On the second day of our summit, we will be discussing recovery; refinancing your business, preparing for COVID regulations and how to use technology to move your venue team and events forward.
The financial impact of COVID on the events industry has been huge. We ask the experts what’s next, looking for some positive pointers towards keeping afloat until June and beyond.
Panel Guests: Adam White, Commercial Director, Barclays Agriculture and Landed Estates; Martyn Wright from Duckett’s Trusted Advisors; and Paul Sullivan from the British Business Bank.
Moderated by Joshua Dugdale, Wasing Estate.
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Recovery! Refinancing your business
Adam White is the Commercial Director for Barclays Agriculture & Landed Estates. Responsible for a team of dedicated Agriculture and Landed Estates managers across the UK, who support businesses through a range of projects such as diversification, sustainability and growth.
He studied at the University of Greenwich, followed by an MBA at the University of Lincoln. Adam is also a Fellow of the Institute of Sales Management and a Member of the Institute of Agricultural Management.
He has worked with a wide range of SME’s at Barclays for over 12 years from start-up businesses in their infancy to multinationals looking to thrive.
Adam lives in Cambridgeshire with his wife and 10-year-old daughter. In normal times, often travelling to China to explore and visit family.
Recovery! Refinancing your business
Martyn joined the Business Growth Team at Ducketts almost 5 years ago, after a lengthy career in commercial banking, primarily in business development and supporting businesses suffering financial stress.
The sole commercial purpose of Ducketts is to increase the financial worth of our clients.
Recovery! Refinancing your business
Paul is Network Director of the British Business Bank, with a long experience of working in the banking industry. In the last two years as a key member of the BBB, Paul has had intricate knowledge of how the treasury has navigated the challenge of keeping the hospitality sectors afloat in the pandemic.
Recovery! Refinancing your business
46 year old Joshua Dugdale is the current custodian of the Wasing estate. But whilst the Berkshire-estate is in his blood; he represents the seventh generation of his family’s involvement in the estate; his early career was as a documentary maker making films on diverse subjects from gangsters and police forces to a biopic of the Dalai Lama.
However, since 2008 he has been fully focused on the expansion and diversification of the estate from farming and property into a fully functioning hospitality, wedding and events hub. Prior to the pandemic, Wasing had become one of the leading wedding and corporate venues in the UK as well as hosting numerous festivals over 20 years. The latest addition to the business is an outdoor music venue with a 5000 capacity.
During the pandemic, Joshua played a leading role in liaising with government and piloting events under government guidelines through the inaugural Medicine Festival which hosted 12oo people at the end of August 2020. Day to day Joshua oversees the direction of the business that now employs over 70 staff. The father of four is also one of the founders of Hostology.
Are you ready to reopen? We’ll be assessing the soon to be published guidelines and the regulations and risks therein; both in looking after your team, your customers and their guests.
Panel Guests: Alan Law, Risk Assessment Consultant; Amanda Harman, Head of Aon Estates Practice; Charles Trotman, Senior Rural Business Advisor for the CLA, James Paxman of South Farm and the UK Wedding Taskforce
Moderated by Ben Cowell, Director General Historic Houses.
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Risk! Readying for reopening
AFL Associates Ltd is an Event Safety Consultancy, offering Advisory Services through a highly qualified and experienced team of Safety Specialists.
Alan Law, the Company’s Founder, has more than 25 years experience working in and around the live events industry having been involved in event production, technical staging and venue management.
Since its launch in 2006, a large and loyal client portfolio of Event and Production companies and Event Venues has been built by AFL Associates, together with good working relationships with government departments, local authorities and industry associations.
Risk! Readying for reopening
Amanda has worked in the insurance world since leaving school, firstly as a medical underwriter, through National Farmers’ Union Group Secretary to Head of Aon Estates Practice (with brief sojourns into motherhood and running her own company interspersed)
Since joining Aon 8 years ago, her focus has been solely Country House Estates and the associated activities, such as agriculture, events etc., primarily owner-occupied
Since her three girls have grown up and moved out, she finds (a little) more time for other activities such as travelling and clay shooting, country walks and discovering new local shops (when restrictions allow)
Risk! Readying for reopening
Dr Charles Trotman is Senior Economist at the Country Land and Business Association (CLA). He joined the CLA at the start of 2002 following stints at the NFU, London Guildhall University and an economics consultancy in Brussels. At the CLA he is responsible for rural tourism and rural development policy as well as co-ordinating the CLA’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Risk! Readying for reopening
Ben Cowell is the Director General of Historic Houses, which represents 1,500 independently owned country houses across the UK, many of them venues for weddings. Before he joined Historic Houses, Ben worked variously for the National Trust, English Heritage, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Exploring all things digital with some leading technology startups and event management experts. The focus will be on how best to apply technology, to both ‘on-the-day’ events and throughout your sales and planning process.
Panel Guests: James Hickman, Founder of EcoSpend Open Banking; Alan Law, Risk Assessment Consultant; Parsa Pezeshki, Head of Partnerships, Clause.io and Anselm Guise, Elmore Court
Moderated by Emma Hardcastle, co-Founder and CEO of Hostology
CATCH UPThe Online Revolution: How tech can help your business
AFL Associates Ltd is an Event Safety Consultancy, offering Advisory Services through a highly qualified and experienced team of Safety Specialists.
Alan Law, the Company’s Founder, has more than 25 years of experience working in and around the live events industry having been involved in event production, technical staging and venue management.
Since its launch in 2006, a large and loyal client portfolio of Event and Production companies and Event Venues has been built by AFL Associates, together with good working relationships with government departments, local authorities and industry associations.
The Online Revolution: How tech can help your business
Parsa leads Business Development at Clause.io, the first platform for smart agreements.
His background is in law and tech startups, after graduating from the University of Toronto.
The Online Revolution: How tech can help your business
Owner of Elmore Court, co-founder of Hostology, Rewilder, sometimes DJ, loves a party. Not very good at moderation.
The Online Revolution: How tech can help your business
Prior to Hostology, Emma conceived, developed and successfully launched several business platforms (SaaS) and innovative consumer services. She fulfilled senior roles at major publishing and digital brands Macmillan Publishers, AOL and Science Navigation Group, and steered innovative Startups Production Wizard, Screen Library and Pocket Issue.
During the pandemic, Emma and the Hostology Team have doubled down to focus on hosting 23 well-attended sessions through the Hostology COLLECTIVE to help venues navigate finding financial support, legal, HR and marketing advice.
The team work closely with the WVSG, ABWB and are involved with the UK Wedding Task Force. All this, alongside delivering important improvements to the platform for 2021!
The Online Revolution: How tech can help your business
Chief Commercial Officer, Ecospend: Leading the commercial team at Ecospend to drive growth and scale-up the business through partnerships with global platform providers in retail and financial services.
Ecospend has one of the most advanced levels of UK bank payment and data-solutions in the industry. Currently connected to the entire UK market with full European coverage in Q1/Q2.
Prior to Ecospend, James was Director of New Ventures at News UK.
Weatherbys Hamilton specialises in providing insurance to estate owners, from houses to horses, cars to combines, as well as the whole host of commercial activities that often take place on their properties. We provide an expert personal service, with each of our partners taking responsibility for all aspects of their clients’ insurances, and are ready to help at any time from our seven offices across the country.
From castle to cottages, Aon help ensure that your assets are protected. Aon’s Private Client Estates Team look after some of the UK’s largest estates and historic properties, as well as working with smaller country houses and farms.
Aon understand that no estate is the same, so your insurance arrangements need to be equally unique.
Gusto’s Super DC immune support drinks are created with an adult audience in mind to help support a healthy immune function all year round. High in Vitamins D & C (hence the name), Zinc, Vitamin A, K and Folic acid, these delicious cans of plant-based goodness are high in antioxidants and deliver a taste explosion that we naturally associate with wellbeing.
Pitchup.com is a booking platform for over 4,000 campsites worldwide, including around 800 farms and hundreds of show and event venues.
Last year landowners earned up to £7,000 per day by opening a temporary campsite during the holiday season and one Cumbrian country estate has had £26,000 of bookings already this year.
With new regulations enabling land-based businesses in England to operate a campsite without planning permission for 56 days now extended to at least 31st December 2021, there’s never been a better time to take advantage of the growing trend for staycations.
Coco Wedding Venues is the leading directory of wedding venues for UK couples.
For all things venue related and actionable planning advice, head over to their website!
Kelly Chandler is the founder and chief consultant & trainer at Kelly Chandler Wedding Consulting. Dedicated to helping unique locations to thrive in the modern wedding market, ownership and wedding planning teams to surpass customer expectation, grow sales and wedding bookings, often preserving heritage alongside.
SUCCESSFUL EVENTS
HAPPY CUSTOMERS & GUESTS
