SITE’s GB Chapter has responded to member and industry feedback through the delivery of a more professional education programme leading to significant member growth.
Following two highly successful events, including security and crisis management content, the SITE GB Chapter has seen upwards of a 15% increase in membership as it kicks off a year focused on the delivery of greater value and learning opportunities for members.
“2016 is a year of change for SITE GB,” comments Chapter President, Fiona McGrory of InterContinental London Park Lane. “To grow the Chapter we must think beyond networking events to the delivery of cutting edge professional development content that engages our attendees and ensures they leave better educated and better able to conduct the business of incentive management. Our opening event, just two weeks ago, focused on the delivery of our new message, plans and members benefits as well as our desire to work more closely with the industry and deliver more of what members asked for. The second allowed us to immediately demonstrate that commitment through relevant and focused content.”
SITE GB’s second event of the year, which took place this Monday, 15th February at The Langham, London welcomed 59 guests from organisations such as Grass Roots Meetings & Events, BCD Meetings & Events, Banks Sadler, HRG, Rosewood Hotels, London & Partners, Virgin Atlantic and the Barbican.
The event’s insightful content, which was conducted as a debate, included Chetan Shah of MICEBOOK (formerly of Black Tomato), who used a case study from the recent Paris attacks as a tool to explore event security and how operations teams can and should react to crisis situations in real time. The panel of industry leaders also included comment and input from Rob Bentley, Senior Development Underwriter with Hiscox Event Insurance and Peter Cooper, Regional Security Manager UK & Ireland with International SOS and Control Risk.
“Security has never been more important for our industry, it has become a tangible part of the planning and sales process and a high priority for many organisations,” concludes McGrory. “Monday was the first in a series of educational events examining the importance of security and crisis management for those working in incentive focused roles. The second, due to be held in early summer will look at the integration of security into the preparation and planning of an event.”
Rebecca Duncan of Virgin Atlantic comments: “SITE represents a significant force for good in the industry but it needed to inject some extra value and learning opportunities into its events. They have clearly listened to the members and done so in a truly impressive way in just the first few weeks of the year. The security and crisis management debate was particularly inspiring and not just because of what is a very important topic. The style with which it was delivered, the engagement from the audience and the overall experience has me looking forward to seeing what else they will achieve over the coming months.”
SITE GB Chapter’s calendar of events continues on April 26th 2016, with further details to be confirmed shortly.
Founded in 1973, SITE is comprised of 2000 members in 90 countries including the SITE GB Chapter. Members are incentive travel professionals focused on the development of incentive travel as a business tool capable of delivering significant returns on both investment and objectives.