Jan is a Conference Co-ordinator at the Foresight Centre, overseeing its day-to-day operations. Jan has worked at the centre for nine years and is one of a team of eight.
7.30am
My typical day starts at around 7.30am depending on the requirements of bookings which can number anywhere between one and 10 separate events, running from 8am up to 10.30pm. My first job of the day is to open up the building and check all customer requirements have been met for the day ahead and that the centre offers a warm welcome to all the days’ guests.
8.30am
This is the time when most visitors arrive. Today we are hosting a World Café in the Hub for the Liverpool Green Economy which starts with breakfast and will run until early afternoon. Once this meeting is underway I move on to meet and greet as many as possible of the 100 plus guests who are arriving for the day’s events. Today is a fairly average day – one event has no training materials which means both myself and the team have to track it down – it turns out to be in the back of a taxi en-route. Another client has no sound on their PowerPoint presentation and a meeting booked by a third party has to have a complete room change – all this before 9.30am!
9.30am
Mid morning I move on to facilitating a video conference to Seattle, New York, Malawi and London which includes two presentations and a voice call which is being recorded for reviewing post meeting. To ensure the effectiveness of the call I have previously run test calls to all sites prior to the meeting and I will remain with the customer until all connections are live and of good quality.
12.30pm
Lunchtime is the busiest period of the day and my role is to ensure that all catering orders are correct and meet with the centre’s high standards. The centre is renowned for its standard of catering provided by local, award-winning suppliers using ethically-sourced products.
2pm
After lunch I have two meetings with prospective clients who I show around the centre, demonstrating the facilities and services available. This is normally the first step in securing bookings. The Foresight Centre has a core focus on customer service from the initial contact to service delivery, which is why it is so successful and highly regarded as one of the best conference facilities in Merseyside.
4pm
Before leaving for the day, I attend to the admin work – invoicing, orders and responding to emails, before recovering some lost documents for a grateful customer. After checking everything is in place for evening customers, I finally leave.