head of Business Events, VisitBritainKerrin MacPhie, Head of Business Events at VisitBritain kick-started the session with an update on campaigns they are running to support business events, as well as the work they have been doing since April to engage with event buyers around the world for when events can return in larger scale.

The session also featured the latest on the ‘We’re Good To Go’ accreditation developed by VisitBritain. The standard is the official UK mark to signal that a tourism and hospitality business has worked hard to follow Government and industry COVID-19 guidelines and has a process in place to maintain cleanliness and aid social distancing. The majority of Stadium Experience venues have now obtained this accreditation, demonstrating their commitment to providing Covid-secure venues. These include: Blackburn Rovers FCBristol Bears RugbyBristol City FCBurnley FCCharlton Athletic FCChelsea FCDerby County FCGloucester RugbyHeart of Midlothian FCHull City FCHull RugbyLeeds Rhinos RugbyLiverpool FCManchester United FCMorecambe FCNewcastle United FCNorwich City FCSaracens RugbySouthampton FCSt George’s ParkStoke City FCTottenham Hotspur FCTwickenham StadiumWarrington Wolves RugbyWest Ham United FCWorcester Warriors Rugby and Yorkshire Cricket Club.

VisitBritain Head of Business Events Kerrin MacPhie, said: “I was delighted to take part in the virtual Members Meetings to share the latest updates on VisitBritain’s work and to highlight to attendees the opportunity available to the UK for events in the future.

“Although our sector is facing a time of great uncertainty, the industry is working tirelessly to demonstrate that the UK is getting ready to safely welcome international events back when the time is right, adapting and innovating to meet news ways of working.”

Harvey Nichols

Harvey Nichols Snowed In HamperHarvey Nichols were delighted to present to the Stadium Experience members an edited selection of their 2020 Christmas Gifting range. With options from as little as £25, through to luxurious Christmas hampers at £500 they have options to suit all budgets. The webinar introduced Harvey Nichols dedicated Corporate Team, Jemma Swift and Emily Osborn, who are on hand to deliver an account managed service for all your club’s gifting needs, whether it be VIP gifts for Sponsors, right through to goodie bags or favours for hospitality season ticket holders. The team also kindly offered a special offer for Stadium Experience Members: access to a Harvey Nichols VIP card in conjunction with orders over £5k and above.

Jemma Swift at Harvey Nichols, commented: “Owing to the current economic climate and social restrictions, we recognise that rewarding those heroes and supporters of the club will be more valuable this year than ever. Harvey Nichols are on hand to provide a range of stylish gift solutions for Christmas, regardless of your budget so you can rest assured no one need be missed.”

About Stadium Experience

Stadium Experience now works with over 50 football, rugby and cricket clubs across the UK and Ireland. The association is a not-for-profit marketing consortium, and aims to share best practice and promote stadia as unique and prestigious venues for meetings, conferences, events and hospitality. The group was established in 2002 for football venues, and has since evolved to welcome rugby and more recently cricket stadium venues too.

Stadium Experience activities include; sharing best practice and ideas with dedicated networking events each year, joint exhibition opportunities, meeting event buyers and key agencies as a consortium, regular newsletters, an annual recognitions awards celebration; The Stadium Events & Hospitality Awards and much more.

During the pandemic, the association has continued to operate in a virtual format providing collaboration, thought leadership and coming together in a unified way. In recent months our virtual meetings, knowledge-sharing and communications have been valued sources of regular, up-to-date industry news, advice, support and comfort for stadium venues.

Debbie Rigney, Marketing & PR Manager for Stadium Experience, said: “It was fantastic to welcome representatives from both VisitBritain and Harvey Nichols to join our latest Members Meeting, which was one of the best attended meetings in our 18 year history! The big turn out just demonstrates the value our meetings and business updates provide to our stadium venues. Now more than ever, we are finding our knowledge and ideas sharing opportunities are so valuable to all of our venues. If you work for a stadium venue, or have a product or service ideal for use in a stadium, we’d love to hear from you.”