In late 2020 we started working with a new client, Streamline Empire, who plan to run a number of events across the UK this year.

Theodore Ilori founded Ms Curvaceous UK some 10 years ago which specialises in building body confidence in women across the country and giving them the skills needed to get into the modelling industry. They have empowered hundreds of thousands of women through their body confidence workshops, campaigns, partnerships, ambassadors and live events.

Ms Curvaceous UK is the biggest modelling competition in Europe for models from size 12 and above with the aim to change beauty perspectives worldwide.

Theo said “Before the pandemic we had around 9 events planned and booked all over the country and over a thousand women waiting to attend.

At first it seemed like we would get through the pandemic early in the year and be able to resume our events as normal by the autumn of 2020. Who would have thought that in 2021 we would still be having to postpone events and look for more venues!

One of the hardest challenges was being able to plan ahead. With absolutely no certainty on what would happen next, and lockdowns being initiated with less than 7 days notice, at times the situation was very bleak. It was difficult to let our attendees know what would happen next and how we would deliver what they were waiting for. As well as ensuring staff were paid and able to withstand the pandemic period, we also had to keep the business running with our core revenue stream completely disrupted. “

In late 2020 we came across The Venue Booker and their team who have been amazing to work with.

They were able to help us get in touch with the harder to reach venues and negotiate good deals that would enable us to meet both our capacity and cost needs following over 12 months of events inactivity.

They were receptive and supportive of our strategic plans and had no problem with last minute changes or additional venue needs.

We now have events all over the UK and Ireland planned for the rest of the year and are hopeful that we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

We have had some great achievements, however we still remain a small company and our work is far from done. With the growth of the digital era, self -confidence has become even more challenging for a lot of women to achieve.

We charge a nominal amount for attendants to contribute towards our costs and we look to form partnerships with venues who support our goals.”

The particular challenge we have had is to find the venues in cities across the UK with the right capacity at a very competitive rate. The plan was to run a series of events starting in April and May, however these have now had to be pushed back to dates from late June through to December.

Demand is high for these events with an ever-increasing number of registrations, so Theo is now planning to put on a number of additional events in the Autumn.

It has been a fine balancing act trying to anticipate final numbers, working with tight budgets due to loss of revenue in 2020 when none of these events could take place due to Covid-19 restrictions.

A typical event will attract an audience of 200-300 attendees and The Venue Booker has now successfully sourced venues for all 2021 events in the following cities;

London

Birmingham

Manchester

Newcastle

Glasgow

Southampton

Bristol

Cardiff

Belfast

Dublin

The Venue Booker has negotiated rates and special terms and conditions for this client with a one-month cancellation policy. In some cases it was a challenge persuading venues to agree to such a short cancellation term as they see it as highly risky, however in the majority of cases they agreed to the cancellation terms that we requested.

Over the past 7 years as a Venue finding agency,  we have formed valuable long established relationships with hundreds of leading venues throughout the UK and this enables us to deliver the very best solutions to our clients every time.