Rotary Clubs enjoy occasional ‘Vocational Visits’ to various businesses and it’s a valuable perk of becoming a member. Not only do we learn about types of business that may be out of our experience, we also gain a greater understating of the local business environment and how it affects a variety of players.
Last night around thirty Rotarians and guests enjoyed a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of Butlins Skegness taking in several of the impressive entertainment venues including Splash Waterworld, Skyline Pavilion and no less than three large stages that regularly host world famous performers. Indeed several of our group stayed on to watch The Carpenters who were setting up during our tour.
After an excellent hot buffet and some refreshments we got to hear from the real star attraction, which is of course, Resort Director Chris Baron. It is always worth listening to Chris if you get the chance and he was very generous with his time giving a frank and open presentation before answering questions. Chris runs an extremely successful, and profitable, operation whilst placing real value on his team (never ‘staff’) and resort visitors. Butlins Skegness appears to be a real template for how business can be run both profitably (sustainably) and ethically in an era when, it seems, the arguments are only being made for the two extremes.
Thanks are due to Rotarian Chris Lilley for organising the visit, to everyone who came along and helped make the evening a success and especially to all the team at Butlins who are noticeably some of the politest, most attentive and best trained individuals your likely to find in the area.