Monday, 7 December 2009

World Class Service Leadership Course

World Class Service is opening its service leadership programme for a series of 2 day courses based at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester on Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th Feb 2010

The first course, led by Howard Raynor, covers service leadership issues, market updates, key business issues of service, how to implement high service standards, motivation of teams, customer recovery and some of the secrets from the world’s most highly regarding service companies.

The course is now open for reservations.

Key benefits of this highly regarded programme include a clear method for looking at total service delivery, a clear method for improving service standards, how to add value through service behaviours, how to maximise sales through service, up to the second market news and how to recover the situation if things go amiss.

Programme is supported by hand out pack and online resource centre. Course size is limited to 15 delegates in total. Cost is £295.00 + VAT per person.

Click here for more information

Interested? Contact Howard Raynor on 0161 456 6007 or by email

Please note this course is eligible for small business support from Business Link. Speak to Howard or Business Link for more information.

The Concierge Roadshow

World Class Service and Manchester Concierge Network have teamed up to get 2010 started with a bang. Join us at City Inn on Friday 8th January for an all new event, The Concierge Roadshow.

This event is for anyone with a reception desk and customers. Expect fresh ideas, three great workshops, a whole new network to start the year and some fantastic inspiration for your team and customers. And that isn’t even the best news, the best news is attendance is free to your staff thanks to Co-operative Travel Services and our vendor desks who will be on hand to talk your team through their products and services. What else were you going to do on a Friday in January?

Save the date in your diary, more details to follow.
To help us with numbers , and if you haven't already, can you please RSVP to Louise at World Class Service if you think you are any members of your front desk team would like to attend. Numbers are restricted to 4 from any one venue.

Hope you can make it.

Friday, 4 December 2009

Manchester Made it Easy January 15th 2010

2009 has been a tough year. Manchester’s better than national performance suggests that working together has got to be better than working apart and something is definitely going right, but 2010 is about action rather than defence. A fragile recovery means new business. The original Manchester Made it Easy mission was to meet as a community of lifestyle, hospitality and cultural businesses to talk about common issues and opportunities. The format is a network, hear the latest, network some more then act.

You are invited join the next gathering of this community, this time the totem pole will be at Manchester Central on 15th January at 10.00am. The Agenda is straightforward and one hour long; progress on the issues of 2009, key milestones in 2010 where we can work together to improve business performance and to hear from Manchester's biggest new catch the TUC! 3000 new delegates in Manchester in September 2010. Hear straight from the conference organisers what their delegates look for in a city and how you can extend the best possible welcome.

2010 the moment of opportunity or stay in the dugout?

We would love to see you there and don’t hesitate to speak up.

Manchester Made it Easy quote of the year for 2010 - “Well done is better than well said.” BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

2010 Events

If you're putting together your business plan for 2010, it's a good idea to keep an eye on what's happening in the city and beyond.
Meetings may be slightly down on attendance during the FIFA World Cup and Manchester will be full of scientifically minded people in March and October with the Big Bang Fair and Manchester Science Festival.

Thursday, 3 December 2009

2010 Highlights at the Palace Theatre and Opera house in Manchester

Les Miserables. The Palace. 19th Jan – 13th Feb
Riverdance. The Palace. 12th – 17th April
English National Ballet Cinderella. The Palace. 21st – 24th April
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Palace. 27th April – 15th May
Hairspray. Opera House. 13th – 31st July

MEN Arena concerts and events 2010

Click here for the latest information on the MEN Arena's confirmed events for 2010

Manchester Art Gallery exhibitions programme 2009 - 2010

Fantasies, Follies and Disasters: The Prints of Francisco de Goya
Until February 2010
Free entry

Fantasies, Follies and Disasters features 30 prints selected from the artist’s three best-known and most significant groups of etchings: Los Caprichos (The Fantasies), Los Desastres della Guerra (The Disasters of War), and Los Disparates (The Follies). The works are all drawn from Manchester Art Gallery’s superb collections, and have not been exhibited together as a group for over 20 years.

This exhibiton will be followed by a second series of prints by Franscisco de Goya from
February 2010 – July 2010
Visual Dialogues: Disasters of War
6 October 2009 – July 2010
Free entry

Disasters of War (1993), Jake and Dinos Chapman’s gruesome sculpture, is being exhibited alongside the gallery’s current exhibition of Goya prints. Inspired by Goya’s etchings of the same name Disasters of War depicts atrocious acts of violence carefully and painstakingly reconstructed with expertly crafted miniature figures. The loan forms part of the gallery’s 2009 – 2010 annual Visual Dialogues partnership with Tate and young people from Manchester.

Angels of Anarchy: Women Artists and Surrealism
26 September 2009 – 10 January 2010
£6 (£4 concessions, free entry for under 18s and Manchester Art Gallery Friends)

This is the first major exhibition of women artists and Surrealism to be held in Europe.
Featuring over 150 artworks by 32 women artists, the exhibition is a celebration of the crucial, but at the time not fully recognised, role that women artists have played within Surrealism.

Andrew Bracey: Animalation
31 October 2009 – 28 February 2010
Free entry

Animalation is a playful and intriguing exhibition of new and recent works by Manchester-based artist Andrew Bracey. Specially curated for Manchester Art Gallery, this solo exhibition features a selection of quirky animated artworks inspired by animals and influenced by flip-book techniques.

ARTIST ROOMS Ron Mueck
4 February – 11 April 2010
Free entry

Ron Mueck’s hyper-real sculptures of the human figure are tender portrayals of people in their most intimate, isolated and vulnerable moments. This exhibition features three of his remarkable, out-of-scale sculptures.
ARTIST ROOMS on Tour with The Art Fund supported by the Scottish Government is an inspired partnership with the UK’s independent art charity and national government enabling Tate and National Galleries of Scotland to display ARTIST ROOMS throughout the UK.

Facing East
Recent works from China, India and Japan from the Frank Cohen Collection
4 February – 11 April 2010
Free entry

This is an exceptional opportunity to see a dozen of the most exciting works from the Frank Cohen Collection, many of which have never been exhibited publicly before. These groundbreaking contemporary paintings and sculptures by major artists from India, China and Japan include Bharti Kher’s The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own (2006) - a lifesize elephant with skin made entirely of bindis and He An’s Matrix (2007) - fibreglass figures inspired by kung fu fight scenes from The Matrix films.

Women Like You
6 March – 9 May 2010
Free entry

For over a year, artist Charlotte Newson has been gathering photographs of women who have inspired the people of Manchester. For this unique project in celebration of International Women’s Day (8 March) she will be combining hundreds of these images to create a large photo-montage dedicated to the Manchester-born leader of the British Suffragette movement Emmeline Pankhurst.

A World Observed 1940 - 2010: Photographs by Dorothy Bohm
24 April – 30 August 2010
Free entry

This will be the first comprehensive retrospective of Prussian-born and London-based photographer Dorothy Bohm, widely acknowledged as one of the doyennes of British photography. This exhibition will feature around 250 photographic images that trace her career spanning more than six decades and several continents, including time spent as a student in Manchester. It will also include documentary materials such as cameras, books, exhibition posters, family photographs and correspondence with photographers and artists. A new film is being produced especially to accompany the exhibition. The show will also tour the UK and overseas.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: A New Commission (working title)
11 September 2010 – 9 January 2011
Free entry

Mexican-Canadian Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is an electronic artist who produces large-scale interactive installations. He uses robotics, projections, sound, internet and other devices, usually working with new technologies and custom-made physical interfaces to create his dynamic works. His critically-acclaimed work in kinetic sculpture, responsive environments, video installation and photography has been shown in over thirty countries, including Biennials in Venice (Italy), Istanbul (Turkey), Havana (Cuba), Sydney (Australia), Liverpool (UK) and Shanghai (China). Now he will be producing a new commission especially for Manchester Art Gallery.