Event Industry News

‘Keep Britain Talking’ campaign to give UK’s Meeting industry a push.

A year round governmental campaign, ‘Keep Britain Talking’, aims to raise the profile of the UK meetings and events industry to encourage business in the UK to keep communicating through such means.  As part of this initiative, Rose McDonald from Wyboston Lakes conference and training centres recently spoke at Thames Valley University to help promote careers in the UK events and meetings industry.

As Senior National Sales Manager at one of the UK’s leading conference and training centres, Rose is well placed to discuss career opportunities within the £22 billion-a-year industry.  Presenting to over 30 students from the Personal and Professional Development for Managers course, Rose outlined the significant financial contribution the meetings industry makes to the UK economy and outlined the various roles that make up the 1.8 million jobs that support this sector.

Focusing on the skills needed to succeed in today’s market, the presentation reiterated the importance of ‘attitude’, ‘appearance’ and ‘approach’; three key requisites and differentiators for today’s aspiring business professionals.  The presentation also looked at the relevance of self-promotion and personal profile-building in helping with career development.

Rose specifically highlighted the contribution that Wyboston Lakes makes to the local Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire economy and the type of events that the venue hosts; from training and development to more social events such as weddings and Christmas parties.

Rose McDonald said: “It was great to be able to share my own experiences with the future of our industry.  Many people are keen to work in the live events sector but few know how to progress into one of the most dynamic sectors that the UK has.”

Erica Wright, lecturer at Thames Valley University, commented: “We are living in extraordinary times which are presenting managers with new challenges to overcome. They now need to prepare for their working lives with a different set of skills and choose a varied approach to the traditional way of doing business. Rose’s presentation was a wake-up call outlining these needs and requirements”.