ANNUAL REVIEW2011/12

CHAIRMAN’S FOREWORD

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It is my pleasure to introduce the Annual Review 2011/12, whichreflects not only the outstanding achievements over the past 12months but also the challenges the management and staff havefaced over the period – mainly as a result of the difficult prevailingeconomic climate.

The success of the National Ice Centre and Capital FM ArenaNottingham is based on two key factors: firstly a Board of Directorswho work collectively to give the business the strategic directionrequired, and, secondly, a talented, committed and innovativemanagement team and staff, who strive every day to provide thehighest levels of customer services to the tens of thousands ofpeople visiting the venue every year.

Please take the time to read this excellent review!

R Michiel Stevenson

OBE DL Hon LLD Hon MA

R Michiel Stevenson OBE DL Hon LLD Hon MA,Chairman, National Ice Centre

Mich was born and educated in Nottingham and has been involvedin the development and progress of the National Ice Centre since1997, when the decision to replace the old Ice Stadium with aground-breaking twin ice pad facility – incorporating a 10,000 seatarena – was taken.

He has held numerous high profile positions within the City,including leading the formation of the Lace Market Heritage Trust,Chairman of the Galleries of Justice, Nottingham Waterside, andNottingham Regeneration Limited.

Awarded the OBE in 1998, he is currently Deputy Lieutenant ofNottinghamshire and has been awarded Honorary Degrees from theUniversity of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University.

In May 2005, Mich was admitted as an Honorary Freeman of theCity of Nottingham, and in 2007 he was appointed to the NationalBoard of Sport England.

The Board of the National Ice Centre

R Michiel Stevenson, OBE DL, ChairmanCouncillor Malcolm Wood, Vice ChairmanCouncillor Brian GrocockCouncillor Leon UnczurCouncillor Alex NorrisMelvin EgglentonDavid HallamPeter EllisJo Bradley

Ex-officio Members

Hugh White, Nottingham City CouncilAnne Rippon, Sport England

CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S SUMMARY

OVERVIEW

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going!” This is a sayingattributed to Joseph P Kennedy, father of USA President John FKennedy, and immortalised in the Billy Ocean song of the samename, which became a world-wide hit in 1985. The phrasecompletely epitomises the culture and ‘can do’ attitude of managersand staff at the National Ice Centre/Capital FM Arena Nottinghamwho, once again, have risen above the prevailing ‘double dip’economic climate to deliver another exceptional performance acrossall sectors of the business.

In times of economic hardship, it is widely recognised that theleisure sector is amongst the first to be hit as consumers reign inspend on non-essential items. In overall terms, the venue hasdelivered its best ever financial performance even though the finaloperating deficit was slightly more than £100,000.

However, there were several mitigating factors relating to the final outturn that have to be taken into account - not least theemployment of a Project Management team to oversee the bringingin-house of the ticketing operation in June 2012, and theappointment of a Retail and Merchandising Manager (plus supportstaff) ahead of delivering a direct service in respect of themerchandising for shows and events. These costs were unbudgetedfor in the 2011/12 forecast however, the investment offers majorrevenue generation potential in 2012/13 and beyond.

Importantly, the venue continued to be the flagship leisureoperation of the City Council, generating an estimated £40m towardsthe local economy in areas such as hotel bed nights, retail sales,bars, clubs, restaurants and car parking in the city centre.

The Management team and staff worked tirelessly to provide an amazing array of opportunities for the local community and alsoregionally and nationally. A synopsis of achievements aredocumented here.

ICE SPORTS

• A review of the public skating programme was undertaken and new sessions were introduced such as ‘Socialice’, providedexclusively for adults.

• The creation of the Winter Wonderland at Christmas gave a seasonal feel to the National Ice Centre, which saw a 74%increase in public skating sessions over the festive period!

• 10 competitors from the National Ice Centre competed in the British Championships for Figure Skating with some great results, which are detailed later in the Ice Sports section.

• Synchronized skating teams went from strength to strength with medal positions in several international competitions.

• The GB Short Track Speed Skating team had its best season ever on the world stage, details of which can be found in the Ice Sports section.

• Outstanding success was achieved for the Nottingham Junior Ice Hockey Club with several players representing the National Ice Centre at regional and GB level.

SPORTS DEVELOPMENT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CAPITAL ONE

• The flagship Capital One ‘Learn to Skate’ Programme maintainedits position as the number one provider in the UK with in excess of 6,000 skaters.

• Capital One Disability Inclusion Skating increased attendances by 27% over the year.

• The Urban Hockey Programme was delivered in schools acrossthe city and county.

• The Learning Zone, in Partnership with Blue Bell Hill Trust, had an amazing first year as a standalone operation following theGovernment cuts to the ‘Playing for Success’ initiative. It wasawarded membership of the London 2012 Get Set Programme for its exciting work around the Olympic values of friendship,excellence and respect.

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ARENA SHOWS AND EVENTS

• Although the Arena fell short by two concerts against its target, event rental income was the highest for three years. The reduction mirrored the position across the UK wherebyperformances were down by 2.5% on the previous year.

• Income from concerts, family/ice shows and other events was down against budget but this was more than compensated by a strong performance by sports events.

• Comedy shows continued to be buoyant with shows from Lee Evans, Alan Carr and John Bishop to name a few.

• International acts including Katy Perry and domestic actsincluding Tinie Tempah took to the stage and there was a stellar performance from Florence + The Machine.

• Sports events featured the Elite League Play-Offs - won by Nottingham Panthers - BAMMA Championships, Harlem Globetrotters and Masters Football.

• Family shows had mixed success with good attendances for Disney on Ice but poor sales for Batman Live.

• Two major projects were initiated – the bringing in-house of the Merchandising operation and the Ticketing system – to be completed by April and June 2012 respectively.

• The prospects for 2012/13 look very good with comedy showsproving a strong element with upcoming shows from MichaelMcIntyre, John Bishop and Eddie Izzard. Concerts we are lookingforward to hosting include: Noel Gallagher, Ed Sheeran, OneDirection and the acclaimed West End musical – Jesus ChristSuperstar.

SUMMARY

Whilst ice sports and arena shows and events tend to take thelimelight at the venue, the success in these areas of the businesscould not be achieved without the support of a committed anddedicated team of professionals working in the background in areassuch as human resources, health and safety, finance, buildings and operations, events, sales and marketing, IT services and riskmanagement. Worthy of special mention, is the venue’s commitmentto its environmental responsibilities which are described in detail in the relevant section.

This review contains sections on these key departments and it is important the review is read in its entirety to acquire a fullunderstanding of what is needed to run such a unique, diverse and multi-faceted venue.

The National Ice Centre/Capital FM Arena Nottingham hasexceptional partners: Capital FM, Capital One, Greene King, Cadbury,Coca Cola and, of course, our service providers – Leith’s (catering)and Showsec (crowd management and stewarding). All thesepartners make a positive contribution to the excellent service andopportunities for customers on a day to day basis.

Finally, the leadership of the Board of Directors, a combination of public sector colleagues and private sector individuals, led by the Chairman, Mich Stevenson OBE DL, is a critical factor in assistingthe Senior Management team to work in a positive and supportivemanner in these challenging economic times.

Geoff Huckstep MA

Chief Executive

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Despite the prevailing economic downturn in 2011/12, PublicSkating attendances increased by 6% compared to the previous year,although 5% less ice time was used than in 2010/11. This change intrend can be attributed to the following:

• Introduction of the ‘Socialice’ session provided exclusively foradults who want a relaxed skate and the opportunity to meet new friends.

• Skating Aids - the provision of skating aids has attracted youngfamilies whose children have gained confidence on the ice,allowing the whole family to have a fun, safe and enjoyableexperience.

• A focus on service excellence - investment in the refurbishmentof the skate hire area has resulted in an improved look andenhanced service.

• Themed sessions – these have created fun and memorableoccasions for all. The extra energy and excitement createdresulted in lots of pictures, stories and positive PR. The foamparties continue to be the most popular, attracting an averageattendance of 840 people.

• Good advertising and marketing strategy, particularly through social media sites.

• NUS discount valid on all public sessions. NUS admissions haveincreased by 75% compared to the previous year. NUS discountwas valid only on ‘Off Peak’ sessions previously.

The key contributing factor for the increase in participation is thesuccess of the Winter Wonderland skating experience which ran foralmost six weeks over the Christmas period. Bringing the magiccreated from the outdoor rink experience indoors, the rink wastransformed using over 700m2 of custom white draping and lots ofChristmas lights. This attracted many schools and groups wantingto take advantage of the festive fun, many never having experiencedice skating before.

The Winter Wonderland period - 1st December 2011 to 3rdJanuary 2012 - saw a 74% increase in public skating admissionscompared to the same period last year (excluding last year’s outdoor rink admissions).

Birthday Parties continued to prove popular with an increasedattendance of 9% compared to last year.

PUBLIC SKATING

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Penny Coomes & Nick Buckland

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FIGURE SKATING

Director of Skating, Gurgen Vardanjan, has continued to improveperformance of the Academy with a total membership (includingsingles and ice dance) of 93 increasing by 22% compared to theprevious year. The Fast Graphics Junior Academy, which wasestablished September in 2011 to act as a feeder to the National IceCentre Academy, has a membership of 28 children aged 4 – 7 years.

An International Training Camp was held during the summerattracting a number of coaches and their skaters from Poland, CzechRepublic, Hungary and Sweden, which enabled Academy members totrain alongside their international counterparts.

British Ice Figure Skating Championships 2011/12

Ten competitors represented Nottingham at the championshipswhich are the highlight of the domestic skating calendar. JamieWhiteman claimed the silver medal in the Junior Men’s event andMaxine Yu was crowned the British Champion in the Novice Ladiescompetition, as well as holding the Scottish and WelshChampionship title. Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland and OliviaSmart and Joe Buckland also represented the National Ice Centrewinning gold in the Senior and Junior Dance competition.

This year’s Christmas show ‘The Nutcracker on Ice’ was a hugesuccess and provided an opportunity for skaters from all disciplinesto showcase their talent in front of a local audience of over 1,900.

SYNCHRONIZED SKATING

Nottingham Synchronized SkatingAcademy (NSSA) membership consists of 95 skaters, 35 of which are atFoundation level. The NSSA has moved to a new structure with a focus onbecoming a more competitiveclub.

The end of seasongala proved to be themost successful todate, drawing in acrowd of almost 800.

SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING

As the Centre of Excellence for Short Track Speed Skating in the UK, the National Ice Centre is justifiably proud of the resultsgained by the GB Team which has experienced its best ever season.Having won seven medals throughout the ISU World Cup Series, thesquad exceeded its six medal target and added a further two medalsat the European Championships.

Highlights include:

• Elise Christie ranked third in the world over 1000m with a goldmedal and two silvers in the ISU World Cup Series.

• Jon Eley ranked fifth in the world in the 500m despite missing thelast two World Cups of the season and the World Championships,because of injury.

• Men’s relay team awarded 2011 Olympic Athlete of the Year Trophy by the British Olympic Association. The quartetconsisting of Jon Eley, Richard Shoebridge, Paul Stanley and Jack Whelbourne, broke a world record knocking two tenths of a second off the 5000m relay record and won silver and goldmedals at the World Cup Series.

• Jack Burrows and Aydin Djemal won GB’s first ever medals at theWinter Youth Olympic Games in the 3000m Mixed Nations TeamRelay taking gold and silver respectively.

• Jack Burrows was named Athlete of the Month by Sports Aid forhis medal - winning performance at the Winter Youth OlympicGames.

ISU World Cup Series - Medals

The series consists of six events, two in North America, two inAsia and two in Europe. The World Cup competitions are attended byover 150 of the world’s top athletes representing 21 differentcountries.

Gold Jon Eley 500m Salt Lake City, USA

Gold Elise Christie 1000m Moscow, Russia

Silver Jon Eley 500m Shanghai, China

Silver Elise Christie 1000m Sagueney, Canada

Silver Elise Christie 1000m Nagayo, Japan

Silver Men’s Relay Team 5000m Salt Lake City, USA

SPORTS DEVELOPMENT

Title of Record Distance Athlete

Juvenile Girls (Jun C) 1000m Jennifer Pickering

Juvenile Boys (Jun C) 1000m Jack Burrows

Pee Wee Boys 777m Jack Burrows

Pee Wee Boys 500m Jack Burrows

Pee Wee Boys 222m Jack Burrows

ISU European Championships – February 2012

There were some outstanding performances resulting in JackWhelbourne being awarded silver in the Men’s 500m and Jon Eleywinning bronze in the same distance despite recovering from a crash.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE ICE RACING CLUB (NIRC)

The Club has 36 active racing members including three athleteswho are members of the GB Short Track Team. NIRC had its bestever performance at the British Championships winning a total of 20 medals including nine gold, three silver and seven bronze.

Other accomplishments include 68 podium places at domesticcompetitions and 11 podium places at international competitions.

The NIRC hosted the 23rd Junior British Short Track Opencompetition in December with over a hundred skaters attending from all over Europe, including Scotland, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Italy and England.

Athletes representing the NIRC broke five British records during the 2011/12 season including:

Ninety-nine skaters enrolled on the nationally accredited ‘Learn to Speed Skate’ programme and over 30% of participants progressed to the NIRC.

ICE HOCKEY

The Nottingham Panthers have again tasted success in the Elite Ice Hockey League keeping the profile high for ice hockey inNottingham. This in turn has underpinned the development work bythe Nottingham Ice Hockey Club to recruit participants at entry level.The Nottingham Ice Hockey Club consisting of 11 teams, 36registered coaches and 11 team managers, has yet again proved tobe one of the top development programmes, despite membershipreducing by 10%.

Thirty-one players were selected to represent one of theMidlands Region teams with the U11s and U17s teams winning the Junior Inter-Conference Tournament Championships. Sevenplayers were selected into teams representing England and fourplayers represented Great Britain. The U10s A Team and the U12s Team were crowned League Champions 2011/12.

The National Ice Centre has provided a steady stream of newplayers into the junior development programme through theaccredited EIHA ‘Learn to Play’ Hockey programme. A total of 338 young players (down by 4% year on year) progressed through the programme with over 30% joining the club.

UNIVERSITY ICE HOCKEY

The club is made up of over 100 students (including alumni) and staff from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham TrentUniversity. The club remains the biggest and most successful club in the British Universities Ice Hockey League with three teams out of 27 representing Nottingham during the 2011/12 season.

...CONTINUEDSPORTS DEVELOPMENT

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Jon Eley, GB Speed Skater

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SPORTS DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES

The flagship Capital One Learn to Skate Programme maintainedits position as the number one provider in the UK with 6,028 skatersparticipating in the six week Learn to Skate course. Despite thepopularity of ITV’s Dancing on Ice and a number of marketinginitiatives, numbers decreased by 21% compared to the previous year.

Capital One ICE Programme (Inspiring Community Engagement)

The National Ice Centre is proud to work in partnership withCapital One to bring positive skating experiences to thousands ofschool children in Nottingham. Sixty city schools have taken part in the six week Learn to Skate programme, providing over 2000children with skating tuition. Volunteering support is provided by Capital One Associates and students from South NottinghamCollege, involving a total of 95 volunteers over the course of the year.

An additional 26 school groups invested in the ice skatingopportunities available at the National Ice Centre, with a further 782 school children learning to skate. Talent identification has takenplace throughout all Capital One programmes. Twenty-fiveScholarship Awards have been presented to children over the courseof the year, rewarding each child with a year’s tuition in thediscipline of Ice Hockey, Short Track or Figure Skating and three of these children have since joined one of the resident clubs.

Ten schools (140 children) took part in the Capital One School’sToddler Programme. Each child received a Record of Achievementcard after passing one or more of the four grades. 1,874 toddleradmissions plus their parent/guardian were recorded during thepopular Parent & Toddler session, showing an increase of 42%compared to the same period last year. The increase is as a result of an additional weekly session at peak time.

One hundred and fifty family members attended the Capital OneFamily Weekend Programme, which takes place each Saturday overa four week period.

Capital One Disability Inclusion Skating

Attendance increased by 27% year on year (average of 30 persession) with participants taking advantage of the sledges andskating aids.

Urban Hockey Programme

The programme was delivered in schools across the city andcounty as part of the curriculum support and after school provision.Twelve schools (624 children) took advantage of this unique way ofdelivering the fun, engaging and pulsating sport of Urban Hockey.

Learning Zone in Partnership with Blue Bell Hill Trust

Despite funding for the Playing for Success programme ending in March 2011, the new partnership has had an amazing first year,delivering programmes that have inspired the local community.

• Funding from Nottingham City Council Family Learning andNottinghamshire County Council Big Lottery Fund enabled over100 families to take part in the Family Skate Plus programmeinspired by London 2012.

• Capital One funding provided opportunities for 12 schools toattend the Skate and Motivate Programme, culminating in an endof term celebration where pupils are presented with a certificateof achievement by a local dignitary or professional sportsman.

• Awarded membership of the London 2012 Get Set Programme for its exciting work around the Olympic values of friendship,excellence and respect and the Paralympic values of inspiration,courage, determination and equality.

• Activity days hosted during school holidays offering children theopportunity to improve their IT skills, develop their skating skillsand have fun with arts, crafts and Urban Hockey.

Jamie Whiteman, Figure Skater

2011/12 was a very interesting year for the Capital FM ArenaNottingham in terms of shows and events. For example, theevent rental budget was the highest achieved for three yearsdespite being two concerts short of the targeted number,caused by the postponement of the Joe Bonamassa and NoelGallagher shows to 2012/13. Overall attendances were also up.

The reduction in shows mirrored the position across the UK Arena circuit, whereby statistics compiled by the National Arenas Association (NAA) recorded that eventperformances were down by 2.5% on the previous calendar year - although total and average attendance both increasedsignificantly, and this was very welcome news. For the first time in several years the average ticket price fell from the previous year by some £4 on average. This undoubtedly helped in theincreased attendances enjoyed by most venues.

Coming back to the performance by the Capital FM ArenaNottingham, income from concerts, family/ice shows and otherevents was down against budget, however, this was more thancompensated by a strong performance by sport events.

In terms of performances, the popularity of arena comedyshows continued with excellent sales for Lee Evans, Alan Carr,John Bishop, Paddy McGuinness, Bill Bailey and Jason Manford.Once again, the venue welcomed International recording starssuch as Cliff Richard, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Bruno Mars,Enrique Iglesias, Katy Perry and Rihanna. It was also a goodyear for domestic acts including Arctic Monkeys, Snow Patrol,Kasabian and Tinie Tempah to name but a few. The resurgenceof bands making a comeback continued with performances from The Specials and Duran Duran, both playing to ecstatic and loyal fans!

However, the stellar performance of the year came fromFlorence + The Machine who appeared at the Arena on the backof their success at the Brit Awards in February and played afantastic set to a sell-out 9,000+ crowd!

As intimated earlier, there was a good performance fromsports events at the Arena - the highlight of which was theNottingham Panthers winning the Play-Off Championships and the Challenge Cup. The Varsity match between victorsNottingham Trent University and Nottingham Universityproduced another sell-out crowd. Away from ice hockey, the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts (BAMMA) and TNA Wrestling both came to the Arena for the first time and held very successful events. Other sports events included WWE (twice), Masters Football and Harlem Globetrotters.

Family shows had mixed success with good attendances forDisney on Ice but disappointing sales for the excellent BatmanLive show. Dancing on Ice, Britain’s Got Talent and Strictly ComeDancing all came in on budget. Conferences again proveddifficult to attract however this sector was boosted by theBatman Live rehearsals over the summer for a 30 day period.

The prospects in terms of events for 2012/13 look very good– with comedy shows including Michael McIntyre, John Bishopand Eddie Izzard proving a strong element and family shows, not least the return of Walking with Dinosaurs, showingsomething of a resurgence. Acts to look forward to include: Noel Gallagher, Ed Sheeran, Blink 182, One Direction, Jessie J,Madness, Olly Murs and the acclaimed West End musical –Jesus Christ Superstar.

ARENA SHOWS & EVENTS

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The National Ice Centre has shown the following significantresults in its Environmental Performance Indicators:

Environmental 2010/11 2011/12 ReductionPerformance Indicator

Electricity used - Building 4,794,486KWh 4,464,746KWh 329,740KWh

Electricity used - Ice plant only 1,762,901KWh 1,489,018KWh 273,883KWh

Heating Used 3,455.81MWh 2,405.14MWh 1,050.67MWh

Water Used 2,4789m3 2,4626m3 163m3

Environmental goals set for the year included: ‘continue reducingenergy and water consumption through innovative projects includingbespoke waste water recycling, reviewing lighting options andimproved stakeholder education and interaction.’

In August a bespoke water recycling system was installed to send‘waste’ water from the refrigeration process through a treatmentplant to be used as ice-making water. To date approximately 1,765m3

of water has been reused through this process.

In December the business invested in LED lighting for non-working areas that will reduce electricity consumption by approximately 54,000KWh per year.

During January and February, companywide induction trainingincluded briefing all staff on environmental awareness and theNational Ice Centre’s significant environmental impacts. In-houserecycling measures and energy conservation measures were theprominent messages communicated to all staff across the business.

RISK MANAGEMENT

The National Ice Centre and Capital FM Arena Nottinghamcontinues to invest in training for staff throughout the organisation in order to better protect staff and customers during their stay underthe venue’s duty of care. Training delivered and received in 2011/12ranged from emergency first aid and evacuation chair use to fireextinguisher and counter-terrorism training.

The continuing improvements in the venue’s customer accidentrecord saw a 25% fall in staff accidents and a 3.5% reduction incustomer accidents in 2011/12.

The venue undertook a number of major capital projects in2011/12, including a large building and refurbishment project acrossmany areas of the facility. All building works were completed withoutany significant incidents or accidents due to the comprehensive andproactive project management with health and safety of staff,contractors and customers. The venue now has 215 completed riskassessments, of which 184 were reviewed and updated as necessaryin 2011/12. There are also 172 safe working practices documented. A detailed Risk Register was compiled in 2011/12 and documentationof the Disaster Recovery Plan will feed into the new Business Continuity Plan which is due for completion in 2012/13.

THE ENVIRONMENT& RISK MANAGEMENT

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ITSERVICES

This year has been an incredibly busy one for the IT servicesteam, with more IT based projects than ever before occurring acrossevery area of the business. The team is continually growing toaccommodate this, and redefining its choice and use of systems and architecture to enable the buisness to move forward and retainits cutting edge through challenging and exciting times.

TICKETING

The primary focus of the year has been enabling the in-houseticketing project. The IT team has taken on responsibility for allhardware, software and migration of customer data for this largescale project that has virtually employed two members of the team full time for the duration of the project.

PRINTING

The management of printing services has been outsourced toXact, freeing up valuable resource and saving substantial costs ontoner, repair and replacement of printers. The reduction in energyuse and waste makes this solution much more environmentallyfriendly.

WIFI

In order to enable staff, customers, artists and promoters toconnect and get online more readily and easily, the IT team installedMeraki across the company. Meraki is a cloud based wifi solutionthat allows access to super fast internet from any location in thebuilding. The system is already saving time and money for thebusiness, and is generating substantially more revenue than theprevious limited solution.

TELEPHONY

This year has seen the entire company migrate onto a new“Shoretel” IP Based Telephone system. This system has thescalability and flexibility to take on all the bookings calls taken by the venue’s ticketing agents in June when ticketing is brought in-house. The Shoretel system will also allow the team to answercustomer queries via email and web chat, and offers detailedreporting on customer service.

SECURITY & RESILIENCE

As part of the ticketing project, the IT services team has audited the security and resilience of the network infrastructurefrom top to bottom. A second 100 megabit internet line has beeninstalled in a separate physical location and using a differentprovider to ensure total resilience. A new firewall has also beeninstalled to secure the venue’s network and new logging hardwarehas been installed to track any errors.

WEB

This year sees the single largest change to the venue’s website as the entire site has moved to be hosted and integrated within thenew ticketing system. This change impacts all web, mobile and email services. It will also allow for a more streamlined customerexperience.

STRUCTURE

The IT Team has seen the loss of a member of staff this year, but the recruitment of two more, including an IT Manager will allow the continued support of the business through the on-goingincreases in workload created by bringing merchandise and ticketing in-house.

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BUILDINGS & OPERATIONS

BUILDINGS

In 2011/12 the Buildings team was clearly focussed onrefurbishment to ensure the venue remained in excellent condition.

During the summer months, essential maintenance work tookplace in the Arena bowl. A new light weight Arena barrier has beenconstructed; new retractable seating for the west side of the Arenahas been fitted and a new ice pad has been painted.

In partnership with Nottingham City Council an extensivecleaning programme in the Arena bowl was carried out, involving the cleaning of high level glass and a deep clean of all fixed seating.Safety inspections and maintenance work have also been carried out in the Arena bowl on the pipes under the ice rink and on thestructural roof beams to ensure both are sound.

The accommodation strategy has incorporated a complete change to the configuration of the skate hire area, giving ice skating customers a much better experience.

Additional changing rooms have been constructed for juniorice hockey teams, and the Sports Development staff are now located in state of the art facilities.

An Operations office has been constructed on level 3 which now accommodates most of the operational teams; this will improve communication across the departments.

Additional toilets have been built to provide convenient facilitiesfor conference customers using the Bolero Suite. Part of theseadditional facilities is a Changing Places toilet which will provideexcellent facilities for our severely disabled customers.

ACCESSIBILITY

In the last year an Accessibility Officer role has been introducedto the Operations team to look at the services and facilities weprovide to customers with different access needs. This has seen the development of an accessibility strategy for the venue whichaims to ensure that neither by action nor inaction will any individualor group be reasonably excluded from any activities, facilities orservices offered.

A partnership has been formed with Attitude Is Everything - a registered charity which aims to improve access for disabledcustomers in music industry venues. The Capital FM ArenaNottingham has been awarded Silver Award Status in recognition of the work already carried out, and is one of only a few UK arenas to achieve the award.

The Capital FM Arena Nottingham has seen its first accessibilityfocus group, consisting of a mix of regular event and ice hockeybookers as well as new customers. These focus groups will becomea forum for customers to have their say on accessibility issues. In the future, the focus groups will be extended to include public skating.

OPERATIONS

A multi-agency emergency exercise was held at the National Ice Centre in March 2012. The exercise was to show how the emergency services, Nottingham City Council and the NHS woulddeal with a Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear (CBRN)incident in the city. The National Ice Centre was used as the locationfor the incident and Bolero Square was used as the site to locate theinterim decontamination procedure. Fourteen volunteers from theNational Ice Centre took part in the exercise and offered their time to be “fully decontaminated” at another site. This exercise gave us a valuable opportunity to test our procedures and communicationsprocesses.

A Driving for Work Policy has now been compiled and has beentrained out across the business. Online driver assessments havebeen completed by all staff who drive for work.

The Events department has been restructured and plans are inplace to streamline and improve event paperwork, which will lead to the implementation of electronic event files. A key focus for theEvents team has been to work alongside the Sports Developmentteam to reduce costs associated with conversion to and from eventswhilst maximising all available ice time.

A new team has been recruited in the Catering departmentheaded up by a committed General Manager and an excellent Chef.Significant improvements have been achieved in the delivery of ourcatering provision and customers across the business now receive a first class catering experience.

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MARKETING &COMMUNICATIONS

Throughout 2011/12 digital marketing has become the main focus of the venue’s marketing activity. Although traditional forms of advertising, such as leaflets and posters, still have a role to play, it is evident that social media and other technology based channelsare becoming the dominant force.

The structure of the Marketing team has been adapted to reflectthis, with the introduction of Digital Marketing Manager and DigitalMarketing Assistant roles. The focus on this area has helped theArena increase its social media followers - with the biggestachievement being on Twitter, where followers have increased from 2,300 in March 2011 to 8,782 within a year, making it the second highest followed Arena in the UK after The O2. Similar social media success has been achieved for the National Ice Centre,with Facebook followers increasing from 3,531 in March 2011 to5,594 in March 2012, helping it maintain its position as the leadingsocial ice rink brand.

The backstage social media activity which was introduced in 2010 continues to grow, with an increasing number of artistsinviting members of the Marketing team behind the scenes to gatherexclusive material. The images captured via this activity not onlyreach thousands of social media followers, but have become regularfeatures in the Nottingham Post. Some of the artists who havesupported this activity include: The Wanted; Hulk Hogan; Example and stars from shows including Dancing on Ice and Strictly Come Dancing.

Further digital marketing developments to have taken place over the past year include: the redesign of the National Ice Centre website - which helped increase unique visitors numbers from an average of 13,000 per month to 23,000 in the first month; the introduction of QR codes and the launch of a new mobile website for the Capital FM Arena Nottingham - to acknowledge the significant national increase in people accessing the Internet via smartphones.

One of the major marketing successes in December 2011 was thetransformation of the Capital One Ice Rink into a Winter Wonderland.This activity was undertaken to enable members of the public, whopreviously enjoyed skating at the Market Square outdoor rink, to getinto the festive spirit at the National Ice Centre. A strong marketingcampaign was implemented across the region with good mediacoverage achieved on BBC TV. As a result of these efforts, and great team work from all parts of the business, over 22,000 skaters enjoyed a Christmas skate at the National Ice Centre versus 9,500 over the same period in 2010.

The Arena Sports Shop was rebranded to Ice Locker in March2012, a brand which will be rolled out online in July 2012 and heavilymarketed to help drive online sales for ice sports equipment,accessories and Panthers merchandise.

In preparation for the rollout of the new ticketing system in June2012, a major piece of research was undertaken in January 2012 tounderstand the key drivers behind consumer ticket buying habits.This work was conducted by JRA Research, and was extremelysuccessful with over 1,200 online surveys, 100 telephone interviewsand two focus groups completed with the results proving to beextremely valuable to the development and scoping of the ticketing project.

Overall the Marketing team had a very successful year, and in addition to delivering a good service to all departments, they also contributed financially to the business with a 25% increase year on year in event marketing income and 22% increase in associated profit.

The backstage social media activitywhich was introduced in 2010continues to grow, with an increasingnumber of artists inviting members ofthe Marketing team behind the scenesto gather exclusive material

SALES & HOSPITALITY

ADVERTISING

Despite the difficult economic climate, record advertising saleswere achieved in 2011/12 with a number of new advertising partnerscoming on board. The highlight of this was a significant deal withThomson Holidays for a range of advertising sites within the venue, a relationship which will hopefully develop further in 2012. A newoutdoor advertising contract was also agreed with Clear Channel,guaranteeing the business a fixed annual rental until June 2019 for three external advertising sites.

PARTNERSHIPS

There have been a number of commercial partnershipdevelopments over the past 12 months, the most positive being the renewal of the Capital One community partnership for a furthertwo years. Capital One is a key partner that contributes significantlyto the business and helps deliver an expansive and inclusivecommunity programme. It's pleasing that the relationship will continue to flourish for a further two years.

A new soft drinks supplier agreement was confirmed in early2012 with Greene King, to supply Coca Cola Enterprise branded softdrink products to the venue. The contract will run until April 2015and replaces the contract previously held with Britvic.

HOSPITALITY

It has been an exceptional year for both annual and single eventhospitality sales. Despite losing a number of annual hospitalityclients - due primarily to budget restrictions and clients relocatingfrom the Arena - the Sales team successfully replaced this businessand achieved a 6% increase in revenue, resulting in the departmentachieving its highest ever revenue for annual hospitality.Developments were made throughout the year to enhance the annualhospitality experience, the most notable being the introduction of abrand new range of menu options, to offer clients more variety andflexibility.

The single event hospitality budget target was also successfullyreached, despite there being a limited number of corporate showsthroughout the year. This success was achieved through furtherenhancing the pricing structure and more effective marketingactivity.

CONFERENCE AND EVENTS

The only area to have experienced a significant decline in revenueover the past 12 months was the small conference and events part of the business. Despite launching a new website, running variouspromotions and working with the UK’s leading venue findingwebsites to raise the profile of the venue’s facilities, there was asignificant decline in enquiries and subsequent revenue, which fell by 31% year on year. Although these were disappointing results,they are reflective of the industry as a whole which has experienceda 50% decline, as an increasing number of companies choose to hold events on their own premises or cancel them altogether.

Opportunities have arisen to realign the structure of the Salesteam in line with business needs, and introduce more proactive sales roles. It is hoped that implementing these changes andadopting a new approach will help the department maximise sales in 2012/13 across areas such as hospitality, which do not appear to have been significantly affected by the economic climate.

14

HUMAN RESOURCES

Full Part Casual Total FTETime Time

Customer Services 11 1 17 29 11.40

Housekeeping 7 2 15 24 8.75

Events 6 2 24 32 7.00

Finance / HR / IT 9 4 0 13 11.58

Operations 21 4 2 27 23.95

Public Skating 0 13 9 22 5.20

Sales & Marketing 8 2 3 13 9.20

Shop 3 2 25 30 3.80

Sports Development 5 9 31 45 10.70

70 39 126 235 91.58

15

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Employee Demographics

Employee numbers remained fairly static compared to last year,with total employee numbers falling by just 1.3% from 238 to 235.Although there was a considerable increase in recruitment activitythis was offset by a considered effort to reduce the number of casualemployees on the payroll who had not worked for the company forsome time.

Employee Turnover

Employee turnover increased this year due to a combination oforganisational change projects, reduced availability of casual hours,dedicated efforts to terminate contracts of employees who had notworked for a prolonged period of time and natural turnover. This year’s crude turnover rate of 32% is higher than previousNational Ice Centre turnover rates but still lower than the average of 34% within the leisure industry.

A more valuable measurement than crude or overall turnover isthe stability index, which illustrates how experienced employees arebeing retained. Our stability index is currently 74%.

FLEXIBLE WORKING

We continue to employ a large bank of casual employees toprovide the flexibility needed to react to fluctuations in labourdemands caused by the seasonality of events and ice hockey.

More than half of our employees work on a completely flexiblebasis, i.e. either zero or casual hours (55%). When part timeworkers are also considered, more than 70% of employees areemployed on a flexible basis.

This level of flexibility enables employees to achieve a greaterwork-life balance and manage child and elder care responsibilities,as well as enabling the business to provide an excellent level ofservice throughout the year.

Flexible Working Profile

Full Time 30%

Part Time 15%

Zero Hours/Casual 55%

AGE & LENGTH OF SERVICE

We are proud to employ employees from a wide age range withour youngest employee aged 17 and our eldest employee aged 71.Overall we have a young employee base with a large proportion ofour workforce provided by the local university and college students.Almost half of our employees are younger than 25 years and ourmedian age is 26.

Students inherently offer a transient workforce and this has animpact on our overall retention and turnover rates. However, ourretention rates are still impressive with the median service length at 3.5 years.

Length of Service Distribution - March 2012

Average Service Length 4.1 years

Median Service Length 3.6 years

<1 1-3 3-6 6-9 9-12 12-15 15+

Service Length

No.

of Em

ploy

ees

60 46 75 33 15 4 2

Pay comparison

Male £9.77

Female £9.57

GENDER

The organisation’s proportion of male to female employeesremains reasonably static with a slightly higher ratio of maleemployees. The gender split is currently 52% male to 48% female.

This gender ratio is also mirrored when considering the gender of employees in supervisory and management positions with 52% of roles held by men and 48% of roles held by women.

All employees Management

Male 52% Male 52%

Female 48% Female 48%

GENDER PAY COMPARISON

The average hourly pay for female employees is £9.57 comparedto £9.77 for male employees. This represents a negligible 2% genderpay gap favourable to male employees.

DIVERSITY

The National Ice Centre is proud to employ people from a widerange of ethnic backgrounds and approximately 16% of employeeshave an ethnic origin other than ‘White British’.

4.5% of employees consider themselves to have a disability.

ABSENCE

The absence rate this year decreased by 1.1% to 2.2%, which is1.2% below the average UK industry absence rate and 1.8% lowerthan the average rate for public sector organisations (AbsenceManagement Annual Survey Report 2011, CIPD). The vast majority ofabsences were short term with almost two thirds of all absencesattributable to illnesses such as sickness and colds or flu.

The average cost of absence per employee was £184. This is £489lower than the average cost in UK industry and £616 lower than theaverage cost in the public sector

RECRUITMENT

Due to the insourcing of merchandising and the ticketing projectthere was a higher volume of recruitment than in previous years withthe HR Team processing more than 1,500 applications for publishedvacancies. 81% of this recruitment activity took place in Q4 (January– March). The business welcomed 67 new employees, 89% of whichwere recruited on a casual, flexible hours basis.

NIC UK Public PrivateIndustry Sector Sector

Absence Rate % 2.2 3.4 4.0 3.1

Average cost per employee £ 184 673 800 446

16

Diversity Profile

White British 200 (84%)

Other Ethnic Origins 38 (16%)

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