Racing Upon Difficult Times 

Silverstone steps on the gas

In recent days, we launched a blog about the importance of 'Flexibility For The New Normal’, referring to how group and independent venues might be able to overcome the current and  long-lasting effect of Covid-19 for the meetings and events industry. 

We, at venuedirectory.com, want to highlight the effort done by Silverstone Conference & Exhibition Centre to adapt and survive the pandemic effect. Silverstone Circuits Ltd are widely promoting the huge outdoor space available at Silverstone, which extends to over 600 acres. Launching packages, such as outdoor-focused events, including motorhome shows, camping and glamping exhibitions, bush craft sessions as breakout meetings among many other options.

Adapting at Full Speed

 Hayley Smith

 In an interview with ConferenceNews, Hayley Smith, head of sales at Silverstone said:

“When it became clear just how serious the impact of coronavirus would be, we realised that we needed to adapt quickly to ensure the future of our business and, just before lockdown started, we invested some time creating a new mid-term strategy. We realised that the lack of guidance we were receiving in the industry would impact us and we wanted to ensure we remained pro-active in our approach across every aspect of our meetings and events business.

Despite the challenges, it’s really brought out the best in our team and has shown how nimble and focused we are. We’re lucky at Silverstone in that we have a huge amount of space, both indoors and outdoors, which means we’ve been able to get really creative about what we can offer clients going forward and, as a result, have devised a range of new packages and options for meetings.

We’ve also just come out of the very successful Formula One Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone. This was one of the biggest events to take place behind closed doors and reinforced the fact that we were ready to reopen as soon as restrictions allow it.

Smith continues: “We’re also exploring the opportunity for drive-in meetings, which feels very apt given Silverstone’s heritage. We are looking at utilising our Copse Runway to stream the conference to parked participants and would open a drive-thru option for catering.

Equally, we’re using our garages more than ever – clients love the industrial feel and blank canvas space. The added benefit of these is the ability to open the garage doors to let more air in, which will make our customers feel even more comfortable in the current environment.

We also took the opportunity to re-look at our catering offer for weddings and are now looking at working with a number of outside catering businesses that offer speciality Asian cuisine. Each of these caterers appeals to a different community, allowing us to extend our business with as many possibilities as possible.

While there are no denying things have been tough, enquiry levels in the last few weeks have definitely increased. They’re not yet on a par to what we were receiving pre-Covid-19 but we’re well on our way back. As a team, we’re confident that our adaptability and the sheer size and flexibility of the spaces we have at Silverstone mean that we’re a very attractive proposition for events going forward”.

The Formula to Success

Michael Begley, MD of venuedirectory.com said:

“It’s amazing how creativity and capability can adapt and overcome any difficulties. This sudden and unfortunate pandemic time tests us to not only show our weaknesses but also discover our strengths. We applaud Silverstone Conference & Exhibition Centre for their initiative and perseverance.”