Event Management agency, Bien Venue, is celebrating its 25th anniversary of providing an exceptional A-star service.
The event management agency looks back proudly at remarkable growth throughout the years. The many milestones in their history of shaping the events and hospitality industry are marked with numerous high-level accomplishments.
Bien Venue – Our Team Is Your Team
Providing outstanding services over the last few decades, Bien Venue is an event management company offering a range of event services designed to meet a wide variety of business needs, including last-minute meeting rooms, full-scale conferences, team-building days, accommodation, event management and corporate entertainment. Their personal and bespoke approach towards their clients has landed them numerous loyal clients. In fact, their longest-standing client has stayed with them ever since they began operating – which speaks volumes in itself.
Speaking of where it all began, let’s take a road down memory lane and see what some of the most remarkable milestones were for Bien Venue in its 25-year timeline.
1996 – Event management agency beginnings
1996 takes us back exactly 25 years ago when Bien Venue was first created. Even though they started at a small scale with only two desktops to work with, which had to be shared amongst their total number of four active employees, their humble beginning did not hinder their determination and drive to create an event company like no other.
They based their company culture on one simple yet very effective idea: every business is unique. Standing out from competitors even then, Bien Venue began offering unique and bespoke services to their very first clients. They slowly started changing the world of venue sourcing, event management and team building with their dynamic approach and personal touches in every service they provide.
Alongside Bien Venue’s start, 1996 was the year of:
- The Spice Girls – their hit debut single ‘Wannabe’ was number one across the charts.
- World Changing Event: Dolly, the cloned sheep, was born on 5 July 1996. She was named after busty singer Dolly Parton because her DNA came from a mammary gland cell.
- Boyband Take That split up.
- The UK driving theory test was introduced as a written exam.
- Subway opened its first British store in Brighton.
- In 1996, hardly anyone had a mobile phone – let alone a smartphone.
2001 – Five years on
Skipping forward to 2001, five years after Bien Venue opened its doors to corporate business – the company is starting to flourish slowly. Additional staff were employed to take on the demand and help further meet the exceptional service that Bien Venue guarantees. In retrospect, their very first clients started by only booking three meeting rooms but have remained as a long-standing client with them to this day – with their worth at its peak in excess of £2.5m. International bookings were also one of the new services introduced at Bien Venue in 2001. It allowed the company to offer an even more excellent service to their clients, which was exciting and allowed them to work with companies outside the pond.
Let’s have a look at what were the main events in 2001 globally:
- The iPod was released.
- The first Harry Potter film: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was released.
- Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, was launched.
- The first Xbox was released in America; the European release was in the following year.
- Black Hawk Down, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Monsters Inc. and Shrek were released.
- NASA launched the Genesis spacecraft in August of 2001.
2006 – Significant move
Bien Venue’s offices moved from Macclesfield to Poynton. This year was quite significant for Bien Venue as they decided to move from where they were initially based, and by doing so, more growth for their company was achieved. Their client base expanded, meaning more staff were brought on board to meet the demand. Their portfolio extended with services such as team building activities, Incentives, and corporate hospitality and entertainment, all collectively providing consistent value to their clients and helping Bien Venue finally gain their real identity.
2006 was not short of making history either:
- The World Cup was held in Germany and ended with the notorious Zinedine Zidane headbutt.
- The bestselling single was Gnarls Barkley, Crazy.
- Twitter was launched this year. The very first tweet, from the founder Jack Dorsey, is still there: it said, “just setting up my twittr”. The ‘e’ was added to its name later.
- A whale is discovered swimming in the River Thames in London.
- Nintendo releases Wii gaming console.
2011 – BVine and many more accomplishments
The year 2011 consisted of meeting some of Bien Venue’s most significant milestones, starting with their online accommodation booking portal ‘Bvine’ being freshly introduced, giving complete control to clients to browse and book the most suitable accommodation by themselves. Alternatively, Bien Venue could book large groups and corporate rates as well as provide bespoke booking links for large events on behalf of their clients.
In 2011, Bien Venue also acquired one of their largest clients within the food and beverage industry, which are still using their services today. The office’s headcount further grew and the year ended with over 30,000 delegates in 1,600 locations booked worldwide, one of their most significant accomplishments at the time.
The second year of the decade saw:
- Chromebooks were on sale for the very first time.
- Game of Thrones made its premiere with Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and Kit Harington as Jon Snow.
- Snapchat was first launched.
- Steve Jobs resigns as Apple chief executive.
2016 – Reaching high
2016 was all about high numbers. The start-up team, which started with only four employees, is now a team of highly motivated experts passionate about the meetings and event industry and providing an exceptional A* service to Bien Venues clients.
In the year 2016, Bien Venue had serviced over 70,000 delegates in 3,000 locations worldwide. A remarkable amount of bed nights were also booked, which totalled in excess of 25,000 altogether. Last but not least, this was also the year Bien Venue won a tender opportunity within the education sector – giving them a better position within the industry and opening new doors and further opportunities.
2016 had some memorable moments as well:
- The 2016 Summer Olympics were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the first time in South America.
- Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar!
- Beyoncé broke the internet by releasing her album Lemonade.
Year over year growth
Each year, Bien Venue continued to grow its business and develop and enhance their services to ensure that its clients received the first-class A* service they deserve. 2019 was the year they were invited to be a part of the Parliamentary Review as a best practice representative. It was also the year they introduced their virtual and hybrid events and their bespoke hampers sent out to employees.
As a surprise to many, the following two years were filled with hurdles concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, Bien Venue bounced back more determined than ever in 2021, ready to provide an exceptional service to their existing clients as well as work with new ones.
‘’Although there are many factors which have contributed to our success, underlying them all is an unwavering commitment to providing an A* service of excellence to our clients. I would also like to thank our employees, clients and supplier partners because without them Bien Venue wouldn’t be who they are today. I am so proud of what we have achieved over the past 25 years and look forward to the future that lies ahead’’
Kerry Edwards – Managing Director of Bien Venue
As Bien Venue’s event management agency looks to the future, its tailored approach towards each of its clients will continue to emphasise their business’s unmatched skills and value – as they move forward from the pandemic and prepare for yet another 25 years of outstanding event services.