Putting Delegates First: How Venues Lead the Way on Welfare
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What is the purpose of this episode and who is the guest?
Hello everybody, welcome along to the Event Industry News Podcast with me, James Dixon. Wishing you all a very good morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever or wherever you tune into today's podcast from. And they have let me out of the sort of proverbial asylum that I usually record the podcast in. You regular viewers would be used to me s you know sort of seeing on seeing me on a screen, sat at my upright piano uh in the living room at home. In South Yorkshire, uh, and we're back out on the road. We're at uh Confex and the event production show 2026 down at Excel. We are in uh an Evolution Dome inflatable meeting structure. There's a lot of background noise. There is a lot of background noise. There is a little bit of background noise because obviously we're surrounded by other exhibitors at a trade show.
Yeah. But first things first on today's podcast, thank you to the team at evolution dome. For letting us do this. We're right in the middle of their exhibition stand and they basically closed off this brand new meeting pod that they're here to showcase so that we can do these podcasts today. So um yeah, big thanks to Ash and all the team at Evo Dome for letting us do this and go and check those guys out. Um so on with today's episode. My guest today is Katie Whitby. Katie is the head of sales for the venue's collection. And uh first of all, Katie, welcome along.
Thank you very much, James. Thanks for having me. Thanks for
joining us today. And um we're gonna be talking uh delegate welfare. It's a sort of the the loose topic of conversation for our chat today because there's a few things that you guys uh have been doing. I I don't know whether we call them initiatives or you know, just just new practices that you're instigating. Let's start. by giving people some context I suppose to the venue collection if that's all right. Yeah of course. Yeah, of course.
Yeah, sure. So the venues collection is a group of five venues, um, three hotels and two training centres, large training centres. Um, and yeah, so we make up a group of five in the UK, um, really Midlands locations um of venues. And we're here today to talk about delegate um delegate well being because there's there is quite a big misconception in the industry around what delegate wellness is about and their well being. So I think that's kind I'm gonna talk about but.
Yeah, and and I suppose when people hear that phrase initially, delegate well being, delegate wealth, they think, well, well, what does that mean? But I guess uh could could you maybe just elaborate a little bit on the con and give us some context on the type of venues that you're actually operating? Are they hotels, are they standalone conference venues?
Our venues, absolutely. So three of our venues are four-star hot, sort of the equivalent of four-star hotels, all with around 120 to 150 bedrooms.
How does The Venues Collection define its portfolio of hotels and training centres?
All have meeting space as well, and leisure facilities and outdoor space as well. And then we've got two training centres, which are Yarnfield Park and Kent's Hill Park, and they're really big training centres, 300 bedrooms, but you know, 70-odd meeting spaces. So really um a real mixture of um training and development programs but also large conferences and large events.
sort of training centres, what we mean is again for anybody who might be unfamiliar is is for sort of maybe big big corporate companies who are are looking to take all their staff on, you know, a week's sort of retreat training and development CPD, so they can do it in a residential setting effectively. Absolutely,
and it doesn't necessarily need to be a corporate business, it can be an association. We do do quite a lot of associations as well. So membership based organizations. So um the companies d do have to sort of give back quite a lot 'cause obviously and they need to see the benefit of those events when they're coming on site.
Absolutely. And when we talk about delegate welfare I suppose there are different levels of delegate depending on which sort of end of the industry that you're working in.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the purpose of this episode and who is the guest?
0:07–2:39
2
How does The Venues Collection define its portfolio of hotels and training centres?
2:39–6:32
3
What does ‘delegate welfare’ really mean for events of any size?
6:32–9:14
4
Which simple, low‑cost measures can venues add to improve delegate comfort (quiet rooms, prayer spaces, outdoor areas)?
9:14–12:28
5
How are inclusive catering and allergen kits implemented to protect delegates with dietary restrictions?
12:28–15:07
6
What technology solutions help make events accessible for hearing‑impaired or neuro‑diverse delegates?
15:07–18:38
7
Why should venues act as trusted advisors rather than leaving delegate wellbeing solely to organizers?
18:38–21:09
8
Where can listeners learn more about The Venues Collection and the discussed welfare initiatives?
21:09–22:58
Speakers
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