Melon Communications were recently invited with the Birmingham Press Club by HSBC UK for a behind the scenes look at its new head office in Birmingham.

HSBC UK’s new £170 million 10-storey national headquarters building - located at Centenary Square, Birmingham and now home to 2,500 staff hosted Birmingham Press Club’s monthly meeting on Wednesday 5 June.

Club members were given a conducted tour of the HSBC University, an advanced teaching facility that offers opportunities for HSBC employees in the UK and Europe to train, learn skills and obtain qualifications. Bank executives have forecast that the University will be a ‘significant magnet of talent’ over the next 20 years.

The bank’s Head of Archives introduced guests to the heritage display showcasing HSBC’s history from its first branch which opened its doors in 1836 at Union Street, Birmingham, its roots in Hong Kong through to the present day. Guests were also introduced to the digital war memorial commemorating bank staff who lost their lives in the two world wars.

HSBC UK’s chief executive Ian Stuart and senior members of the bank’s media team were in attendance to meet Press Club guests on the building’s Level 10 Terrace, with its impressive views over the Birmingham skyline, for a buffet style drinks reception.

For press and media enquiries please contact Melon Communications.
Helen Toomey Hesk T: 01926 800242 M: 07968752563
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Leamington Spa-based contract catering firm T (n) S Catering is delighted to announce the appointment of Wayne Sullivan to Development Chef Manager. Wayne’s skills will support the business’s ambition in closing the gap between food innovations on the high street by bringing similar provisions to the contract catering world.

Joining fresh from his 3 year tenure as head chef at The Old Stocks Inn, Stow on the Wold, Wayne bring a wealth of experience honed from his culinary career developed here and at some of the world’s best restaurants including Marcus Wareing’s Petrus, The Montpellier Chapter Cheltenham and The Hotel Wheatleigh in Massachusetts, USA.  

A true Cotswold chef, Wayne is well known locally as a key Consultant Chef having worked within the teams at Calcot Manor, The Wesley House, Hotel Du Vin in Cheltenham and The Bell at Sapperton. Wayne was Head Chef at the AA 2 Rosette awarded Parkers Brasserie, when it was named by Cotswold Life as Restaurant of the Year.  Wayne went on to add The Kings Head in Cirencester, The Bathurst Arms and The Wheatsheaf to his repertoire. 

Nearly two years ago the talented chef reached the semi-final stages of the BBC show Masterchef: The Professionals, impressing its judges Monica Galetti, Marcus Wareing and Gregg Wallace.

Wayne said ‘I am excited to take this step into contract catering as it offers me a wealth of opportunity for me to harness my twenty years culinary experience. T (n) S is a growing business with a refreshing vision being a quality operator with a progressive culture driven by excellent food and service. Being part of a great team giving me the opportunity to grow from within and being personally developed has always been a high priority to me.’

‘This is a company which are going places and I can’t wait to start this journey with them.’

Andrew Odell-Rourke, T (n) S Catering’s Managing Director added:
‘Looking after our existing business is the core factor to our success to date. Wayne will re-enforce our commitment to drive quality and innovation, whilst delivering new styles of food making a positive impact upon our services further developing our stake in B & I, education and healthcare sectors’.

For press and media enquiries please contact Melon Communications. 
Helen Toomey Hesk T: 01926 800242 M: 07968752563
E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Recent studies report gender equality at work has barely improved in 10 years, with young women potentially not realising real workplace equality before retirement. Todays’ young women will be waiting decades to see a real difference. With progress so slow, young women will be retired before equality in the workplace becomes a reality.

The Gender Equality Index 2017, published by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) published earlier this month, revealed that gender equality at work across the EU as a whole had improved little between 2005 and 2015. The report measured gender equality at work using several factors, including the proportion of women in full-time employment, the availability of flexible-working arrangements and career prospects.

Yet despite these disappointing conclusions, the UK was placed fourth for gender equality at work out of all 28 EU member states, only being outranked by Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. 

The report also found that, when taking into account a range of issues such as money, free time and power, the UK had made little progress on gender equality overall during the last 10 years. The UK’s gender equality for knowledge, which considers participation in education and training, was found to have declined over the 10-year period, although the country still ranked third on this overall.

Director of the EIGE, Virginija Langbakk  said ‘we are moving forward at a snail’s pace, still a long way off from reaching a gender-equal society and all countries in the European Union have room to improve.’

Meanwhile, the women and equalities minister, Justine Greening told parliament earlier this month that more could be done to improve the UK’s gender pay gap. Speaking in the House of Commons, she said: ‘The gender pay gap is the lowest it has ever been, but we can do better. We have introduced mandatory gender pay gap reporting for the first time and large employers now have six months left to report their gender pay gaps.’

Since April, organisations with more than 250 staff must publish details of their gender pay gap. However, only 128 employers out of an estimated 9,000 have published their figures so far. Last month, Greening told the Financial Times Women at the top summit that she would like businesses to expedite their plans to report their pay gaps.

A study published by Mercer in August revealed that the biggest reason businesses are discouraged from revealing their pay gap is because the rules are too complicated. 41 per cent of the 165 companies surveyed said they found the process complex, while 28 per cent said the rules were misleading. 

One in 10 employers admit to paying women less than men for jobs of the same level, a survey by  YouGov revealed. The survey, carried out on behalf of the charity Young Women’s Trust, suggests that gender pay differentials span all levels of employment, with female apprentices paid, on average, 21 per cent less than their male counterparts – leaving them £2,000 a year worse-off.

The media spotlight has been fixed on the gender pay gap issue after the BBC revealed details of employees who earn more than £150,000 per year which highlighted a huge difference between the men and women carrying out similar duties, and the number of men in more highly paid roles than women.

However, nearly half of the 800 HR decision-makers questioned in the YouGov survey said publishing pay gaps would not make a difference to pay, while a fifth said equal pay will never be achieved. The findings also revealed that, despite there often being an air of secrecy around the discussion of pay, 10 per cent of respondents in the private sector and 13 per cent in the public sector said they were aware of women being paid less in their workplace.

Chloé Chambraud, gender research and policy manager at Business in the Community, said the survey findings were ‘shocking, but sadly not surprising, although unequal pay has been illegal since 1970, our research shows that nearly half of female employees believe that it is currently happening in their organisation,’ she added.  

‘While it is understandable – if disappointing – that employers may have a gender pay gap for various reasons, such as women being concentrated in lower-paid roles and sectors, it is unacceptable to see that so many employers are still tolerating unequal pay issues in 2017.’

Chambraud said publishing pay data would help employers to understand where and why any gender pay gaps existed, and enable them to take action. ‘However, simply publishing a set of figures is not a magic bullet,’ she admitted. ‘Employers need to understand those causes – including whether unequal pay is a contributing factor – to tackle it.’

A new immersive entertainment attraction in Broadgate, Coventry opened its doors mid- June celebrating on the evening of Tuesday 27th June with a grand opening VIP launch party. Guests were treated to an opportunity to play an escape room of their choice, the challenge being to escape within the hour. With teams of 2 -6 players representing the local press and media, bloggers, businesses and students from nearby Universities guests had a lot of fun with some teams wanting to play rooms more than once.

Providing an ultimate adrenalin rush, with an area of over 6000sq ft, Escape Reality Coventry boasts six exciting and unique escape experiences, rated by genre – movie, crime, horror or adventure with varying levels of difficulty. The teams had to exercise a combination of logical thinking, problem-solving, communicative and teamwork skills in a race against the clock by solving mysterious and tricky puzzles, riddles and clues. 

Guests raced to choose from the Jumanji-inspired Jungala room, The Heist and Murder in Whitechapel rooms or Alcatraz, The Asylum or Scarlett rooms. This new and growing in popularity type of entertainment proved a very different night out for most of the guests. Once players had escaped their rooms those who had triumphed with a record escape were given prizes, and made it on to the official leaderboard. 

At the champagne launch party guests were also treated to spectacular grazing table feast. Escape Reality offers a complete experience in that it provides a relaxing social space to talk pre-escape room tactics and to mingle with fellow players after the game rooms have been played. It certainly is a true team building and bonding experience testing how colleagues, family and friends can pool their strengths and work well together. In this scenario 60 minutes does pass surprisingly quickly. 

Escape rooms are a relatively new entertainment concept, but the public is driving demand for more immersive, group based activities.

The Escape team are passionate about creating an amazing experience for others. According to Escape Reality “Nothing brings us more joy than to see our rooms and ideas being enjoyed. A great deal of meticulous planning has gone into the game flow which incorporates new technology, mechanical puzzles and realistic props and we thoroughly enjoy the whole process of creating our rooms. We have also emphasised heavily on the theming of our rooms to give our customers a truly immersive and realistic experience, as though you’ve been transported into a whole different world.”

The Coventry venue joins existing Escape Reality sites in Leicester, Cardiff, Leeds, Glasgow, Dubai and Las Vegas with Chicago, Edinburgh and Birmingham also set to open later this year. 

Prices range from £16-£22 per person. To book tickets visit http://www.escapereality.com/coventry/

A new immersive entertainment attraction in Broadgate, Coventry is weeks away from launching as Escape Reality prepares to open its doors… but have you got what it takes to escape in time? 

Imagine being locked in a Coventry City Centre building with up to 5 of your friends or family for up to one hour and having to escape as quickly as possible. This definitely sounds sinister but is actually a new and growing in popularity type of entertainment soon to be found at Escape Reality in Broadgate, Coventry.

If 60 minutes of adrenalin-filled, tricky puzzle solving, clue spotting – sounds like your cup of tea, you should plan a visit to this new City entertainment venue. Your adventure starts jovially as you relax with your team mates in a cosy bar area, sipping fizz and beers whilst talking strategy before entering your chosen room. Escape Reality offers a complete experience in that it provides a relaxing social space to talk pre-escape room tactics and to mingle with fellow players after the game rooms have been played.

There are six uniquely themed rooms with varying levels of difficulty ensuring there is something for everyone from beginners to seasoned escape room players. Many of the rooms are inspired by popular movies so if you are looking for an adventure how about attempting to find your way out of the Jumanji-inspired Jungala escape room? Criminal masterminds may wish to try their luck stealing a prized painting in The Heist and if you’d like to go back to the Victorian times, you could be a detective and try catching a killer in Murder in Whitechapel. If you ever wondered what it’s like to be locked up in a prison, you and your cellmates could be attempting a prison break from the Alcatraz room. Thriller fans might choose to experience The Asylum and for horror fans the Scarlett room has some creepy dolls in waiting. 

Escape Reality provides a truly team building and bonding experience testing how strangers, colleagues, students and friends can pool their strengths and work well together. In this scenario 60 minutes does pass surprisingly quickly. 

Escape rooms are a relatively new entertainment concept, but the public is driving demand for more immersive, group based activities which can be played with families, friends and colleagues attracting a huge age range of players from teenagers up to aged 60.

The people behind the brand are a small, young and dynamic team of designers, game masters and props specialists who are truly passionate about creating an amazing experience for others. According to Escape Reality “Nothing brings us more joy than to see our rooms and ideas being enjoyed. A great deal of meticulous planning has gone into the game flow which incorporates new technology, mechanical puzzles and realistic props and we thoroughly enjoy the whole process of creating our rooms. We have also emphasised heavily on the theming of our rooms to give our customers a truly immersive and realistic experience, as though you’ve been transported into a whole different world.”

The venue will soon be running a competition to win free tickets to the official launch party on Tuesday 27 June 2017, where you will be able to try the experience first-hand. Watch out for a chance to win tickets on the Escape Reality Coventry Facebook, Instagram and Twitter channels.

The venue will be open for business from next Friday 16 June 2017 and can be found in the former Bridge Restaurant next to the Peeping Tom clock overlooking the iconic Lady Godiva statue.  Once the Coventry venue opens it joins existing Escape Reality sites in Leicester, Cardiff, Leeds, Glasgow, Dubai and soon to be opened Las Vegas with Chicago, Edinburgh and Birmingham also set to open later this year.

To book tickets visit http://www.escapereality.com/coventry/