What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 6 March 2017

Welcome to another week and did you know that it's the start of British Pie Week today?

Yummy!

We love a good pie and mash here at Cloud 9 Towers and at many of our awards events these days we actively encourage our clients to ditch the start, invest in a stodgy main course and pud and then have bacon butties after the ceremony.

There are several reasons for this, but the main one being that although Awards food has improved over the years (think mass catering chicken!), it allows the ceremony to start a little earlier and also restricts the alcohol levels of some guests who are difficult enough to control for even the most experienced host!

It also allows you to have a chance to retain your audience after the event, which if you have added a post ceremony disco or band, can be the scourge of many an event organiser who sees their guests departing the minute they have their trophy, through the door! 

When it comes to food at events though, you do need to think about your audience and its increasingly important, especially when it comes to conferences, to keep your delegates awake and attentive so think healthy and light.

We don't subscribe to this super foods trend to be honest, but we do recognise that offering alternatives to the traditional array of sandwiches and sausage rolls is a must so just what should you be selecting for your next event? 

Here is the Cloud 9 guide to the best options for a healthy and happy event!

Drink Up! Arrival refreshments are always important but but make sure you include a range of decaf options, fruit teas and lots of water. Elaborate coffees and sugary juices and smoothies are well and good but what starts with an early high for guests, will soon have them slumped in their seats.

Give it shot with a range of colourful alcohol free shots of fruit yogurts or mini smoothies. Shots also make a great option to serve smaller versions of desserts - so your guests can enjoy the puds without the guilt. They also make a great display. 

Make mine a mini:You can still offer a really wide range of indulgent foods, but keep them all mini sized. This allows you to expand the range of options you are serving to guests and they can experience a diverse taste experience without filling up on just one thing.

Stick'em up! Serve your snacks on a stick as small items presented on sticks are quick and easy for attendees to eat, especially when they are at an event with limited seating.  They also lend themselves to attractive displays, as they can be pushed into anything from cakes and fruit or even the humble spud!

Ee By Gum: One of the nicest array of foods we have seen for a while, was a range of canapes only served in mini Yorkshire puddings. All bite sized they included sausage and mash, chicken and white wine, pork and apple and of course traditional roast beef and mustard. Delicious and simple.

All Wrapped Up. Sandwiches are easily replaced with wraps and with the amazing array of flat breads available you can create a colourful and creative display of even the most humble fillings for your lunchtime snacks.

Get fruity: If you struggled to get your children to eat fruit when they were younger you will know that creative displays are more enticing. So encouraging them to try new fruits when they are presented as animals or something fun is far easier. Adults may also indulge more if the fruit is presented creatively  so pick a couple of key fruits and start imagining!

Create a Cone: If you have any veggie or gluten free guests they can sometimes feel like outcasts so create some savoury cones using cabbage or lettuce and stuff them with some delicious fillings to make your other guests envious!

Take a Dip: From veggie sticks and humus to bananas and peanut butter, allowing guests to sample of range of dips, dressings and sauces allows you to create a taste sensation. Just make sure no one double dips!

So there you have it, have a great week and enjoy...

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 5 January 2015

Welcome to our first blog of 2015 - we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year.

Cloud 9 Towers are now open as usual and raring to go and get stuck into 2015. As we all know, after a couple of weeks out of the office, it can take a little while to get back in to the swing of things. So, as a motivation for you all this new year, below are the top 10 New Years resolutions for business success...

1. Learn how to delegate and do more of it - There are so many things to do when you're running a small business, it's easy to delude ourselves that we need to do all of them. Then we wonder why we're so tired and frazzled and have no time to do anything else! Determine Your Personal Return on Investment, and decide to let someone else do some of the tasks for a change. Delegation is the key to a healthy work-life balance.

2. Promote your business regularly and consistently - Too often the task of promoting a small business slips to the bottom of the to-do list in the press of urgent tasks. If you want to attract new customers, you have to make promotion a priority. Make a New Year's resolution to hire a marketing expert, or take the time to create a marketing plan on your own and follow through. 

3) Make business planning a weekly event - Planning is vital if you want a healthy, growing business. Business planning lets you take stock of what worked and what didn't work, and helps you set new directions or adjust old goals. So why do it just once a year or once a quarter? Set aside time each week to review, adjust, and look forward - or even better, make business planning a part of each day. Not only will this help you avoid costly mistakes and stay on track, but you'll feel more focused and relaxed.

4) Learn something new - What you choose to learn may be directly related to your business or completely unrelated. Learning something new will add to your skills and add a new dimension of interest to your life - another important part of achieving a healthy work-life balance. Depending on how you choose to learn, you may meet new and interesting people, who may become customers, colleagues, or friends. How will you find the time to learn something new? By delegating, remember?

5) Join a new business organisation or networking group - There's nothing like talking to other business people for sparking new ideas, refining old ones, and making contacts. Whether it's a group specifically designed for networking or an organization dedicated to a particular type of business, in person or over the 'Net, making the effort to be a part of a group will revitalize you and your business.

6) Give something back to your community - There are all kinds of worthy organisations that make a difference in your community. Make a New Year's resolution to find a cause that matters to you, and give what you can. Make this the year that you serve on a committee, be a mentor, volunteer, or make regular donations to the groups in your community that try to make the place you live a better place. And those that give get. 

7) Put time for you on your calendar - In Schedule Time for You, recharge and refresh yourself; a healthy work-life balance demands time out. All work and no play is a recipe for mental and physical disaster. So if you have trouble freeing up time to do the things you enjoy, write time regularly into your schedule to "meet with yourself" and stick to that commitment. If you won't invest in yourself, who will?

8) Set realistic goals - Goal setting is a valuable habit - if the goals lead to success rather than distress. Make a New Year's resolution that the goals you set will be goals that are achievable, rather than unrealistic pipe dreams that are so far out of reach they only lead to frustration. If you have trouble setting realistic goals.

9) Don't make do; get a new one - Is there a piece of equipment in your office that's interfering with your success or something that you lack that's making your working life harder? Whether it's an old fax machine that's a pain to use, or the need for a new employee to lighten your work load, make a New Year's resolution to stop putting off getting what you need. The irritation of making do just isn't worth it.

10) Drop what's not working for you and move on - All products aren't going to be super sellers, all sales methods aren't going to work for everyone, and all suppliers or contractors aren't going to be ideally suited to your business. If a technique or a product or a business relationship isn't working for you, stop using it. Don't invest a lot of energy into trying to make the unworkable workable. Move on. Something better will turn up.

Achieving a healthy work-life balance is like maintaining a good relationship; you have to keep working on it. But if you apply these New Year's resolutions throughout the year, your success is guaranteed!

We're also interested in hearing what your New Year's resolutions are?!

That's all for this week folks, and we wish you all a fantastic 2015!

What's Floating Around? 28 July 2014

Welcome to another week and although we are mad busy with a hundred and one different projects, this week is all about Maiden Voyage.

We're huge fans of the concept of Maiden Voyage and working quite closely with its founder on a number of projects so do keep checking back as there is all sorts of exciting news ahead looming, but what exactly is Maiden Voyage?

It was on a lonely business trip to LA that Maiden Voyage's founder, Carolyn Pearson came up with the idea of an internet networking site through which business women could meet up with like-minded women to make the most of their leisure time whilst travelling. Encouragement to bring the site to life came from other business women who had spent many lonely evenings in their hotel rooms, often working, usually eating room service to avoid the embarrassment of eating alone in public places and receiving unwanted male attention.

Maiden Voyage aims to connect women who are travelling so that they can meet and socialise in all manner of ways, be it over dinner, a trip to the theatre or even something more adventurous such as roller-blading. The primary aim is fun rather than business, but if business relationships are born then that's an added bonus. They also aim to bring useful travel and safety information to their readers and recommend products and services which appeal to the female business traveller.

Not just for individuals, they recognise that many organisations have a large population of female travellers, many who are unaware that colleagues from around the world are staying in the same city. With corporate or group membership, ladies can network with their extended peer groups, build friendships and foundations for a closer working relationship back at the office.

Benefits of joining maiden-voyage.com include:

• Free membership for both individual and corporate members
• Secure networking with other professional women around the world
• Access to a network of international ambassadors who can give you inside information about their home cities, recommend places to stay or even meet or assist you on your travels
• Access to our database of hotel inspection results, including all the hotels who have failed to meet our female friendly criteria
• Opportunity to become a hotel inspector
• Discounted rates (for UK residents) for pre-booked parking at particpating  Q-Park car parks
• 10% Discount on Airport Parking, Hotel and Airport Hotel and Parking Package and Executive Style Airport Lounges from APH
• 50% Discount on a years subscription to Business Traveller Magazine

Join their mailing list to keep up to date with exclusive offers, competitions, events, news and our latest recommended female friendly hotels.  Join their mailing list here.

Hotels featured on their site have been personally inspected by a female representative of maiden-voyage.com. Only those properties which pass a stringent inspection will be recommendced.  maiden-voyage.com ladies have high expectations; as a minimum properties must have 24h manned reception, a well lit entrance and secure rooms with at least two independent locks.

In addition, they like those added extra's to make our stay extra special, such as quality toiletries, maybe Elemis, Aveda or Ren, a selection of ladies magazines, proper hairdryers (no vacuum hoses or push button models please), removable coat hangers and perhaps some nice herbal teas.

If you are a female traveller, we urge you to sign up for Maiden Voyage and if you are one of our hotels, then please ask us about Maiden Voyage, it really will be worth it.

So there you have it, a female friendly blog for fabulous females...!

Have a fabulous week!