
5 things to do before you…
Whilst stuck in a traffic jam the other day, the entertainment value of watching other drivers applying make-up and picking their noses slowly wore off, and I began thinking about things I'd like to do before......well, before long.
I've…

Grumpy? Me?
It was a fantastic day today. Beautiful sunshine, and blue skies. Travelling through the spring-like countryside into Leeds on the train was a joy. Not for this bunch, who didn't look up from their smart phones for a second. Maybe they have…

Burger Bar to Michelin Star in 1 Hour
A Masterclass with Our Top Chef
Missing Masterchef? Bored of Fish and Chips? Want to impress your friends with an unctuous dessert but don't know your mille-feuille from your macaroons? Don't despair; we have the head chef Marc Mottershead…

Responding to change
Simply by visiting this page you might have noticed that the MEETinLEEDS website has changed a bit! From a customers point of view it really is only a bit too: a few design changes here or there, larger images and easy to use maps; but we hope…

Seek and you shall find
As most colleagues know, I'm shortly to retire and have made a pact with myself, that in the meantime, on the way to and from meetings on campus, I’ll try to walk down a street I've never been down before. It’s proving surprisingly…

How to be in more than one place at the same time
When I first joined the conferencing team at the University of Leeds in 2009 there were two social platforms that we knew we had to be a part of if we wanted to communicate with our customers online.
The social space has been shaken up over…

At Your Service
Rumour has it that the recession is over and recovery has begun! This may be so, but in the events market it's still a fact that there is an over-abundance of suppliers and therefore a massive choice – a buyer's market.
When retail shopping,…

Reacquainted with Oxley
I recently took a trip down memory lane and visited Oxley Hall with my colleague Natalie Ruecroft (AKA Ginger). I used to be the Assistant Hall Manager at Oxley Hall some 16 years ago and I must say I felt like a queen living, and working,…

Sentenced to Email Servitude
“Thou shalt reply to every email” isn’t really the commandment most of us think it is. How many times have you sent an email to someone only to receive a reply saying “thanks”. If you’re a polite and well-brought-up Yorkshire lad…

Making an Exhibition of Myself
As 2014 dawns, I have been thinking of how the conference business has changed in the last 20 years….
Back in 1993 when I came into the academic conference sector, computers were few and far between (we had just one in our department),…

Our Big Day!
As you've no doubt read already, September 1st 2013 saw the University of Leeds host its very first wedding fayre at Devonshire Hall.
This was a project that the sales and marketing team had begun working on only 3 weeks prior to the fayre…

Discovering Devonshire as a Wedding Venue
Over the past few months we've been working hard on a new project that has added an extra dimension to the event facilities we can offer: weddings! Whilst the University has hosted these special days in the past this is the first time that…