The Staff Canteen Live, supported by Chef Magazine, has teamed up with The Hospitality & Catering Show (H&CS) on 5th-6th March 2013 at Bournemouth International Conference Centre, and we’ll make sure that this is anything but just another show for those involved!
The Chefs Confirmed So Far
Tom Kerridge Chef Patron The Hand and Flowers Marlow
Simon Hulstone Chef Patron The Elephant Restaurant
Paul Ainsworth Paul Ainsworth at number 6 Padstow and Rojanos
Matt Gillan Head Chef The Pass Restaurant West Sussex
Russell Brown Sienna Chef Patron Dorchester
Hywel Jones Executive Chef Lucknam Park Hotel
The Hotel & Catering Show is getting a serious makeover following its takeover by new management team Evisstar. Established for 56 years, the show is undergoing a well-earned transformation to create a dynamic and engaging event for the region’s hospitality sector at large. It is our objective to achieve this through collaborative partnerships with both leading and emerging organisations that can make a difference to the way the event engages with the hospitality sector.
The Hotel & Catering Show is to takeover the Bournemouth International Centre with a clear focus on delivering an engaging event for the hospitality sector through live demonstrations, seminars and exhibitor driven experiences. The event will attract in excess of 1,800 pre-qualified professional visitors and will be supported by a national and regional campaign through the trade press, online and social media, e-marketing and direct mail.
Hotel and Catering Show has a long standing connection with chefs from all over the UK as it has been the home of the largest young chefs competition in the UK for seven years attracting the protégé to compete from some of the UK’s top restaurants and hotels.
Their newly acquired, and up-to-date chef data, means that targeted campaigns will attract chefs from across the South of England and further north as they are invited to engage with the event and specifically through our two brand new targeted chef features.
What’s New at H&CS
Chefs Kitchen, in association with the Craft Guild of Chefs, is another of our brand new features showcasing an open kitchen with two chef teams (Sodexo and Compass) competing over the two days to prepare and serve up a three-course meal for diners invited by the various sponsors. Chefs will have the opportunity to see the teams at work and get an insight into how the major contract caterers go about their work.
The Seminar Programme will provide various sessions for new and experienced chefs and chef proprietors to engage in bite size ‘How To’ sessions from recruitment to health and safety and from menu planning to GP management.
Chefs can also experience The Wine Theatre and learn more about wine and food, tastes and textures, menu planning and profitability.
A visit to the local produce market, new ideas, innovations, networking, knowledge gathering, and plenty of other exhibits will make their visit truly worthwhile - backed up with targeted campaigns via the Craft Guild, The Staff Canteen, Chef Magazine, Restaurant Magazine, Caterer & Hotelkeeper and direct mail.
About The Staff Canteen
The Staff Canteen is the UK leading website for professional Chefs, with over 9,850 members and 20,000 unique users each month. The Staff Canteen has become the professional Chefs platform.
Audience
Our audience is made up of 72% UK traffic the remaining traffic is mainly English speaking countries such USA, Australia and New Zealand. Our 9,850 + members are made up of 75% head Chef or Sous Chef mainly split between restaurants and hotels with small percentage (10%) in pubs, so they have either direct buying power or the ability to influence buying on daily basis. Our video is also used across many of the UK’s colleges as a training resource.
Social
The Staff Canteen has a huge reach and following across our social Channels with 3,700 twitter followers, 3,000 Facebook fans, and some 560 YouTube subscribers where our video content has received over 330,000 views to date and growing. All of these channels we plan to use to push our message as part of marketing - pre, during and post show to our dedicated audience of chefs.
APP
Our APP, Chef+, is the first ever APP developed for professional Chefs, and since launch in late January 2012 has already reached over 5,000 downloads with our audience spending a staggering 31-Minutes a visit. It gives Chefs the opportunity to access our content there and then, and in real time, without the need to access a PC.
Our Approach to H&CS
The Staff Canteen will bring the UK finest Chefs to The Staff Canteen Live, supported by Chef Magazine, Innovations Theatre.
We are seeking Chefs with a South West connection but also a national appeal, to ensure we capture a wide audience. We will use The Staff Canteen as a central marketing hub to communicate pre, during and post show, and will extend this reach through our social channels.
We aim to create a highly visual arena, that offers the visitors access to these Chefs and we plan to ensure that every Chef demonstration is as interactive as possible. It will be the audiences’ chance to get up close and personal to the Chefs and we have a number of innovations that will ensure that audience interact.
Each Chef’s appearance will be captured by The Staff Canteen audio and visual partners and we’ll create a post show real, that highlights the overall Theatre success and showcases the sponsors, plus each Chef’s display will also be captured on a 2-3 minute video that will be played on The Staff Canteen and our social channel ensuring that whilst the impact and interaction during the show is maximised, it doesn’t stop there it will be continued post show.
The Staff Canteen Live, supported by Chef Magazine, is set to capture a select few of the UK's leading suppliers and specialists that demonstrate innovation and are at the for-front of what the modern Chef needs for today’s demanding, yet rewarding role. The Staff Canteen Live aims to bring the very best Chefs from across the South to The Staff Canteen Live Theatre - a stage that will inspire and drive audience interaction and participation, whilst using social media as a key drive to communicate and display in real time.
Visual
The Stage will be highly visual, with display screens across the show, so even if you can't get a seat you won’t miss the action, and will get a clear view from wherever you are. The audio and video screens will ensure that even those that arrive late get a front row view and don’t miss any of the action. We are not asking Chefs simply to come up with a dish, but to highlight innovation and skill. Each Chef will be linked to a supplier as part of The Staff Canteen Innovation Theatre and will highlight their product range, creating a range of samples during the demonstration for the audience to try throughout.
Social Networking
The Staff Canteen Live will use Facebook, Twitter and Chef + to communicate live and in real time, we’ll record the action with images and sound bites for tweets as they happen and post these to our social channel, Our Facebook fan page will house a profile for each Chef and record their demonstration in images and will be uploaded onto Facebook as they happen, where people can comment and interact live. Twitter followers will be invited to join the question session and post questions for the Chefs via twitter. All of the Chefs recipes will be housed on The Staff Canteen’s APP, Chef +, giving the audience instant access there and then, without the need to carry easy to lose pieces of paper around.
If a picture paints a thousand words, what does a video say?
Each Chef will be recorded by our video team, the same team that is responsible for creating our feature videos and post show The Staff Canteen Live will create a 2-3 minute video that highlights the Chef and the Sponsor and demonstrates how the Chef uses that product to drive success in their restaurant. This not only allows suppliers access to the finest Chefs, but post show we have a huge marketing campaign in place to ensure that this is much more than just another show.
Marketing
With over 10,000 members The Staff Canteen is the ideal place for us to market this feature, we have a natural audience of Chefs that we can communicate to on a daily basis and therefore a natural resource to ensure that pre-show we drive information to these Chefs to ensure that we get them attending and in-front of your product. We aim to attract the very best Chefs from the South of England, Chefs who have a local connection, but very much a national appeal.
