Event Management the smart way – Delegate to the professionals

April 24th, 2012

event management for corporate eventsManaging a large corporate event can bog down your organisation and, even with the best effort and intentions, leaving it to personal assistants and secretaries can be ineffective. Read about how professional event management can mean the difference in whether or not your corporate event is a success or failure. 

When it comes to event management, we know that personal assistants and secretaries are busy, busy people.  We also know that PA’s and secretaries are often expected to do a variety of jobs that are not part of their job description.  Quite simply put, for many there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

Being tasked by your boss to plan an event for your business can be a daunting task, the sheer number of man hours needed to plan a successful event can be overwhelming, particularly when you’ve  already got a lot on your plate with your day to day activities.

It makes perfect sense to pick up the phone and hand over the job to the professionals.  Liaising with an event management company is quick and simple, all they need to know is a few key facts and then they can use their valuable contacts and resources to create a tailor-made event that will be remembered for years.

Trying to source venues, entertainment, guest speakers, merchandise, catering etc., along with providing interesting and fun team building events are all parts of event management that can be handed over to event management experts.   Leaving you free to concentrate on the business aspect of your corporate event and making sure all the right people are in the right places.

As an event management company we can offer a portfolio of tried and trusted venues such as conference and exhibition centres, and hotels to hold your event.  If you require activities for indoor or outdoor team building activities, then we have a wealth of contacts and can tailor activities to your specific plans.

We have years of experience in planning and executing corporate events, looking after all the details, whether big or small, to create a unique experience for all.  From ensuring all the equipment that is needed is in place and working correctly, to putting together packages to make your event truly memorable such as conference ice-breakers and energisers to inject fun and energy into your event.

We have great team building events that are fresh and fun and draw on events that are current, such as The Apprentice and The Olympics, for inspiration.

Handing over your event management to the professionals will ensure that someone else is responsible for chasing up all the little details and tying up all the loose ends— leaving you with more time to co-ordinate your speakers, and work out your agenda and mission statement.

All we need from you are a few facts: number of people attending, how long the event will be, the date of the event and your objectives.  Once we have these we can set about create a perfect corporate event that will exceed your expectations, delivering an events package that will please both your bosses and all of the delegates.  All of which can only mean more brownie points for you!

Are you ready to hand over the management of your next event to the professionals? Take a look at what Accolade Corporate Events has to offer for all of your event management needs!

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Ice Breakers, Treasure Hunts, And The Science Of Fun In Team Building Events

April 22nd, 2012

team building eventsThe intensity and formality of the office environment, while a necessary condition for productivity, can inhibit creativity and stilt communication within departments. Read how fun ice-breaking team building events, like treasure and scavenger hunts, can be the difference-maker in how comfortable your employees are with one another.

If you love watching team sports, then you know when a great team just seems to “click” — teammates manage to work together so seamlessly that it seems as though they are reading each other’s minds, even at the incredibly fast pace of football or the intense violence and chaos of rugby. This level of team success doesn’t come from talent alone; a sports team can be loaded with the most talented players in the world and still manage to lose. It is only when players have a familiarity and comfort level with one another that they come to be able to anticipate each other’s next move.

The same is true at the corporate level.

Assuming you have managed to staff the departments within your company with the best talent you can find, each employee brings his or her specific set of skills to the team. In fact, you may even feel as though you’ve assembled a truly “all-star” group of business professionals, who, “on paper” should be incredibly productive and creative simply by virtue of the talent and expertise they bring to their individual roles. But just as a football or rugby team only succeeds once they truly trust one another and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, so too does your team need to “bond” on a personal level in order to work seamlessly with one another.

However, often times the stress of deadlines and the formality and professionalism that permeates the corporate environment can stilt the growth process of a department: while some co-workers may become friends outside of work, departments can become fractured, creating factions in the business process model that can actually become distracting and even disruptive to achieving optimal workflow. Departmental managers may attempt to pull the entire team out together socially, but given team members’ varying personalities, it isn’t always an effective method.

The best approach, more often or not, is to sponsor a team building event that is fun and social enough to let workers take their guard down, but is still a work-related event that emphasises teamwork.

Of course, there are a wide range of team building events to choose from that could be classified as “fun” — but different events facilitate different improvements with the corporate team concept. If you are looking to craft a stronger bond and level of trust and familiarity among workers, “ice breakers” like treasure and scavenger hunts are particularly effective.

The benefit of many treasure hunt-style team building events is that they often take place outside of a conference venue, allowing your team to get out together while still pointing them to a productive task — rather than just having them meet at the pub one night. An event such as London Funopoly, for example, utilises the London cityscape (or any city, for that matter) to engage your team outside of the office environment. With London Funopoly, teams have to earn as much money as possible by photographing a ‘Fun’opoly destination. and because teams have different sections to complete, it ensures that planning, resourcefulness, and creative thinking is needed in order to be successful. These goals, together with the almost tourist-like experience of photographing the city together, can be a truly bonding experience.

An even more dynamic treasure hunt-style team building concept is the Mission: Impossible event, which features five different sections, all of which must be completed throughout the event, so good planning and time management is needed here as well. The five sections are the trail, the photos, the treasure, the trivia and the cerebral, so there is definitely something for every personality within your team. This is particularly effective for companies that have a wide age range within their team and lots of different personality types.

Of course, there is always a certain x-factor to building a truly optimised corporate team, and putting together the right mix of personalities is ultimately the most important step in achieving success. But if your team has the talent and the right mix of personalities, a treasure hunt-style team building event can be the last piece of the puzzle.

Thanks for reading our article! Did you know that Accolade Corporate Events has a wide range of treasure and scavenger hunt-style team building events to choose from? Take a look at what we can do for your team!

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Communication skills are key for fighting fit for business

April 19th, 2012

Week 5 of The Apprentice saw the two teams compete to come up with a new fitness concept and then attempt to sell as many licences for it as they could to three health club chains.

For Team Phoenix, Stephen Brady, 33, a health club manager, announced his interest in the Project Manager role and the rest of the team agreed that he was the natural choice for the job.

Over at Team Sterling the team voted between Ricky Martin, the part-time wrestler and recruitment manager, and horse riding and show-jumper beauty salon owner Jenna Whittingham.  The unanimous vote went to Ricky who jumped at the chance to dazzle with some cheesy one-liners including “always witness the fitness with Ricky”.

With the PMs in place the teams set about brain-storming unique concept ideas , oddly enough Katie’s idea about combining speed dating with a fitness class didn’t go down well, however, her idea of a retro 80s theme proved more enticing to her colleagues.

Team Phoenix decided to go with a mixture of street dance and martial arts, in particular, Thai kick boxing.  This gave Ricky the opportunity to throw some moves (in his suit) to demonstrate his physical prowess.   The team come up with the name ‘Beat Battle’ for their concept and set about creating a routine.

Team Sterling’s 80s themed concept was given the more 70s inspired name of ‘Groove Train’ and 32 year old Market Trader, Adam Corbally was appointed choreographer—he put on a fine display of ‘dad dancing’ whilst explaining the moves to the group of professional dancers.    To add some authenticity to the retro theme, Team Sterling decided that adding props such as skipping ropes, hula hoops and space hoppers was the way to go.   Unfortunately no-one bothered to think about the price of the equipment or worry about where the gyms and health clubs would store them.

With the fitness routines in place the teams split into two groups — one group tackling the money side of things and working on their pitching strategy, the others headed to studios to record a promotional video for their concepts.

Ricky for Team Sterling put Duane in charge of the sub-team and gave him full artistic licence with the video, well what he actually tells Duane is not to bother him with the small stuff.  Duane decides this means that he’s been given free rein to remove vital elements from the routine—i.e. the martial arts, or battle, aspect of it.

The ‘Groove Train’ team dress up Azhar Siddique in a pair of ridiculously tight red shorts and head-band to front the video, while Adam and Jade squabble over the directing and choreography.

With the videos made the teams head over to the editing suite.  Ricky comments on how united and harmonious his team are, completely unaware of the arguments that are taking place in the back of the car with his sub-team.

The teams reunite to pitch their products to three health club chains.  Team Sterling deliver faultless pitches—pity the product itself was not without flaws—with Ricky clearly impressing with his thorough knowledge of relevant facts and figures.

Team Phoenix doesn’t fare so well in its pitches, and when the issue of the cost and storage of the props is brought up they resort to plucking random figures out of the air. The panel of health club management people visibly try to suppress their giggles at Azhar’s performance in the video.

With all the hard work complete the teams take a hop, skip and a jump back to the boardroom to find out their fate.

As Lord Sugar watches both videos, Azhar is fun to watch as he squirms uncomfortably when his ‘Groove Train’ video is shown.  As the figures are announced Team Sterling do well, bagging sales of almost £8,000 from the first two health club chains.  Team Phoenix hang their heads in expected defeat as they find out that their product was hated.  But all is not lost; they get the last laugh and deliver a fatal blow with the final, and largest, client deciding that it much preferred the retro theme for a family fitness concept and placing an order worth £12,000.

Team Phoenix are dispatched to a health spa for some pampering as Team Sterling are left to reflect their misfortune over a polystyrene cup of coffee in the café of doom.

Ricky inexplicably decides that he would bring in the two hardest working members of the team—Duane and Laura—to face the finger of Lord Sugar.  This leads to Duane rather gallantly declaring that Laura had done nothing to merit her place in the firing line.  Sadly for Duane the video shoot proves to be his undoing, along with the bickering with his sub-team colleagues, and he is sent to hail the nearest taxi with the words ‘You’re Fired’ ringing in his ears.

Would your teams show better team working abilities in such a task?  Our Team Apprentice Manufacturing task challenges staff to be innovative and creative as well as harness their decision making and communication skills.

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