Robin Parker, General Manager - one year on

It has now been a year since I joined the team at Church House, and what a year it has been! In fact I joined on the 1st of December 2008 with the Conference Centre having just completed the most successful month in its history, but also speeding head first into a recession! Well the truth is it has been a tough year and we have never managed to hit those dizzy heights of last November however, thanks to a superb effort from the team, we have hopefully ridden out the worst of the storm and look forward to 2010 and beyond with some optimism.

In a climate which has been tough for the events industry we've welcomed some very distinguished guests over the last year including Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Prince Charles, Al Gore, The Archbishop of Canterbury and David Cameron. Our secluded location also meant we were the ideal venue to host the preparations for the London Summit, which took over eight of our 19 meeting spaces for several days and nights as delegates and staff worked well in to the wee small hours of the morning.

Our toilets have been used to film a television commercial, we've held a live debate for Channel Four News and hosted numerous conferences, meetings and events with weird and wonderful requests. We've also introduced a very successful series of client lunches; if you don't know Church House or haven't been for a while, let us know so we can invite you along.

It's been a very interesting year and I'm looking forward to many more like it (well maybe not just like it!) at Church House. In the meantime I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from all of us at Church House.

Robin Parker
General Manager