What's Flooating Around Cloud 9? 29 August 2016

Welcome to another week and Ho Ho Ho. Sorry. We know that there are many out there who share our view that Christmas should be saved for December and the countdown to it should not really start in the middle of September!

However, we do know here at Cloud 9 Towers that if you want to secure your annual Christmas bash then it’s important to book early not only to meet the needs of your employees but also to guarantee the best rates at a suitable venue.

From taking a table at a pre-planned party to exclusive use options it’s a minefield out there and more often than not, some poor PA who is already up to their necks in budgets, telephone calls, emails and a thousand and one other tasks, is left sorting out the details and trying to find the best option to suit everyone – and stay on budget.

Not only can we source some fantastic options for you but we can also suggest some alternative solutions to your Christmas events that had perhaps never even crossed your mind!

From coming in and dressing your office to a winter wonderland and providing all of the extra touches that will really make your event go with a bang, to suggesting unusual options both in the UK and further afield, our imaginations are only limited by your objectives and your budget.

Our one stop office shop can deliver a truly magical experience for your employees and we can even post a guard on the photocopier room to ensure that not a single photocopy of a bottom does the rounds!

Patriotism is a key theme for Christmas 2016 as we’ve celebrated the Queen’s Birthday, had Brexit and enjoyed some success at the Olympics so a very British Christmas could be yours, with games and competitions, interactive quizzes and some good old fashioned touches to make your Christmas event really special.

Alternatively, you might want to enter a more high tech world with gadgets galore to make your Christmas experience a little more interactive with digital singing elves, graphic walls of snow and even a 3D Santa Claus to dole out the odd gift or two.

As Christmas is a time for giving, instead of stuffing yourself with turkey and bingeing on too much booze, you might want to use the festive season as an opportunity to bring your staff together and indulge in a team building activity that benefits those less fortunate.

We can help you source a range of projects and experiences that will not only help those in need but also provide you all with a real sense of achievement afterwards in everything from decorating to building, to simply entertaining a crowd.

You might also decide that its time to really thank your staff for their hard work and commitment and try a little jaunt over a weekend to somewhere a little more glam. From Brittany to Belgium, Barcelona to Barbados, we can create the perfect incentive weekend for your team, including activities you would not be able to enjoy simply as a tourist – and what a great way for any grump bosses to escape all of that turkey and tinsel!

However, if you simply want a party night at a venue close to your office, then please give us a shout, our email inboxes are bulging with offers and promotions from venues country wide all offering everything from Venetian Style Masquerade Balls to simple snowflake offers, all designed to help you celebrate.

This is Christmas made simple. This is Cloud 9 Event Management.

Have a great week, enjoy!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 22 August 2016

Welcome to another week and we’re in Venue Finding mode! Maybe not a revolutionary statement for a venue finding agency we know, and yes we know there are literally hundreds of other venue finding agencies in the UK, doing exactly the same thing. This is after all, the event industry and in business, there are very few sectors without some serious competition.

However, we feel that sometimes we don’t shout about our free venue finding or the additional services that compliment this, perhaps as often as we should. So this week we thought we would remind everyone about our FUSE service, which is so much more than just venue finding.

The Cloud 9 website which is a tad unusual within our industry, is often commented upon as being a bit quirky, slightly different and certainly fairly unique, doesn’t always showcase our free venue finding service as well as it should, so we have a brand new site to shout about to complement our existing site.

So what’s different about this particularly free venue finding service. Well, first, it’s a 24-hour service so it doesn’t matter if you are in London, Leeds or Latin America, we can handle enquiries at any time of the day or night.

We will of course offer a quick turnaround, lots of suitable options for your next event, be it a conference, meeting, symposium, gala dinner or incentive programme. We don’t work with contracted hotels and we won’t steer any enquires towards the venues or hotels that may offer us any deals to ensure the business.

What we will do, is always provide a completely impartial services at venues that we think best meet your objectives and then we will do everything we can to get you the added extras and benefits that can make a simple event a spectacular event. There is no reason why a small meeting should not benefit from the extra touches that can make all of the difference to delegates.

And, yes, it’s all completely free and more importantly, there are no hidden catches, no hidden agendas and no unexpected surprises for our clients. It’s a completely transparent process and we make sure each and every venue is fully briefed about your expectations ensuring your next event is seamless.

But this free venue finding service is just one of the four elements which goes into making our FUSE service something a little bit special and a little bit different from the norm.

Understanding Social Media is also included as a complimentary offering as part of our venue finding service, and social media and events go hand in hand these days.

Whether you need us to set up social media platforms to enable delegates to engage in advance through groups on LinkedIn, Facebook or even schedule some Tweets in advance to generate interaction we can help and this is all part of the service. We are also pretty good at discovering new social media tools both paid and free that can enhance any events, as well as providing a free App building service for events, that mean the end of lots of wasted paper.

the event. Plus, we also recognise that good social media can also extend the longevity of your next event. So, not bad for free?!

As we have been venue finders and project managers for many years we have accumulated no end of decorative items which means we can help style your next event as well. From vases to lava lamps, we have no end of decorative items to help dress and theme your next event if its required. Book your next venue through us and we are happy to loan you any of our stock, completely free of charge.

We also have pretty good imaginations so we can suggest simple and inexpensive ideas to transform the bland to the beautiful and the dull to the delightful.

 Logistically we do recognise that it will not always be practical for us to ship 40 flower centrepieces to Manchester, or even Outer Mongolia, but we are so well connected that if we can’t help, we can put you in touch with the best people who can!

The final element in our FUSE service is evaluation. We do recognise that not every event requires a complete post mortem but if you as a client are investing significant amounts of your annual event budget into an annual conference for your staff, you do want to make sure that the tone, content and any stakeholders are on message and on brand.

Yes, food, meeting space, accommodation and all of the elements that make an event are important, but as a learning exercise to make sure you are getting a decent R.O.I. on your spend, we can help evaluate and review your events, either in brief or in detail to help shape future events.

The small things matter here at Cloud 9 so whilst we are happy to find your venue, our FUSE service delivers so much more and is a great example of going the extra mile for clients that we so enjoy.

Feel we can help? Please call or email us as we would love to tell you more...

Have a great week, enjoy!