Only one magazine has addressed the need for event cool for the past five years.

You ask yourself, how do you get the hairs up on the necks of your attendees?

In fact, how do you ensure they respond to your invite?

A cool venue guarantees they turn up enthusiasitically. Fact.

So on a cool early spring night, 400 of the COOLest people in the events industry came out to the incredible Shaka Zulu for Prestige Events magazine's 5th annual COOL Venues Awards and discover who were the UK's and Europe's COOLest and most glamourous and charismatic event venues in 2011.

Sponsored by Mont Blanc, Grey Goose Vodka, Asahi Beer, MCL , and EFX Corporate Awards & Trophies, they guzzled free champagne and cocktails, and sampled the delights of Shaka Zulu's unrivalled chef before a swift and slick awards presentation that was followed by a crowd throing the craziest shapes to the world's 2nd best soul/funk/disco DJ Peter Poyton (source: djlist.com), X-Factor's Jon Wilding (almost 1 million youtube hits), and Urban Soul Orchestra. 

Did we have to kick them out like last year after last orders and carriages had been called? Is the Pope a Catholic?

Enjoy the photos...

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.281358401938450.66372.183028315104793&type=1

The COOL Venues Awards would also like to unreservedly thank it's other sponsors (in no particular order of importance) without whom's expertise and support we could not have once again produced an evening that lives on the memories of those who attended:

Boko Creative  - the UK's freshest video/film production company (Coca Cola and Jam - eson, etc, would have in that too!)

Megabooth  - COOL enough for Prince Charles and The BRITS. COOL enough for us

Matt Chung Photo  - The unlaziest photographer you'll ever find

Sharp Printing Solutions -  Producers of stunning backdrops and sponsors walls

Red Snapper Net   - We haven't used anybody else for our event registrations systems that impresses us as much. Enough said?

Londonlaunch  - Led by the energetic duo of Will Broome (who you can never get hold off), and Peter Heath.

Caxton Manor -  Banke Laycock take a stand. If your event needs smiles, energy, and delivery, GO CAXTON!

and a special thank you to magnificent team at London's COOLest restaurant and event space, Shaka Zulu , led by the amazing Samantha Pettifer, and a last thank you to The Cumberland Hotel for accomodating our special guests.

NEED TO REMIND YOURSELF OF THE RESULTS? CLICK HERE

“Time to face the music - when things go wrong!”
  By Lord Jason Scott

I was hiding in the toilet cubicle.
 
It’s fair to say that this music event which had been filmed for a major network had not gone to plan.  A slight miscalculation with the dry ice machine and the power sockets had meant the guests, among them a fair smattering of big name celebrities, had narrowly escaped being electrocuted on their way in. My event co-ordinator and I, who’d organised the event, had envisaged a dramatic entrance, where awestruck party-goers would drift down a black-out tunnel, lit only with the dimmest of low-level lighting and atmospheric dry ice rising up eerily from the ground. Instead , the dry ice machine had leaked in a gloopy puddle all over the floor, and the low-level lighting, which had all been plugged in through the same socket ( dangerously close to the rising puddle of water) had shorted, leaving the guests to pick their way gingerly through the murky, slightly damp-smelling darkness, down a partially-flooded passageway.

An eye-opener!

Where we went:

Warwickshire’s Stratford-upon-Avon, and Royal Leamington Spa. Otherwise known as Shakespeare’s Country, sitting prominently in the UK’s West Midlands region, Warwickshire is a second home-from-home for the Prestige Events team. From the Battle of Edgehill in the English Civil War via the Industrial Revolution, Warwickshire has always been ‘in the middle of it’, excusing the pun.

We could talk about the many event venues the region has to offer such as Edgbaston Cricket Ground, or the Ricoh Arena, but in the interests of your time-sensitivity we profile two very different venues that we road-tested: Mallory Court Hotel, and the RSC

“Euro Events hospitality ideas for January, February and March 2012”

Kick off the New Year with a great start by inviting your top clients, contacts or employees to some of these fantastic 2012 first quarter events. Each one will provide you with not only a fantastic opportunity to attend great events, but also to entertain those important business contacts.

Teambuilding & Corporate Fun Days:  A justified spend

Comment by Nicky Upton, Head of Corporate Events, Merlin Southern Parks

Since the recession budgets haven’t been what they were during the ‘golden years’ of the events industry. With cuts significantly reducing budgets organisers are increasingly asked to do more with less and in turn suppliers and venues are required to do the same. The economic climate has produced a shift in the needs of teambuilding events, no longer do organisers pick the desired package and turn up for it on the day. With low budgets organisers want value for money and to see measureable results: ROI. Adaptable strategically focused activities that are tailored to the specific needs of the company that will genuinely help employees improve in their day to day tasks are also a requirement.

Teambuilding and corporate family fun days are seen by many companies as an integral part of the business as some employees face pay freezes

There IS ONLY ONE EVENT INDUSTRY AWARD that showcases the X-factor

One minute you are COOL, the next minute you are not.

COOL is a matter of opinion. It is perhaps the greatest currency you can possess; whether you are running for President, or pitching for the next big event! It is what gives an events venue the position of strength when negotiating with an event organiser. The COOL Venues Awards, an entirely unique and defining accolade, were developed in 2007 by Wesley Mendy of Prestige Events magazine to recognise an unsung and largely influential element that emerges in the process of planning a corporate event – How exciting is the venue? Will the invitees RSVP? Will they turn up?

In the current economic climate, the pressure on an event organiser is even more apparent. The need for an event venue to gain the chance to position itself aside form it’s rivals has more emphasis than ever before.

Every corporate event organiser strives to ensure their next event is THE hot ticket. AND SO ONTO THE FINAL RESULTS....

Oh no, I’ve got to organise a dinner! How often has that exclamation been heard? Fear

not: it’s not as difficult as it’s sometimes cracked up to be.

First question. Does your event need to be private? If it’s a smaller party, especially of people who don’t know each other very well, might it be safer to find a venue which can accommodate a group of your size in its main dining room (perhaps in a semi-private

area or alcove)? Go to a ‘public’ venue, and  the buzz of the main dining room should help

you jump-start that ‘party’ atmosphere for your own event. Like a bonfire, the problem with

a party is to get it started.