Conference and Event Management: A Hilton Hotel Analysis

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Conference and Event Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................8
LO3................................................................................................................................................12
LO4................................................................................................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
Reference List................................................................................................................................19
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Introduction
Event Management is a process of creating and developing events or projects with suitable
programming and planning. There are many personal events such as get-together parties,
wedding ceremonies, festivals, or concerts or corporate events such as conferences, meetings, or
seminars. It requires an expert event manager who will carry on all the processes needed for
successful event management. The event manager should perform leadership qualities, skills
related to time management, and excellent interpersonal skills. This paper shows the possible
investigation of event categories and dimensions of events in the event sector. Here in the chosen
company, the quality and services are checked to see whether the company have the ability to
host events. Additionally, it will discuss the skills required in the event management for efficient
working. This paper will also discuss the security and the safety measures needed to be
maintained by the manager.
For this study, the company chosen is the Hilton Hotel. Conrad Hilton founded the company in
the year 1919. After 2017, more than 570 hotels opened across 85 countries (Hilton.com, 2019).
It is a leading company in the hospitality industry. The first hotel was opened in Dallas, Texas in
the year of 1925 named Dallas Hilton. All the properties are operated and maintained by Hilton.
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LO1
Investigate the different categories and dimensions of the event within the event sector.
P1. Examine the different categories and dimensions of events, using specific examples to
illustrate the differences.
For this study, the organisation chosen is the Hilton Hotel. Within the company, the hotels
provide many facilities to their customers like hosting different types of personal and corporate
events. It is one of the top leading companies in the hospitality industry in the UK. The hotel
management performs different types of conferences and events (Ocasio et al., 2015). They host
various personal events like get-together parties, wedding ceremonies, anniversaries and similar
other events also. Apart from personal events, they also host corporate events such as business
dinners, meetings, product-launch events, award meetings, seminars, shareholder meetings,
conferences, trade exhibitions, networking events and many more. The various types of elements
needed for hosting can be drawn out by various categories of events. The categories and
dimensions are the main differences in hosting an event.
Wedding ceremonies, Gala business dinners, and business conferences are some of the events
that are successfully hosted by the company.
Elements Business Conference VIP dinner parties Wedding ceremonies
Funding of the event The business partners
and the stakeholders
will provide the fund
required to host the
business conference
(Mongelli and Rullan,
2017). The media
partners and the
sponsors will provide
the fund if the
conference is of
Those who are
arranging the VIP
dinner parties that are
the host will provide
the fund for this
event. For the VIP
dinners, the price
scale may vary similar
to corporate events
such as seminars and
conferences. The
The party that is
hosting a personal
event like a wedding
ceremony have to
provide the total fund
individually to host
the event. The
sponsors or the
shareholders will not
provide the fund for
such event. It is an
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international and
national level. They
complete the whole
program directly from
the venue. The
funding range varies
from a nominal level
to a high level. In this
type of events, only
one investigator is
experienced. Direct
funding systems are
not used in this event.
hosts whose financial
statuses are less
would organise a
luxurious and decent
dinner party. And the
hosts whose financial
conditions are good
should organise gala
dinner parties for their
international guests
and delegates.
opportunity of
eliminating the short
amount of expenses
by the huge amount of
expenses. To host the
corporate and the
personal events, 20%
of fund for advance
booking will be
provided by the
Hilton hotel from
their estimated
expenditure. This is
very helpful for such
events as there is a
single host the overall
expenditure is
collected totally. As
the wedding events
are long lasting the
expenses are quite
high enough.
Tenure of the event It may last for 2 to 3
days.
Lasts for one day only It may lasts for 3 to 4
days.
Food items and
beverages
In this kind of events,
the main emphasis
lies on the drinks and
the starters that are
provided during the
conference. To
introduce the guests
Large preference is
given to the main food
items, beverages and
starters. A large range
of refreshment and
different types of
starters are provided
In wedding ceremony,
the main courses are
served more than the
starters. Nearly 3/4 th
of money is spent in
beverages and food
items. In wedding
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with the culture of
country, the
representatives of the
different local
countries presents the
loyal representatives
of different countries.
The major efforts are
given on the
originality of the food
products and the
refreshing taste of the
drinks. If the
conference lasts for a
long time and the
conference have
several events then
the conference
includes dinner and
lunch in their context.
to the VIP guests
(Mears, 2015.). After
serving snakes to the
guests then the main
course are served to
the guests. The main
courses are served
either in serving on a
table that is in
traditional way or in a
buffet system.
Sometimes the seats
reserved and arranged
for some special
guests based on their
dignitaries and by
mentioning their
names on the table. In
this system, the
employees of the
organising team serve
the food items
according to the table.
Large numbers of
food items are
arranged in this event.
event, dinks are
served less (Musaeva
and Akhmedova,
2017). In this
ceremony, the guests
mainly focus on the
types of main course
served..
Decoration The event place is
decorated in a
sophisticated and
formal manner. The
decorations are done
The event place and
the dining table
should be decorated in
a sophisticated
manner. More efforts
In the wedding
ceremony, the
decoration should be
done on the basis of
theme or the
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with large sitting
arrangements,
projector screens, and
speakers.
should be given on
decorating the dining
tables with flowers
full of fragrances.
traditional manner
according to the
requirement of the
party that is hosting
the event.
Table 1: Difference between the various events
(Source: created by the learner)
P2. Using specific examples of different categories of events, discuss the features and
current trends influencing the events sector.
Since the foundation of the Hilton Hotels, the organisation has hosted various successful events
to meet the needs and demands of their customers (Sobel and Clark, 2018). Various events are
hosted in this hotel with different price range. For the high class people in the society some
events are hosted with gala category and for the mediocre class people the events are hosted with
luxurious and descent category. The company tried to fulfil the needs of all types of people in the
society. With the passage of time the above explained management and the events has changed.
The organisation changes their requirements according to the needs of the customers. Different
new services and techniques have been assimilated for organising various events. With the
application of new technologies the management team and the organising committee of Hilton
has improved their assistance and services. Proper training are provided to the employees of the
organisation those who are given the responsibility to manage such events so that they can avail
latest services and technologies to their customers. To make their customers feel satisfied and to
maintain the reputation of the company in the hospitality industry the organisation give such
training to their employees (Jiang et al., 2018). The management department of the company has
modernized the space with the assimilation of recent machineries and latest designs to host such
events. To intensify the satisfaction level of the customers the washrooms and the dining space
are renovated with the latest trends. The halls where the wedding ceremonies are hosted are re-
designed with varied sizes and latest trends.
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LO2
Examine the considerations for conference and event room set-ups defining the
professional standards required.
P3. Design an event layout to correctly set up a conference or event room to meet specific
client brief requirement.
To study this case, Hilton Hotels are taken as an example. In Central London, UK there are total
six hotel outlets of the company and all functions as hotel group. All over the world, there are
total 540 hotels and resorts contained by the concerned hotel chains. The customers reserve
conference halls and event rooms in advance (Rogers and Davidson, 2015) to host various events
like conference, office parties, board meetings, weddings and many other events. The customers
book the hotels in advance via online through the organisation’s official website. The standards
and the requirements of the customer vary according to their budgets, cultural aspects and other
variables. Now, if the company have to organise an international conference on Travel and
Tourism industry that are affiliated by UK government, the following set-ups need to be done by
the Hilton Hotels that define the required professional standards. The event name is
“International Travel Conference on Tourism Development”
Enclosed Long Tables: Large closed tables are designed to accommodate more number of
guests to utilise the whole available space. Another facility that is to be provided by the event
coordinator of the company to their customers are the speakers in front of every seats. The hotel
authority set up the tables depending upon the number of guests in Hilton Hotel. For hosting a
good quality meeting the company should provide the well- furnished furniture and behave
politely to their guests.
Banquet: To attract maximum clients it is one of the best attractive feature that a organisation
can provide (Anglo, 2017). The UK based traditional banquet hotel provides large floors for
award ceremonies, wedding ceremonies and many other events. In the resorts, the Hilton Hotel
provide sufficient area to organise those events.
Lighting: For hosting an event lighting plays a vital role for designing aspects. Most of the hotel
chains give efforts on lighting purpose. In addition to that, there are two major issues related to it
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that is energy saving and electric wiring. Before hosting an event, these major issues should be
verified to avoid major faults. Hilton hotel chains mainly focus on the designing and lighting ,
and also focuses on the security system. Before hosting, each event there includes an electrician
who checks the overall electric supply of the system. The profit of the company depends on how
long the event will continue. Suppose, if the events are carried out in sunlight, then the company
have to do the proper arrangements to carry out the event more economically and ensuring the
proper utilisation of sunlight.
Stage:-To arrange a proper stage for the event, the stage should be arranged in such a way that
the speaker could see to all the guests comfortably (Joshua, 2017). For example, the stage should
not be made in such a way that there is no space for the sitting arrangements behind the stage.
Now In Hilton Hotels, the stages of the conference rooms are build in the roof top. As a result,
the sound system will function very smoothly. Initially, most of the hotel chain had a bad review
for the stages but at last they successfully recover it and earn maximum profit without any issues.
Lounge: Hilton Hotels develop theatre style lounges so that the customers can relax
comfortably. There are free internet connections initialised to the executive lounge rooms of
Hilton Hotels. From the 14th floor of the lounge rooms the guest can enjoy the panoramic view of
the city of London. Sometimes to position the dining tables the lounge rooms are expanded.
Figure-1: Conference Hall Arrangement
(Source: influenced by Farhadi and Hamidikhah, 2016)
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P4. Examine the additional services available within a conference or event environment
and the importance to provide them to meet specific client requirements for added value.
To meet customer requirements a conference rooms must be facilitated with specific additional
features, sometimes these are necessary for hosting events to earn the brand image (Getz and
Page, 2016). These features help the hotel to attract more clients than the competitive hotels. For
hosting an event on the behalf of travel and tourism, additional services are provided by Hilton
Hotels. They are:
Emergency Services: While hosting an event some unpredictable things may happen, this will
lead to emergency purposes. To face the unwanted challenges, the emergency services and the
preliminary precautions must be kept by the established hotel industry (Reuter et al., 2016).
Though the faults may not cause from the company’s side but the organisation always have to
prepare for the unwanted accidents and defaults. Some of the emergency services are explained
below:
 An accident may cause regarding breaking of furniture, glasses and other objects. So to
avoid such causalities, there is a 24*7 facility is provided by the Hilton Hotel.
 Other major faults nay occur regarding short circuit errors or electrical power cuts. This
will result a bad image of the clients towards the company. So before hosting an event,
Hilton Hotels have a facility of efficient technicians. Moreover, they have backup energy
sources like diesel generator, batteries, etc.
The most important point is that for the emergency services the company has a separate budget
for it, they do not compromise with the emergency services. As a result, they will receive a good
image from the customer side.
Food Arrangements: Before hosting an event, the hotels must arrange sufficient drinks,
beverages, and foods so that in case of sudden shortage of food items the hotel can manage the
required items, otherwise it will create a bad impression for the event-hosting hotel (Pereira and
Drimie, 2016). Therefore, for this reason, Hilton Hotels uses a stocking system for storing
standard drinks and food items for emergencies.
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Decoration: For the modern day customers, decoration is the most demanding aspects.
Nevertheless, for arranging an event decoration is not essential. In a wedding ceremony, the
whole event is decorated with flowers (Heinz et al., 2017). The event rooms, chairs, tables all are
decorated with flowers. But in case of formal office meetings, seating arrangements, stage
designing plays a vital role in case of decoration. Therefore, Hilton focuses on the decoration of
the event rooms with lights, furniture and others.
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LO3
Explore the management skills required to work within the events environment and
successfully
P5 Explore the different management roles within the event industry, with reference to
current job opportunities in the sector
Various roles are assigned to the various members of the event management team. The main aim
of the various members who has assigned many roles of the management team is to conduct the
event successfully. In this study, the management team of Hilton Hotel plans an International
Conference (Reason, 2016). The event was conducted by the UK Government to develop the
Travel and Tourism department of their country. In the event management team, the members
are assigned with various job titles and job roles namely event supervisor, event assistant, event
director, coordinator of the sponsorship, event manager, event coordinator, manager for the
community relationship, communication assistant. For invasion of new technology, many new
roles have been invented along with traditional managerial roles.
The arrangements for hosting the International Conference that was conducted by the
government should be planned with specific details. The event should be conducted in a perfect
manner from all dimensions. For the proper functioning of the event, the management team has
to incorporate latest technologies and has to do the plans perfectly. A Conference Architect
needs to be appointed by the management team. The architect will look after the architecture and
set up of the event so that the event will achieve the desired success. Moreover, to handle the
screens and digital projectors, the management team should appoint a digital concierge.
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