London Games Festival
Casual Games Forum to debut during London Games Festival in October
The UK is to host a new, high-profile event dedicated to the business of casual games in October.
The Casual Games Forum will debut during London Games Festival on Thursday, October 30th in the centre of the Capital.
The event – put together by Develop conference organiser Tandem Events – will be a one-day conference, with a morning track focusing on opportunities in the sector and what the future holds.
There will be two tracks in the afternoon, with one exploring the lucrative potential of casual games and the other taking on a more technical, development-centric feel.
“The casual games industry has grown dramatically in recent times and is rapidly saying goodbye to its niche tag as it becomes more and more mainstream,” Tandem Director Andy Lane told CasualGaming.biz.
“The Casual Games Forum has been designed with several aims in mind; to explore the business angles of this exciting market, but also to get under the skin of the more technical and practical aspects of developing casual games.
“As well as catering for those already involved in the sector, it’ll offer those waiting on the sidelines the chance to learn more and perhaps more importantly, give everyone the chance to network together, either as future partners or possible competitors.”
For more information, call Tandem Events on: +44 (0)20 7405 4500
You can visit the Tandem website here.
London Conference Venues Business Projection
May’s economic forecast made by the Confederation of British Industries indicates that the economy will grow at a level of 2%. This is a reduction of 0.2% since the September forecast.
However, perhaps the conference market has yet to be hit as hard as other areas of industry. The Evening Standard reported recently that expenses for corporate entertaining in city banks were being cut as employees are urged to stop flashing the company credit card after recession concerns have resulted in job losses. However, the Brewery is optimistic that its growth will reach its predicted 3% increase.
Changing business
This may be because we have seen a change in the way business is being conducted. All clients are reporting a change in their buying patterns, not a cessation of their expenditure.
Day delegate rates at the Brewery are from £69.00 plus VAT against the UK average of £45.62, yet we boasts a 50% rate of repeat business.
We conduct business analysis on a weekly basis. This means that general trends are easily identified and it helps to highlight that lead times are shortening. In the first two weeks of April, eight events were confirmed for May. Last year, these bookings would have been considered very last minute, but 2008 is shaping up to be a very different year.
Assured spend
We have also identified an increase in the value of each booking from contract to invoicing; the level of uplift each month has risen to 5% in 2008 compared to 2% in 2007. This demonstrates a slight hesitation of clients to commit at contract stage to guest numbers and beverage spends. However, when it comes to the actual event, the spend is assured.
Bookings show a shift in the types of industry holding events. The Brewery can report that many more bookings are coming from industries such as retail, transport, communications, new media, and there has also been a large increase in the number of events regarding sustainability and green issues.
Claire Lawson is general manager at London conference venue the Brewery.
Contractors for London Olympic Venues
Two UK companies have signed the contracts to build two of London 2012 as flagship venues, the Olympic Stadium and the Aquatics Centre.
Balfour Beatty has won the contract to build the Aquatics Centre and Team Stadium (Sir Robert McAlpine, HOK Sport and Buro Happold) were confirmed as the contractor for the Olympic Stadium.
The 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium will host the Athletics events as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Games. After the Games the Stadium will be converted to a 25,000 seat Athletics stadium, suitable for other sporting, community and educational uses.
The Aquatics Centre will have a capacity of 17,500 during the Games, reducing to 2,500 after the Games, with the ability to increase this for major events. The Aquatics Centre will include two 50m Swimming pools and a Diving pool – facilities that London does not have at present.
The contract for the Aquatics Centre also includes constructing the huge land bridge that will be the main gateway into the Olympic Park. The budgets for the Centre and the land bridge are £242m and £61m respectively.
And what a budget! The ODA’s press release proudly announces that the contracts are “within its baseline budget of £6.09 billion” with “no call on programme contingency at this stage”. Of the £6 billion, the stadium is going to cost £496 million and the pool a further £242 million
Nell Mc Andrew Stripped Bear for London Fundraiser
 
Model Nell McAndrew stripped bare to help launch a major fundraising event for cancer research.
The 34-year-old London Based TV presenter braved chilly weather in London to take part in a naked training session along with women from around the UK.
The event aimed to highlight London Based Cancer Research UK Race for Life 2008, the largest women-only fundraising event in Britain and held in London every year
The training session in Regent’s Park, London, in temperatures a little above freezing, saw participants’ blushes covered by not much more than body-painted event running numbers, painted shorts and pink commemorative back signs.
Most of the women taking part had a personal connection to cancer, with the group including cancer nurses and survivors of the disease.
Women are invited to walk, jog, or run five kilometres (3.1 miles) at more than 260 events across the UK. The charity is hoping that 750,000 women will participate and help raise more than £50 million for research into all forms of cancer.
London Boat Show – Boat Venues
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A veteran destroyer of the Falkland Islands conflict, HMS Exeter has taken a starring role at this year’s ten day London Boat Show which officially opened on Friday.
The Type 42 destroyer as a London Venue is hosting several high-profile receptions, lunches and dinners on behalf of show organizers during the event at ExCel Centre Docklands London.The vessel is also open daily to visitors to learn about the role of the modern Royal Navy and how it fits in with the UK maritime community. Royal Navy frigates have been popular attractions at the show since 2004 but this year is the first time a destroyer has been involved as a fully fledged venue.
Type 42 Destroyers form the backbone of the Royal Navy’s anti-air capability. They are equipped with the Sea Dart medium range air defence missile system, designed to provide area air defence to a group of ships whilst being effective against surface targets at sea.
In addition to their role as an air defence platform, Type 42 Destroyers operate independently carrying out patrol and boarding operations.
Exeter’s Commanding Officer, Commander Paul Brown, said: “I am delighted and extremely proud that HMS Exeter has been given the opportunity to represent the Royal Navy at one of the country’s most important london maritime eventsâ€.
