Sodexo Prestige E-Commerce Manager, Andrew Nicholson, answers industry questions from Prestige Blogger Lorraine Blake

Tell us a little bit about what you do at Prestige the Andrew?

Quite a bit at the moment actually Lorraine. We’re moving a lot of our sales and marketing activity online, so I’ve been a very busy boy. We’ve found of late that as more and more of our customers communicate in the virtual world, we’re able to talk to them directly this way. We’re engaging via Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc, and by doing this we’re able to talk to our customers, rather than talking at them. There’s been some resistance to this new way of doing things, but I’ve hopefully played my part in convincing people that this open dialogue is something we should be embracing, rather than being scared of.

I’ve also been working hard on launching our new online event booking tool. This will enable customers to book and pay online for a range of events throughout the Prestige family. It doesn’t matter if they’re looking for a Christmas party for 100 in Hampden Park in Glasgow, or a romantic dinner cruise on board Bateaux London, guests will be able to go through the same online portal knowing that they’re in safe hands. This will be going live later in the year, so I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

How does this relate to the event-world?

Ahhh. You mean that thing you sales guys call the real world? It’s funny. People look at live events and think there’s no connection with online. But what they fail to grasp a lot of the time is that the online world is based on the real world. Videos uploaded onto YouTube (currently at a rate of 24 hours worth of footage every minute of the day) are videos of live events, whether that be an exhibition for 1,000 delegates at Ascot Racecourse, or a panda cub sneezing. Photos of The Open Championship and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (where we do hospitality) are uploaded onto Flickr, and if you search for Ashton Court Mansion (which I’m visiting today) on Google, you’ll see members of the public posting event reviews.

What is the best aspect of your job?

The great thing about working online is you can see the results of your work instantly. If you produce a bill board, you may see a surge of interest over a few months, if you put out a newspaper ad, you’ll see a surge of interest that day (hopefully). When I sent out a Tweet advertising our new partnership between City Jet and Open Golf Official Hospitality just now, I’d had 40 people click through to the package information before I’d even had time to refresh the page. It’s this instant gratification that I love!

Which is your favourite Prestige event and why?

Oh, now that’s a tricky one. From a purely personal perspective, I enjoyed hospitality at Royal Ascot two year’s back, and met the Queen. Twice! That’s an experience money simply can’t buy. I love the energy of Ascot. The passion and the fashion. And let’s be honest, the racing is without compare. That said, this month I brought my mum two hospitality places for Hampton Court Palace Flower show, for her 60th birthday (She’s going to kill me for putting her age down on here). Don’t get me wrong, Chelsea Flower Show is still the peak of the social season, but for my mum I thought something a little more sedate might be the order of the day, and as she’s a bit of a gardener herself, I know the earthiness of Hampton Court would appeal. I must have been right, as she’s over the moon and can’t stop talking about it

If you had to be a canapé what would you be and why?

Um… Odd question, but here goes.

I’d be the Three-Course Dinner Chewing Gum from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (though I’m not sure if this is strictly classed as a canapé). Because just like the chewing gum, online is constantly evolving and changing, and you never know what you’re going to end up with. This is what I love about the industry, and why I thrive on it. Hopefully I won’t end up like poor Violet Beauregarde though!

HMS Belfast Relaunch

HMS Belfast was relaunched on Wednesday 17th March! Well, the venue facilities were... its not actually off to war or anything.

Absolutely hilarious night last night aboard HMS Belfast: to celebrate the refurbishment of the venue, Prestige hosted a drinks reception, inviting some 350 guests to join us for tours, music, champagne and canapes – and I can honestly say my job has never felt less like work.

Walking over the bridge onto the ship (on a red carpet no less), pipers piped and we were greeted by the Admiral. It was like stepping back in time. Jitter-bug dancers, flaming torches and live music all set the tone and the crowds of people gave off a constant buzz of excitement. It never fails to impress me that you are actually onboard a warship that served in the world wars and the view of the London skyline at night is simply breath-taking.

I only invited a handful of clients as it was not strictly ‘my’ night, but in the end I did not get to speak to a single one of them. The ship was completely packed and I enjoyed the opportunity of speaking to whomever I was rubbing up against. No, it was not that kind of party, but everyone certainly knew each other a little better than before by the time we all departed.

International Women's Day!

On Monday 8 March, International Women's Day took place and we celebrated the worldwide achievements and contributions of women to society and the economy by getting together for some tea and cake and having a good old moan about men…..

Not really; although we did have cake.

Like many organisations, Sodexo has a great representation of women in frontline and middle management positions. I work with some amazing women, and I have some fantastic role models within my department. However, at senior level we see fewer and fewer women. This has been recognised as a potential missed opportunity within our business (damn right), and as a result Sodexo recently launched a new initiative to increase the percentage of women in its management.

The Sodexo Women’s International Forum for Talent (SWIFT) is comprised of the organisation’s top 20 senior female executives (I just missed the cut) and represents 12 different nationalities. It focuses on identifying specific actions needed for Sodexo to achieve gender balance.

Personally, I couldn’t be more pleased. I studied gender as part of my MA and also volunteer for a women’s charity in my spare time – so it’s a subject very close to my heart.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show Drinks Reception

My first event – all me, all mine, mine mine mine!

I am a tad excited, can you tell? Last night I hosted a fabulous event celebrating the Official Hospitality at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (and for me, celebrating the fact that slowly but surely I have made this event my own within our department). 50 of Prestige’s top Hospitality clients joined the Prestige sales team at the L’Occitane boutique in Covent Garden for an evening of shopping, pampering and (lot’s of) champagne – and I am pleased to say that it was a great success.

Ok, so it is slightly remiss to say it was all me. I must thank the fantastic event team based at Cabinet War Rooms for operating the event, and our Event Manager for the Chelsea Flower Show who oversaw everything on the night; plus my colleagues here at Head Office and our new friends at L’Occitane. Overall, a great team effort.

L’Occitane is a fellow French company, and they will be exhibiting at the show for the first time this year. They are understandably excited and proud to have been selected from the hundreds of applicants who would like to exhibit at the show, and were delighted to have the chance to shout about it. They invited their garden designer, to speak to the guests and he gave a lovely speech about his Provence inspired garden. The RHS Show Director also joined us, and she too addressed our guests about the show and Hospitality.

Of course, it was expected that I would get up there and thank everyone for coming, talk a little about the Hospitality Village, describe what we do at Sodexo and announce the prize-winners. This was not an entirely thrilling prospect to me, (please note my aforementioned fear of public speaking), and during the weeks leading up to it I had been alternating between living in denial and not thinking about it, and waking up in the middle of night having just dreamt I’d lost the ability to speak any sense at all (although some will debate whether I have ever had this ability). In fact, before the guests arrived I tried to persuade David McCallum (Sales Director, The Open) to take the speech from me – threatening tears, tantrums, money – but to no avail: “This is all part of your development Lorraine. You can do it …. Etc etc”. Nor would Anna Fenten (Director of Marketing, Prestige) step in: a simple, “No daaaarling”. Thus the only road open to me was the Dutch one, and wonderfully, it did the trick …. I am very grateful to David for making me do it – it is such a great feeling to challenge yourself and win.

I absolutely love networking, and thoroughly enjoyed speaking with everyone there. I hadn’t intended it to be a ladies-only event, although it did end up being just us girls and this made for a lovely atmosphere. David and Stuart (fellow sales executive) were bitterly disappointed at being the only men amongst 50 women …..

Part of my approach to selling the Hospitality at Chelsea is advocating it as a truly exciting event for women. It is hard to do this without appearing to generalise, however traditionally, it is men who monopolise the hospitality calendar, mostly focussing on their male clients and sticking to the sporty-side of the industry. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a popular event which appeals to both men and women – but is a particular favourite with ladies.

Many of my guests on the evening thanked me profusely for putting on an event that they actually enjoyed and were pleased that female business needs were being taken into account. Personally, that is the aspect of the evening that makes me the most happy.