Future Flyers grounded
The loss of a venue has forced the last minute cancellation of Oxford Careers Day leaving its organisers, Future Flyers, absorbing a potential loss of up to £40,000.
The annual event, which claims to be Oxford's largest careers fair, was scheduled for 23rd October in the Examination Schools.
Organisers Future Flyers claim that building work taking place in the Sheldonian Theatre forced the re-location of a graduation ceremony that would normally be held there to Schools, losing Oxford Careers Day its venue in the process.
Future Flyers assert that Schools informed them of the problem on 14th September and suggestions were made including the re-location of the fair but were all deemed to be "cost inefficient" by Future Flyers, accommodating only around 30 stalls as opposed to the originally anticipated 70.
Claims that the cancellation of the fair was due to Schools becoming unavailable at the last minute were, however, denied by Examinations Schools Deputy Clerk, Keith Thomas.
Thomas asserted that in fact Future Flyers pulled the plug on the careers fair before the graduation was moved to Schools, a claim which both Tony Butler, the senior member of Future Flyers and Director of the Careers Service and Managing Director of the fair, Amanda Rebello, fiercely deny.
Inability to find a suitable venue has left Future Flyers running at a significant loss, after a year spent preparing for the event.
Both Butler and Rebello claimed this would not threaten the existence of the student-run organisation. Rebello said that losses should not exceed £40,000 and that cancellation of the event, although disappointing was the: "cheapest and most sensible option to preserve the reputation of Future Flyers; as there is no point in running a sub-standard event."
She stated that although it would have been looking at a profit of between £5,000 and £10,000 had the fair gone ahead, the cancellation of the day did more to harm Future Flyer's professional reputation than financial situation.
Future Flyers hopes to be able to run the event next year.
14th Oct 2004