Member Article

Sage Gateshead in commercial revenue drive

One of the UK’s most iconic landmarks, Sage Gateshead, has created a new conference and events sales manager role in a bid to increase its commercial revenue.

The development forms part of the registered charity’s strategy to underline its credentials as a corporate events and conference venue within key sectors and on a national scale.

Experienced event sales manager Amy Smith has been recruited to the position and while Sage Gateshead already receives a high number of incoming event enquiries, her remit is to proactively deliver new leads and convert these into commercial bookings.

Although as a charitable organisation its primary aim remains the provision of world-class music through performance, participation and education, the original concept for Sage Gateshead was that it would always become the perfect meeting place, enabling a range of commercial activities in support of the core artistic work.

Types of events already delivered by Sage Gateshead include three political party conferences, Emirates launches and BT launch events, as well as hospitality events of all sizes and themes for many of the North East’s biggest names.

Anna Stacy, head of conference and events at Sage Gateshead, said: “Conferences and events are a key revenue driver for us and we have a very flexible space that can cater for all manner of businesses according to their needs. As such, it makes sense that we exploit this and use the profits to reinvest in the organisation and the communities we work within.

“Over the last 12-18 months we have extended the events team in response to customer demand and now it is fantastic to welcome Amy who will be proactively seeking new conference and events contracts. Amy brings additional energy and experience to a highly skilled team and it’s great to have her working with us at such a strategically important time.”

From Cumbria but now living in North Tyneside, Amy previously worked in sales at Accent Magazines and before that was employed by Benchmark Communications in Newcastle. She started her career in events at Media 10 in London working on the Grand Designs Live event at London Excel and Birmingham NEC.

As conference and events manager at Sage Gateshead she is now responsible for revenue generation for the full range of events delivered. Amy explained: “The team are very focused on what we need to achieve and it has been great to collaborate on the sales plan since my arrival.

“My job is now to ensure that Sage Gateshead is front of mind with organisations across the UK, whether they need a venue for a conference, exhibition, awards or client hospitality. With our award-winning facilities and such an amazing looking building, hopefully people will very quickly realise we have something very special and worthwhile to offer.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sarah Waddington .