What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 22 January 2018

Welcome to another week and we're gearing up for a trip to London for the judging of the Fresh Creative Awards and recovering from the excellent AIEA Event last Friday in Peterborough.

The AIEA is an Alliance of independent and privately owned event agencies working in the meetings, incentives, conference and events (MICE) sector. We are a group of unique and individual companies and as members of the AIEA we network and share our knowledge, experience and resource to enable us to provide the best quality service to our clients, and additionally the AIEA is a non profit organisation.

Hosted by the Holiday Inn in Peterborough (who were fantastic), we had our inaugural New Years Honour's which recognised the agency members in a rather irreverent way! 

The Crystal Clear Award for those agents whose briefs and RFP’s make working with them a pleasure for supplier was presented by Lafayette Travel and went to Lime Blue Solutions.

Here at Cloud 9 we won the Coffee Cup Award for making suppliers feel the most welcome so clearly we need to change our approach and only offer up a glass of tap water and no biscuits in future! Jupiter Hotels kindly presented us with our very expensive trophy!

The Buddy Award for those agencies who have partnered with a supplier for a specific project or pitch was presented by the Old Course Hotel Golf Resort & Spa, and went to Rede2 whilst the Welcome Award was also scooped by us here at Cloud 9 Towers.

Dawn from Accor presented the Bermuda Triangle Award to Ball Associates, who in form, were not there to collect their Award, and then we had the Willy Wonka Award for a reaction to Chocolate which went to our pals at Hatch Events.

Funky Office went to Chruis and the team at Purple Dog whilst we picked up our third gong - The Energizer Bunny Award for agents always on the go.

There were two Golden Cheque book Awards for both International and UK Business Growth which were scooped by Nexus venue and Lime Blue Solutions respectively, and then the Newcomer Award, which was for increased business presence rather than new agencies and was scooped by Matt and the Chew Events Team.

Then we had the Agency and Personality of the Year which went to Slyvain from Nexus Venue on both counts.

It was a great fun evening and also fancy dress to match the irreverent tone of the night !

So we might not be the biggest venue finding agency or the best, but we still win the odd award! Lets hope the photos arrive soon so we can share!

Have a great week everyone.

 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 15 January 2018

Welcome to another week and it's slightly manic here at Cloud 9 Towers. 

The Fresh Awards closes this Friday, and we are also close to deadlines for submissions for the VR Expo Awards and the Nottingham  International Microfilm Festival ahead of the Nottingham Media Festival in March of this year.

Additionally, our free venue finding service is certainly being well utilised by a raft of clients so we are busy sourcing some great venues for clients locally, nationally and globally.

We are also gearing up for the Alliance of Independent Event Agencies New Year's Honours which take place this Friday at the Holiday Inn in Peterborough. It's fancy dress and the theme is P for Peterborough, so we imagine there will be a raft of Pirates, Policeman and Penelope Pitstop costumes doing the rounds.

Let's be honest here as there are few social situations can be more fraught than a costume party! What if you’re the only person who dresses up but worse, what if you’re the only one who doesn’t? We thought we would look up some classic fails when it comes to dressing up and found a very entertaining article in The Guardian which we thought we should share, especially as it mentions Pirates!

The chap in question is Olly Dixon, who went to a Vogue Party dressed as a pirate...

"My partner was working at Brazilian Vogue as art director, and I was a freelance graphic designer. We had been living in Sao Paulo for a few months, and life was pretty good, but we were young and didn’t have much money so I always felt a little like a fraud among the fashion/art scene people of Brazil. This was highlighted most spectacularly at a party Vogue hosted.

The invitations were of course in Portuguese, but we understood them to a point. The dress code said “Black Tie or Fancy Dress”. I didn’t have a tuxedo so was reluctant to go, but my wife was keen to make a good impression and encouraged me to go for the fancy dress option. I figured it would be fun and to be honest we didn’t give it that much thought – we were from London, we went to loads of parties, we were used to this sort of thing.

I opted for a pirate outfit: cut-off jeans, flip flops, and a hook hand and sword I had purchased from a local toy store a few hours before the party. Eye liner, eye patch, bandana. My wife wore a beautiful vintage ball gown. Ready to go.

The party was held at Hotel Unique, a huge modernist luxury hotel and it was hosted by Naomi Campbell. Gilberto Gil was performing. We turned up on the red carpet, and not being celebrities we were of little interest to the paparazzi, but I did feel we had a certain presence and caught the eye. We entered.

I’m not saying all 600 people turned and looked at me, but it did feel like that. The editor of Vogue rushed towards us. “What are you doing ? Why are you dressed as a pirate? And why are you wearing flip flops to this party?”

“I’m in fancy dress. On the invitation it said Black Tie or Fancy Dress …”

“What? No, no, no. Black Tie or Dress Fancy – wear your finest clothes, or expensive robes. Not ‘Fancy Dress’.”

I pointed at guy dressed as a Sheikh. “What about that guy, he’s dressed up.”

“No, he’s an actual Sheikh.”

On closer inspection, his robes were made of fine golds and luxury materials. We exchanged a nod of mutual respect (that’s how I saw it).

It actually worked out well; I brought a smile to faces, and got talking to lots of different people. We even met Naomi Campbell, who thought it was hilarious."

Have a great week everyone...

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 8 January 2018

Welcome to another week and the first full one of the year for many, as it seemed lastweek a lot of folks had extended their Christmas breaks...

So, the week ahead is very much about people. Not only are we welcoming a new Ambassador to the team in the form of the fabulous Jo Neville,we also have a raft of new Student Interns and Placement Students starting with us.

There will be hundreds if not thousands of people starting new jobs around the UK this week so how do you make someone new feel welcome?

It's a good idea to have welcome plan in place so we have a folder for each of our new bods with outlines, objectives, notebooks, health and safety and even a little office etiquette (such as if you making tea for yourself, make sure you shout up and see who else wants a cuppa!).

A new office can be intimidating, especially when you don’t know anyone and you have no idea where everything is - including the loos! So a tour of Cloud 9 Towers is on the cards to start with - yes, we really do have that much space and its a bit like a maze here so even if they don't remember who everyone is, and what everyone does, at least if anyone should need the loo, they will be sorted. 

As a small business, the most important asset is your people. Individual contributors are great, but true camaraderie can mean the difference between good and great, and from day one  investing some quality time with each new bod is vital. Understanding what everyone does, who everyone is and how we work is almost as important as the work itself.

 

Training is a must of course, but ensuring the training includes all the little things that a seasoned employee might take for granted, like how to navigate the phone system or where to find delegate badges is just as important and can make all the difference. 

So, welcome to our new people, we are looking forward to working with you and if you are starting a new job this week, we wish you well.

Have a great week and please don't forget that if you have any events planned for 2018 and need some help in sourcing a venue, our free venue finding service is ready and available anytime.

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!