Leeds-based Calder Conferences,
which won a major contract in the summer to manage central government
meetings, is to make the Meetings Industry Association’s (MIA) AIM
accreditation for the venues it uses a core requirement.
The
agency’s move, following close talks with the MIA, is designed to offer a
new level of reassurance to event organisers of the quality and
suitability of Calder’s preferred status venues.
AIM is the only
national standard for the meetings industry and its widespread
achievement by venues forms part of VisitEngland’s business tourism
growth strategy.
Calder Conferences will also now recommend AIM accreditation to all its 27,000 UK venues.
James
Turner, Commercial Director Calder Conferences, says he chose AIM
rather than creating an independent industry accreditation scheme
because the MIA-developed standard covers “a wide range of venue
facilities and service quality controls; best practice and legal
compliance criteria; is achievable in three levels; ticks all
procurement boxes and is already well established and recognised by the
industry”.
Turner predicts all 6,780 of Calder’s preferred venues
will seek AIM. “While there are numerous recognitions of assurance
within the hotel sector, there has been a distinct lack within the
meetings sector and until AIM we have always had to independently assess
venues to ensure basic legal compliance and quality assurance,” he
adds.
Calder Conference venues will be invited to achieve AIM
via AIM Direct, which negates any requirement for venues to join the MIA
in order to become accredited. This enables them to achieve AIM and
secure the benefits it offers, such as a venue health check and
competitive advantage over venues that have not achieved it, without the
additional commitment of joining a trade association.
Jane
Longhurst, MIA Chief Executive, who, in association with the Best
Practice Forum, spearheaded the AIM accreditation in 2007, says: “By
choosing AIM, Calder Conferences demonstrates that it has its finger on
the pulse of the conference and events market. Buyers increasingly
require guarantees of excellence and professionalism from venues to meet
procurement departments’ requirements, by covering these requirements
in advance, AIM puts venues at an advantage. While AIM is a requirement
of MIA membership, membership is not a requirement for AIM, so AIM
Direct is an excellent strategic choice for Calder Conference venues.”
Calder
Conferences, through its operating systems, is already prioritising AIM
accredited venues and working with the supply chain to endorse AIM
accreditation.
Since being awarded the Pan-Government contract
to manage all MICE needs, the goal is, by August 2013, to propose only
venues that have AIM accreditation.
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