The Park Regis Birmingham has reopened for events following a stint as accommodation for key workers based at the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
And while the venue has spoken of an 'overwhelming' response from event professionals, it also highlighted a lack of guidance from government for event venues looking to reopen.
“The response from meeting planners has been overwhelming. There is a real hunger in the market place for events to resume,” Ryan Doyle group director of sales told M&IT. “It is our responsibility as venues to ensure we can offer a safe and practical space for our clients that conform to government guidelines.”
The hotel has created its own 47-page standard operating procedure due to clear guidance for venues being unavailable. "As an independent hotel we are fast to react to change and rapidly launched our new cleaning policy PRB clean, however, we saw that there was a lack of guidance around event spaces," Doyle added.
The standard operating procedure covers everything from car parking, accommodation, food and beverage and events service as well as guidance and training for employees returning to work.
“As meetings and events are the core of our business, we wanted to instil some faith into our customers and the reaction has been just that,” added Doyle.
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The venue has focused on eliminating touchpoints and ensuring appropriate distancing can be maintained at all times. Other measures include:
- Events that maximise the capacities will have exclusive use of meeting floors
- Bespoke plans for all events, in partnership with our onsite audiovisual and IT companies. Google Drive folder will be completed for each event with a 2D floor plan and a video tour of the meeting room
- Catering within the larger 1565 area or exclusive use where required
- New meeting room setups, all non-single use items can be provided on request
- Specific health and safety accreditation will be provided by Shield
Despite the global pandemic bringing the face-to-face events industry to a standstill Park Regis Birmingham still has plans to host one of its largest events of the year at the end of August.
By working with its in-house AV team, the event will be live stream across multiple rooms at the venue to ensure delegates can stay at a safe social distance from each other.
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
