What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 27 July 2015

Welcome to another week and it's another busy one here at Cloud 9 Towers as most of the team are off to Amsterdam this week to oversee judging for the Fresh Creative Awards.

We're staying at The Mercure Hotel Amsterdam City is set in a beautiful location by the river and provides easy access to the ArenA, Ziggo Dome, Zuid-As business district and the centre of Amsterdam. The hotel is just 5 minutes away from the RAI Convention Center and you  can also reach the city centre by public transport in just 10 minutes. 

Whilst it should be a pretty good couple of days with lots of hard work, we will also be having a couple of excursions including a Boat Trip to the Sofitel Grand Legend which is a fabulous hotel. We're having, we hope, weather permitting, a bit of a do in the courtyard of the hotel.


The Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam, is an historical site. In quite a unique manner, the history of Amsterdam is reflected in the past and present of the building, which were originally two convents, St. Cecily's Convent at the northern part of the property and St. Katherine's Convent to the south. The Grand was built in three sections, as is still evident from the two courtyards and central element, and in its design we can detect the basic structure of the two convents. The tiny tower perched so pertly on the north side of the rooftop is reminiscent of St. Cecily's Convent founded in 1411.

Amsterdam was a city filled with monasteries and convents. On old maps of the city, you can pick them out by their courtyards and walled gardens, always marked by a chapel. Even in the twentieth century, their remains are still in evidence in the floor plan of The Grand, in the patterns of several other parts of the city, and in any number of street names in this vicinity.

We are also planning to take in a sneaky peek at the new M Gallery Hotel, the INK. INK Hotel Amsterdam owes its name to the rich history of the building. As the former home of the Dutch newspaper 'De Tijd', this building was a place where stories were conceived, written and ultimately brought to life in ink. INK. Hotel Amsterdam is a bohemian lifestyle hotel, where the traditional rules of hospitality are freely translated to the modern day, rewriting the definition of 'luxury' in INK. INK. Hotel Amsterdam offers its guests the ultimate luxury: the luxury of the freedom of time. 

In other news this week, Friday see's the finalists announced for the Midlands Media Awards 2015 and its going to be a big year for the event as the Birmingham Press Club, for whom we run the awards, are celebrating their 150th Anniversary. Make sure you take a look at the website on Friday for the full listing.

The event itself will be at Aston Villa on 10 September and we are gearing up for the awards here with all of the planning that goes into an awards do! 

Lastly, we are also gearing up in August to launch three new initiatives in early September so no time to take it easy here at Cloud 9 towers!  We've two new lovely new clients and an awards to launch alongside our existing portfolio so we remain busy bodies but we wouldn't have it any other way! Have a great week!