Following a successful day setting up VisitYork's new on-line accommodation booking system, the earth moved; often the impact of having a new system installed however in this instance it was a physical rather than metaphorical move.

The subject of some debate in news circles, the media frenzie that followed the UK's tremor was a little out of proportion with world events in some opinions - from a hotel room in York it did feel as if the building were collapsing for a brief few seconds!

Earthquakes aside, Rob Stuckey, Anne James and Laura Freer all received training on Velvet's ConferenceBOOKINGS system. The on-line system now handles delegate payments directly on-line in addition to managing complex hotel allocations from multiple providers.

By the end of the two days' training, Rob and Anne had loaded four live events in addition to accommodation providers' details and multiple images for each of their venues. "It will make the manual process of bookings so much easier", commented Rob.

Unique links to each event are generated by the system and included in the destination's web site provided by their DMS (Destination Management System). Created in minutes, a conference may now be created in ConferenceBOOKINGS and on-line for delegates to book with ease.

Three busy days and an array of impressive stands - this year's Confex seems to have been busier than the past two with an excellent turn out of stands and in particular what appears to be an increase in visitor numbers.

Our congratulations go to Clive Tyres and Suzy Wheeler of BICB (Bournemouth International Conference Bureau) who were awarded the coveted "Best Exhibition Stand" award for their innovative surfing theme.

Further to the extensive works to the BIC (Bournemouth International Centre), Bournemouth is set to have one of the world's first artificial reef making the destination a new Mecca for surfing fans and an attraction for visitors of all types.

The stand's innovative design incorporated surfboard shaped pillars, table tops all of which were complemented by the canvas director chairs and the iconic VW Camper Van graphics.

Anne and Laura of York Conference Bureau manned the stand on the final day of the exhibition, "It's been a great show for us", commented Anne, "I've been here all week and it certainly seems to have been busier than last year".

Confex has been another success for Velvet Software. Chris Gibbs, Simon Hawkins and Tim Clark attended the exhibition over the three days meeting with clients from across the UK; Tim said, "Confex is always great for us - it's a chance to meet with clients from across the country that would otherwise take us weeks of travelling - it's great for us, the clients and the environment!".

Simon Hawkins attended the exhibition on the first day, "I didn't make it to the National Venue Show last year so it was a really good opportunity to catch up with everyone. It's always nice to meet people who have moved on to other organisations also - we've seen over the years that once in the industry people stay and that's a positive sign.".

Emma Robins of Conference Worcester is delighted with the installation of her new Chaser BUREAU system. "I've waited some time to invest in Chaser - now I can't wait to use it. The reports generated by the system automatically will save me hours of time each month".

With over fifty standard reports and the in-built query form allowing the creation of custom reports or data exports Chaser BUREAU continues to be the choice for UK destinations looking to enquiry handling and management reporting.

"I'm absolutely delighted that Emma at Conference Worcester is having Chaser BUREAU", said Tim Clark, director. "Emma has been using a combination of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and manual processes to provide a business tourism services for Worcester; now she will have a system that will enable her to do so much more in less time allowing her to focus her efforts on marketing and enhancing their client contact".

Chaser BUREAU is in use by the majority of UK destinations - the demand for the system has remained constant over the past two years with clients continuing to switch to Chaser from bespoke in-house systems and Destination Management Systems (DMS) .

Velvet Software attended Confex 2008 at Earl's Court meeting with new and existing client for another successive year; 2008 is Velvet's 5th year at the show and each year it gets better!

In 2008 the vast majority of UK destinations exhibiting at the show have at least one of Velvet Software's products most have two or more. The opportunity of meeting with our clients is the main attraction of the exhibition - meeting with other industry colleagues under the same room is invaluable.

Stands of note were the illuminated Yorkshire South - a modern imaginative design offering plenty of seating combining open access and seated areas, Marketing Manchester with their raised bar areas at each end of the stand and Newcastle Gateshead with their welcoming open stand in a prominent corner location.

"It's great to be able to meet with all clients in one venue", commented Tim Clark. "There's nothing quite like meeting with clients and listening to their needs, discussing new ideas and updating them in person". Velvet Software attend a number of industry exhibitions each year in addition to hosting ChUG (Chaser User Group) meetings annually. From 2008 there will be two ChUG meetings per year - a Summer ChUG and an Autumn / Spring session.

Many well respected industry figures were present including Joanna Aspin and Mike Lyons in the Help and Advice Centre. Seasoned exhibitors such as Black Country's Pauline Jones were in fine form with imaginative stands and new venue directories to hand. We hope that the show is a success for each destination and look forward to reading the post event reviews. If initial impressions are to be a true indicator, it looks as if Confex 2008 will be a great success for many.

Velvet Software's new on-line delegate registration system reg.istrations.com was launched with our first flagship clients receiving training for their upcoming event in 2008.

Tim Clark, Director, who made the journey to Dundee to provide the training on the new system said, "It's the most satisfying thing to deliver a new system to clients following months of development and to see it live in action - we took Dundee's requirements and enhanced the functionality of the design to make reg.istrations.com not only a solution to Dundee's requirements but a class leading product that's powerful, flexible and above all, easy to use".

Karen Tocher, Laura McGlashan & Tracy Duncan of Dundee & Angus Convention Bureau received on-site training on the system at their offices in Dundee following their involvement in the specification and development of the system.

The system is available for purchase by destinations, event organisers and by organisations wishing to provide on-line registration to clients, delegates and members of their teams. Unlike many other registrations systems, reg.istrations.com does not require any input from Velvet Software - clients may create as many events in the system as they wish with multiple streams, delegate types and pricing. There are no per-event set-up fees, an entry level system at just £195 and the choice of remote training, on-line training videos or on-site training to meet all requirements.

For destinations the system offers the ability to integrate with ConferenceBOOKINGS.co.uk, Velvet Software's on-line accommodation booking system. Destinations may therefore provide a registration service to event clients in addition to their existing accommodation booking service or alternatively, event organisers may use reg.istrations.com and link directly to destinations' accommodation booking service using ConferenceBOOKINGS.co.uk thus increasing the ease of booking for delegates and conversion rates for destinations.

Four sessions, ten hotels per session in one day - that's all it takes to get a destination on-line, up and running.

The Newcastle Gateshead Initiative (NGI) opted for Velvet Software's ConferenceBOOKINGS.co.uk system to manage their conference accommodation. Following the destination team training the week before, Tim Clark provided a day's training on-site for their accommodation providers enabling them to manage their allocations directly on-line.

Anna Moroney, accommodation manager, assisted with the training sessions with colleagues Gill and bureau manager Jessica Clements. All of NGI's twenty live events were loaded in the two days' training provided the previous week. "It's so quick to get an event up and running", said Tim Clark or Velvet Software, "In a little over twenty minutes a new event may be loaded with multiple accommodation providers, a custom image gallery for delegates and compelte event branding - by the end of day two all of the team are able to load events and manage bookings with ease. This is what makes ConferenceBOOKINGS so unique".

NGI are the latest destination to adopt ConferenceBOOKINGS.co.uk - there are now over twenty-five destinations using the system to manage their allocation-driven event bookings.

Velvet Software are delighted to welcome the Jessica Clements, Bureau manager and her team at the Newcastle Gateshead Initiative (NGI).

Headed by Anna Moroney, the accommodation booking service handles large volumes of group and individual bookings for specific events taking place across the destination. The transition from their existing in-house accommodation booking system to ConferenceBOOKINGS took just three days to complete during which the new ConferenceBOOKINGS system was populated with venue data and all twenty live events loaded complete with allocations and pricing.

"The system is prepared prior to the training", said Tim Clark of Velvet Software, "once on-site all the necessary hotel set-up data and the first event are loaded in the first day's session. By the end of day two they had a bespoke image gallery selling the destination, custom event images and corporate branding loaded.".

Ease of use and the continued system enhancement were all influencing factors in NGI's choice for a new on-line booking system. Having trained the team of four users, Velvet Software will return to the destination in just under a week to train up to sixty of the local accommodation providers. The benefits to the team are not only with in-house time-savings as Tim explains, "Providing training for the accommodation providers as well as the bureau staff enables staff at each hotel to directly load and manage allocations and pricing at certain times controlled by the bureau; this results in more communication with fewer direct telephone calls and emails between the bureau and their members".

Experience Nottingham carried out a review of their existing in-house systems and web content in Novermber 2007. Following a remote system demonstration of Chaser BUREAU and the on-line Chaser WEB module, the team chose Chaser BUREAU as their new enquiry handling system.

Coupled with the Chaser WEB module Nottingham are able to update their web-site at the click of a button, handle a greater enquiry volume and provide greatly improved reporting on both enquiry conversion and economic impact for converted and non-converted business.

"We are delighted to Welcome Nottingham as the newest destination to adopt Chaser BUREAU", said Tim Clark, Director. "It's great to see another recognised destination opting for Chaser - all the years of experience and development that we've included in Chaser BUREAU mean the product is a 'Bureau in a box' solution".

Training for the system is provided by Joanna Aspin who worked as a Conference Bureau manager for many years and has provided industry training for Velvet Software and directly to destinations for the past five years.