What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 22 December 2014

Merry Christmas 

from all of the team here at

Please note that the office is now closed until Monday 6 January 2015

For urgent or venue enquiries during this time, please contact 07774 741883

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 15 December 2014

Welcome to another week and its our last full week of the year before the team here at Cloud 9 Towers take a well earned rest over the Christmas season.

Its been a busy old year and we've welcomed some lovely new clients to our company, run conferences and awards in various UK locations and abroad, booked all sorts of venues for all sorts of events, attended a variety of trade shows, exhibited at a couple of shows, been on some amazing fam trips and industry parties, expanded the team, and held a couple of open days in addition to welcoming a raft of visitors. 

We would like to thank everyone we've worked with this year, and whilst we are still around for the remainder of the week, the team will be calling time on 2014 this Friday.

You will still be able to contact us via email and mobiles for the duration of the Christmas holidays though, before we come back raring to go on Monday 5 January 2015.

2015, who would have thought it!?

So what of next year, and what as an industry can we expect? Well, these are certainly exciting times. The rate of technology change is accelerating with thousands of ideas, apps and innovations bubbling up to help meeting planners, exhibitors, venues and other meeting participants to do their jobs better.

Mobile apps for events have become mainstream and it seems the trend will continue to grow in 2015. 

Now, nearly everyone, including technology laggards, is carrying around a smart phone. Mobile use at events has exploded and mobile event app providers are expanding and refining the options. Much of the development has focused on replacing existing processes such as replacing paper event programs, agendas, attendee lists exhibition guides, and/or course notes, replacing the need for keypad polling and paper surveys and replacing directional signage and program maps.

Additionally, event apps have offered improved means of on site social media networking, group or targeted alerts and announcements, improved peer-peer messaging, appointment making and business contact exchange, networking and social media engagement.

 
However, mobile event apps are not just about improving existing processes. They can be about providing entirely new services including tracking trends and delivering vital analytics such as identifying the top speakers, the best attended stands, crowd flow and influences at conferences and events.

Free Wi-Fi is the most desired hotel in-room amenity. With hundreds of mobile event apps now available, Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity have become the lifeblood of event communications. This has not been without challenges, with hotels and other event venues scrambling to keep up with the exploding demand.

The good news is that the technology exists to provide very high-density, high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity to large groups – and many facilities are starting to catch up! Planners are increasingly examining venues’ abilities to provide good quality, easy-to-use, and reasonably priced Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity as key factors in making venue purchase decisions.

In the meantime, the larger the event (especially large tradeshows), the more likely that attendees will experience less than ideal Wi-Fi connectivity. In two to three years, as venues digest the “bulge in the snake” of Wi-Fi demand, this will be less of an issue.

The transition from “attendee” to “participant” will continue.The combination of social media and mobile technology has provided a wide range of attendee engagement options. The entire dynamic of meetings is changing; instead of “top-down” it is “bottom-up.”   Instead of attendees passively sitting at event watching a talking head, meeting participants are demanding a greater say and expect active engagement. This is playing out in several ways including social media apps, used to recruit and engage participants before the events, during and after events.

Additionally,highly mobilized social media tools (Twitter, Instagram, Vine, YouTube and others) are seeing strong use during many events, and certainly we have noticed that at any media related event, a speciality of our, a live Twitter feed is a must. 

Another trend for 2015 is that meeting designers are moving away from passive theatre-style seating to alternate room sets to facilitate discussion and participation and delegates at events are now expecting personalised communication and choices tailored to their desires.

A bit more worrying for the industry though is that attention spans will continue to decrease! Human knowledge is doubling every year and the rate is accelerating rapidly . We are awash in information. The world’s body of information is at our fingertips and available 24/7 wherever we go. We are barraged with hundreds of marketing messages daily and receive hundreds of email/text messages as well. 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute! As we desperately try to multi-task to keep up, many of us feel overwhelmed.

One of the results is decreasing attention spans that are changing how events are marketed, managed and experienced. Shorter presentation times are being scheduled (the15-minute TED talk style is becoming more prominent), more interactivity during sessions and more audience engagement tools are required. 

Images need to play a prominent role in articles, blogs, website postings, event promotional materials and computer presentations (a picture is worth a thousand words). 

Short video is the new language of the internet – more powerful than pictures and far more powerful than text. A good video can be worth a thousand pictures! 

Finally, despite the increased use of virtual meetings technology, face to face meetings and trade shows will remain an important part of the industry.  In today’s multi- tasking and often distracting work environment, attention spans are short. Thirty to forty-five minutes is usually the maximum you can expect someone to pay attention to a webinar while sitting in front of a monitor.

Meetings, on the other hand, take people to a more focused environment with fewer distractions. As long as attendees are informed, entertained and fed, event hosts can keep them engaged for days. At the minimum, we share a social contract to at least look like we are paying attention at an event. The opportunities for networking, brainstorming, and relationship building are usually far greater at face-to-face events than online. 

For an exhibitor, it is often the best way to meet so many qualified buyers in such a short time. For buyers, it is a great chance to meet vendors of interest – all together in one location, categorised and mapped for your choosing.

Meetings provide a vastly richer, more targeted, and more focused learning experience than nearly any virtual meeting. To put it succinctly, there is no such thing as a “virtual beer!” 

These are just a few of whirlwind of changes coming, and one thing is for sure, 2015 is going to be a whirlwind of a year for Cloud 9!

Have a great week and please remember the office will be closed from Friday until Monday 5 January.

During the festive period, please call 07774 741883 for any urgent or venue enquiries.

Enjoy! 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 8 December 2014

Welcome to another week and tomorrow we're holding a Christmas Open Day here at Cloud 9 Towers for some of our contacts from the various hotels and venues with whom we work. Whilst we are always (usually) ready to welcome visitors as its important to keep up to date with developments and news from the industry, sometimes, getting them all together is great fun and tomorrow should be no exception.

Our Mince Pie, Mulled Wine and Merriment Mash Up (well open day sounded a bit dull!) will be a great excuse to welcome some of our favourite people to the office and collectively update the team in a fun and informal way. 

 

We are incredibly lucky here that most of the lovely people who come to see us here are usually bearing all sorts of nice treats including cakes, chocolate (Shannon's favourite), biscuits and even the odd bottle of plonk (Paula's favourite), so its nice for us to be able to give a little something back.

We're planning to do this with a giant advent calendar competition and behind each of the 25 windows will be a different prize - it might be a brussle sprout, it might be a bottle of bubbly! Who knows who'll be lucky!

Do look out for photos and tweets from the day which we'll be running tomorrow @Cloud9em and #Cloud9Christmas! 

Of course if you have already made it through to this point in December without an advent calendar, then you might be able to pick one up at a discounted price given we're a third of the way through the traditional advent period! 

Gone are the days of opening a door on a piece of cardboard to find a Christmas wish or a festive character waiting behind it. Even half-melted chocolate treats lurking behind the numbered door doesn't seem to be enough these days. The more luxurious and unusual the better!

Traditional cardboard nativity scenes have made way for calendars shaped like Christmas Trees and carved wooden Santas and although there are hundreds of different ones to pick, hopefully you like some of our selection.

The 12 Beers of Christmas is a n eclectic mix of craft beers created by award winning UK Microbreweries delivered in an exclusive Christmas Tree Box. Ideal for anyone who enjoys a glass of quality ale brewed by one of Britain's independent microbrewers. The beers in this collection are all limited edition. All have been approved by the Best of British Beer tasting panel and the pack includes beers such as Crafty Dan, Runaway Brewery, Pale Ale, Lancaster Blonde and Tickety Brew Dubbel. Available via Not on the Highstreet.

Not everyone likes beer though, so how about this rather incredible, if somewhat pricey, Vodka Advent Calendar?  What’s better than a daily dose of vodka to spread some warmth in your veins? Plus, they come in tiny little bottles that

will make your soul really happy. Also available in whiskey, gin and cognac formats.

With everything from Whiskey Advent Calendars to Cocktail Calendars available, there is certainly a wide choice of tipples and toddy's to be had! However, nothing beats a good cuppa (we get through an incredible amount of tea bags here at Cloud 9 Towers) so what could be better than this!

The perfect countdown for tea lovers, this Advent Christmas Tea Gift Set features 25 individually wrapped tea bags, ranging from English breakfast and Earl Grey, to lemon & ginger, peppermint and Kenyan tea.  If only we could find a biscuit advent calendar to go with it and we would be sorted!

 

Now, if you have £12k knocking around, you could try a very special calendar which is new for 2014. Wedgwood has created the Advent House; an exceptional piece guaranteed to add excitement and build joyous anticipation during the countdown to Christmas.

Handcrafted in the UK, the Advent House is laser cut to imitate the refined look and graceful lines of Georgian architecture before being painted in alabaster and iconic Wedgwood blue. A delightful Wedgwood blue and white Jasper ware porcelain ornament can be discovered behind each window, 24 in total, each presented in an individually numbered pouch. The house’s rear doors open fully to allow safe storage of the ornaments before they are unveiled during advent. This truly captivating treasure trove is full of seasonal cheer and is sure to earn its place as a family heirloom of the future to be enjoyed by all, year after year. Just 3 limited edition Advent Houses have been made are are only available from Harrods and Wedgwood.

 

If you are budget is a little more realistic though, this is  the gift that gets sweeter every day! The Benefit Advent calendar is filled with 24 mini beauty treasures. Open the sweet shoppe doors to reveal a Benefit bestseller or surprise gift. It’s never been more fun to countdown to gorgeous. 

Overall though, the best one we have found this year comes from good old Markle & Sparkle! The 24 Advent Candle Gift set not only looks great, would be a classy addition to any home and is also much more reasonably priced than many of the others we've found and we might just get one in the sale now!  

So take advent-age of the date and grab yourself an advent calendar, we will be here we can assure you!

In other news this weeks, its time to remind you all that entries for the inaugural CHS Awards remain open until the New Year.

People love a good awards do, and the opportunity to shout about their achievements.

Awards provide recognition for a job well done, an incredibly important marketing and PR platform and perhaps most vital of all, the opportunity for new business through the showcase that the awards provide.

This will be a key factor in the CHS Awards, with the shortlist being announced at the Show in March 2015, and  with engagement from agents irrespective of size or structure, allow  any venue no matter whether independent, academic, or even those with the tiniest marketing budgets a chance to compete on a level playing field. For more information, please take a look at the CHS Awards website or call one of the team here on 0115 9333811.

Have a great week!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 1 December 2014

Welcome to another week and we hope you have all opened your advent calendars this morning! Yes, the countdown to the big day officially starts today and here at Cloud 9 Towers, in between our busy schedule, we're starting to think all things festive!

With Christmas Cards to organise for clients, parties to plan (& attend!) and the holidays looming, thank goodness for the odd mince pie and mug of mulled wine to see us through.

Which leads us nicely in our topic for this week, promotional products - and not just those for Christmas, but items that come in handy throughout the year.

As an agency we are very lucky to be bestowed with all sorts of promotional items from the many hotels and venues who visit us, or we encounter at trade shows, be in mugs, highlighters, desk pads, mouse mats, key rings, pens, calendars, memory sticks, rulers, post it notes, pads, books or even in the case of Apex Hotels, the legendary ducks!

Whilst we don't quite have a full set just yet, we are certainly on our way to claiming the elusive Wally, Earl and Bobby (Apex Hotels please take note!).

The overall Promotional Merchandise marketplace back in 2010 in the UK was estimated to be worth £722million, down from the £1billion marketplace the industry had in 2008, and whilst we haven't been able to find any more current estimates of the value from this this or even last year, we're fairly sure its probably back up and even exceeding the £1billion mark (to be honest we didn't search that hard!).

But just what makes a great promotional item and how do you do something different that will ensure the longevity of your brand in every day use? Especially if you have a set budget and want to ensure that you are investing in the right items.

Companies like Eco Incentives bring a fresh approach to promotional merchandise,

supplying promotional items and business gifts that are ecologically sound and environmentally aware. Corporate Social Responsibility is high on the agenda, with many organisations having environmental targets to meet. Eco Incentives make it a simple one-stop shop, with promotional products made from recycled, organic, sustainable or ethically sourced materials.However, not everyone will appreciate a plant you have to grow yourself, and the practicalities of some items will be lost on those who don't have a particularly green approach to promotional products.

Housed in a listed building in the centre of Leicester and a stone’s throw away from the main railway station, Extravaganza,  work with both UK and International Companies on unique promotional solutions and have something like 25,000 different items available making it almost impossible to choose! We have all seen stress balls and certainly in the last few years a variety of shapes have started to emerge, but we don't think we have ever come across the stress slice of cake. It looks uncannily like the real thing, so much so it makes us hungry. The stress slice of cake is fragranced and smells great.Mmmm!

Gordon Glenister, Director General of the BPMA, wrote an interesting insight into the UK promotional market, including buying trends, how your target audience can get an ROI on your merchandise and the future of the sector. He also delivered a valuable lesson about the best promotional item he had ever seen. "I went to Internet World over 10 years ago, and picked up what looked like a block of wood with a hole around the top. The company promoted it was Commission Junction an affiliate marketing provider. Their caption was “Sales Arriving Daily” Any clues now. Well it was a steam train whistle. Do I use it every day of course not, but Ive kept and showed it to thousands of people over the years. And that's an important point, don’t forget what I call viral merchandise – conversational products."

It seems really clear that whatever investment you do make in promotional items, you have to make sure that people keep them, talk about them and in this day and age of social media, really take your products to task.

We do wonder just who has the delightful job of organising rebrands and the recent Q Hotels acquisition of some of the DeVere Hotels must be a challenge in terms of branding.

Six of the UK’s leading golf hotels has changed hands following an agreement by Sankaty Advisors to acquire De Vere Hotels. It is believed that the American investment company has paid around £160m for the portfolio, which includes Cameron House on Lock Lomond, Slaley Hall in Northumberland, Oulton Hall, near Leeds, Belton Woods, near Grantham and Dunston Hall, near Ipswich.

QHotels, of which we are big fans here at Cloud 9, operates 21 four-star hotels across the UK, including the Midland in Manchester and Queens in Leeds, as well as a number of golf resorts such as the Forest Pines hotel and golf resort near Brigg, Lincolnshire. With the 6 additional hotels now within the portfolio, and plans for the DeVere name to be eradicated, its certainly going to be an interesting time in terms of branding, and just what will happen to all of the DeVere promotional items left over during the handover? 

Someones store cupboard will certainly be a little full - or maybe the items will become collectables and we'll be seeing them on Ebay! Either way, interesting times! 

Have a great week!