■ Birmingham Rising
Award-winning licensee and local operator Keith Marsden will set the scene for the MA500, highlighting the key changes in the Birmingham market and how the sector is innovating to meet the area’s diverse demands.
Are you in the club?
The MA500 club is open to multi-site pub operators and runs three nationwide events a year that include business-focused presentations from top experts and owner-operators.
Each event is followed by an evening networking study tour of new and exciting venues in the area.
To register your interest in attending the next MA500 meeting in Birmingham on 16 February 2017, email lucy.flack@wrbm.com
■ Engaging vision
Employee engagement expert and the man behind The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For lists, Jonathan Austin, will be offering key insight to connecting with your teams and sharing his knowledge from working with companies ranging from Microsoft and Mercedes Benz to Iceland.
■ Employee engagement table workshop
■ Room for growth
Accommodation is a growing opportunity for operators of all sizes. Consumers are increasingly looking for different experiences and are keen to spend nights in pubs rather than larger hotel chains. Dominic Worrall director of Inn Places and operator of the Great British Pub of the Year, the Bull in Ditchling, East Sussex, offers insight into the growing market for pub accommodation.
■ Rocketing rates
Business rates expert James Ward, an associate with property consultancy Harris Lamb, sheds light on the current situation, and offers some helpful insight and tips into how pub operators can mitigate the impact of soaring costs.
■ Collaboration is not a dirty word
James Cuthbertson and Heath Ball discuss how brewery Dark Star needed to ramp up its pub business and turned it into an award-winning operator to help realise its ambitions. They will talk about how collaboration with fellow operators can pay off, and some of the pitfalls you need to avoid when working together.
■ Offering more...
Aidan Keane, creative expert and founder of Keane Brands, takes a look at the hospitality market and explores ways restaurants and bars can, and indeed should, offer more than just eating and drinking as a reason to visit. Designer, former club promoter and DJ and now C4 TV presenter, Keane promises to be his usual forthright and challenging self!
■ Table workshops on branding
■ Food inflation
As food costs continue to spiral in the wake of Brexit, MCA’s Simon Stenning will present key analysis on how rising input costs is impacting on menu pricing trends and how operators can take action to mitigate those increases.
■ All day and all night
With traditional pub trade under increasing pressure, it’s never been more important to sweat your assets and get as much as possible out of your business. Three top operators explain how they’re making trade fly at all times of the day and week, and how they are flexing models to meet changing customer needs.
■ Game-changer
With people wanting bigger, more exciting experiences from life, pubs need to meet some of that demand. Event-led experiences are growing in popularity with “Escape Room” venues springing up around the country, James Addy of Handmade Mysteries is bringing that experience to the pub and will talk about how pubs can offer adult gaming with a difference and what it can bring to your business.