Five reasons to vote NYS at the M&IT Awards

As voting opens for one of the most prestigious meetings and incentive travel awards, we look at the reasons why Capita Travel and Events and NYS should get your vote.

1) Our creative and award-winning team

We have to start with our team as they simply make us who we are! They are creative, imaginative and not afraid to think outside the box. Our expertise from Capita Travel and Events is bought together with NYS to form ‘one team’, providing a more rounded offering and personalised service.

It is this passion that has led to Andy Forshaw’s virtual events solution winning the divisional Local Hero award for ‘Delivering Innovation and Creativity’ - never won before by NYS and a huge achievement considering the sheer number of businesses across the Capita portfolio. The team have also secured places in C&IT’s A-List and CN30 under 30 listings. In fact, last year we won Bronze for the Best Intermediary Agency at the M&IT Awards 2019, so we want to make it gold this year!

2) Our virtual events solution

Over the last year, our customers have spent budgets differently and communication has become critically important; by being agile and brave we’ve quickly created an in-house virtual events solution that continues to engage without comprising the creativity we’re known for. Never wanting to rely on customers for solutions, we continually work in partnership; we created this virtual proposition that has flourished and continues to develop in line with our changing customer requirements and current restrictions. Despite a challenging year, we still organised over 200 events!

We’ve developed our capabilities to keep employees interacting with their company, such as QR codes creating the company’s logo in Lego, event countdowns to generate interest and branded gifts that link to an online event. From virtual escape rooms to celebrity cook-a-thons, the creativity and ingenuity to make these events happen digitally were extraordinary.

Moving into hybrid events, where we build studios and livestream, illustrates our continued use of innovative solutions that work around customers. In the first fortnight of December alone we delivered 47 hybrid events to over 4,000 delegates and sent over 700 pre-event gifts – no mean feat for a small team!

3) Our unique meetingsPro software

Our meetingsPro software has revolutionised the way meeting planners are able to search, plan, book and manage all of their external requirements in one place. Built in-house to address any challenges or inefficiencies in the traditional offline process, it has successfully provided a digital end-to-end meeting management solution.

The online tool, which brings together venue finding, website creation, delegate registration, online reporting and an online education hub, has already helped global organisations achieve more than 19% cost savings and efficiencies through its ability to provide access to Meeting first (aggregated buying) rates, agreed terms and negotiated value added extras, in addition to venue details and peer feedback. It also provides valuable data insight to held understand booking behaviours and reduce off-site meeting costs.

Two of the most popular functions are the internal room management, which supports in driving down costs, and the integration with delegatePro, where users are able to self-build a bespoke delegate registration website for up to 25 delegates, quickly and easily.

Last year, we introduced ‘Covid Shield’, easily identify venues that have enhanced levels of safety, to give bookers confidence in their delegates’ duty of care. By combining our Venue Directory Safe Meetings Database with our own venue content, we designated Covid Shield within meetingsPro – making us the only company in the industry to have provided a venue-finding system with this level of Covid support.

4) Our new meetings technology

Our recent investment in new meetings capabilities aligns with customer demand for support when offices reopen so we can offer suitable solutions, whether it be outsourced meeting space or added value services to negotiate social distancing. The Decision Maker tool assesses the potential options, with guidance on optimising the meeting and considers the wellbeing impact.

New additions to our virtualPro technology suite, which mixes live event capabilities with virtual meetings, gives customers a ‘live’ experience and boosts real-time engagement. Our decisionPro tool helps bookers further, by assessing the most suitable meeting method: face-to-face, virtually, large-scale event or hybrid.

5) Middle Eastern holiday is up for grabs

Could you turn down a luxurious holiday for two to Abu Dhabi? Thought not!

This amazing trip can be won when you cast a vote in the M&IT Awards. We’d love it if one of our customers won the trip! To vote for ‘Capita Travel and Events / NYS’ (using the link below), scroll down to Category H: Best Intermediary Agency - more than 40 employees. If you have felt supported over this last year, then vote today. It takes no more than 20 seconds and your vote would mean a lot to us. Who's got your vote? - M&IT Awards (mitawards.co.uk)