FAQs

General

Why have an event?
Any number of reasons including:

• Raise money for charity
• Raise awareness of your company
• Publicity
• Reward employees
• Honour industry professionals

In these current economic times......

• should I be holding a conference/event?
• and are there any advantages of doing so?...
• is it expensive?..

We honestly believe, and it has been proven by Companies that invest in events during a financial downturn emerge stronger once the shoots of recovery start to break through. Apart from the obvious, here are our TEN reasons why we think you should invest in conferences and events:

1. CLIENT RELATIONS - Invitations show clients true value of their business when it matters most, with fewer invites going around, yours is more likely to attract interest
2. POSITIVE SPIN - Success breeds success. An event distances clients and employees from the gloom
3. BRAND VALUE & BRAND AWARENESS - Investing in corporate entertainment is a demonstration of a strong brand / organisation
4. FACE TIME - Nothing beats meeting face to face
5. NEW BUSINESS - Companies that don't feel looked after by competitors may turn to you instead
6. STAFF MOTIVATION - Keeping staff morale high is essential, especially after redundancies, reassure and re-energise through carefully planned events
7. INSIDE INFORMATION - People open up at events and parties, you may hear a whisper that helps your business!
8. LOW COSTS - Results don't have to be expensive, keeping invitations targeted and taking advantage of many venue and supplier offers and discounts means that events don't have to cost what many people think they cost
9. FRESH IDEAS - Meetings and events inspire progressive thinking; perhaps leading to new revenue streams
10. SOLID INVESTMENT - You've probably heard this a thousand times before, but you reap what you sow.

So to summarise, investing now will bring future returns....

What are the costs?
Each event is unique, each client has their own specific requirements therefore it is difficult to provide a ballpark figure. However please give us a call to discuss your requirements and we will provide you with a proposal outlining all the costs involved.

Where do I start?
Just call us and provide us with your brief, we will discuss your requirements with you either on the phone or it maybe necessary to arrange a face-to-face meeting. After that we will provide you a complete proposal of the services required together with all associated costs.

How large or small an event can you organise?
There is no set size or number. No event is too small, no event is too big. We have organised events for 10 people right up to events catering for well over 1800 people.

Why should I use you rather than doing the work myself?
Very good question!.. However, trying to book a meeting room, a hotel bedroom, dealing with florists, the entertainers, the speakers, caterers, production companies, handing all the administration, bookings, ticketing, table plans and so many other elements that are involved in event planning then as you will probably see, unless you do this on a daily basis, you need to be super organised, have the contacts, the know-how and the understanding of collating all these elements to ensure your event runs smoothly, without a hitch. This is what we do, daily.

How can you do a better job than me?
It really depends how much experience you have had dealing with the many different parts involved in conference, event and party planning. By using Createvents you will be dealing with an experienced team who will take the time to understand your objectives and make sure they come up with a choice of viable options for you. Our priority is to maximise your budget by securing the best, working with the best and therefore ensuring you have the best event.

Surely it will cost me more booking Createvents to do my work. Is this true?
With most meeting, conferences, events, and parties we will negotiate on the overall package for you. We are good at encouraging venues and regular suppliers such as florists, linen companies, AV companies, toastmasters, entertainers and after dinner games to give us discounts due to our buying power, but on occasions to include extras (i.e venues including equipment or syndicate rooms, extra refreshments etc). Booking, liaising and working in venues, AV suppliers, entertainment and other event services is our business.

Do you only operate in the UK?
No. The majority of our business is in the UK but we have completed and continue to manage a number of events overseas, and we are seeing a significant growth in this part of our business.

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Venue Finding

What is a free venue finding service?
We can help you source a venue and we are not tied to any specific property or location, we are completely independent. We do not charge for this service and you will pay the same price or on some occasions at a lower price than if you went to the venue yourself.

What if I do not like your choice of options?
That is up to you, and you are absolutely entitled to it - often it might take a few attempts to reach exactly what you are trying to achieve. We always try to match the response to our brief but sometimes we just cannot achieve what you are looking for due to availability, budget, location etc. However we will always try to work with you to achieve a suitable outcome by suggesting alternative solutions.

What venues, venue types do the Createvents team have experience of working at?
Collectively the team have experience of many venues, of many types of sizes. Here is a cross-section:

GREATER LONDON
Grosvenor House The Dorchester London Hilton Park Lane The Landmark Marriott Grosvenor Square Millennium Mayfair	4 Hamilton Place QE II Conference Centre Royal Albert Hall Cafe Royal (now closed) Madame Tussauds Royal Horticultural Halls	The Brewery Vinopolis Royal Lancaster Hotel The Commonwealth Club Silver Sturgeon on the Thames Royal Academy of Arts
ENGLAND (ex Greater London)
ICC Birmingham Hilton Birmingham Metropole The Palace Manchester Sheridan Suite Manchester Harrogate International Centre	ACC Liverpool Marriott Portsmouth City of Manchester Stadium Loseley Park The Belfry	Royal Armouries, Leeds Basingstoke Country Hotel Farnham Castle Mercure Bush, Farnham
SCOTLAND, WALES & IRELAND
Celtic Manor Resort St Davids Hotel, Cardiff The Corn Exchange, Edinburgh	Edinburgh ICC Hilton Glasgow The Burlington, Dublin	Hilton Belfast RDS Dublin
WORLDWIDE
French Communist Party HQ, Paris Pompidou Centre, Paris Hotel Kunlun, Beijing, PRC	Hotel Bayerischer Hof Munich Trade Fair Centre The Carlyle, New York, USA	Aegli Zappiou, Athens Westin Astir Palace, Athens

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Events & Awards Ceremonies

When will my tickets arrives?
We will send out tickets as soon as we receive them from the printers. It is advisable to start inviting guests as soon as you secure your table/places at the event as the tickets sometimes are not released until a short time nearer to the event for security reasons.

One of my guests has lost their ticket - can they still get into the event?
On most occasions yes, as long as you have provided us with all your guest names and there are no changes. Event security is paramount but if you have provided us the information then this means their name will be on the master
guest list.

Why am I placed on a waiting list for an awards event that has not sold out?
The reason is that the finalists are advised in the build up to the awards event and they need to be accommodated, as do the sponsors, before any tables can be released for sale. As soon as the finalists have been booked in and allocated spaces, then we are in the position to offer all the remaining spaces to the waiting list.

What types of events have/do you work on?
Too many to list really, but a good quick overview is as follows: awards dinners, awards lunches, awards judging sessions, corporate themed parties, seminars, congress, forum, conferences, exhibitions, corporate entertainment, corporate events, new product launches, gala events, charity balls, charity fund raisers, cocktail parties, cocktail receptions, staff recognition events, team building, sales events and much more!

Do you have any tips on how to submit an entry for an award?
As Award Events are our core business, over the years we have seen thousands of entries, some fantastic, some good, some not so!... so in response to your question the answer is yes, we have ten top tips on how to submit the best awards entry:

1. STICK TO THE GUIDELINES - If you exceed the number of permitted pages, or the specified word lengths, the additional material will not be forwarded to the judges. Don't include additional material unless it says you can (as this also will not be forwarded to the judges).
2. KEEP THE MESSAGES SIMPLE AND CLEAR - Many entries are over-wordy and the text size is so small the judges struggle to read them. Use bullet-points, sub-heads and short punchy sentences whenever possible.
3. PROVIDE THE FACTS AND SUPPORT YOUR CASE WITH FIGURES - If you are asked for key data, don't write "not applicable"! In the past, for example, firms that haven't supplied their safety record for one of our Building awards have been eliminated at the first short-listing session. Many entrants make grand claims about how good they are but our judges are usually more impressed by hard figures that support this. So, for example, don't just say you are committed to sustainability; provide figures that quantify how much recycling you do or the level of CO2 emissions you have saved.
4. SUPPORT YOUR CASE WITH GOOD IMAGES - Many entries don't include photographic images, graphs, pie diagrams, KPI charts or other visual information. Yet these usually catch our judges' eye and often make the case for your firm very powerful. Remember, a good picture can be worth 1000 words! And a bad picture, well you can work out how much damage that can do to your chances.
5. YOU WOULD SAY YOU'RE WONDERFUL - But other people praising you really does sound impressive. So include good, punchy testimonials from independent people whose views will count with our judges.
6. AVOID JARGON - Technical gobbledegook can baffle people so keep it to a minimum. Also refrain from using acronyms that some people may not know.
7. DON'T LET THE PR DEPARTMENT DO THE ENTRY WITHOUT YOUR INPUT - Our judges can usually spot the fluffy entries submitted by PR people who are good at packaging, but weak at understanding the hard business issues that are involved. The best entries are usually the result of a collaboration between a senior business executive and the PR team.
8. BOUNCE IT OFF A COLLEAGUE - Many entries seem to have been prepared in isolation and the people who've put them together havent realised they've made it too complex, or too fluffy, or plain unintelligible. So ask a colleague to look at it cold to see if it works for them. Often they'll point out simple practical tweaks than can make the entry a lot more convincing.
9. READ THE ENTRY FORM - Read through the details in the entry form carefully so you are clear about what you need to do. If in doubt, call us. We recognise that it takes time to put together an entry submission, so we're always happy to try to clarify issues or give you a bit of practical guidance. All entry forms will have a contact telephone number for enquiries.
10. GET FEEDBACK - If you don't succeed call us we're happy to give you some candid feedback on where your entry may have tripped up. It's in our interest to help and encourage people to enter, so if you want to know where you may have gone wrong (to avoid the same problem in the future) don't be bashful about calling us.