What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 30 June 2014

Welcome to another week and whilst there are a hundred and one things we could mention for the weeks ahead, there is only one thing to report this week and that is the outstanding performance of the Cloud 9 team at the Accor Agent Five-a-Side Knockout Tournament which took place on Saturday at the Mercure Dunkenhalgh Hotel & Spa and the Lancashire Football Association in Leyland.

Forget the World Cup, this was a much bigger deal and whilst some of the teams were seriously taking the competition, well very seriously, it was fair to say that the Cloud 9 team, were more about the enjoyable experience than the skill of the game, and we even took along our cardboard Elvis (who normally lives in our boardroom) as a sub in case one of the team needed a break - well 15 minutes is a long time to run around when you are not used to it (and boss lady Paula is certainly not).

Following a pre-match meal in The Pendle Room along with teams from BSI in Cheadle and Manchester, CWT, Executive Status, Calder, Capita Taunton, Mercure & Accorr, we arrived at the ground raring to go.

Having already arranged with our lovely Accor contact Chris Ford that we could cheat (being the only all ladies team) we instantly cling filmed our goal as we were up first against BSI Cheadle. Despite our best tactics we managed to loose this game 7-1 with only the lovely Jane Clement about to save what little big of dignity we could manage with a single goal.

Also, entering the spirirt of the event, we did manage to post up some appropriate signs which read "Own Goals Rewarded with Alcohol" and other suitably motivational messages in both our own goal area and our opposition.

Now we don't know whether our first match prompted sympathy from the other teams, or whether the BSI Cheadle chaps felt guilty for beating us so spectacularly, but what should have been five a side turned into more like 10 a side with them helping us against our next match, against Accor. It wasn't to be though and although Mr Ford tried his best to help us with a draw (which would have meant penalties), the game was once against lost but this time only to 3-2. It would, we are sure, have been far worse had Cheadle BSI not stepped in to help.

CWT annihilated us in the final match and even dirty tricks, hand balls, help from just about every other team and Paula tickling the goalie, it just didn't work and we lost again. To be honest we were too busy laughing by this time to even remember the final score.

After the exercise it was back to the Hotel for some much needed refreshment and whilst most headed to the bar to watch the Brazil versus Chile game at 5pm, the Cloud 9 girls decided that a much needed trip to the Spa was in order to recover!

After a quick change it was time for drinks in The Pendle Room followed by dinner and a presentation of the trophy to the winners, which were the England Amputee Football Association and an absolutely amazing bunch of guys. We urge everyone to support these guys in their bid for the World Cup later this year.

We were not expecting to win anything and as a result, we were not disappointed, although we did come joint last apparently but only 7th out of 8 on goal difference.

The Cloud 9 team then spent a lovely chilling out time in the bar whilst the real football die hards retreated to watch Columbia versus Uruguay, without Luis Suarez of course!

With vino a plenty and our new friends at BSI Cheadle to entertain us, it was a late night but very enjoyable.Then after a lovely stay, and a hearty breakfast it was back home to Cloud 9 Towers to face another week.

One things for sure, we might not be a good at football, but we are up for anything!

Have a super week, and if anyone asks about the Rugby World Cup and Agents Tournament next year, count us in!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 23 June 2014

Welcome to yet another week at Cloud 9 Towers! 

Last week we told you that the Bristol Media Brand You Awards will be closing for entries on Friday 20 June. There's a good quality of entries into the Awards again this year, but know that there are more of you out there who deserve to be recognised for your work. So they have extended the deadline to Friday 4 July, there's no excuse to miss it now!

Friday 4 July is proving to be a rather popular date for deadlines as The Fresh PR and The Fresh Creative Awards entries are also closing then. Fresh is an independently owned organisation that works in conjunction with a variety of leading industry titles, delivering awards programmes designed to recognise and reward creativity, effectiveness and innovation in the Creative, Digital, Media and Public Relations arena's in the UK and Ireland. Established in 2003, Fresh has quickly become a recognised brand and important highlight in the industry calender, with an original approach to awards delivery and a policy of keeping the process of entering awards as transparent as possible. 

Fresh is committed to ensuring the appointments of only the very best people to judge the awards across all three of the programmes as well as making the events themselves, not only spectacular but also a real chance to network. You will never find plastic chicken and soggy veg at Fresh - they take their awards and entrants work very seriously, but want to offer great value and more importantly make the ceremonies as fun as possible. So can you sock it to 'em and get Fresh in 2014?!

Cloud 9 are quite heavily involved with both of the Awards programmes, so as you can see we will have a rather busy next couple of weeks. Moving on to this week though, we have a couple of exciting events that we're attending starting with the Visual Media Conference on Wednesday. 

Visual Media are the diverse technologies of the communications industry: print, broadcast, email, websites. The conference is in the North because the industry is buzzing and the appetite for informed debate is strong – the concentration of media companies, digital agencies and printers is a magnet for the leading experts, industry resources and suppliers.

This conference is a direct response to demand for a follow-on conference from Media Market Place’s 500+ attendees. Bringing together leading figures across the spectrum of media to inform a debate of how integration will continue to disrupt the current thinking on comms. This is a first to take Visual Media from the brand owners’ perspective right through to the consumers’ emotional response with all the links. 

The speaker line up is pretty impressive with interesting talks from VPress, Sky Adsmart, Prolific North, Bloom, Proco, Media-Plaza, HP and many more. 

Also this week, we have been invited to take part in The Accor Agent Football Tournament on Saturday. It has to be said that the team at Cloud 9 have no experience in football but we're all for the taking part! The five a side football tournament will take place at Lancashire Football Association, Leyland with an overnight stay at the Mercure Dunkenhalgh Hotel & Spa, so its sure to be a fun day. We even have an official Cloud 9 uniform....!

This football tournament is part of Accor's new 2014 incentive Footballers Lives. The campaign will allow venue finding agents, meeting planners and event agents to earn "goals" for every meeting they book at any of Accor's UK and/or Overseas hotels. As 2014 is the year of football with Brazil being the very heart of the action. Accor would like to give you a taste of that with their exclusive prize draw, giving you the chance to with the life of a soccer superstar! 

That's all for this week folks, enjoy!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 16 June 2014

Welcome to another week at Cloud 9 Towers and again, we are pleased to inform you that another event has passed and went extremely well. 

The CIPR Northern Conference that took place last Thursday at Manchester Metropolitan University was really successful. We would like to thank everyone who attended the event and to everyone who was tweeting about the event, as the hashtag #CIPRNC14 was trending in Manchester!

Towards the end of this week though, we have the Bristol Media, Brand You Awards Deadline looming! Brand You, is produced by Bristol Media and Social Heads and supported by ourselves, and this year they are looking for individuals working right across the creative sectors in the South West. It doesn't matter whether you are just beginning your career or you have already established yourself in your field. 

The Awards are celebrating the outstanding contribution that in house, agency staff and freelancers make to campaigns, projects and productions. So it's now time to make a stand and shout about your success, or indeed the success of someone you know!

As we all know, the credibility of any awards programme is measured by the calibre of the judges there is an excellent judging panel for each of the categories from length and breadth of the country. With a leading professional from the South West plus three or four additional judges from outside the region to add balance, you can be assured that the results will be completely fair and unbiased. 

The popular awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday 16 September at Bordeaux Quay this year, so make sure you enter before Friday 20 June or you really will be missing out!

Also this week, in fact this evening, half of the Cloud 9 team will be attending the Independent Venue Showcase at The Nottingham Belfry, organised by the CHS Group. 

The showcase which is one of 6 held across the UK is an event for Meeting and Event Planners who wish to find out more about some of the UK's most exclusive and unique venues. 

The showcase will feature over 20 venues including Champneys Health Spa, historic Weston Park Hotel and a selection of boutique country house properties from Pride of Britain Hotels. Meeting Planners will be able to mingle with venues at a mini exhibition before enjoying drinks and a Summer BBQ and also have the opportunity to win some superb prizes in an exclusive prize draw. 

Emma Cartmell, Director of CHS Group explained: "We have a growing reputation for delivering great Showcases, this is now the 12th one that we have done over the last 2 years and they just get better and better. We know that Agents like being able to see some many independent venues in one place at one time and particularly enjoy the relaxed, informal format of our events." She continued: "We know also that access is really important to our guests, so wanted a stylish venue with a city centre feel but with great access to the motorway networks, The Nottingham Belfry offered a perfect fit".

So we're looking forward to attending that this evening and to everything else that is thrown at us this week! 

Have a great week folks!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 9 June 2014

Welcome to another week and we're pleased to report that last weeks Midlands Media Awards went extremely well, with 300 guests at Aston Villa, celebrating the success of journalists and broadcasters from throughout the region.

We had lots of nice comments following the event which is also a positive and judging by the photos from the night we think everyone looked pretty happy with the event (including Qasa Alom from BBC Radio in Stoke who seems pretty pleased!) so we think it was a job well done.

No time to rest on our laurels though as this week our attention is all on the CIPR Northern Conference which is taking place in Manchester this Thursday.

This year’s Northern Conference will provide insight and learning into the skills required to operate in a digital PR landscape. Industry leaders will demonstrate how PR, Content Marketing, SEO and Social Media all work together to create fully integrated and measurable earned media campaigns.

Delegates will learn from the best in our industry about optimising copy for SEO, how paid, earned, owned and shared channels work together, content strategies for social and PR, as well as digital reputation management and monitoring. 

The Northern Conference is perfect for PRs at any stage in their career and is filled with insight, learning and no doubt a good debate! So whether you are in- house or agency, in the voluntary or charity sector, or thinking about a career in PR, this is the conference for you.

Stephen Waddington

The Speaker Line Up is pretty impressive with Earned Media Specialist from the BBC, James English, CIPR President Stephen Waddington, Drew Benvie, founder of Battenhall (Drew is the UK’s #1 most respected practitioner in New Media Age’s 2011).

 Additionally we have the Global Social Media Manager for LateRooms, The Communications Director for the Met Office, Representatives from the Co-operative Group, Harkable and McCanns as well as Google and YouTube so it should be an incredibly interesting day.

You can follow some of the activity live on the day using #CIPRNC

In other news this week it would be churlish of us not to mention the World Cup as football fever will no doubt be gripping the nation in the coming weeks. However if you don't like football the next few weeks might be a bit tortuous so we thought we'd look at ways to avoid it altogether. We have blatantly pinched this article from one we found online, but it made us laugh so much, we ran out of time to think up our own ways of surviving the tournament!

 
1. Walk around blindfolded for four weeks. Not only will you not have to endure watching all those football matches, but you could say it was a social experiment.

2. Invest in cable TV. Then you can watch E4's live coverage of Big Brother all day, and ignore the football altogether. (Although if you really wanted to miss the World Cup, you should have applied to be in the Big Brother house in the first place).

3. Arrange a last-minute expedition trekking in the Himalayas. Lots of scenery but no TVs.

4. Use the four weeks to organise your wardrobe. Have a massive clearing out spree, then go on the mother of all shopping trips. Retail therapy is the only answer to football fatigue. You know it makes sense!

5. As many of the matches are shown in the mornings (because of the time difference), have a lie in and miss the whole thing.

6. Become a nun (it's only for four weeks), and spend the time in quiet contemplation at your local convent.

7. Rent out all your favourite films from your local video shop and turn your home into a cinema for the whole of June. You could even hold your own mini film festival, and invite all your friends who are also trying to avoid the World Cup.

8. Pretend you're Harry Potter, and live in a cupboard during the competition.

9. Become an eco-warrior, and go and occupy a threatened tree. Lots of fresh air, and no soccer highlights with Des Lynam.

10. Take up football and train really hard. Then you might get into the England squad and get injured, or into the Irish squad and fall out with your manager. Either way, you'll miss the World Cup altogether. It worked for Gary Neville and Roy Keane.

So that's it for this week. Don't forget the deadline for Brand You and for The Fresh Awards is fast approaching...

Enjoy! 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 2 June 2014

Welcome to another week at Cloud 9. We’d just like to start by saying a big thank you to all of the Hotel Reps that have been to visit our shiny new Cloud 9 Towers. We do not take for granted all the little gifts that are brought along, and we also love a good catch-up over a cuppa’!

We are two down this week with Shannon jetting off to holiday in Tenerife, and a very excitable Rubina is off celebrating her 21st Birthday. Let’s hope it’s a jolly one, and it will be no doubt! So as you would imagine the office is going to be very quiet this week without them.

The Midlands Media Awards has been fast approaching, and here at Cloud 9 we are really looking forward to seeing the event come together on Thursday. We wish everyone luck with their entries and we’re looking forward to seeing the faces of the winners!

 

There has been a certain buzz around the office this week over the fantastic Grande Depart, which is bringing an excitable amount of business to Yorkshire, and a chance for them to show thousands the beautiful scenery and lively culture. Not to mention they will be hosting one of the most iconic sporting events!

Yorkshire couldn’t have been more buzzing with excitement when Leeds was chosen for the Grande Depart 2014, and they are beaming with pride to say the least. The route that has been set will take them through some great historic cities, including the Roman walled city of York, and the stunning cathedral city of Ripon. They will also have the chance to take in the breathtaking views of the Yorkshire Dales as they wind through the National Park in their first stage.

The Tour de France was started when Journalist, Géo Lefèvre had a brave and bold idea. Géo presented his possibly insane idea to his Editor, Henri Desgrange who was supportive and backed his idea straight away. So on the 1 July 1903 sixty cyclists set out from Montgeron, and after six intense stages only 21 cyclists reached the finish line. The boldness of the event equally shocked and excited the public into a bubble of admiration, as a result the support and crowds for the tour boomed. Le Tour de France is always changing with the times and after 100 years, it is still going strong.

The Grande Depart will be taking place on the 5/6 July 2014 and this will be Tour de France’s 101st tour. The Tour is made up of 21 exhausting stages which will be spread across a total of 23 days, covering a staggering distance of 3,656 km! The Grande Depart will start in Leeds and will finish in the picturesque Maubourguet in South France, where the cyclists will enjoy a well deserved rest.

So whether you will be jetting off when the Grand Depart starts or cheering from the sidelines, it is certain you will be needing a place to hit the hay after all of that vigorous clapping and cheering! So we have a few recommendations that will see you do so in style...

If you want to stay green like the surroundings, then these Eco friendly lodges will be perfect for you. With their luxury open plan spaces and attention to detail it really is a relaxing retreat. For Le Tour they have installed bike hooks and you will receive a complimentary route brochure on arrival. The best viewing points from this Natural Retreat is Reeth or Grinton which are both a handy 20 minutes away. 

The Blue Lion Hotel and Restaurant is an ideal getaway in the Yorkshire Dales. With 4 different style rooms to choose from, you’ll be spoilt for choice! Another positive about staying at this hotel is the Restaurant has been awarded Dining Pub of the Year three times, so expect to dine like Royals as Becky from our team did when she went to visit! Conveniently located in the village of East Witton which the cyclists will be passing through, they have planned to set up a big screen and food for everyone on the village green. Creating a brilliant atmosphere to be surrounded by whilst cheering on.

Swinton Park has the ultimate Pre-Tour de France package for you to explore the race route before all the madness starts! This Grand Hotel which is at the heart of the route offers accommodation, breakfast, dinner, afternoon tea or spa treatment, and complimentary hire of either mountain or electric bikes (We know which one we’d choose!) for two in one easy package.

So that’s all from us this weeks folks, have a great week and we'll see you at The Midlands Media Awards we hope!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 27 May 2014

Welcome to another short week and we are gearing up for the Midlands Media Awards next week in Birmingham which celebrates the achievements of journalists and broadcasters. Part of our role in managing this prestigious event, which attracts an audience of over 300 guests, is to source suitable entertainment and this got us thinking about this weeks blog.

Just what makes great event entertainment and how do you source suppliers that are going to add sufficient sparkle to your event?

Chocolate Fountains whilst still popular are a little old hat now but there are all sorts of new ideas popping up for events all the time and we thought we would share some of our favourites with you.

At a recent trade show we found a rather novel event supplier who with the aid of some black card and a pair of scissors, delivered a rather spectacular portrait silhouette of both Rubina and Shannon and we have to say that they are both pretty good likenesses.

The Roving Artists are pretty special and you might be interested to know that the silhouettes are part of a living tradition stretching back to Georgian times. The first silhouettists were portrait miniaturists seeking to broaden the appeal of their art by creating a quicker (and less expensive) kind of miniature. Calling their new portraits ‘shades’ they started a craze for cheap, on-the-spot profiles which went viral throughout eighteenth-century Europe and the New World. People rapidly discovered a passion for small, inexpensive likenesses of family and friends which could be passed around as personal mementos. The craze lasted for over 100 years, until the invention of the camera which did the same job far better.

Cutting a silhouette requires the same careful hand-eye coordination that an artist needs to draw from life, but without the luxury of time. A silhouette artist does not stop to plan his work, but cuts straight into the paper with barely a glance at his subject, producing an instant portrait with an ordinary pair of scissors and a extraordinary amount of skill. This traditional technique is known among artists as cut and hope!

Photo booths at events are always a popular addition especially when you can dress up or adopt a fake identity...

Smiley Booth was another event supplier we came across at one of the many trade shows we've been to. Photo booths enable companies and individuals to add a touch of fun to their events and ensure that everybody who attends them will have a memento of the day that they can treasure for years to come. With the ability for your guests to leave video messages and the opportunity to keep a copy of every photograph that is taken, you too will have many souvenirs to remind you of your special event.

Not only can they provide you with a photo booth, but Smiley Booth can also drive traffic to your website through thousands of user driven experiential impressions travelling via Facebook/Twitter or other social media to friends, family and colleagues. For more in-house or informal occasions these can be password protected for company security.

To have a Photo Booth at an event is the ideal way for your company or brand to make a lasting impression and create a memorable experience for your guests or customers. You may not be able to look at your colleagues the same again, but it's totally worth it!

Another fantastic entertainment source is the Ideas Box Company, they can provide a variety of unique and innovative ideas to add extra dimension to your events, from Rock Climbing to Ski Blizzards! They also provide a number of different tricycles where you can collect all kinds of different goodies, depending on the tricycles you'd like to hire, you could have Cheese, Pick & Mix, Pimms, Espresso, Waffles or many more! 

But to end with a bang, something that we think really brings the WOW factor is their new

Revival. The Revival is a 50's inspired, fun, interactive catering unit with bespoke lighting system, sound system and Wi-Fi. It can offer a huge variety of catering options including; Breakfast Baps and Cereals, Crepes & Waffles, Espresso, Teas & Hot Chocolates, Pick and Mix, Candy Floss & Popcorn, Ice Cream & Sorbets and Hot Dogs & Hamburgers! 

The outside is polish aluminium which looks stunning, and  has a large hatch to serve from, as well as a door for guests to come inside and choose their Ice Cream, Pick & Mix and Candy Floss. 

So there we have it, we've barely scratched the surface of just how many event entertainment and suppliers there are out there to help your event go that extra mile and to give your guests the memorable event they deserve!

That's all for this week folks, enjoy!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 19 May 2014

Welcome to yet another week at Cloud 9 Towers, and after a fun and fulfilling week last week, attending familiaristion trips, shows and exhibitions, we'd just like to thank everyone for their kind hospitality and introducing us to some lovely people!

We discovered a number of new and interesting venues from Universities to Hotels on the trips and to give you an idea on some of the few great, funky venues that are out there, we thought we'd list the top 10 best themed hotels around the world! (As a chocoholic, I'm sure you'll know which is Shannon's favourite!)

Last month, plans were unveiled for the world's first Ferrari Hotel, inside a theme park dedicated to the car brand, which will open in Barcelona in 2016. The hotel promises five-star luxury, with 250 rooms, a number of restaurants and a driving simulator. We wonder if the beds will be shaped like Ferrari Formula One cars and the alarm clocks will sound like the exhaust note from a 458 Italia Speciale?!

If you fancy a journey into space, you could splurge on a journey with Virgin Galactic, but a considerably cheaper option would be a stay at Barcelona's Barceló Sants Hotel, which has been designed to resemble the inside of a space shuttle. Windows have been replaced with porthole-style bubbles containing images of outer space, the traditional reception area has been replaced by a 'boarding desk' and the two restaurants, Oxygen and Hydrogen, specialise in 'brain food' designed especially for astronauts.


However, most people go on break to relax, but if you're the kind of person who's rarely detached from their gadgets, the Sol Wave House might just be for you, because it's the world's first Twitter-themed hotel. There are two Twitter concierges whose services can be procured with a quick tweet, and by using the hashtag #SocialWave, guests can interact with each other and order room service. Just be aware that your nearest and dearest might quickly tire of tweets informing them how fab your hotel is while they're slogging it out back home!


If you're a chocoholic in need of a sugar fix, then you will love this quirky Hotel, where all of the rooms are inspired by different types of dessert! It's the only place where guests can doze off surrounded by murals depicting syrup sponge or spotted dick and custard, or recline on piles of chocolate-shaped cushions. Other perks include complimentary handmade chocolates and the chance to take part in dessert-themed cookery workshops, and chocolate is a staple of both the restaurant and bar menus.


 
Have you ever dreamed of sleeping on the forecourt of a petrol station or within the chassis of a supercar? If so, head to this car-themed Hotel in Germany, where guests will also find a large spa (or 'body tuning' department) and the enormous Motorworld car museum next door. 




Put on your sunglasses, because this Belgian Pantone Hotel is an explosion of colour. Here, it's all about the contrast: white walls provide a blank canvas against which the colours pop, and there are colour cards on the walls which provide an added insight into the trends relating to the shade in question. Everything from the coffee cups to the stationery has been colour-co-ordinated and even the toiletries are eye-wateringly bright!


One of the world's most bizarre theme hotels is the Cabbages and Condoms safe sex-themed resort in Thailand. There's an important message behind the unusual decor, which includes lampshades made from condoms and uniforms bearing safe sex slogans. The founders are keen to kerb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and reduce unwanted pregnancies by hammering home the importance of safe sex, and a large chunk of the profits are donated to the Mechai Viravaidya Foundation, which supports underprivileged children from some of Thailand's poorest areas.


Rock and rollers will love Brighton's Hotel Pelirocco, which has 19 rooms dedicated to music greatness, including Let's Get It On, which has Motown murals on the wall, gold lamé curtains and a vintage record player (complete with a section of classic Motown records), and the Pressure Sounds room, which has Lee 'Scratch' Perry wallpaper, Rastafarian-themed decor and funky egg chairs.

Manga fans can pay homage to the literary art form at San Francisco's Hotel Tomo, the inspiration for which is Japanese comics. Quirky plastic characters can be found on bedside tables and desks, and framed manga prints adorn the walls. Guests will find bottles of sake in their rooms and the hotel is located in the middle of San Francisco's Japantown area, just a short walk from the city's main sights. 


Ancient Rome is the theme for this spectacular hotel, which has been modelled on the Colosseum. Expect beautiful mosaic flooring in the bathrooms, bedrooms with enormous walls murals depicting fighting gladiators, and a spa inspired by Roman baths. Guests arriving at the hotel are greeted by the sight of enormous marble horses and the hotel restaurant resembles an enormous medieval banqueting hall, the highlight of which is a beautiful wall mosaic depicting the last supper.

So that's it, some great themed Hotels, I'm sure you'd agree! Also, please don't forget to give us a shout about FUSE by Cloud 9, which is our FREE Venue Finding Service that goes an extra mile with other elements included at no cost, if you need help looking for that perfect venue! 

Have a great week folks!