What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 14 December 2015

Welcome to another week and our review of the year in photos. We've already told you where we have been and what we have been up to, but we wanted to share some of the photos that haven't made the blog this year - for obvious reasons! We hope you enjoy them....

Carol explains the theory of gambling at Alea Casino in Nottingham

 

 

 Paula at the Races with Accor in Chester

Paula in Lisbon with SANA Hotels

                  Paula & Rubina with Adil Ray aka Mr Khan at the Birmingham Post Business Awards


  

 

 

 

 

Paula in Seville with Barecelo

 Charlotte & Rubina at Fresh Awards

Charlotte having the time of her life

Here we have Ali - Thinking hes won an award but it sadly wasn't his

Janet - Presenting an Award

Rubina in Full Force!

Overall it has been a pretty hectic year. But we have enjoyed every moment here at Cloud 9! Have a great week!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 30 November 2015

Following a very successful visit to IBTM Barcelona, it was off to Seville with Moulden Marketing, Gill Moulden and Cititours, our lovely hosts Paco and Angela.  Our hotel for the three day stay was the newly refurbished Melia Sevilla, located in the centre of Seville. An oasis of calm and tranquillity, providing a fabulous buffet breakfast.

Suitably refreshed - we embarked on our leisurely tour of Seville, in the early morning sunshine.  An impromptu stop at the very beautiful Hotel Alfonso XIII.  A quick coffee and pastry fill up and we picked up the pace and admired the beautiful orange trees and Moorish architecture.  No visit to Spain is complete without Tapas, and we duly obliged and visited three local restaurants.  All very different and charming.  A visit to Casa Salinas, a beautiful private residence with amazing architecture - a private sanctuary in the heart of Seville.

 Our next port of call was sherry wine tasting at Catador.  Fired up with four different strengths of sherry wine - we headed for the Flamenco Museum for our tour and workshop.  Our teacher cast a rueful eye and decided to be polite about our efforts to dance the flamenco.  We coyly took our front row seats to watch the real thing!  The incredible passion and dancing literally took the breath away, we were all hooked.  To round off the wonderful day, we were hosted by the Taberna del Alabardero restaurant and wolfed down five courses of Spanish cuisine, of the highest order.

Day Two in Seville started with a bike tour to Triana Market to purchase ingredients for the evening Paella cooking, followed by a refreshing boat tour on the Guadalquivir River.  A sumptuous lunch followed at the Abades Triana restaurant overlooking the river.

Dehehsa La Calera awaited and we started with a conventional coach to the ranch.  Half way along the track, we disembarked and climbed aboard our wagon and tractor.  A magnificent horseman upon his grey steed appeared and we followed him along the path to the ranch, to be greeted by a very enthusiastic and cute boxer dog.  Rounding the day off with fun and relaxing Paella cooking - we settled in front of the roaring fire reflecting on the all the interesting things we had experienced.

 

Day three concluded with our visit to the Royal Golf Club of Seville for a quick golf clinic and to admire the very beautiful fairways in the gorgeous Spanish sunshine.  Off to the airport for our return flights to Gatwick and a very bone chilling -0.5 degrees - welcome back Blighty!

Sincere thanks to Moulden Marketing and Cititours for a comprehensive and informative tour of Seville.  A must go MICE destination.

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 23 November 2015

Welcome to another week and even though we are counting down to Christmas and some much needed rest and relaxation, 2016 is looking rather close and our diaries are already filling up fast! 

But back to the here and now, and this week Janet returns from IBTM in Barcelona and then a fam to Seville with our friends at Moulden Marketing - next week we're handing over to her so she can tell us all about it!

We're all systems go on some of our project work including St Mary's in the Lace Market Nottingham which we're pleased to be working on helping getting the marketing off the ground. No, we are not moving from being agents to representing venues, its just that this is a fantastic opportunity to work with the team at the church and help it realise its full potential as a great venue for events.

St Mary's really has spectacular potential for events such as gala dinners for 200 or concerts/conferences for up to 500 guests. Whilst most 'dry hire' venues offer a blank canvas for you to style and enhance, the backdrop at St Mary's is stunning in itself.

The team at St Mary’s and Cloud 9 are committed to ensuring you have the best possible service and information available in order to have an event that exceeds your expectations, so whether you need audio visual support, caterers, hotels, table dressers or taxis, we can help with our excellent working partners and suppliers.

All of our recommended suppliers, each of whom is equally committed to delivering excellence in events at St Mary’s, are guaranteed to provide first class service for your next event.

As St Mary's is first and foremost an active church with commitments to its community and congregation, we do have a few points for you to bear in mind when using St Mary's as a venue, but we are committed to working with you to ensure the best possible events are welcomed to this spectacular venue.

 As part of our marketing activities we are planning to attend the CHS Show in Leeds in April and not just as hosted buyers this time, but also as exhibitors to showcase St Mary's so we look forward to seeing you there, if not before!

Whilst we are on the subject of the CHSGroup its timely to mention the Character Awards which we are running on conjunction with them. Irrespective of whether you exhibit at the Conference and Hospitality Show, these awards offer a fantastic opportunity for any venue outside of the M25 to shout about their facilities, and although we’ll be announcing the shortlist live at the show, we’ll also be using social media #Character16 and making a really big splash about all of the finalists in the industry at large!

We could do with some additional judges from the industry for the awards so if you are an agent, at manager level or higher, then we'd love to hear from you please - and you never know, a few hours of your time in the New Year to help us assess the entries could mean a great night as we will be able to invite you to the awards themselves in Manchester next May. Check out the website for more details or email Janet in the office.

On other news this week, Paula is off to Birmingham this Thursday to be a guest at the Civic Reception of the Lord Mayor of Birmingham to help celebrate the Birmingham Press Club's 150th Anniversary - so she will be watching her P's & Q's possibly learning how to courtesy but who knows!

We have lots more news to share but no time to share it as Cloud 9 Towers remains super busy - so please make sure you follow our news and updates on our social media feeds, and as ever, have a great week - see you soon!