Cliftons Interview with South China Morning Post

Cliftons Managing Director and Founder, Andrew Cameron was recently interviewed by South China Morning Post for an article on Cliftons Hong Kong training venue. The article focused on Cliftons service model, premium location and growing business. See below for the article.

"Only the best will do"

Training facilities providers must be very flexible

South China Morning Post - Monday, August 29, 2011

The real estate agents' mantra, "location, location, location", certainly applies when a company considered where to host event from human resources seminars, information technology training sessions, to recruitment days and assessment centres.

Manfred Lau, business consulting director for Gravel, a provider of talent management solutions, says his firm goes for venues with a premium location, well-designed multipurpose rooms and a pleasant break area. The company's activities are attended by 12 to 120 participants at any one time.

A customer of Cliftons, which offers event and training facilities and solutions, Lau says he also looks for excellent customer service where the venue provider takes the time to understand the nature of the business and purpose of the event.

"Staff at Cliftons are friendly and experienced, know exactly what we do and suggest how we can improve [our events]," he says, adding that it is important the environment and hardware support the event and help build the company's brand. Andrew Cameron, managing director of Cliftons, says the duration of training programmes was cut during the economic downturn but has now resumed. He says Cliftons closed its Quarry Bay facility partly due to rising rent, but is experiencing stable growth in Central. "There is now more pressure on employment, and training is coming back both to develop and retain staff. We have more regular events, such as computer training and soft-skill seminars," he says. "We have more volume; there is a strong demand for 20- to 30-people rooms".

About 60 to 70 per cent of Cliftons customers are multinationals that, in many cases, are also using the company's facilities in 10 other cities, in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. About 25 per cent of its clients are small and medium-size enterprises. "There is a lot more work from Hong Kong-listed companies, mostly company announcements," Cameron says.

The flexible facility has 11 rooms of which eight can be reconfigured into one hall that can seat 450 people theatre style. The company also offers audio-visual equipment and up-to-date video conferencing facilities.

Cameron says that in response to the increasing demand from clients for catering services, the company's new Perth and Canberra facilities have been built with a kitchen included and, in Melbourne, a trained barista has been hired.

For more information on Cliftons Hong Kong, or any other Cliftons locations across Asia Pacific, contact us today.