What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 5 March 2018

Welcome to another week and after months of planning, we are delivering the Nottingham Media Festival from Thursday to Saturday so it's going to be a very busy week indeed.

Thursday sees the start of the Nottingham International Microfilm Festival with various speakers and screenings and features a special screening of the Festival Selection from the Ningbo Festival in China.

Taking place at the Nottingham Contemporary, the event will welcome Short Film makers from around the globe and is supported by the Nottingham Screen Partnership.






Also taking place on Thursday evening is the Fresh Creative Awards at the Mercure Hotel in Nottingham and a VR in Music Night at the Bodega.

The NIM Festival continues on Friday with the Awards Ceremony in the afternoon and headline appearances from Mabel Cheung and Alex Law from Hong Kong.

Friday also see's a dedicated one day VR Conference which focuses on Medical Applications in Immersive Technology and we are pleased to welcome the godfather of VR, Skip Rizzo, who joins us from California.

The VR Expo Awards takes place on Friday evening again at the Mercure, and on Saturday we start with the NIM Festival Workshops and conclude the day with the One Minute Film Competition.

Saturday also sees the International Short Film Show Awards Ceremony which is being filmed for broadcast on television as part of the series.


With lectures for Students and a whole host of stakeholders involved, it's going to be a very busy week and we'd love you to join us - tickets are still available so please check the website for details and we look forward to seeing you.


Have a great week and stay warm!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 29 January 2018

 

Welcome to another week and it's all hands on deck for the Nottingham Media Festival this week.If you haven't already booked then make sure you get on board for a truly amazing time.

The Festival is running from 8-10 March and there are a range of great events taking place, which in addition to our free venue finding service, we are managing here at Cloud 9 Towers. 

The VR Expo & Awards is a brand new event concept embracing all aspects of  Immersiv  Technologies. With panel sessions, workshops, an exhibition, VR in Music, career clinics and an awards ceremony celebrating innovation, this three day event is not to be missed.

The Nottingham International Microfilm Festival returns to the City for the third time, bigger and better than ever. With more content, a packed programme including a summit, awards ceremony and workshops, plus a special film competition,  this truly international event is a must for any Short Film enthusiasts.

The Fresh Creative Awards are in Nottingham for the first time, celebrating the Best of British and strengthening the UK's platform as a world leader in the creative industries. No boundaries, no categories, just a showcase of the very best ideas from Great Britain & a great big Awards ceremony to recognise the winners on Thursday 8 March.

There are two opportunities to enjoy the Short Film Show as part of the Nottingham Media Festival. The first is an informal and relaxed evening at the Nottingham Contemporary where we will be screening three hours of short films back to back from the official selection of The Short Film Show. Stay a little or stay for the duration and enjoy the selections from the TV series in all of their glory on the big screen.   

The Lego Legends competition invites individuals and teams to submit their designs for display as part of the festival with a range of great prizes available. Open to any age group this is a chance to show off your skills and design expertise to a  wide audience and have some fun!

Plus we have a new initiative, introducing SLICE: Student Lives in the Creative Enterprises, which are a series of engaging coffee mornings and one on one afternoon teas as part of the Nottingham Media Festival. These are not your traditional lectures, but intimate events designed to enable students to enjoy a real opportunity to have a chat over cake with the very people who can help to shape your future. 

Check out the Festival website for full details of the events! 

 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 1 January 2018

Happy New Year and welcome to another week at Cloud 9 Towers, although somewhat shorter than most as we welcome in the brand and spanking new year.

Along with many, we're all bursting with resolutions for the year ahead and changes we can make to improve our health, well being and bank balances. However, like so many others, it won't be long before we slip back into bad habits and that new dress means dusting off our credit cards once more!

 So, in the spirit of change, rather than focusing on having a dry January, losing weight or any of the usual tawdry aims, we are going to focus on some predictions for the year ahead instead. Just what do we think we will be doing during the year ahead? Well - lets find out!

January is all about Awards so we'll be hosting a conference and organising the judging of several awards events we're involved with. Plus we'll be welcoming some new faces to Cloud 9 and ensuring all of our Ambassadors are up to speed. We're also continuing our training for the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce and helping deliver the AIEA New Years Honours at the Holiday Inn in Peterborough. We're also attending a client conference the first weekend of the year and we'll be reviewing their options for 2019.

February, we'll be ensuring that the CHS Judges are all in place and entries are flooding in for the CHS Awards as well as gearing up for a very busy March when the Nottingham Media Festival starts. February also sees us attending the Venue Masters conference as a panellist and the Accor Speed Dating event in Blackburn.

March will see the Nottingham Media Festival combine the Fresh Creative Awards, Nottingham International Microfilm Festival, VR Expo & Awards and the Short Film Show Awards. This event is a huge deal for the city of Nottingham and also sees Lego Legends and a Slice Programme for students as part of the Festival. We also have a legendary birthday in the office this month for Carol!

April we'll be confirming the programme for the National Acute Pain Symposium and launching our first Fresh Adventures incentive trips for creatives as well as attending the CHS Show in Leeds.

May will all be about a Digital event, but we can't say any more at this time on this one, just yet (fingers crossed anyway) and we'll also be at the CHS Awards in Leeds. Our Fresh Adventures programme should also be up and running at full speed by May with lots of activities planned for the next 19 months.

June is very much an AIEA month, with us coordinating the Meetings Show activities for the Alliance and readying ourselves for the National Acute Pain Symposium Poster Competition.

July which is traditionally a quieter time in the events industry, will certainly not be for us as we have a lots of other planning to do for our Autumn schedule as well as the planned launch of a new Cloud 9 initiative.

August is all about prep for the National Acute Pain Symposium which will be in it's 28th Year and attracts around 300 International Delegates. Additionally, we will also be busy with the logistics for the International Drone Awards and the World Super Drone event.

September is the National Acute Pain Symposium in Harrogate and also Paula hits the big 50 - ouch!

October is the World Super Drone event with lots of International teams competing and also the International Drone Awards event which looks at celebrating the positive impact of drone usage rater than any negatives.

November and December - well, at this point we are not quite sure, but whatever we are doing, you can guarantee that we'll be busy as ever!

All of this and lots of venue finding for clients as well, so its a busy year ahead and we predict a good one - let's hope its the same for you all.

Happy New Year and have a great week!

 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? Week Commencing 17 July 2017

Welcome to another week and it remains crackers here at Cloud 9 Towers with numerous projects on the go including the National Acute Pain Symposium, The Fresh Creative Awards, Fresh Adventures, Warwickshire Food & Drink, the UK Awards Conference, the Nottingham Media Festival, which will include the Nottingham International Microfilm Festival, and a VR Awards and Expo.

Blimey! 

This is in addition to our work for existing clients venue finding so it's a little frantic here to say the least, so for the first time in our history, we've put a halt to supplier appointments and despite having some lovely invitations, a stop to all fams and events.

With so much going on its really easy to fall in to the trap of exclaiming "I am just so busy" every two minutes, but that in itself can be a negative rather than a positive so instead, we've tried to adopt  a more productive approach to our somewhat manic schedule.

The word busy means actively engaged which to us doesn't sound too bad at all, but if you add in the definition of not at leisure and not accessible it becomes less attractive, and we hate the phrases overloaded and swamped as well - so how is it best to describe our schedules at the moment - without appearing to have adopted a load of rubbish corporate speak?!

Rich and varied might be an option, if it weren't for the fact that we are unlikely ever to make a fortune doing what we are doing, so abundant might work.

Engaged and wholehearted are also options but we like captivated less, as this  conjours up visions of us being chained to our desks which in events is hardly the case!

There is of course the old adage that if you want something done, and done correctly, ask a busy person so we guess we will settle for productive with a dash of dynamic and a pinch of excited!

Sounds like a cocktail we know and we could go on, but of course being so productive, dynamic and excited, we're simply too busy to write more this week!

Have a great week!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 23 January 2017

Welcome to another week and it's "Awards Central" here at Cloud 9 Towers!

This week most of the team and a couple of our Ambassadors are camping out at the beautiful Stoke Rochford Hall in Grantham as judging for the Fresh Creative Awards will start on Wednesday.

With around 800 entries covering everything from Advertising, Design, Media, Digital and PR we are in for a busy week, and we have around 50 judges descending on us from various parts of the UK for a very intense three days.

It's hard work but incredible fun and always very interesting to see the sort of Creative work being produced around the UK.

We're also heavily involved in the 2017 CHS Awards again which accompany the CHS Show which takes place in April and once again we are coordinating the judging and awards for Emma and the team.

The awards provide hotels and venues with a unique opportunity to showcase their facilities to the industry at large, compete in each of the carefully chosen categories and be recognised at a glittering Awards Ceremony on the 11th May 2017 at The Royal Armouries in Leeds.

With guaranteed exposure to a receptive audience of hosted buyers, an industry seal of approval for a job well done, a great platform for promotional marketing and first rate networking, the Awards are open to any hotel or venue within the UK.

Judged in two key stages by leading industry professionals and then by agency decision makers, these Awards, which will be fun, fair and credible, will also offer the perfect environment for entertaining clients and customers alike in a fun setting.

What's interesting about both awards programmes and indeed all awards is that their credibility is only valid with judges who are respected and know what they are talking about and we are very lucky to enjoy some incredible support in both awards.

Busy Busy as ever, so have a great week everyone and don't forget to celebrate Burns Night this week! 

 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 5 October 2015

Welcome to another week and its still all go here at Cloud 9 Towers, and we're off to Manchester at the back end of the week for both the Fresh PR & Fresh Creative Awards at the Piccadilly Hotel.

Whilst we are on the subject of Manchester, it looks like there will be another 622 hotel rooms to add to the mix as there are five new hotels planned for the City. 

We've already seen Hotel Gotham, Hotel Football and the new Melia Hotel open as part of the huge First Street Development, all this year and yet there are more to come!

First up is The Trafford City Hotel which will be a 203-room hotel covering a 1.75-acre site opposite Trafford Centre's EventCity. Work on the hotel is anticipated to start early next year prior to the planned Metrolink extension to the Trafford Centre set for 2018/19.

Budget airline easyJet have announced plans to convert a Grade II listed building in the Northern Quarter into a six story 116 room budget easyHotel. They already have easyHotels in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow (plus lots of International ones) and Manchester is next. 

Work on Bradley House which is know locally as The Flatiron Building and sits on the corner of Dale Street and Newton Street is due to start next Summer.

Travelodge has plans for two additional hotels in South Manchester. One with 86 rooms in Stockport on Heaton Lane and one in Sale on Cross Street, with 67 rooms and work on both should be up and running before the end of the year, with plans to open late in 2016.

Travelodge already have 16 hotels throughout Greater Manchester and long term they have plans to look at further seven new sites to increase their portfolio. Potential sites include two in in Manchester central, plus locations in Cheadle, Oldham, Rochdale, Wigan and Worsley.

Last but by no means least, Hilton are starting work on a new 150-room, four-star hotel at Emirates Old Trafford. The existing 68 room lodge is being replaced and the new hotel will feature a bar, cafe, ticket office, glazed bridge link to the pavilion and balconies overlooking the cricket pitch. Now news yet on an opening date, but exciting times ahead in the City all round!

We are also aware that there are other plans afoot, throughout Manchester and the Thistle on Portland Street is being rebranded as a Mercure, plans have been submitted for a new

350-room hotel planned for the 24-acre Mayfield Quarter development at Manchester Piccadilly and there are also plans for a 'major five-star hotel by Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville.

Additionally Allied London are looking at the potential for two or three new hotels in Manchester, Crown Plaza with a new 210 room hotel and the Staybridge Suites with 116 Rooms both on Oxford Road to be near the Manchester campus redevelopment. There are also plans in place for a new four-star hotel within Urban & Civic's £75m Gay Village development, with plans for another 200-bed hotel for a scheme at the Marriott Rennaisance hotel on Deansgate.

There might already be 11,000 hotel rooms in Manchester with around 7000 of these in the City Centre, but you can guarantee when you want a room you might struggle, such is the popularity of Manchester as a destination for both business and leisure. Good job we're around to help you make an informed choice!

Have a great week!