Simon Thompson, founder and Managing Director of online venue finding service www.conferences-uk.org.uk , speaks to H&E North about the company’s mission to become the world’s number one conference venue finding agency by 2010.

Simon Thompson’s boyhood dream was to own a chain of hotels. While studying International Hotel Management at Manchester University he was faced with the difficulty of finding student accommodation, which proved to be something of a light bulb moment and one that changed his career path albeit for a no less entrepreneurial route: “I had my mind set that I was going to pioneer the student accommodation market by building and developing a suitable website for students to find the right accommodation,” he recalls. Together with his business partner, William Berry, he founded Accommodationforstudents.com in 2000. After working on the site at the same time as working for FIFA and Ryder Cup Limited, where he contracted hotels for major sporting events, in 2004 he and his partner were on the look out to apply the successful formula to other markets. “My research showed that there was no sizeable database online for conference venues,” explains Simon. “Due to the contacts I had within hotels I knew I could quickly get some of the major chains on board and we got straight to work on the project. Fast forward to now and Conferences-UK is the UK’s leading online venue finding service.”

With offices in Manchester and London and year on year increases in turnover, Conferences-UK is going from strength to strength. Its UK customers include leading hotel groups, including IHG, Marriott, Hilton and Apex, and major clients such as the NHS and the UK Government. During the past 12 months alone Conferences-UK has placed over £12.5 million worth of conferences business. The company prides itself on being the only searchable database for individual conference rooms/suites and has around 5,500 conference venues listed in the UK, and over 10,500 worldwide.

Following its success in the UK, Conferences-UK is now poised for a presence on the global stage with plans to implement it in Australia and America. Simon is planning to spend four months in Brisbane from November and in March 2010 he will move to New York for four months to set up the respective offices. “We have built a system that can be replicated for each country and operated and optimised under sub domains,” he says. “We have contracts already in place with major hotel groups to feature their venues internationally, as they are very pleased with the business we are providing them in the UK.”

So, what’s the secret of Conferences-UK’s success? “Put quite simply, people and technology,” says Simon. It recently converted its sales force into a commission-only sales force, and has incorporated high-tech software and state-of-the-art telephone systems, as Simon explains: “This has allowed us to have a tighter control over our operating costs and the highest calibre workers are attracted to come and work for us due to the high commission we pay.” The company’s quest to become world number one hasn’t been dented by the economic downturn, adds Simon: “It has actually encouraged us more than anything. The UK market is tough at the moment but we operate a very lean business with low operating costs.”

Simon and his team are always on the look out for opportunities and ways to stay ahead of the competition: “If a member of our staff or a client thinks something can be improved then our policy is to do it before somebody else does! We act quickly and move with the demands of our clients and the needs of the industry.”