What's Floating Around? 21 January 2019

Welcome to another week and this week we're looking forward to the AIEA event on Friday which takes place at the Doubletree Chester and is a combination of a member meeting, an introduction to a new platform for #eventprofs by MICE Book, a supplier showcase and our irreverent awards.

It's also fancy dress and as we are in Chester the instruction is that all attire should start with the letter C, and no doubt we will see endless Cowboys and Clowns, Cavemen and Crayons dotted about!

Perhaps more seriously is that we step into the chair role for the Alliance for the next two years and have a great opportunity to shape the future of this amazing organisation.

     The Alliance of Independent Event Agencies is an Alliance of incredible people and agencies and we can only drive it forward with the engagement of members, so we have three key objectives for our tenure - Expansion,  Education and Engagement.

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Expansion is the easy bit. We want to recruit more members, and make the application process simpler, and Sally Clift and Ellis Salsby are looking at members recruiting members, a simplified entry process and more member benefits.

Education is next, and we have plans for our first member conference in September of this year. It might be that you want to learn how to develop your social media skills, understand how to generate more business or bring yourself up to date with GDPR or TOMS. We are keen to ask members just what they want the event to be. 

Engagement is next, and this is a split into four key areas starting with Partnerships engagement, with other trade bodies and the industry at large. The second string to engagement is with suppliers and not just increased commissions but with new and improved communication channels. Charity is the third element and we are very much about giving back to the industry. Lastly is our most important element which is the engagement of members in our events, our objectives and our education.

It's going to be a great year for the Alliance, so if you are not yet a member then its time to sign up!

Have a great week and don't forget our free venue finding service!

 

What's Floating Around? 14 January 2019

Welcome to another week and here at Cloud 9 Towers, we are quite excited about the prospect of so many fabulous new hotels and venues opening in 2019. Our free venue finding service likes to stay up to date so we can always offer a well informed service to clients, and there are some amazing new venues to look out in the year ahead. 

We're staying in the UK for now, as to cover all of the international openings would mean a war and peace length blog -  but lets just say, wherever you want in the world, we have it covered, and we'll keep it a little closer to home....

Come spring, on the corner of Oxford Street and Park Lane, the doors to the new Hard Rock Hotel will open. Destined to be a haven for music lovers, this 1,000-room hotel will boast two vibrant bars, plus a Hard Rock Café set to serve American cooking with a British twist, and will also have great meeting and event space. 

Staying in the capital the NH Hotel Group will bring its nhow brand to the UK capital in a new development from internationally acclaimed studio Foster + Partners, located within Shoreditch and the City of London. The area, known as ‘Tech City’ is  at the heart of the Capital’s technology and digital sector and widely recognised as the most rapidly growing commercial centre in the UK.

Magazine, a new venture from the group behind the club Printworks, will open on the Greenwich Peninsula in the summer of 2019. With capacity for 3000, its set to be a huge and iconic event space in London for those wanting something a little different.

Whilst this renovated Victorian mansion, Caer Rhun Hall, opened  just before Christmas, the extensive refurbishment will be completed by the end of 2019 which will see the room count grow to 76. Located in the heart of the Conwy Valley on 20 acres of lush parkland, making it perfect for avid walkers and cyclist and ideal for exclusive use events. 

 

Staying in Wales the the new and exciting ICC Wales has taken inspiration from the world's best convention centres and opens in early Summer.The large slate and glass building will cater for over 5,000 delegates, offers 2,000 on site car parking spaces, and has bridges straight into fresh air and woodland.

Yotel in Glasgow’s city centre will open in November and increase the he brand’s UK key count considerably, and it will sit alongside the new Edinburgh property in the shadow of the Castle. Down at the Marina, the Hyatt is set to open a new hotel on the resort in the next 12 months, with 187 bedrooms and impressive event space.

Innside Melia is coming to Liverpool this spring, and plans are also underway for a new Innside in Newcastle in the next 18 months. 

There are lots more we promise, and we're keeping an eye on the industry!

Have a great weekend, and do call if you need a venue - we're on it - +(44)0203 858 7809

What's Floating Around? 7 January 2019

Welcome to another week and if you haven't yet packed up your decorations, eaten the last of the holiday chocolates and recycled your cards and tree, then what are you waiting for?

Time to get going in earnest for the year ahead and a New Year provides a great opportunity for fresh start and revived interest in your goals. However, be realistic.Nothing will encourage a team more than the expectation of greater success, but set expectations on how you want your team to perform during tasks and activities - and always remember to outline your expectations of how much time and energy you expect each team member to place into team building processes.

When wanting to build a stronger team and encourage people to work better in general, it's important to ensure that these team members are correctly motivated and what motivates one person, doesn't always motivate another. Get to know the people and what matters to them.

Every employee will have a different personality and knowing the personality of each team member will allow you to best understand their strengths and weaknesses, and how you can use team building activities to enhance the strengths and allow them to work on their weaknesses.

Relationships with employees, and their relationship with each other, is incredibly important and teams with strong and empowering bonds will be more motivated and will work better together. A strong team culture encourages knowledge sharing, trust and forms strong employees bonds; all things which are the fundamental framework for team building processes to happen on.

A team that clearly knows their boundaries will be happier and more productive so setting some ground rules will make all the difference. Rules will allow everyone to know what to expect from each other, and procedures and ways in which they can overcome obstacles and meet deadlines.Just don't be too restrictive or you could end up looking like a dictator! 

Lastly, make sure that everyone is engaged and listen rather than lecture - it could end up that you have a much better team on your hands for the year ahead. 

If you need us to help you source a venue or a team building event for your next company conference or meeting, then please do get in touch. Our service is free, fast and friendly and we can normally turn any enquiry, however obscure around in less than 48 hours. 

Enjoy!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9?

 

Welcome to another busy year ahead and please remember if you are planning any events then get in touch and take advantage of our free venue finding service - locally, nationally and internationally sourcing the best venues and the best rates for you and your next event. Additionally, if you need any event logistics or management support please let us know as we are always happy to help.

T + (44) 0203 858 7808 

 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 17 December 2018

Welcome to another week and for many this is the last working week of the year and a chance to take stock, get organised, and get ready for a well earned rest over the Christmas Period.

Here at Cloud 9 Towers, as a small business we are never really off work as such, but it is always a little quieter than usual so helps us tidy up a few things and more importantly plan well ahead for our 2019 event schedule and beyond. 

If you are planning some major events in 2019, please remember that we have a free venue finding service which operates locally, nationally and internationally and we also offer a full and effective event management service for corporate events. 

Picking the right dates is the starting point for most events, and to make sure you are not clashing with any already scheduled world events is usually a good idea, as well as anything in the vicinity of your event that might mean traffic or travel issues - and increased hotel prices. So some key dates for your diary for 2019 both in the UK and further afield to note, just in case!

January

1 January – New Year’s Day

1-31 January – Dry January

14-27 January Australian Open Tennis Tournament in Melbourne

February

3 February – Superbowl in Atlanta

5 February – Chinese New Year

14 February – Valentine’s Day

March

1 March – St David’s Day

5 March – Shrove Tuesday

14 -21 March Special Olympics Abu Dhabi

15 March – Comic Relief

17 March – St Patrick’s Day

31 March – Mother’s Day

April

1 April – April Fool’s Day

6 April - Grand National Aintree

19 April – Good Friday

21 April – Easter Sunday

23 April – St George’s Day

 May
 

5 May – Cinco de Mayo

14-25  May - Canne Film Festival 

18 May – FA Cup Final Wembley

 27 May – 2 June – National Barbecue Week

30 May -July - Cricket World Cup UK

June

14-16 June - Download Festival Donnington Park 

16 June – Father’s Day

26-30 June Glastonbury

July

1 July Wimbeldon Tennis Tournament

6-28 July Tour de France Belgium

7 July – World Chocolate Day

16 July – National Cherry Day

18-21 Gold Open Northern Ireland 

August

Nothing Doing to Note!
September

13 September – International Chocolate Day

20 November - Rugby World Cup Japan

October

31 October – Halloween

November

5 November – Guy Fawkes’ Night

24 November – Stir-Up Sunday

30 November – St Andrew’s Day

 December

25 December – Christmas Day

31 December – New Year’s Eve

Have a great week! 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 10 December 2018

Welcome to another week and its Christmas Party Season peeps! Here at Cloud 9 Towers we have already enjoyed a few festive events which kicked off with the AIEA Christmas Drinks last week, and then a party night up at Trump Turnberry on Friday. And this coming week, we're lucky to be guests of Visit Scotland who are hosting a Christmas Dinner at Hotel Du Vin in Birmingham.

We are very lucky as event profs in that we get inundated with invitations to events by suppliers, and luckily we get to be a little selective about which ones we attend, but we do know that many people dread the official office Christmas Party. So with that in mind, here is the Cloud 9 Guide for survival!

So, rule one is even though you might be surrounded with free booze, it's best not to over indulge as you don't want to end up doing or saying something you shouldn't and whilst it might seem like a good idea at the time, it's likely to come back to haunt you back at work in the cold light of day. 

Pace yourself and make sure you eat something beforehand or during the party so you’re not drinking on an empty stomach, tipsy is about the max level to aim for!

Even if you have been a little careful with your dosage of Dutch Courage this is not the time to declare your undying love for the office hunk or tell your secret crush what you’d like to do to them behind closed doors. Not only could you face a possible rejection, you also might end up in serious trouble at work, especially  if you have taken your flirting too far. People are sometimes a little more sensitive than we realise so be careful, especially under mistletoe!

Rule three is all about the dress code and even if the weekends usually find you in skin tight Lycra strutting your stuff, remember this a work do so notch up what you would normally wear to work with a little glitz, but keep it professional people.  

Use the Christmas Party as an opportunity to get to know people you don't normally mix with at work. Network and mingle and especially be a little kind to those who clearly are more shy than you - the Christmas Spirit can be a force of good!  

Yes, its a work party but that doesn't mean that you have to talk about work. Keep it social and fun, and whilst you don't need to bore everyone with your hobbies or interests, its a good opportunity to start a little small talk and get to know your colleagues a little better. Should that conversation be with your boss, then this is most definitely not the time to ask your boss for that promotion or pay rise. 

Lastly, have a great time and enjoy! 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 3 December 2018

Welcome to another week and the countdown to the Big Day! We can't quite believe how quickly this year has gone, but certainly this time last year all of the chatter was about GDPR and were we prepared for it moving forward, following the law change back in May.

Here at Cloud 9 Towers we duly did our research and undertook training to make sure that we were compliant should any issues arrive, but six months on, has anyone really noticed any major changes in how we all operate?We are still getting unsolicited emails, and occasionally we do ask to be removed from lists, but we did that before anyway. 

The level of hysteria around GDPR which was a bit like that of the Millennium Bug a few years ago, has been embraced by some but clearly ignored by many. However the reality is that its all so complex that the formal legislation will take years to implement and enforce properly and however prepared we are, or think we are, we probably are not prepared at all.  If that doesn't make sense try reading it through in full - you would need to be a legal expert to truly understand it.

Instead of relying only on targeted advertising, marketers have been forced to rethink their approach and because of this, personalisation in marketing has grown. Since GDPR became enforceable, the number of third-party cookies found on news websites in Europe has declined by 22%, according to a study by Reuters Institute, meaning marketers really have changed the way they track consumers.

The fuller effects of GDPR are perhaps more likely to be felt much further down the line and months ahead as people either become complacent, or decide to ignore the law and its perhaps less of an issue on our industry as its very people focused and B2B orientated. 

Ask how many suppliers business cards any agent has and they will probably tell you hundreds if not thousands and most of these probably end up in a box or a drawer. However, ask the same question to suppliers and you will probably find agents names on a mailing list, whether they met them at a trade show or a forum or if they have been scanned. 

Ironically enough, we still get the odd email from a supplier where we are just one of an endless list of agents who have been cc'd in and we always wonder what has happened to the person who hit send! Did the GDPR police come and take them away?!

 

 With Christmas just around the corner and festive campaigns well underway, most mail houses are currently seasonally busy but we do wonder how Santa is getting on now he has to be GDPR compliant?

Have a great week #eventprofs