Corporate Events Plus

A ‘buonissimo’ February

What a change from last year, if the pace of business continues as it has done in the first quarter we will be seeing a remarkable turnaround in business.

We are seeing a return to quoting for new business, and for existing customers there are also two events revived that were postponed last year but re confirmed for this year. It is good to see clients understanding the value of face to face meetings for staff.

We are currently working in Financial Services, Energy and Retail sectors during February and March. Projects are on the horizon for foreign customers in London and an incentive trip to St Petersburg, I have realized how poor in general we can be at making an effort in languages with foreign customers, the danger is to assume that these customers understand how we do business, our specifications or event schedule reasoning because they speak English but sometimes the translation creates a gap. So finding my Russian daunting I am starting by making an effort with my Italian!!

Presentation slide deadlines though are still at short notice, I am finding now that it is important more so now than ever to schedule in rehearsals in advance of final on site deadlines. Rehearsals should be rehearsals, presentations should be polished during this set aside time but still what should be rehearsals are really no more than extended planning meetings. Or as event organisers, are we not being assertive enough to demand more involvement time in advance of the show?

A bit of inconvenience this month was the demise of my own faithful laptop. It is all very well backing up files and documents, and this can be easily and quickly copied across onto a new machine as indeed I managed to do, however, it is all the little programmes that you add during different projects, printer files, digital camera software, mobile phone connectivity, Skype, email address’ and passwords, all kept as information in various places but it is the time it takes to load it all back on that has surprised me, oh, and now windows 7 so learning of the new improvements are being done ‘on the hoof’ so to say.

A month of coalface ahead, although funny enough I am really looking forward to it.

Ciao for now.

As well as hitting the ground running with incentive and roadshow projects we are glad to continue sponsoring the local Bacton United under 16’s football team who are kicking off 2011 in style with a new strip. As a company we began sponsoring local clubs in 1999 with Wheathampstead Wanderers under 6’s in Hertfordshire, that was over a decade ago, and then Bacton United under 8’s in 2002. The boys must sleep in grow bags or is it just the fresh Suffolk air that means they out grow their kit !
It has been a pleasure to see the boys mature and develop into a close team, despite results not always going their way the camaraderie they share bonds them throughout the highs and lows.
Our own Corporate Events team share a similar bond just like the football team as we too have developed into a tight knit unit over the 2 decades the majority of us have known each other. There is no substitute for experience, second nature understanding and loyalty, these qualities only meld over time spent together, often in pressured situations as experienced during live events.
So we wish good luck to the lads this season, fingers crossed that true team spirit wins through in 2011.

The big freeze

Cor blimey, what a cold spell we are going through, doing get in’s and get out’s in this weather takes me back to the launch of M&M’S Chocolate sweets in Germany in 1989 when we were carrying freezing cold revolve machinery and putting the projection screen material over heating radiators so we could stretch it to the scenery frames, minus 22 degrees then, so this is a bit of a cold snap by comparison.

A busy time pitching and presenting for government business and live events for staff celebrations have been the order for December, Staff parties are great fun to put together, the larger the audience number the more activities and infrastructure we have to cater for. In particular ‘night club’ style security to help party goers zig zag back to their carriages!

Some of the comments from customers this year have given me a warm feeling during this chilly spell.

‘you always do a fantastic job for us’

‘you were fantastic, I want to marry you’ errrr, nice but from a male colleague!

‘kind regards and thanks again for your excellent and unflappable support last week’

‘thanks again for a great event last Friday.. the
guys here are still raving about it and the photographs really do tell the
story well.. our CEO singing at the close of the evening was priceless
and has gone down in history!!! Thanks again…’

‘it is so lovely working with your team again’

The above comments are something proud to look back on during 2010 which has been a tough year in our market sector. Next year is looking more promising which is a relief and I am looking forward to steering the company out of the cold and doldrums of the recession and into a brighter 2011

Media Centre Support for Pope Benedict XVI

Project Overview
Locations: London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham
Length of event – 4 days
Implementation period – 4 weeks

A very busy summer of planning saw The State Visit for Pope Benedict XVI in September 2010 with requirement for a full Media service to the world’s press on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

We assisted Feltech to produce and implement a ‘Journalist message service’ relayed on multiple plasma tv screens throughout media centres across the UK. The Satellite linked live images from the Host Broadcast pool feed, sometimes via helicopter, were mixed with cleaver switching and scan converting equipment displaying a ‘Heart speaks unto Heart’ Papal background image with Vatican and UK time embedded from an Internet source. A news message banner kept the press up to date with the Popes next location.

The interest from across the world was incredible with live coverage of the various meetings with the Pope, a very enjoyable project to be involved with.

A rare visit to the Franchise Show at London’s Excel proved a mite depressing for an audio visual specialist. There were over 300 businesses promoting their franchise opportunities but nearly all with a complete lack of suitable display back drops or audio visual support! Exhibitors are taking the space but they are not budgeting for any creative impact. As a result they simply are not getting their messages across in a memorable way.

A trip to International Confex at Earls Court in London reinforced the irritation I was experiencing. Given that this is an event industry trade show you would think we could get the seminar areas right! Once again little money or thought has been given to the environment for the delegates. In recent years it has become fashionable to install see through walls to the seminar rooms but it’s very distracting for delegates and presenters alike. Very low screen bases mean that visuals cannot be viewed from top to bottom, except from the front row, which all too often is empty anyway and the audio reproduction for speech is inadequate. I think it’s embarrassing!

Is this lack of finesse and expertise the result of people being brought in who simply don’t have the experience or training to know any better? This isn’t just about budget. I don’t know why we put up with poor technical support and shoddy environments, particularly at events for our own industry!

One positive in all of this, it’s been a good month for catching up with industry news and although the outlook remains tentative we see a busy month ahead with the run up to retail and financial events in April. There is talk too of possible roadshow events in May and June. Could roadshows be making a come back?

The end of February sees us taking a break from the coal face and enjoying some team building coupled to an incentive in Morocco. The chance of a few days in the sun could not come at a better time after the hard winter we have been experiencing this year. And with the latest announcements of the UK economy beginning to show signs of life once again we’re looking forward to a much needed return of confidence in the live events market – when clients revisit their face to face meetings and experiential events programmes. When that happens everyone will benefit!