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Re: February 2018 WTA conference
kwatt wrote:Bring your own biscuits. 😉
K.
Is that a challenge?
Steve
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
EFS wrote:
kwatt wrote:
Bring your own biscuits. 😉K.
Is that a challenge?
Steve
Yes I challenge u to bring enough biscuits for all of us. Lol
Dave
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
There is another option .. why not give up your days to organise rooms,food,conferences and keep every engineer happy and also be justifiable for moneys spent. As its a one night stay. The rooms were clean comfortable. You could also go to the pub down the road if the chef wasn’t to your michelin standard.
Bryan
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
To be not funny…
The venue, to me was fine, absolutely okay.
Is it cordon bleu cuisine, nope. Adequate, yes.
Great rooms, nope. Adequate, yes.
Value for money, brilliant. I mean, £60 a night for dinner, breakfast and a room is seriously good value.
The actual rooms for the conference, sound, network etc are all great for what we need as it is exactly what the venue does, conferences and training. Which is kinda why we’re all there, not for biscuits, food etc.
And the bar prices are stupidly low, monumentally cheaper than any of the hotels by a country mile then some.
So not perfect but then, any way you jump there it’s not perfect so whatever we do there’s a compromise to be had, it’s just what one you want to live with is in question.
The overwhelming view was positive though from what I heard and feedback given.
K.
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
kwatt wrote:To be not funny…
The venue, to me was fine, absolutely okay.
Is it cordon bleu cuisine, nope. Adequate, yes.
Great rooms, nope. Adequate, yes.
Value for money, brilliant. I mean, £60 a night for dinner, breakfast and a room is seriously good value.
The actual rooms for the conference, sound, network etc are all great for what we need as it is exactly what the venue does, conferences and training. Which is kinda why we’re all there, not for biscuits, food etc.
And the bar prices are stupidly low, monumentally cheaper than any of the hotels by a country mile then some.
So not perfect but then, any way you jump there it’s not perfect so whatever we do there’s a compromise to be had, it’s just what one you want to live with is in question.
The overwhelming view was positive though from what I heard and feedback given.
K.
Agree 101{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}Dave
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
Aside the biscuits.
Is there any update – main points for those WTA members that couldn’t attend?
Thanks.
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
Yes Tim.
There will be stuff in the WTA forums in coming days but, we need a chance to do that. 😉
K.
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
It was good value for the money with all food included.
Bar prices good.
It’s a case of if you want to have the best venue then you have to be prepared to pay the price.
As Ken said it does the job and good value for money.
I booked a double room and paid the extra as the double rooms are better than the single rooms but still thought it was value for the money.
The food I had was good and you could have as much as you wanted so no complaints from me.
Bob
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
Problem is we got MEGA complaints about the bar/food prices at the hotels, a real kicking over it.
To be fair, as someone who paid near £250 for a round of drinks at the Ramada I gotta say, I wasn’t exactly over the moon about that. And, T gave me mega grief about that, probably justifiably.
On top of not exactly stellar food that was pricey it was getting a slagging for those reasons alone.
Then it’s the room prices that a number of people resented.
Then we had the al-in-one-room thing going on and people did comment about not being able to hear what was going on on stage due to chatter round the stands.
All things considered, it had to change.
The compromise here is, I think, better as it’s a business venue, not a jolly.
We’ve had comments about the bar not opening till 5:30 but to me that’s good, people aren’t half cut by lunchtime as some were, comments were made. The bar shuts at 11:30, again means people actually get there in the morning as they’re not sat up till the wee hours getting utterly plastered. And, dare I say it, embarrassing themselves or turning up half way through the morning looking like death warmed up, it’s like a zombie invasion mid morning.
On the food, like I said, not upmarket cuisine but adequate and, at the price you really can’t expect that.
The buffet thing for lunch was superb for what it was though, standard fare that anyone could eat and plenty of it, so much that everyone got food and there was food left!
Tea, coffee and juice as much as you wanted all day long.
If you wanted better, a Costa Coffee on site.
All in I thought it was really good and, really good value.
K.
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
Brilliant value and if you do the maths it gets better. I notice the evening meal I had was priced at just under £7. If you add pudding and coffee then I would guess £11 which is not out the way. Add to that breakfast say another £8 and then lunch say another £8
That makes the the room about £30. Now u can’t argue with thatDave
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
That makes the the room about £30. Now u can’t argue with that
But there wasn’t any biscuits .. But everyone else found them which was either side of the coffee machines.
😉 😉
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
r600a wrote:
But there wasn’t any biscuits .. But everyone else found them which was either side of the coffee machines.😉 😉
Until I took the last one. Lol
Dave
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
Until I took the last one. Lol
See.. Blame Dave not the venue..
If anyone wanted anymore all they had to do was ask.
Bryan
Re: February 2018 WTA conference
I haven’t said much so far but as I know how much effort goes on behind the scenes I feel its time to make a few observations.
For those that loved the Millers at Sibson I’m afraid we outgrew them
For those that loved the Hilton I’m afraid once again we outgrew them and were looking at capping attendance, what finalised the decision to move was that they put the room rate up to approx £90 B&B, that coupled with the bar prices made it untenable
For those that loved the Ramada Im afraid we outgrew them as well, that coupled with the the fact that even with bringing in a professional sound company last year people complained that they just couldn’t hear meant that it was time to move on, but where to..
Taking on board the complaints/ comments about the 3 previous venues we worked out that we required the following
1. A venue that we could grow in to over the next 3-6 years
2. Somewhere that had reasonable food for reasonable money
3. Reasonably Priced accomodation
4. Fast Broadband
5. Reasonably priced bar with room to socialise and networkThe WTA looked at various options ranging from universities in Birmingham and practically all the football clubs along the M6 corridor
Believe me when I say that the options were few and far between and all seemed to point towards Yarnfield
So the Wta Team took 2 days out of their businesses and visited Yarnfield to experience the accommodation , food and facilities.
Bearing in mind the list of requirements Yarnfield seemed to fit the bill.When you bear in mind all of the time and effort that went in to choosing the venue to hear comments about peoples rooms being too hot and the bar service was slow, as well as comments such as its like school dinners can be a little soul destroying.
No one mentioned that their was a WP there looking for service agents, no one mentioned liebherr bringing appliances and showing how to use their fault codes
nor did they mention the benefits of the Tech Vault and the Marketplace (more to follow Tim)
Oh and the Uk Service director for Hotpoint was impressed as well…So to those that came up to us and said thank you, on behalf of the WTA team we appreciate it and it goes some way to making it worthwhile.
To those that weren’t impressed we can only say that as ever we do our best with the resources at our disposal.See you next year at yarnfield
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