Writing terms and conditions for conferences and other events
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2007-02-17 08:06:20 - Graham Ellis
Whether you're running a small company with a handful of staff, or a multi-million pound operation, you've still got the same commercial issues to look after, and virtually the same set of legal requirements on you with regards so staff, business operations, taxes and so on. There are some, limited, dispensations for the smaller business but all in all the admin workload per pound earned is much higher, although the staff management and internal communication per pound earned is lower - quite simply, there are fewer of you.
Perhaps you would thinks that we can simply take other people's standards and use them? At times we can and go, but time and again we keep realising that our business is different, it is innovative, it is niche and that we set ourselves high standards. As a result, we rarely a "me also" outfit that can take an example from a similar place in Devizes, Malmesbury or even Aviemore or Rhyl and make do and amend.
A good example are the Terms and conditions for events and conferences at Well House Manor. I looked on line at various examples - from Lackham College to the Law Society via a centre for the Spanish community in East London ... and none was right. "Too Complex". "Too Specific". "Plain wrong for what we do". So I ended up working our our own set.
We're different.
We'll quite happily cater for you - but we don't want to stop you bringing in your own food and drink if you wish. We're quite happy for you to use our internet connection and we don't need 5 days notice ahead of time, nor make an extra charge. We don't have any delicate balconies that you mustn't have more than 2 people at a time occupying. And we say "leave it tidy" and NOT "leave it as you found it"; we anticipate that the last thing an event organiser wants to do at the end of a hard day's slog is to start using our vacuum cleaner ...
Having had a bit of a grumble about the extra work in coming up with our own document, though, we're now well set and turned for the future and by looking at other examples, things have come to our attention earlier rather than later. Some examples:
* The event organiser is responsible for any licenses needed over and above what we normally hold, and we've added a paragraph about illegal betting and gambling too.
* Hirers can't pretend to be us and take our good name. Obvious once it's pointed out, but you do hear of some organisations who go round and hire posh places and take a whole load of orders before disappearing into the night.
And, indeed, that latter has wider implications not only for our hirers but for our staff too. The question arises in my mind "what if one of our team enters into a contract on Ebay while using one of the computers here and the deal goes sour, has a delivery sent here and then doesn't receive it, or leaves personal property in site that gets lost". There are limits to how far we can and should go with our small team, but this whole exercise has been a useful one.