Unique Venues of London (UVL) members are reporting positive sales and increase spend over summer 2014, it was revealed today (11 Sept). 

The association has said this indicates a revitalisation of corporate event budgets after the hard years during the recession. 

“The positive comments from members regarding their summer success is highly encouraging and proves that there is definitely a resurging appetite for big-spend events,” said UVL’s chair Moya Maxwell. 

“The post-recession landscape is markedly different as now corporate buyers are looking for something bigger, better and – above all – unique,” she continued. “It’s great to see that so many members have risen to this brief and are offering both the exciting and unusual for their events.” 

“We have found an increase in the number of away days and activity days,” said UVL member Rachel Proudlock, from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. “I think the summer events market is improving as it seems to be the trend to have a Summer Party as well as a Christmas Party.” 

Member Fleur Burrows-Jones, hospitality events sales and marketing manager at The National Theatre said: “It was an extremely positive summer with June and July fully-booked with some days seeing back-to-back events.” 

Finally, member Emma Barrow, head of events at Somerset House, said: “It was a very exciting season for us, not least for the Film4 Summer Screen, now in our tenth anniversary year, and saw the screening of cinema classics and premieres. Our team handles all the parties for Film4 Summer Screen, so we’ve been swamped with parties and catering from them. 

“In business terms, there is no doubt an increase in the scope of ambition for summer events has been registered,” Barrow added, “and we certainly saw an increase in spend by our clients this year, from exciting Christmas product launches to interesting filming projects.” 

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