07
Sep
Drummond Central, Events, Event Dressing, Decorations, Table Centres
So as we mentioned in our previous blog post, we helped our neighbours at Drummond Central throw a fantastic carnival themed event at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art last week. We hired the Riverside room at the Baltic, which is a fantastic space for themed events, because it’s a completely blank canvas so you can really let your imagination run wild!
To keep the decorations in line with the carnival theme, we decided to stick with red and white candy stripes inside the room and multi-coloured lollipops for the terrace outside. So we had hula hoops for the kids as well as some hanging from the ceiling, carnival tent style draping around the stage, and giant lollipop centre pieces for the tables. It was these table pieces that everyone wanted to know how to make! So without further ado, please find below the first ever Sailor Girl Ltd make-and-do project!
Things you’ll need:
Plant pot (or similar)
Floral oasis
Craft knife
Lots of lollipops
If you can, try and buy the cylindrical oasis if you’re using plant pots, it’s just easier to fit. You could really make these in any kind of pot, coloured metal buckets would look good and you can find them in most craft shops.
Cut the oasis to fit in the pot, it doesn’t have to fit perfectly as long as it almost reaches the edges.
Then it’s simply a matter of sticking the lollies in. It’s best to do them in rows, that way you can get them really close together so you can’t see the oasis through the gaps.
The reason these prove so popular as table centres is that people can pocket a couple of lollies before they head home, something we found the grown up’s were just as bad as the kids for!
26
Aug
Events, Corporate Hospitality, Carnival, Ideas Generation, Themed Events, Drummond Central
After a hectic few weeks of planning, we helped our neighbours at Drummond Central throw a carnival inspired party at the Baltic to thank all their friends and collegues for their continued support. We took over the Riverside room, which has a fantastic outdoor terrace overlooking the river and the Millenium Bridge. Inside, the room was decked out in red and white candy stripes, with lollipops, life size carosel horses, elephants, fish in bags, sweets and candy floss stalls. There were tons of sweets, balloons, goodie bags and hula-hoops for the kids, and mojitos and cosmopolitans for the “big kids” – plus, they really enjoyed the sweets and hoola hoops too!
There was a fantastic performance from Storm, a live function band, as well as show girls and a candy girl handing out even more lollies.
We had some amazing feedback from both the guests and the staff at Drummond Central. We’d like to say a huge thank you to all of our suppliers, event partners and staff for making it such a great event.
You can check out more photographs on our facebook page, here.
11
Aug
Music Festival, Large Events, Culture, Accessibility
Want to know what really happened at Chase Park Music Festival? Check it our below…
03
Aug
EXHIBITION MANAGEMENT, SIEMENS, INTERVIEWS, TIPS, TRAFFEX
For the second in our series of exhibition interviews, Alex and Hannah spoke with Peter Preston of Siemens.
AM – Alex McVey
HP – Hannah Parker
PP – Peter Preston
PP: Well, the first thing is we talk to the marketing department because we can have lots of great ideas about what the event can be but it needs to have a message. So, for example, with this show it was which new products are we bringing to the market? It’s also how do we get the company name in the frame, and I guess we approach that two ways. One way was to become an event partner. Event sponsorship gives us a lot of exposure, so the name’s everywhere. And then back to the stand and the stand design, obviously it’s a trade off between the costs and the benefits that we actually get. We want to have a café area, we want to have a lot of space for the products, so we either have lots of extra ground space, or we go upwards.
AM: And are you finding this to be effective? Having the café area, and also the technical area?
PP: Yes, because a number of other places have cafes, but customers that come along can come and talk to us and they can feel like they aren’t being watched by editors and other people that want to talk to them, so it gives an element of privacy.
HP: What would you say is the one thing that attracts people to your stand most effectively?
PP: At least two things I can think of. One is having a pin point item, in this case it’s the bike which is related to a current innovation which we’re involved with. And the other thing is Siemens brand, and trying to get a bit of a wow factor when people walk in through the door.
AM: But it’s very bright as well, the brand colours on the white background are obviously very powerful.
PP: We have to follow brand rules, just as everybody does. But the graphic images, we’ve gone away this year from having bullets on the graphics which we’ve had in the past. This year we've done a little stand guide as well, which has a plan of where everything is on the stand and what the products are.
AM: And you’ve got the bags as well of course.
PP: And the bags, and the gummy bears. Also we chose not to go with a formal give away, like two years ago we had bouncy balls, red, amber and green, with little LED’s that flashed inside them, because we were launching an LED, low voltage signal. So if you can find something in keeping that’s fine, but we won’t do it just for the sake of it.
HP: So who is your target market at this event?
PP: Primarily, because we have got such a large existing customer base it’s as much about allowing our customers, because invariably in business most of your business comes from an existing customer, not a new one. But also to try and make it attractive to new customers to come on as well.
HP: And do you exhibit at other events?
PP: Not much. In the UK this is really the only traffic exhibition that we do. We do a little bit at JCT, it’s a symposium run by JCT where a lot of local authorities key customers attend. Internationally we attend Intertraffic, and also sometimes the ITS conferences, but that tends to be handled out of Germany.
HP: What's your budget for a stand like this?
PP: I’ll probably have to keep that a secret. It’s in excess of 50,000. The pitch is 12 by 15, the rates are published.
HP: And are you involved in the design of the stand?
PP: Yeah, I mean we go out to tender, we’ll give three or four companies the brief and get a price. I think this is the third time we’ve used these builders.
AM: Can you tell us who it is?
PP: Priority.
HP: Do you hire staff in?
PP: No. The girls working the café and reception, there’s a couple of communications managers, Wendy’s the managing director’s PA, there’s people from the office areas, they’re all Siemens staff.
HP: Well that’s all our questions, thank you.
www.siemens.co.uk
28
Jul
Tips, Events, Unusual Venues, Inspiration, Catering, Entertainment, Christmas, Saving Money
All this talk of budget cuts and spending freezes does not bode well for the office Christmas Party. And, what’s worse for morale than everyone’s favourite time of year to be cancelled? Before you decide to cease the Christmas spirit and cancel your annual festivity take a look at our event organiser’s top tips for a very merry Christmas!
1. Find yourself a free venue
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Not everyone wants a party in the office but if it’s this or nothing, they may change their mind!
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Alternatively there are some venues around town that do not charge a hire fee, but just require a minimum spend behind the bar, such as Nancy’s Bordello, or Opera Bar in the Gate.
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If you’re feeling adventurous and don’t mind a bit of extra work, use your contacts and see if you know someone that is privy to a large space. A barn or a warehouse can make for a great blank canvas on which to create your dream Christmas party. Last year we held a party for a large engineering firm in a big old warehouse, bunged in some hay bales, a bar and a good band and had one hell of a party!
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Don’t forget to make sure the venue is properly licensed. You may need to apply for a Temporary Events License to cover you for live entertainment and sale of alcohol. Contact your local council for more information on this.
2. Use your imagination
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We are big fans of pretty venue dressing here at Sailor Girl. However, budgets don’t always allow us to splash out on expensive trinkets and lighting, so we have to think creatively.
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There are a lot of ordinary low-cost items that can be put together to transform a venue. For example, we needed to dress an already attractive and modern space to look pretty and twee, so we went on a charity shop mission to find as many old teacups as we could, popped a tea light in them and dotted them all around the venue. It was simple yet very effective.
3. Catering
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This can be very expensive for what you get, but if you have an idea of what you want, most caterers will try and create this within your budget. If you’re a large company and use caterers on a frequent basis, be a bit cheeky and see if you can get yourself a discount.
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You could ask staff to contribute, such as a BYOB event or asking people to bring and share food. Or have a whip round in the office and raid your local cash and carry. However if you’re a smaller company running your own bar might be more feasible.
4. Entertaining
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Rather than spending a lot of money on a cheesy covers band, why not get on Facebook or ask your colleagues for suggestions of a good local band – who will probably do it for beer and expenses!
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Ask students who are involved with media, performing arts and event planning as they will always be willing to help as it looks great on their portfolio.
5. And finally
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It might be an idea to couple up with another company, share the costs, the stresses of organising and it’s also another great source for ideas.
21
Jul
Planning, Events, Ideas, Inspiration, Memorable, Creative
“Fortune favours the prepared mind.” – Louis Pasteur
I’m not 100% sure what Monsieur Pasteur had in mind when he made the above remark, but I choose to believe he was talking about his company’s Christmas party. You’re probably thinking, “It’s July?! It’s way too early to be thinking about Christmas!” But actually it’s not, at least not if you want to throw an original and truly memorable party for your staff and clients.
A Christmas party should be a time to thank everyone for all their hard work throughout the year, to give them a treat, a night to remember, and that just doesn’t happen with a plastic cup of luke warm wine served in your meeting room, with a crackly radio blasting in the back ground. Even if you want to manage your own event we can help you to come up with an original theme or idea, to make sure your event is memorable for all the right reasons. But if you do want us to help you manage it, we can handle everything from venue selection and dressing, to catering, staffing and AV, leaving you free to enjoy your party with the rest of your guests.
If you want to get a better idea of the kind of events we can do, the Sage case study on our website shows what happens when we let our imaginations run wild! Please feel free to give us a call, and we can have a chat about what you want from your party and how we can help make it happen. If you’d prefer to organise your own event, keep an eye out for our next blog post, which will be all about how you can organise your own event on a tight budget.
12
Jul
Music Festival, Large Events, Culture, Accessibility, Music, Whickham Villa, Percy Hedley Foundation, Generator, Multiple Sclerosis Society
Please excuse the lateness of this blog post, but we’ve all been recovering from various degrees of exhaustion and severe sunburn!
After months of planning, on the 2nd of July the SG team desended on Chase Park in Whickham for the second annual Chase Park Music Festival. Aiming to raise awareness of Whickham Villa LLP, the Percy Hedley Foundation, and the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the entire festival was designed to be accessible to everyone. Running from 12pm until 9pm, the event featured a range of live music, local stalls, food and drink, and one of the hottest days of the year!
Local music development agency, Generator helped to organise the live performances from the likes of The Lake Poets, The Soviets, Mausi, and Hattie Murdoch amongst others. Music photographer, Jazzy Lemon was there backstage all day and has some great images which you can view online here. Toni Marie, another performer on the day, had this to say of the festival:
"It was such an amazing event, we had a blast and what a great turn out. The organisers really looked after us and the whole day was fantastic."
The stalls included delicious cakes from Pet Lamb Patisserie, art from Beware the Black Rabbit, and a fastest lap competition from festival sponsors Irwin Mitchell. Phil Osborne from Newcastle was the lucky winner with a lap time of 2.3 seconds, meaning he’s off to test his driving skills even further in a Ferrari.
We’d like to say a big thank you to Whickham Villa LLP, The Percy Hedley Foundation and the Multiple Sclerosis Society for asking us to be a part of such a great festival. We’d also like to thank all of our staff and volunteers for their hard work on the day, especially Sailor Girl Katie Dawson, our highly dedicated festival manager. And finally, a big thanks to everyone who took part on the day, whether through performing, running a stall or just turning up and enjoying the day. Hopefully you all had as great a day as we did, and can’t wait for next year.
"We were very impressed by the scale and smoothness of the event. The turn out was fantastic and you couldn't have picked better weather. I'm pleased that the MS Society was able to provide support, and we're keen to continue this for future years." Chris Bray, Multiple Sclerosis Society.
08
Jul
Services, Corporate Hospitality, Events
With our VIP trip management service underway, it has not escaped our attention that the Bribary Act (see this BBC Q&A article for more info: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13977221) may have put a lot potential clients off even considering making the most of this service. With the threat of a prison sentence of up to 10 years this is hardly surprising. So, now that legislation is in force to prosecute corrupt companies, we want to put your mind at ease that you can treat your clients with a clear non-bribery conscience.
Since the announcement of the Bribery Act legislation, which was due to come into force in April '11, corporate hospitality has been the main bone of contention that we've been keeping a close eye on. Can you look after your clients when they come to visit or take them to the match without it being seen as bribery? The quick and simple answer, thanks to the additional guidance provided by the government, is yes. Within reason, of course. Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, says the legislation will be "workable, [and] common sense". So, as long as you aren't giving them a Ferrari as well you should be fine!
For information about our VIP Trip Management service, click here.
01
Jul
ITS (UK), International Exhibitions, Lyon, Exhibition Management, Tips
Firstly an apology for the tardiness of this blog – we had intended to finish it during the week and post it immediately after the exhibition. However, with Chase Park Music Festival on the horizon, and the new clients and events that have been popping up over the last few weeks, our feet have barely touched the ground. So, I have made some time to reflect on what was a fantastic exhibition and a wonderful opportunity for Sailor Girl, and share the exhibition knowledge we learnt in Lyon.
ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) is an area I used to work in before setting up Sailor Girl. I used to go to the European Congress every year as a speaker so it was really interesting to go this time as an exhibitor for ITS (UK). ITS (UK) are a membership organisation that promotes companies from the UK with Intelligent Transport expertise around the world. Every year ITS (UK) take some of their member companies to exhibitions around the world and the “stand participants”, as they call them, on the exhibition in Lyon were Scottish Development International, Mott MacDonald, Arup, PIPS Technology, TRL and Mouchel.
From past experience, ITS (UK) have a good reputation for creating a friendly and welcoming stand. There were two welcoming techniques that we used to encourage people to come to the stand but also stay for a little while to network. The first was refreshments on the stand – we had a coffee and tea maker and also a water cooler – and somewhere to sit. We have had experience in the past where people have seats but they don’t actually want you to sit in them. Not at ITS (UK).
The second was a drinks reception, which was sponsored by Mouchel. We timed this well to coincide with our neighbour’s drinks reception, which meant that the number of people we were able to engage with doubled and as a by-product we created a ‘street carnival’ along our row, making a lasting impression on our guests!
Another element that seemed to work well was the stand size-to-people ratio. This year the stand was relatively small at 18m2, and because of the number of companies, the stand was bustling. This seemed to have a nice impact on encouraging passers by to be inquisitive and come and have a look – giving us (the stand hosts) the opportunity to say hello and find out what they were interested in. There was another stand close to us that was probably 50% larger than our stand but very sparse – there were 2 people on the stand and a couple of monitors. From my observation there seemed to be limited activity on the stand, but even if there was it’s difficult to make a big, empty space look busy.
I could go on for much longer but I’m not allowed to bore you too much, so here is a summary of the things we learnt from Lyon:
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Size isn’t everything – don’t have a big stand unless you can fill it. There is nothing worse than a big empty stand. If you down size not only will you save money but you may also increase your interaction with people because your stand is less daunting.
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Coincide any hospitality with your neighbours – this will increase the traffic to your exhibition area and therefore, your stand.
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Buy coffee – with the money you have saved from having a smaller stand, buy something that you can use to welcome people and hopefully get them to stay at your stand for longer.
By Hannah Parker
08
Jun
Exhibition Management, Interviews, Swarco, Tips, Traffex
Over the last few months here at Sailor Girl Ltd, we’ve spent a lot of time researching our new exhibition stand management service. We’ve been attending as many exhibitions as we can, seeking out the good, the bad, and the ugly of exhibition stands. We’ve been lucky enough that some very kind companies agreed to be interviewed by us about how they create their exhibition stands. Our first victim interviewee was Richard Neumann from Swarco AG, a group of International companies who provide traffic solutions, who we met at Traffex 2011.
RN – Richard Neumann, Swarco AG
HB – Hannah Bryan, Sailor Girl Ltd
AM – Alex McVey, Sailor Girl Ltd
RN: I’m working for the parent company of the Swarco subsiduaries in Austria, and I’m responsible for corporate communication, which involves organising all exhibition participation by Swarco.
AM: Do you enjoy that side of it?
RN: I enjoy it very much. Of course, there are headaches before the show, but fortunately we always manage to have a good stand ready.
HB: So, how do you come up with the concept for the stand, and what’s your theory behind the way it looks?
RN: Our basic philosophy is that we want a stand that is attractive for our visitors. We prefer an open structure, so people feel free to come in and talk to us. This concept has been used for the past five years and it works very well.
HB: So do your stands look similar everywhere you go?
RN: Yes, we have a strict corporate design and all the elements you see here are part of the corporate communication package.
HB: So which part of your stand do you think attracts people the most?
RN: Food! No, we want people to be interested in our technologies. We are always trying to come up with innovations for each exhibition. We are having Austrian food and wine, and that’s a good factor to keep people at the stand.
HB: Do you instruct your staff on how to behave?
RN: Yes. The first thing we say is “What can we do for you? Which product or service are you interested in?” If the talk is longer, we start offering a drink. That’s the philosophy.
HB: So how many exhibitions do you do each year?
RN: Eight or nine, internationally.
HB: Do you mind me asking, how much it costs to build a stand like this?
RN: It’s £225 early bird per square metre just for space, and this is 180 square metres. So this is £32,000. The stand set up, build and everything costs around 50,000 Euros.
HB: How long do you think you spend preparing for each exhibition?
RN: Preparation time for an exhibition of this size is six months.
HB: My last question is about how you follow up with people afterwards?
RN: Well the basic thing is exchange of business cards. We also sometimes use an exhibition report. It’s a question sheet and you just tick what customers are interested in, and then send a brochure, or give them a call.
HB: You’ve got a lot of staff here. So I guess it’s a personal relationship thing as well.
RN: We always have big stand crews. You can be sure that the people who come here want to talk to the contact they talk to the whole year. The personal contact, that’s the most important thing.
HB: That’s brilliant, thank you very much.
http://www.swarco.com
01
Jun
Ideal Home Show, Events, Exhibitions, Tips
Tickets £11 On 23rd March, Alex and I went to the Ideal Home Show at Earl’s Court for a bit of exhibition insight and, of course, to get some tips from Linda Barker about sprucing up interiors with ‘custom chic’ (Go to charity shops and buy loads of teacups and saucers …we already knew it!). The exhibition was huge and extremely impressive; from Earl’s Court being wrapped up like a giant present, to the huge indoor pool (or ‘central marina’ complete with a floating champagne bar and yachts – which are for hire! You know who to call to organise this event). Some high points were the amazing eco-village with exhibitions or, more accurately, houses built by B&Q (including the Rovers Return Inn and Ken and Deidre’s home from Coronation Street), The Prince’s Foundation with their replica of the Natural House and Dulux Open Plan Living House. We loved the Ideal Home of the Future show sponsored by Virgin Media. It was full of clever gadgets to make your home more efficient or just hipper (Click here for the top 5 gadgets according to Which?) Did you know that both the microwave and the electric kettle were launched (and scoffed at) at the Ideal Home Show? Well this year it was the 3D printer! You never need worry about running out of plastic spoons again. We thought this was great brand association for Virgin as it gave the audience a value added experience that we wouldn't have had otherwise. The only low points were probably the Ideal Woman zone, which resembled a Sunday market in places. However, all was forgiven by the beauty stand, which was giving out free treatments. Nice touch.
10
May
So, we have a snazzy new site, we’ve rejigged our services to explain in the simplest sense all that we are able to do for you, and now all that is left is to introduce our new blog series.
Thanks to ITS (UK) we will be jetting off to Lyon in June to manage their exhibition stand at the ITS European Congress. This (and the fact that we are researching exhibitions all the time anyway so we’re constantly improving our exhibition management service) gave us the idea to share what we’re learning along the way.
We want to know what really is the ‘je ne sais quoi’ that makes an alright exhibition stand, outstanding. So for this series of blogs we will delve into the good, the bad and the ugly of exhibition stand management, in the hope that we can help you love your exhibits and move away from the “love to hate but have to do” syndrome that so many companies seem to be stuck in. Successful stands are not just the ones that look the best. You might have the most expensive, sophisticated stand on the block but if you have a miserable person who does not want to talk to anyone, or no strategy for engaging with people, it was all utterly pointless.
Frankly, this is not a time to be wasting money. There are, however, some shining beacons of hope who are doing interesting, creative and innovative exhibition stands that truly engage. And so, we are on the hunt for these exceptional exhibitions, the ones that have a little something else, that really enthrall the passers by, and we will share what we find.
We are planning to finish this series by writing a daily update from the coalface in Lyon – think Samuel Pepys for the event and exhibition manager. We have managed exhibition stands and whole exhibitions before but this time we plan to document it and share as much as we can. e.g. if our research has paid off, what the best and the worst bits are, the traps to avoid (or fall into!), etc. In the meantime, we have a blog from the Ideal Home Show, and Traffex, and some special interviews courtesy of Seimens, Swarco and HS Roads over the next few weeks with more to follow.
Exhibiting is hard, so if you have to manage the stand for your company, hopefully our notes will help you get ideas and avoid making the mistakes of other exhibitors. And, of course if you are stuck, feel free to get in touch, as we would love to help.