Daytona has always enjoyed strong demand from corporate entertainment organisers. Ever since we opened our first circuit in London in 1990, we have entertained tens of thousands of corporate event guests each year. But in 2008, when the credit crunch bit, we saw a large reduction in corporate entertainment events demand – which has taken until this year to bounce back fully.
Over the last five years, we have still provided events for a lot of company events but a larger proportion of our drivers were enthusiasts who simply wanted to race at our circuits. Since late last year, however, we have seen a resurgence of demand from the main corporate entertainment market – and we have all remarked on how many large events have already booked for this coming Spring/Summer.
The credit crunch has changed event organiser’s requirements though. Pre-2008, a lot of the events we provided were simply staff or client entertainment – either to reward everyone for good results or to celebrate a milestone in the business. Now we are seeing a lot more bookings for team-building and training events. It seems that the new-found business confidence has come with a need to measure the return on investment (ROI) on corporate entertainment.
We have all seen people trying to work out the the ROI on new products or new campaigns, but now our clients are looking to prove the effectiveness of their corporate entertainment spend. It isn’t always easy to do so, but we are confident that our clients must be happy with the return on their spend at Daytona, as they keep coming back – last year 74% of bookings were either repeat bookings or came about thanks to existing customer referrals.
So next time you are looking for a team-building event to improve how your teams work together, whether they are all internal staff or a mix of staff and customers/suppliers, then try one of our team endurance races or our F1 Pit Stop Challenge. We guarantee that you will see a positive return on your investment.
Jim Graham
TEAM DAYTONA