The CEO of AEG Group Steve Homer and Wolverhampton University's Pro-Vice Chancellor Prashant Pillai talk about sponsoring The Halls, Wolverhampton.
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00:00Okay, so tell me what it means for you to be able to be here today to see your
00:04name in lights across the halls. We're really excited with this, as a
00:09university we're 200 years old, University of Wolverhampton, we're really a civic
00:13university, we really work very closely with lots of businesses and the council
00:19here as well and if you look at the halls it's an iconic building for the
00:24city so we're really excited that we've partnered together and the
00:28partnership is going to be really brilliant for our staff and student
00:30experience. It's been a busy week this week of course with the ceremonies
00:34going on for graduation, this is just one of many things I assume the
00:37university is going to do with the halls? Yes it is, I mean this week's been
00:41absolutely brilliant, this is the second time we've done the graduation here, I
00:45was talking about this before that, the building itself lends very nicely for a
00:49graduation ceremony kind of thing, it's really grand and if you look at the
00:52space inside, the sound and all, it's absolutely brilliant, everybody really
00:56enjoyed the graduation but there's a lot more to do with the students so this is
01:00all about looking at placement experiences, work experiences kind of
01:03thing, looking at business, looking at marketing, looking at how you run events
01:06so there's a lot of opportunities for students to really work closely with
01:10the halls. And Steve for yourself, what does it mean for you to have this
01:13partnership with the university and to have the name on the hall? I'm really
01:17delighted with it, to be honest you know it gives a real symmetry for the city
01:20you know the fact is that it's you know it's created around music for us but
01:26it's involvement with the staff and the alumni and the students obviously are
01:30the main focus for this so you know I don't think it could be a better
01:33partnership. And sort of looking ahead, I mean obviously I've just
01:36asked about what partnerships can go ahead but what do you think the
01:38university can do with the halls going forward, can there be scope for more
01:41events taking place here for a start? Well yeah obviously you know the whole
01:44thing is it's you know the students are directly connected now with this and
01:48they can become you know not members of the halls but they can
01:52join in on pre-sales and things like that, there's great opportunities for them but I
01:55also think to go to the point about sort of like looking at work placements
01:59and learning on how the industry works you know it could be a great entry point
02:03for some people. The idea that it's not just you know a building in Wolverhampton
02:07it's a potential employment opportunity? Well absolutely absolutely and also lots
02:11of other opportunities you know as you say how to produce events, how to promote
02:15shows, how to run shows, how to market you know it's all very it's all very good
02:20learning skills. And I obviously want to address all the elephants in the room
02:25and people will talk about the £200,000 sponsorship when the bus
02:28services are being cut, is there anything you'd be prepared to comment about?
02:32To be honest look we have to look at new ways of how we can improve student
02:35experience so as a university that's what we keep doing we look keep looking
02:39at where we can what we can bring in to ensure that the student experience
02:42can be improved and this is right an example for that. Okay I suppose people
02:46will will ask about the bus services being cut and how they you can say that
02:49the money for this can come in for this but not for the bus services, is it
02:53something that has been sort of discussed at board level? It has been and
02:57the university's already put a statement around that previously and so we'll
03:01stick with that. Okay no problem at all. Looking ahead with this I mean what do
03:07you see next for the University of the Halls? Well graduation is going to be
03:11here we're looking at lots of various other events, workshops, conferences kind
03:14of thing, lots of training opportunities for students as we were discussing as
03:18well before so I think it's going to be an exciting time for students as well
03:21because they can you know the industry is really growing as well you know the
03:24music industry we're really seeing really big names coming here as well so
03:27from a cultural point of view I think is again really really important for that
03:30so there's a lot actually at the moment that is being developed as a program of
03:34engagement between between the halls and the university.