Stephen Miles, GM at the Radisson Blu Edwardian, Manchester, shares insights on preparing to host delegates for a national party political conference in October
The Radisson Blu Edwardian, Manchester hotel is steeped in political history and is set to play a part in its eighth major political conference, when the Conservative Party comes to town, 1-4 October. The week is a significant highlight in our conference calendar, although it does bring challenges.
Our Hosts will be looking after national and international VIPs and delegates, ensuring that guests have a seamless, high quality service when passing between our hotel and the main conference venue, Manchester Central, which is located directly behind our hotel.
Our experienced Hosts relish the challenge that this year’s Conservative Conference will bring. Due to the complexity and popularity of the party conference, our planning team has a huge challenge of gathering details for all of the fringe events taking place in our hotel, including collecting contact numbers, timings, requested layouts, food and drink orders. Our team manages this by assigning one key contact to the task, who oversees operations and pulls it all together. Having a single key contact ensures no details are missed, while allowing for a seamless communication stream between our client and the operational team. Effective diary management also means that, even though we will be hosting more than 90 fringe events over the week, every client is treated as individual and their needs are catered for.
The challenge of thorough planning never stops. Even when the events are taking place, behind the scenes the team still has the task of organising for 1,000 bottles of champagne, beer and wine to be chilled and served correctly.
It’s an honour that our building, the Free Trade Hall, continues to be involved in these kind of conferences. Former prime ministers, including William Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli and Winston Churchill have all spoken at the historical venue, and the very first Suffragette protest took place in the building in 1905. Today, our five-star hotel has the facilities and technology to cater for the current generation of business and political minds, with 18 fully equipped meeting rooms and an event room that can accommodate up to 550.
