The impressive team behind the UK’s first civic university
About The University of Birmingham
Organisation type:
- University
Challenges solved:
- No way of viewing all events, bedrooms and catering in one centralised location that all departments could access.
- Too frequent internal meetings providing event and residential updates, taking time away from the customer experience.
- Printed individual diaries to capture event details, a time-consuming task involving duplication of data.
- Inaccurate data shared between teams, as there was no access to one up-to-date information source.
Size of operation:
- 7,000 staff
- 30,000 students | 7,000 internationals
- Annual turnover of almost £550 million
Client since:
- 1999
Product suites:
- Conferencing & Event Management
- Catering Management
What makes The University of Birmingham unique?
Times and Sunday Times 'University of the Year' 2013-14
Accredited Venue of Excellence
Home to a stunning grade II-listed red-brick hall
A host for the Commonwealth Games 2020
The first university built on a campus model, the University of Birmingham is located just three miles from the heart of the city centre, and occupies 276 acres of green parkland.
With an incredible range of facilities including a stunning grade II-listed red-brick hall built in 1900 and a spacious and flexible sports arena, the institution can host events of all sizes and types. From the Universities UK Conference 2019 through to student graduations, the venue has an impressive portfolio of customers and events.
The professional team go the extra mile to transform their customers' ideas and deliver an outstanding complete service, including catering from an in-house team of award-winning chefs.
The university originally offered what was known as ‘Conference Park’. This consisted of conference facilities and 106 bedrooms that were sold year-round to visitors. When the recession kicked in back in 2008, business slowed down as people weren't able to pay for 24-hour rates when they were trying to save money on budgets. The university took this as an opportunity to explore new ways they could maximise income. By introducing B&B rates, the University massively increased its revenue and occupancy. Since then, a new hotel has been built, demolishing two buildings and restoring two existing historic buildings.
The Future
The ultimate goal for the university is to continue delivering an outstanding student and customer service and to explore new ways to do so.
The University of Birmingham is investing over £600 million in transforming its campus between 2016 and 2026. Over the past three years, £250 million has been invested in the university campus, including a new library, a major sports centre, outstanding new student accommodation and a state-of-the-art student services hub.
With over 11 years of experience at the University of Birmingham and previous roles in the events team, Sarah Clayton, now Sales & Revenue Manager, explains the University’s 10-year plan: “We want to be one of the top 10 Russell Group universities, increase student numbers and increase the level of qualifications that students are achieving. In addition to this, we want to increase the positive feedback we’re receiving from national student surveys.”
The ultimate goal for the university is to improve the student experience. The events and conference team massively contribute towards this, as the income generated gets reinvested back into the University and facilities. Last year, the University hired an Academic Events Manager. This role was created to encourage other academics to host their events at the University of Birmingham. The Academic Events Manager works with the West Midlands regional growth authority and others within the same field to learn how they can bring these types of conferences to the campus. To support this, there is currently a new building in development for those large academic conferences, which will open in 2020.
With the Commonwealth Games taking place in 2022, the rail station located on campus will shortly be redeveloped and expanded.
Loyal Customer
Kinetic is proud to have worked with The University of Birmingham since 1999.
From the initial enquiry to the signed contract, Kinetic provides the university with a centralised and integrated solution to manage events across multiple venues, including commercial residential business and catering.