TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents .............................................................................. 2 Introduction....................................................................................... 3 1.1 A review of the size and scope of conferencing and banqueting industry in the United Kingdom......................................................... 4
1.2 An analysis of the different influences that have shaped the industry.............................................................................................. 7
Conclusion ........................................................................................ 10
Bibliography ..................................................................................... 11

INTRODUCTION Conferencing and Banqueting sector is very important in the hospitality industry. Conference can be refer to as meeting of group of people in formal gathering to discuss business e.g. business meeting while Banquet can be refer to as an arrangement for person receiving services who wish to do a ceremony or celebrate an important time e.g. wedding ceremony. Conferencing and banqueting is all about making provision for foods and beverages to some a certain group of people to gather and eat together at the same time. According to [Cousin, Foskett, Gillespie, (2002)], Conferencing and banqueting is just about gathering together an event and it usually have as a capacity of different forms of gathering like a ceremony, to celebrate, small gatherings, picnics, seminars, family occasions, birthday parties, baby showers or weddings. The event industry in hospitality is truly universal and with events being occupied each day around the world in different exhibition centres, halls, parks etc that host different events attracting both local and international representatives, families and friends. Conferencing and banqueting are major businesses in hospitality as they generates lot of funds in the United Kingdom as people attend conferences, workshops in a large numbers, meetings for businesses, people doing different type of ceremonies in big numbers etc. We are focusing on the size and scope of conferencing and banqueting in the United Kingdom as the country has experienced major growth in this division and we are to analyse the influences such as Politics, Econimics, Social, Technology, Legal and Environment (PESTLE) that have shaped and impacted the business in the nation.
1.1 REVIEW OF THE SIZE AND SCOPE OF THE CONFERENCE AND BANQUETING INDUSTRY IN THE UK.
The early foundation or origin of meetings can be traced back to Roman times Shone A (1998) says that; in United Kingdom and Ireland with the evolvement of meeting rooms and meeting places to contain such occasions are utmost generally guided by the needs of trade and dealing.
As we are aware that United Kingdom is multi-cultural community and one of the largest accommodative country in Europe, which attract a very huge amount of the world’s population with various tourist centres.
The hospitality industry is said to be or rather evaluated to be equivalent £18.8 billion to the UK economy, together with expenses at different events and in the large destination by delegates and organizers.
Rogers (2015) says that conferences and banqueting venues within UK are on these percentages: “Hotels 53%, unusual Venues 18% (universe of 3,500 venues), multi-purpose venues 12%, conference/training centres 9%, academic 6%, and purpose built 2%”.

Source: www.chefsworld.net (The Hospitality Industry)
Relatively 6,650 conference and banqueting venues works with every major hotel brands such as Best Western, Marriott or Hilton and there are approximated around 9.001,053 meeting rooms across the UK. In 1997, the British Association of Conference Destinations (BACD) estimated that 6.3 million overseas business visitors came to the UK, and spent a total of £3,501 million.
Boston Business School 2007, refers to scope as the conditions described for aftermath that is the mainly meaning of what the events are expected to perform with the actual definition of what it attain after all. The main component of scope is the essence of the finished product.
Below is the financial value of UK economy growth of conference and banqueting in 2009 recorded by Rogers, (2015).

Segments | Financial Value | Exhibitions and trade shows | £9.3billion | Conference and meetings | £7.2 billion | Individual business travel(inclusive discretional vs non-discretionary) | £7 billion | Motive travel | £1.2 billion | Cooperate hospitality | £1.1 billion | Out-of-door events | £1 billion |

1.2 AN ANALYSIS OF THE DIFFERENT INFLUENCES THAT HAVE SHAPED THE INDUSTRY.
A PESTLE evaluation is generally used as a general breaking in tool, identifying where an organization or product is in the situation of what is going on outside that will at the particular time affect what is going on inside an organization.

Source: www.google.co.uk/pestleimages

Political: Government stability or policies can greatly have effect on industries and the nation at large. A very good example was the report analysed or carried out by Mollie Goodfellow (Wednesday 30th September 2015) Independent News on government spending cuts, showed that the poorest councils in the country were facing funding cuts more than 18 times than of the richest local authorities. In an analysis undertaken by the Labour party figures show that between the years 2010 and 2015, when the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government were in power, funding for the 10 most deprived local councils have fallen on average by £681.04 per household while out of the 10 wealthiest councils in the UK, four saw an increase in their funding, while nine of the most deprived saw cuts of more than £520 per household.
Economic: An unemployment rates, inflation, interest rates levels of disposable income are some of the elements which can influence the general growth or decline in society economy.
According to John, D (2015), “National macroeconomic situation, elements and events impacting the situation are main factors affecting Resorts business & Hilton Hotels in the UK. For example, during the Olympic in the UK in 2012, almost all of the hotels were occupied and fully booked for the actual period. However, the situation was absolutely different the moment the Olympic Games were over.”
Social: Around 20% of UK employees works in hospitality industry involving hostels, restaurant and catering employment as it is one the largest institute.
Technological: As there is fast growth in terms of technology, businesses are also making rooms for improvement to the services they provide. e.g. by making complete fast software solutions in the hospitality sector. “From an education and upbringing overview, each industrial change has some quality of skills update called for, be it in ways of be trained on how to use it, or increasingly, in bringing in education and provision of training through online studying. Research has analyzed the achievement of technology on the division” (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2001), and it brings more insights to the development. Booking of events and broadcasts of conferences and venues are commonly acquiring on internet.

Legal: Employment law and government regulations on issues such as tourism (visas) needs to be taken care of and strictly maintained. Liam 2015 report on underage drinking test. According to a research by Serve Legal, an independent body of age restrictive sales. “Bars, clubs and pubs passed 70% of the 6,800 check composed in 2015, with leased and tenanted premises passing 64% of ID checks compared to 71% of managed establishments”.
Environmental: Mark Kinver (2014), stated that the affirmation has shown that people within a region with green spaces are less strained and when you are less strained you make more reasoning and right decisions and you correspond better.

CONCLUSION

In summary when selecting venues, the five key factors mentioned by The British Meetings & Events Industry Survey 2014/2015 have to be put into consideration. These include; location, accessibility, price, quality of service and quality of conference facilities.
A PESTLE analysis is an effective approach for assessing the outermost forces that influence on an organisation. The approach offers an efficient basis for analysing the organisation's significant direction and for favouring future influences.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
* British Association of Conference Destinations (BACD) [2015] Conference & Banqueting Researchomatic .Retrieved from www.researchomatic.com/conference-banqueting- (Accessed: Jan 2016) * Cousins J, Foskett D and Gillespie C — Food and Beverage Management (Longman, 2002) ISBN 0582452716 * George G. Fenich (2012) - Meetings, Expositions, Events & Conventions: An Introduction to the Industry (3rd Edition) 3rd Edition ISBN-13: 978-0135124581 * Mark Kniver, (2014) Green spaces have lasting positive effect on well-being. BBC News. 12 January 2014 From the section Science & Environment * PricewaterhouseCoopers (2001). E-commerce Impact Study for the Exhibition and Conference Sector. Final report, September 2001. London, DTI. * Rogers Tony, (2015) Conference and business tourism: Scope, Value, Trends, Issues and Opportunities. By Tony Rogers. www.keepbritaintalking.co.uk * Shone A — The Business of Conferences: A Hospitality Sector Overview for the UK and Ireland (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998) ISBN 0750640995 * Tony Rogers June (2012) Conferences and Conventions: A Global Industry, 3rd edition

Websites * http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/Legislation/Drinking-venues-slump-on-underage-drinking-testsis/ * http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/pestle-analysis.aspx http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/local-council-cuts-revealed * http://research-methodology.net/hilton-hotels-pestel-analysis/ * Merriam, (2016) Banquet & Conference (definition). Merriam-webster.com. (Accessed: January 2016).