Badminton to business dinner for one of Sheffield
Thursday, 22nd October 2009
What takes months in the planning and more than 150 people two days to ste-up, but just seven hours to dismantle?
No it’s not the latest in flat pack furniture, but the transformation of one of Sheffield’s top sporting venues into a leading black tie dinner venue.
Ponds Forge International Sports Centre has been staging the Sheffield Business Awards for the last five years and will do once more on December 3.
More than 1,000 people attend the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce event, which is held in the sports hall within the Sheffield International Venues-managed facility.
On a daily basis, the hall plays host to a variety of dry sports including badminton, basketball, netball, karate, judo and netball, providing first class facilities for both amateur and professional sports people.
However, around eight times a year the venue undergoes a major alteration for a variety of dinner evenings. David Wagstaff is group food and beverage manager at Sheffield International Venues (SIV) and is tasked with organising the transformation.
He said: “We often bring people down to the sports hall to have a look around and show them what is available when considering our venue for a dinner.
“Clients will look at us like we have gone mad when we say the hall will be ideal for their event and there are people running around playing badminton behind us. But when they arrive on the evening they can’t believe it is the same room.”
David admits the hall takes around two days to set-up, co-ordinating a variety of staff, from sound and light engineers, to the production crew, all being supported by SIV’s events teams.
Having organised dinners like the Business Awards for more than a decade, David and his staff have got it down to a fine art, including how to get the hall back to its original form.
“For an event which attracts 1,000 people, we would be looking at having around 100 waitresses, 12 chefs, 20 bar staff, a management team of eight, as well as support from the SIV leisure and event staff,” added David. “You are looking at the management of about 150 people in total and that doesn’t include extras from third parties.
“We have a detailed plan in place indicating the key times for when everything has to be done by. We also work with a number of suppliers to stage the event. It is vital to have good business relationships with third parties you have confidence in and know can deliver a good standard of service time and time again.
“When you are staging an event for 1,000 people you need that confidence!
“At the end of the evening we strip down the room over-night, so when a dinner finishes at 2am, we can have the hall back to its original form taking a sporting activity from around 9-10am.
“Sometimes clients return the next morning and everyone is back playing badminton again and that confused look they had the first time they visited returns!”
The sports hall has proven to be a popular venue for large-scale dinners – one year the venue staged 12 events – as it is capable of hosting a maximum capacity of 1,400 people.
Sheffield Chamber moved the Business Awards to Ponds Forge so it could accommodate more people to attend the event. It has proved a successful switch as the awards have grown massively, trebling in size over the last five years.
David said: “We have the basics well planned now, but you constantly need to change the concept as you go along.
“As well as the Chamber’s Business awards, we stage charity fundraisers and sports dinners, which can all take place in the same year and with many Sheffield people attending. We therefore need to make sure that the same people don’t see the same event and provide something different each time to meet the different expectations.
“We need to give them a different experience each time they come to retain the business in the future.”
Sheffield Business Awards 2009, which is sponsored by Yorkshire Forward and Edge Telecom, is set to be the biggest to date with 15 accolades up for grabs
The event will celebrate the success and diversity of Sheffield’s business community.
Businesses can register their details, gain access to the application form and submit an entry by visiting www.sheffieldbusinessawards.org.uk. Deadline for entries has been extended by a week to October 23.
For more information about the Sheffield Business Awards please contact the Chamber events team on 0114 201 8899.
