Tag Archives: London

The dark Monday increases the fear of a recession

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After a terrible day for worldwide economic stability, banks and governments are taking steps to try and save their country’s businesses from feeling the effects of the ‘credit crunch’. National banks mint more money and Finance Ministers work on new rules to control and protect the savers and the investors.

Many are calling for an official statement on the crisis today, feeling that this latest fall in bank shares is juts the latest chapter in a seemingly endless economic downturn.

Here is our selection of some of today’s essential Business headlines.

  • Panic swept through the world’s financial markets yesterday, wiping $2.5 trillion from share values, amid concern that regulators and politicians were struggling to get a grip on the worsening crisis of confidence. [Timesonline.co.uk]
  • The really urgent issue is the breakdown of wholesale markets, and the increasing difficulty that almost all banks are having in funding themselves on a day-to-day basis. [BBCNews]
  • After the worst day’s trading in over 20 years, analysts had hoped for a relief rally, with speculation growing of concerted central bank action on global interest rates. … Yesterday £93bn was wiped off the FTSE 100 as the leading index plunged by 391.1 points – its third worst daily decline in percentage terms ever. [Guardian.co.uk]
  • Iceland sought a 4 billion-euro ($5.43 billion) loan from Russia, pegged the slumping Kroner to a basket of currencies and took control of its second biggest bank to stem a collapse of the financial system. [Bloomberg.com]

The 5 best venues for events in London

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Hello! Are you looking for events in London? Would you like to organise an event here? Here you can find the 5 biggest and most famous venues in London:

  • Alexndra Palace – This is one of the most versatile and visually unique venues in London. It is set within 196 acres of glorious parkland, the Palace features an extraordinary blend of Victorian splendour, fascinating history and modern technology.
  • Barbican Centre – As the largest multi-arts centre in Europe it features art, film, music, theatre, dance and education all under one roof and under one creative direction. The Barbican comprises the 1,949 seat Barbican Hall, the 1,166-seat Barbican Theatre, the 200-seat Pit theatre, 3 cinemas, the 1,393 m² Barbican Art Gallery, a 2nd gallery; The Curve, 4,645 m² of foyers and public spaces, the Lakeside Terrace, a roof-top tropical conservatory, 7 conference suites, 2 trade exhibition halls, private function rooms and the 3 restaurants; Searcy’s, Waterside Café and Balcony Bistro.
  • Earl’s Court and Olympia – This a privately owned company and its owners have a clearly defined vision for the future – to create a landmark leisure attraction centred around the core business of exhibitions, conferences and special events. Earls Court and Olympia have been hosting events since 1886 and 1937 respectively and now receive over 2 million visitors annually and generate more than £1.2 billion in business and tourism income. 25,000 companies exhibit there each year.
  • ExCeL – This an international exhibition and conference centre, it is the host venue for a variety of events from award winning exhibitions and conferences to international association meetings, product launches, banquets, award ceremonies, sporting events and great days out. Situated in a stunning waterfront location, ExCeL London is located in the heart of London’s Royal Docks, within easy reach of central London.
  • Royal Horticultural Halls – Situated in the heart of London’s Westminster, the two Halls and the Conference Centre have all been used for a variety of events including: exhibitions, banquets, conferences, examinations, fashion shows, festivals and fairs.

Happy Birthday TimeOut London! 40 years of young news

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September 1968 – September 2008: Time Out celebrates its fortieth anniversary. Tony Elliott was just a Keele University student when he launched Time Out with the £70 his aunt gave him for his twenty-first birthday. Now he is sixty-one and the chairman of a multimillion-pound empire. To celebrate this success the main story this week covers the forty most famous Londoners in this anniversary edition (today in the shops for £2.95).

Time Out is quite simply the best resource to find out what’s going on in London. It’s a weekly listings magazine, famous for its cultural reference value with listings for film, theatre, fashion, literature, restaurants, clubs, parties, festivals and events – tailored to each city. It expanded from the London edition to cities across the globe. It has established a worthy online presence to provide its readers with news and useful information that constitutes twenty-three different city editions.

You can find Time Out everywhere: London, Chicago, New York, Paris, Beijing, Dubai, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Cyprus, Moscow, Athens, Singapore, Saint-Petersburg, Bucharest, Almaty, Jerusalem, Kiev, Mumbai, New Delhi, Abu Dhabi, Sydney, Shanghai and Barcelona, and from 2008, also in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. Every edition is unique and rich with event listings, complemented by articles, typically featuring celebrities appearing in one of the listed events.

40 years, 52 covers per year and 86,000 copies for about 374,000 readers every week: Happy birthday Time Out!

The 10 best London songs!

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Good afternoon. Today we want to distract you from the tumultuous economic instability with something a little more cheery…

Here are our 10 favourite London Songs!

  1. God Save The Queen – Sex Pistols
  2. Streets Of London – Ralph McTel
  3. London Belongs To Me – Saint Etienne
  4. Down In The Tube Station At Midnight – The Jam
  5. Primrose Hill – John & Beverly Martyn
  6. London Is The Place For Me – Lord Kitchener
  7. Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks
  8. London’s Burning – The Clash
  9. London Town – Light Of The World
  10. For Tomorrow – Blur

Do you agree with our choices? Tell us your opinion. Time Out (the best London magazine) seems to disagree. See what they suggest and tell us what you think.

Enjoy!

Inflation and bankruptcy! Don’t panic.

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Don’t panic. Even if all todays news is very very bad: don’t panic, business and life keep going on! But let’s have a look at the 4 most read news stories of today from London about London:

  1. The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings has brought several consequences: markets everywhere have never been so down, overnight the cost of borrowing in dollars has more than doubled to the highest since 2001 (from 3.33 percentage points to 6.44 percent today: the biggest jump, according to the British Bankers’ Association), 7000 bankers are now sending out their cv’s and hoping to quickly solve their personal situations.
  2. ‘Inflation surged above forecasts to 4.7 per cent in August to the highest rate since Britain’s last recession, after the price of food and energy rose. – Thetimesonline.co.uk says: – Households are now paying 27.7 per cent more on their gas bills and 18 per cent more for electricity. The cost of banking services also increased as lenders cut their mortgage arrangement fees by less than they did last year. Food prices also rose by 1.3 per cent last month and, in the year to August, by 13 per cent’.
  3. Problems in the City, at home and at City Hall: – David Cairns, Minister of State at the Scotland Office, believes Mr Brown is showing a lack of leadership and direction to the country -, says the Timesonline.co.uk – He is unhappy about the lack of direction and believes the leadership is all over the place and making lots of mistakes. He has been unhappy for some considerable time and could decide to go today.
  4. And in London the crimes are increasing. Spokesman Chris Huhne has set out his vision for tackling crime, calling for better policing rather than tougher sentences. He said people should not be sent to jail for minor offences when other punishments would be more effective. Resources must be directed towards more effective policing and detection rather than more prisons, Mr Huhne added.

But don’t worry life is an up and down of events, the famous destiny’s waves! Londoners (and not just them) have to try to resist, never give up and learn from the brave Lehman’s workers that kept going to work, knowing well what was going on and now are at work to find a new employer. Being up to date and connected is indispensable in order to succeed and to survive: for this reason London Presence continues to provide you with efficient customer service from Monday to Friday (9am – 5,30pm) and with a unique blog!

Top tips for your London meeting

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Good morning! August is over and everyone’s coming back from their summer holidays ready for the new busy business season. The offices are filling up again and managers are organising new meetings to train and inform their team, work with partners or speak with clients.

Last week we spoke about the best venues for an event or dinner in London, trying to give you a suggestion for every need. This time we thought we’d drop a few hints to shape an efficient and organised meeting. So without further ado…

Here are the top tips for a good meeting:

  1. Communicate timing to all members: Date – place – time – don’t rely on someone to spread the word for you.
  2. Ask every person involved if he/she has any particular topics to add, aside from the main agenda.
  3. Involve a person as an assistant to help you in the organisation of the meeting (to prepare material, presentation, issues and to take minutes).
  4. A choice of snacks, hot drinks or biscuits will bode well for getting your team members’ attention.
  5. Send everybody the minutes immediately after the meeting.

You don’t have a meeting room in london? And you need one? London Presence can help you on this front too: you can have a large comfortable meeting room in the centre of London for as long as you need it. And above all you can have a cheap meeting room close to the City and easy to find by bus and tube. Click the ‘meeting room’ tab to find out more.

The 5 best restaurants for your perfect business event!

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Are you organising a dinner in London? Is it a business dinner?! Are you going to invite partners, clients or colleagues? In any case you need to find the most appropriate location. And the first things you need to decide (before the restaurant itself) are how many people you will invite and for what time of the day.

So here you are 5 tips for your perfect business meeting:

If you want to win over a small group of people (or a beautiful woman) the best place is The Sketch. Apart from the jaguar on the wall you can’t see anything from outside… it looks like a normal tea room but if you go with it you get to the hall you’ll find yourself akin to Alice in Wonderland. Strange pictures and sculptures and it has three different areas for different occasions. The ambience is as unique as the food and drinks! But if those are not enough: take a trip to the toilet, you’ll understand when you get there…

If you’re going for a big event you should check out the Skylon Restaurant. You can’t miss it, it’s inside the Royal Festival Hall, on the second floor of the Southbank Centre and it has an unparalleled view of the riverside. Here you can have three different kinds of meetings: a quiet lunch in a good brasserie, a smart dinner in a nice restaurant or a larger event in which you and your guests are the main stars.

If you are looking for a good lunch or dinner, in which the food will speak more than words, check out The Ivy. This restaurant offers a rich menu perfect for every taste and every season: good food for good people. Now The Ivy is a member of a larger group that includes Urban Caprice, the J Sheekey, the BamBoo and Scott’s.

If you want to surprise your guests, you should try the Hakkasan, it’s a dimly lit but smart Chinese restaurant hidden away just two minutes from Tottenham Court Road. It’s one of only two Michelin-starred Chinese restaurants in London and it offers gorgeous selection of dishes and tastey wines served with charm in a low-lit atmosphere.

If you are organising a fun and busy night the right place for you is the garden of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It may be a museum but it hides a lovely garden where you can host your guests, offering a canape dinner, live music and other surprises.

Would you like more suggestions? Would you like to be updated on offers and restaurants?! Use Top Table website and you won’t be disappointed. Let us know how you get on.

Time runs faster on a London watch

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Good morning and welcome back to your office and the London Presence Blog. The long weekend is over and here you are with some fresh news and information from London. With the Olympics now passed and the weather turning for the worse you couldn’t be blamed for thinking the summer’s over, however British Summer Time doesn’t end until 26th October when the clocks go back. Whilst you may gain an hour then, a busy week around here might feel like you’ve lost ten times as many. Having said that, the day after a bank holiday always drags like a ball and chain.

In London being in time often means beating the clock – but without persuing too many cliches about how ‘clocks run faster in London’ we can nevertheless outline that our city became a thriving community for clock-making at one time. The story of the London clock is old and obscure, and though it derives from a period as far back as the 16th century, it was primarily a French industry, developing in Soho at that time. Since then this tradition flourished in the 18th century when watchmakers operated in Clerkenwell, the home of your virtual office!

Of course this is the city of the great Big Ben clock, whose minute hand has pulled and pushed us in every direction since its completion in 1870. Peter Debaufre, Christopher Pinchbeck, Francis Perigal and James Short are just some of the most famous members of the Clockmakers’ Company. This industry also brought a number of inventions and improvements to the established design and mechanics of time-pieces.

To know more about the English clock story here an interesting link to its British history. In the mean time we will keep updating you on all areas surrounding your virtual office and London life, new and old. We don’t waste time at London Presence so keep checking our daily tidbits, don’t waste a second.

Bank Holidays in UK 2008 – 2009: take note of your days off!

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Are you ready for the long weekend? Maybe you’ve forgotten but next Monday is the last Monday in August… so it’s a Bank Holiday! Bank holidays are special public holidays that have been recognised since 1871 as days when banks were closed and that means no trading and no working in banks or offices. However, most museums and other public attractions remain open to profit from these holidays.

But remember, since your virtual office is in England your business will also abide by these dates as holidays regardless of where your post, calls and emails are forwarded to.

Here are the dates for the remaining holidays in 2008 and 2009: update your calendar now!

HOLIDAY DATE
Summer Bank Holiday 25th August 2008
Christmas Day 25th December 2008
Boxing Day 26th December 2008
New Year’s Day 1st January 2009
Good Friday 10th April 2009
Easter Monday 13th April 2009
Early May Bank Holiday 4th May 2009
Spring Bank Holiday 25th May 2009
Summer Bank Holiday 31st August 2009
Christmas Day 25th December 2009
Christmas Bank Holiday 28th December 2009

And now that you know we won’t be answering the phone on Monday, have a browse through some websites to get excursion ideas: for London go to visitlondon.com or if you are feeling more adventurous go to lastminute.com!

Enjoy! and see you next week!

Hail to the mail!

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9am on a Monday and the Royal Mail bags come down. Not the most exciting occurrence you may think but these large grey sacks maybe, just maybe contain the hopes and dreams of a brand new company. A weekend’s worth of mail ready to be sorted and sent on to the rightful owner. It’s quite a responsibility.

Perhaps it was the business card given out at the conference last week, the pen left behind after a meeting, maybe even the website. Who knows? But somehow, someone has got hold of the business address and the company is now “live”, dealing in the currency of hard mail.

Now working in any postal department may not be the most glamorous job in the world (it did after all give birth to the phrase “going postal ”) but to see a company grow can give a real level of satisfaction. Once that business address is out there the floodgates are open and watching that trickle of mail turn into a torrent, feeding the company opportunities gives almost a sense of duty. If the mail is the lifeblood of a company we are the veins.

Okay, enough of the whimsy. The truth remains though that mail remains an integral part of any business so the importance of every piece of mail must never be underestimated. One man’s junk mail is another man’s unique business opportunity and with email accounts being clogged up with more spam than Tesco, operations are reclaiming direct mail as a tool to get across their product, engage their customers and make all new business connections.

So the moral of the story? Don’t underestimate the power of your mail, sending or receiving!