Quality as a reference guide

Last September the Valencia Conference Centre received the Quality System Certifications for ISO 9001 and 14001 from the certifying company Bureau Veritas and more recently the standard “Q” of Quality of Tourism, which is granted by the Institute for Quality in Spanish Tourism to outstanding companies and institutions. This triple quality certification, the only Conference Centre to have received all three in Spain, corroborates the management strategy carried out by the Conferences directors as a response to clients´ demands.

The main objective of this strategy is, in words of the president of the Conference Centre, Mr. Alfonso Grau: “to satisfy a highly demanding client in an increasing competitive environment and play a part to make Valencia a destination chosen by a business tourism sector for the city´s benefit.

Thus, market requirements has called for a continuous strive for improvement in all organizational aspects in accordance to ISO 9001 standards, while the 14001 certification standard confirms the implementation of a environmental
management system, both of which are results of the Conference Centre´s commitment towards waste management and energy optimization.

With the proliferation of exhibition centres available, these certificates and the recognition rendered to our quality standards, as well as the good results obtained in the last financial year demonstrate, in words of the director and manager, Mr. Jose Salinas, that the Conference Centre “has been able to respond to the competitiveness the market demands”.

There is an attempt to extend the policy of total quality implemented by the Conference Centre in the last years to all congress activities in Spain. It requires every single employee to work on improving their sphere of work, from high level management to purely technical or visitor information services.

This constant improvement policy has required the creation of specific standards and procedures for each and every step in the productive process of the Conference Centre, and a major effort in the introduction of this search for excellence in the political organization of the Centre, for whom for some time now, customer satisfaction and the constant search for “cero error” has become part of the organizational culture of the company.

This active involvement is reward e d every year with the visitors´ appreciation in the post-appraisal questionnaires that are handed out after each event, in which they have rated the Conference´s personnel with 5´19 points out of 6, the highest rating obtained in all fields assessed. The same questionnaires rated the Conference Centre with 5´04 points, an excellent result and a substantial improvement in the visitors appreciation inrespect to last year in which the Conference was rated with 4,62 points.