Behind the scenes of the Conservative Party Conference

Senior Event Manager Anna Beedie talks about her experience of managing 372 events in four days.

My role when we host the Conservative Party Conference (CPC) is to organise the fringe events. We have over 370 in four days – to put that in perspective that’s almost as many as we do on an annual basis!  I work alongside Angus Lloyd-Skinner, Accreditation & Events Coordinator for the Conservative Party Conference, to organise the fringe events. The fringe events are booked through Angus and then I get a list of the requirements for each one which I then co-ordinate from our side.

It is a huge operation, but luckily this is the sixth time we have hosted the conference so most people working on it know what to expect. To manage all the events, we split the ICC into zones, each with different colour and I then assign a zone manager to take responsibility for that area for the length of the conference. This is where our event team is just excellent. I can’t remember every single detail but know the rest of the team have their zone under control. It’s all hands on deck! I don’t get off scot free though, I get involved where needed on the zones. 

It can be challenging as we essentially have over 150 clients – some with multiple events – over those four days with events lasting between 90 minutes and 2 hours. They have spent months working on their event and understandably want someone there from our team and our undivided attention. This event is huge for them and we appreciate that. With so many clients we try to managing their expectations in the build up to the event, and then actually on the day. The event managers and production managers are absolutely brilliant at understanding what event needs the most attention, and the hosts, technical and security teams support us by dealing with in the moment requests and the sales team were fantastic in stepping in to help out with events as well.

We want them to have visibility of us so they know they are supported and so they always can get someone in contact with the events team. Clients tell us this is what makes us stand apart from other venues as we give them our full attention regardless of what else is going on in the building so they receive a real personal service.

I love the buzz around the building during CPC. When the venue becomes a secure zone we know the biggest event is almost upon us and it’s exciting. We pull it off so well and the venue looks so brilliant. It also a massive operational achievement which is only made possible because of the good relationships we have with the clients and each other.

In a typical day my first job each is to check on my zones, make sure the hosts are in place, catering is okay and we know what we are doing for the day. Then I check in with the event team to see where our pinch points are or we may have hectic turnarounds. For example, on one day at 7pm we had nine event turnarounds take place in half an hour, so we know that will stretch the venue and we put plans in place to ensure we have no issues. When we do turn the rooms around they are clean and tidy and it’s just constant checking. I have one massive folder rather than a lot of lists with everything in!

When there is a lull in the day you just have to motivate yourself to keep going and not let anything slip. It can be hard we get tired and just focus on CPC but we have to be able to think about and plan what’s coming next. Every event is important.

I love being operational and I love working with the event team. It can be hard work but worth it.