Julia Green, Sales and Commercial Manager at Center Parcs Conferences and Events
With hybrid working here to stay for many, there has been less of an emphasis in recent years on the festive season, and that extends to hosting a traditional ‘Christmas work party’. It has become apparent to us that many companies are no longer waiting until the end of the year to celebrate their corporate achievements and reward staff for their hard work.
With employee engagement rates in the UK remaining low, more and more companies are now keen to bring staff together as often as possible. The feeling is that it makes little sense to confine corporate celebrations to the Christmas period and as such, we have noticed a pretty dramatic effect on bookings for this period across the industry.
The promotion of health and wellbeing in events throughout the year has been noticeable, with a lot of companies dedicating their corporate getaways to rewarding their hard-working employees with the opportunity to relax, recharge and re-energise. Activities promoting health and mindfulness have continued to be popular, such as yoga and forest-bathing, as well as the promotion of sports and team-building.
Many companies are also including an alcohol-free approach throughout their work events, to ensure employees that have been kept apart for months at a time have the best possible chance of building truly meaningful connections in the short time they have. The swap from wine to water also does a lot to help with the traditionally hefty bar bill at the end of the evening, looking after both the employer and the employee’s pockets.
The demand for in-person corporate events has been really healthy post-pandemic, and we’re seeing more year-round functions, galas and corporate retreats as business leaders strive to carve out more facetime with colleagues via offsite meetings.
Demand for conferences and events at Center Parcs has typically always peaked during September and November, but in recent years, our bookings have been more evenly spread across the year. In fact, we’re seeing a huge interest in hosting internal staff conferences for early 2024 at both our Woburn and Sherwood Forest venues. The IT, banking and financial and automotive industries are demonstrating the largest appetite for corporate events, accounting for the largest portion of total bookings this past year. This shift away from a festive fete and towards more regular, more holistic and less alcohol fuelled events throughout the whole year represents a shift in focus from businesses towards their employees, but is also a welcome chance for events venues who had previously been subject to a short, extremely high volume but long duration Christmas period.
