Future Focus Edinburgh – Live Case Study: The Balmoral

We move to the beautiful city of Edinburgh today to the wonderfully decorated Hub in the city center. Today’s Live Case Study comes from The Balmoral hotel chain – find out more about them here: http://www.thebalmoralhotel.com/

Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh

The Rocco Forte Collection’s Balmoral is a luxury hotel in the true sense of the word. With its majestic clock tower, the hotel is a unique and contemporary luxury five-star property in the very heart of Edinburgh. While many Edinburgh hotels claim to have Edinburgh’s landmarks on their doorstep, few can say their doorstep is a landmark. Located on Princes Street, in Edinburgh’s main shopping area and next to Waverley Station, The Balmoral is close to the leading luxury department stores and within walking distance of many Edinburgh attractions.

David Hennery from The Balmoral mentioned this afternoon “Every time you interact with a customer is a ‘moment of truth’ when you succeed or fail” – and motivating staff in these difficult times is a tough job, as well as continuously finding investment whilst maintaining customer service.

As today’s case study they came to Future Focus with their own set of challenges, and so we want your help to solve these issues.

Here are there main challenges:

• Maintaining and enhancing service delivery
• Maintaining or leading Market Position
• Employing technology that meets business travelers needs
• Embracing Social Media to communicate with customers

Big challenges require even bigger ideas, so we want to hear yours, submit them as comments here, and follow the conversation on twitter.

Presentation Materials From Future Focus – Coming Thursday

After a great day on Thursday, many of you have been asking us for the presentations from the day, to continue learning from all the great insights from the day. Just wanted to post you all a short note to say that these will be going online on Thursday (11th  June). We will pop them up on slideshare so you can find them there, here on the blog or on the Telegraph Business Club Website

As we look forward to tomorrow in Manchester, we want to know your thoughts on the programm so far. Did you attend in London, what were your thoughts on the presentations from the day? what were your key learnings? What did you take away?

Let us know by commenting on any of the content from the day here on the blog, check out the VLOG to see all the videos from London, or join the conversation on Linkedin or on the Facebook Page.

Don’t forget you can also follow all the action from Future Focus in Manchester and Edinburgh this week by following the #futurefocus hashtag or the @FutureFocus twitter feed.

VLOG 8 -Future Focus London – Looking Back On London

As we draw activities to a close in London and look forward to Manchester and Edinburgh for the next week of Future Focus we chat to Dr James Bellini, Futurologist and Chairman of the Future Focus conferences.

With over 300 delegates in London debating and learning about becoming “future proof companies”, Future Focus London has sparked a lot of debate, and that will continue in the coming weeks as the conferences head for Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin.

For more information about the conferences and to register – check out www.telegraphbusinessclub.co.uk/futurefocus

VLOG 5 – Future Focus London – Euan Semple

We are privileged to have Future Communications Specialist Euan Semple speaking across the Future Focus Events. For those of you who are not able to make it to a conference over then next couple of weeks, we caught up with him at the London conference today!

Euan gives us some thoughts on how to avoid the easy mistake of leaping into social media too quickly, but encourages SME’s to get educated about these topics, otherwise they could find themselves being left behind.

VLOG 3 – Welcome to Future Focus London

Welcome to Future Focus 09 – Kicking off in London’s Westminster Central Hall, we chat to Dave Sumner Smith from Telegraph Business Club, about why they have partered with IBM to bring together these events, we also hear from delegates as they look forward to the days events.

VLOG 2: Dr. James Bellini – A Future Proof Company

I wonder if Dr James Bellini puts ‘futurologist’ as the occupation in his passport? It sounds like a rather strange role, but he’s obviously well connected and certainly talks a lot of sense.

James’ objective, he explains, is to make businesses ‘future proof’. That means they have taken account of the changes that are going to happen and factored them into their strategic planning, rather than reacting when the changes have already taken place.

Far too many businesses fail to spend time thinking about the future, according to James. The majority make their ‘big decisions’ largely on gut feel. Not surprisingly, many of those big decisions turn out to be big mistakes.

Wiser organisations keep up with the trends regarding things that are going to take place 3-5 years down the line, he maintains. By investing time into thinking about the future, they are positioning themselves to take advantage of the changes.

One major global bank, he reveals, is planning to invest in new generation video conferencing. Not only will it make the bank more ‘green’, but also slash its global travel costs.

Major changes such as this are a ‘must’ for 70-80% of businesses, he says. A decade from now, James suggests, companies will own far less fixed assets and will use much less office space. Mobile technologies, remote working and collaboration will soon become the business norm.

Recession is a great time of opportunity for businesses, he maintains. Wise business professionals use the time to revisit the business fundamentals and think about their future path. Those that fail to seize the opportunities of change will probably go to the wall.

Dr James Bellini sounds like the ideal chairman for the Future Focus conferences in June. And there will be the chance for delegates to talk with him afterwards, which will round off each event perfectly. Must remember to ask him what it says in his passport!

Another Smart Idea: Win Some Wine!

 

Win £25 of wine from Naked Wines when you submit your Smart Idea

 

A drop of vino anyone?

Now there’s a Smart Idea for you. If you fancy a tipple while you are sigining up for this years Future Focus event why not win yourself some wine from Naked Wines.

Anyone who leaves a Smart Idea on the Future Focus website (www.telegraphbusinessclub.co.uk/futurefocus) gets a £25 wine voucher from Naked Wines. The are a young company, but they are based on a smart idea, namely that they provide a route to market for smaller, independent vineyards – rather than the more familiar big names. Not surprisingly, it has proven very popular with entrepreneurs!

Head over to the registration site to submit your Smart Idea…

Follow Future Focus On Twitter! – @futurefocus

Follow Future Focus On Twitter – @futurefocus

Follow Future Focus On Twitter! – @futurefocus

You can now keep updated with all the activity leading up to Future Focus on Twitter.

Either visit http://twitter.com/futurefocus or login in and search “Future Focus”.

In coming weeks we will be asking you to get involved by submitting questions, joining discussions and contributing your views for the events. If you are coming to Future Focus at any of our 4 locations (London, Manchester, Edinburgh or Dublin) you will be able to submit questions for the panel by directing them to @futurefocus on twitter. 

Don’t forget if you are commenting elsewhere on twitter then you can use the #tags#ibmff09 or#futurefocus.

Welcome to Future Focus

The word ‘recession’ is on everyones’ lips, yet already there are quiet murmurs of recovery. Exactly when the economy will grow again is unclear. But recovery is certain.

Equally certain is the fact that some companies will emerge very strongly from the current economic problems. Part of their success will be down to reorganisation and improved efficiency. But most of this rapid success will be due to strategic decisions taken now.

Future Focus is a multi-media programme organised by the Telegraph Business Club to help senior personnel within medium-sized UK businesses to make inspired strategic decisions that will drive business success during economic recovery.

Highlight of the Future Focus programme is a series of full day business conferences around the UK and Ireland taking place:
London – Thursday 4th June
Manchester – Tuesday 9th June
Edinburgh – Thursday 11th June
Dublin – Tuesday 16th June
Chaired by renowned author and TV presenter Dr James Bellini and featuring Dragons Den star Richard Farleigh, these events will:

INFORM – Give an expert insight into future products and technologies that are just about to have a major influence on our life and work
INTERACT – Allowing you to meet and talk with fellow business professionals, expert speakers and Richard Farleigh himself.
INSPIRE – Provide the opportunity to discuss and explore how they can be used to drive business success in the coming months and years.
For further details of the agenda click here.
For further details of the speakers click here.
To register to attend any of the events click here.