Own Brands at the Hilton Park Lane

Corporate Events are proud to have produced this years Grocer Own Label Food & Drink Awards at The Hilton Park Lane for William Reed Business Media.

Event production manager Katie Lewis of Corporate Events states: “The Hilton Park Lane is a fantastic event space, synonymous with elegance and class, so a fantastic venue to work in. Our awards production team enjoy working here, producing high class and creative events in keeping with the whole “Park Lane events” experience.”

Grocery retailers have seen significant growth in their own label brands, and all the major players are investing in their own-label brands. As shoppers are changing their habits, it is essential that retailers are supplying the range and value consumers are demanding.

The Grocer Own Label Food & Drink Awards reward the most outstanding products in the own-label category. All entrants receive a consumer report and finalists will be supplied with either the Gold, Silver or Finalist logo, to tell customers how great their product is.

The prestige of winning an award from The Grocer generates a fantastic platform for them to promote their product both within the industry and to consumers. All entrants receive a unique consumer judging feedback report with documented, tangible results that provide consumer recognition/endorsement and thus a competitive advantage.

Short listed entrants and winners also benefit from:

Rights to use the Gold, Silver or Finalist awards logo in communication, on packs and in store free of charge to boost the brand's profile with consumers and stimulate sales.

Editorial coverage in The Grocer alongside general press and PR opportunities.

The prestige of picking up a coveted award at an event attended by the Grocery industry. The lunch is also a great opportunity to celebrate team success.

Reinforcement of the brand within the trade and the eyes of the customers.

Corporate Events Managing Director Andy Ashley concludes: “Working with a publisher the size and status of William Reed is an exciting experience.”

Find out more about Corporate Events park lane awards and awards production on the website.

Corporate Events Production in Conference Awards 2012 Shortlist

The deadline for entries into the Conference Awards 2012 has now passed and the shortlist has been announced – including one of Corporate Events recent productions.

Working with publishing group Informa, Corporate Events provide creative event production solutions for a significant part of their event portfolio, and we are pleased and proud to have produced the Lloyd’s List Global Awards.

Informa Event Manager said: “I'm very excited for one of our events to have been nominated. Lloyd's List Global Awards got short listed in the Conference Awards for Best Awards Event in the face of some stiff competiton.

It’s all down to a great collaboration with Corporate Events and Informa that works so well for us. The Corporate Events team's effort and creative input, not just for this one but all the other ones we've worked on together have been great and the validiation in us selecting Corporate Events as our event production partner has been validated by this success.

As a business, we're up against some big hitters like UBM and Emap, but being short listed is a great achievement with the budgets we have.”

Commercial Director Tim Christian states: “The quality and the quantity of entries into the Conference Awards 2012 has increased on the high standard of previous years. Competition in some of the categories is particularly fierce, so it’s a truly exciting experience to be nominated alongside some very big hitters within our industry.

As a business, we provide a wide range of event productions up and down the Park Lane awards strip, as well as throughout the UK and into Europe, so it’s great to be working with Informa who have been nominated for this award.”

Many of the shortlisted companies have been involved in the past however there have also been lots of entries from companies entering for the first time. The winners will be announced at the lunchtime awards ceremony on 15th June.

The Conference Awards are the only such event for the commercial conference and events industry. Winning an award will bring unparalleled recognition for the teams and individuals behind these outstanding achievements, and both Informa and Corporate Events are very proud and pleased to be recognized for producing an outstanding event at this level.

Want to find out more about Corporate Events creative event production solutions? Visit the website.

Corporate Events Goes Cubist with Retro Audio Visual Production

Corporate Events are proud to introduce a new and innovative feature to their already strong audio visual production line up.

Harking back to a Warhol style of design, the Corporate Events video cube installation is a flexible and retro take on the more traditional video wall or LED video tile features on the market.

Made up from a series of self contained 24” colour LCD panels housed within a satin black finished cube case, the video cube installation provides a high degree of organic installation flexibility.

Creative positioning of each individual cube can add a real “wow” factor to a stage, exhibition or experiential event feature.

With a high end control video switching, we have the ability to split a source over all screens, select screens for individual feeds or a huge and varied range of exciting and engaging video and data effects across all the displays.

With an entry level of 16 units, Corporate Events feel that the video cube installation provides an exciting creative alternative to anything else on the market.

Commercial Director Tim Christian states: “Our intention was to create a feature that was flexible enough to be used in a number of environments – be that as a stage feature for an awards production, a conference production reception feature, on an exhibition stand or as part of our ever expanding brand activation / experiential events tool kit.

The creative thought behind moving away from all of the edgeless and bevel free monitors was to provide an alternative to the technology – heavy delivery, to be a little retro and provide a huge amount of creative flexibility on site.

Being able to place each cube in a slightly random way creates a visual hook and tricks the mind into coming back and having another look at what’s playing out on screen.”

Find out about Corporate Events amazing audio visual productions on the website.

Return of Rose to Corporate Events

After being with Corporate Events since 2007, Rose Richardson returned to the fold after a period of maternity leave.

An experienced event manager, Rose returns to add her experience to the ever expanding events delivery team.

Having worked in all of the major event venues in the UK, as well as producing some high end Park Lane awards shows, Rose will be adopting more of a back office role, helping to ensure that planning, process and logistics are in place to deliver outstanding event experiences for our clients.

Corporate Events HR Manager Jed Bowers said: “It’s pleasing for us to welcome Rose back to Corporate Events.”

For more information about Corporate Events event management visit http://www.corporate-events.co.uk

Corporate Events Open Day Opens Eyes

Last week’s open day at Corporate Events new head office in Hillmead, Swindon, made a huge impact on staff, clients and prospects alike.

Managing Director Andy Ashly comments: “As a business, we’ve been running since 1996, we turn over in excess of £5 million, employ 35 people and produce shows all around the globe, and yet there are businesses on our doorstep that have never heard our name.”

With this in mind, the idea of a Corporate Events Open Day was born.

To celebrate the recent move to larger premises and to showcase some industry leading innovations and creativity, Corporate Events invited a mix of clients and prospects to the event.

Account Director Michelle Kennedy adds: “Its been great to be able to show people what we do, how we work and just how big the company actually is. We’ve put on a showcase of projection mapping in our atrium space - a fantastic way to develop some more creative events alongside our conference production and audio visual production services.”

Senior Producer Ian Harvey concurs: “I’m so pleased that people took the time out of their day to come and see Corporate Events and our offering. I’m very pleased about the response to our Augmented Reality solution - there are only a couple of companies that can do what we do in the UK, so to be able to show this live to people is fantastic.”

But it wasn’t just the technology that proved to be of interest; the culture and environment of Corporate Events proved to be infectious. Head of Creative Services David Haslop expands: “We produce a massive mount of creative content for award show productions, conference productions and experiential events and while that can all look great on a laptop or desktop, what we have found is that clients love our presentation preview space.

Essentially it’s like having a scale venue to play with before you get on site - big screen projection and Dolby 5.1 sound in our own client preview room! This allows clients to come to us, run through their show content in a relaxed but focused manner, make changes and be comfortable with their messaging, look and feel before even getting into the event space.

We even do show rehearsals here - its proving invaluable.”

And if you missed this event, don’t worry. Tim Christian concludes: “It was a great night - lots of people learned more about Corporate Events in one day than I could have hoped for. We will be doing this again, and soon.”

Star in a Reasonably Priced Event

Corporate Events are proud to have provided audio visual production for last nights Events for Nawuwongo gala dinner the The Brewery in Chiswell Street.

Attended by an array of event industry good and great, a content packed night raised in excess of £80,000 for this immensely worthwhile charity.

The hugely entertaining event band Rockaoke welcomed the revelers into the Porter Tun room for a three course meal, where the event joint hosts Trevor Foley and Chris Hughes whipped up the audience to a charity giving frenzy.

With a mix of raffle, silent and live auction, there was a series of “money can’t buy” experiences available, including an amazing Chris Evans golf day that included being in the radio 2 breakfast show and reading the weather, before joining Chris on a round of golf at Wentworth.

But without doubt, the most humbling moment of the evening was delivered by an amazing lady, Immaculate Kiiza, who told her story and the story of Nawuwongo to a hushed and awestruck audience, often choked with emotion and humility but who earned a huge standing ovation at the end of her powerful and moving presentation.

To lighten the mood a little, the star of BBC TV’s Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson took to the stage and hosted a somewhat unorthodox approach to a live auction of some excellent prizes, including Top Gear filming days, holidays and Olympic tickets.

With all of the serious fund raising business out of the way, it was back to Rockaoke to sing the show to a close.

Corporate Events Commercial Director Tim Christian comments: “It feels good to be part of an industry that is putting back something good into the world - it’s all too easy to keep your blinkers on and ignore the wider world, or even more criminally, think you can’t make a difference. I hope our little contribution here tonight will go some way to helping those who’s basic human needs are being ignored by so many on so many levels.”

As the event drew to a close and the pack up started, event executive Laura Petela adds: “It’s been a great height - different to the normal award show production or gala dinner that we see so often, so a nice change.”

Corporate Events New Recruit

Sally Web started her career in the Motorsport Industry working in Moto GP. Travelling the world it gave her a great insight into the events world, the logistics, planning and very long hours that were required. After 5 years Sally decided it was time to leave the fast pace of racing and she moved to an Events company working on some major accounts including Morgan Stanley, Mercedes Benz, KPMG and MAN Truck and Bus.

Whilst working on the events, Sally quickly discovered she had a natural aptitude and ability for Business Development, leading to a slight career path change, from Event planning and management into the business development side of the business. “I soon discovered that I loved the passion and thrill of pitching new and creative ideas and solutions from the ground up, I love working with clients to realize their events dreams - it inspires me and it’s a great adrenaline rush”.

Sally’s career has led her to work within the sales and marketing industry for some large hotel venues and marketing agencies working alongside some very large blue chip companies. In her spare time Sally is quite the petrol head and loves the thrill of taking her motorbike out on a Sunday morning to help clear away the cobwebs and get that adrenaline rush she still craves and has a very keen interest in motorbike racing and F1.

Corporate Events Managing Director Andy Ashley adds: “We are really pleased to have recruited Sally – she has great experience in the sector and it shows that the Corporate Events proposition is developing into new and exciting areas. With the advent of our Projection Mapping and Augmented reality creative solutions running alongside our more traditional event production solutions, Sally is joining Corporate Events at an exciting time.”

A Guide to Awards Show Productions

Are you planning an awards show production? Awards show productions are great events that can be very exciting and really benefit the company hosting it.

Awards show productions are an opportunity to honor a group of people and to recognize their achievements. Because it’s an award event, the atmosphere at an awards show production is usually exhilarating, and there’s a real buzz.

Awards show production can be hard work, especially if you haven’t organized such an event before, of if you are organizing the event whilst still doing your usual job. Events Management companies can help arrange awards show productions, and they have vast experience and know all the pit falls and how to pull everything together to ensure the event is perfect and a stunning experience for all of the people attending the awards.

Lighting, Staging, Sound, Audio Visual Services, and HD Video are popular tools used to give an awards show that wow factor. These special effects can change the appearance and mood of a venue and really bring the place to life and to make it feel more theatrical and showbiz like.

Every year the technology and graphic displays are getting more and more exciting and complex and awards hosts want something bigger and better than the year before. To keep up with the demand for creative events and experiential events, events management companies have to develop new effects and buy in the latest technologies such as 3d mapping, light show effects and audience participation pads. Having an events management company arrange your awards show production means that you will have access to this latest entertainment technology to create an amazing spectacular without the expense of having to rent or buy the equipment.

BAFTA Winning Sound at Corporate Events

BAFTA award winning sound design engineer Paul Roberts has been recruited to provide an audio bed, effects and finishing touches to the Corporate Events creative set piece in their new building.

Boasting a massive wall of some 30 feet wide by around 20 feet high, The Atrium in Corporate Events has been transformed into an installed projection mapping space, allowing clients and prospects to see the amazing creativity and communications scope of this fantastic medium.

Using a mixture of flat screen and 3D shape assets, Corporate Events have created an immersive demonstration area with some showcase animation pieces, all set off with an amazing and creative audio track.

Creative Director Tim Christian says, “Working with Paul has been an amazing experience – I can see why he is so highly rated in the industry. The attention to detail, the understanding of the complex emotional relationship between visuals and audio and how this affects the viewer is paramount to achieving a connection with an audience – absolutely vital in Conference Production and Park Lane Awards productions.”

Paul Roberts adds, “Having worked in TV and advertising for years, its great to see how technology and creativity is enhancing the live event experience. Seeing the visuals that the Corporate Events team have created, I have to say that I’m very impressed.”

“Being able to contribute to the new and exciting medium that is projection mapping is very exciting for me – it’s cutting edge and very dramatic.”

Tim Christian concludes “To maximise impact at a sales and marketing conference, product launch or on experiential events we are actively introducing Projection Mapping to the conversation. Once you’ve seen it, understood the capabilities of the system, the potential to really engage with an audience, reach out to them and create a real call to action is limitless.”

World’s 50 Best Restaurants Award Ceremony Produced by Corporate Events

Corporate Events are proud to have produced the 2012 World’s 50 Best Restaurants Award Ceremony. The Awards were held at The Guild Hall in London, organized and compiled by Restaurant Magazine.

The list is created from The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, an influential group of over 800 international leaders in the restaurant industry, each selected for their expert opinion of the international restaurant scene. The Academy comprises 27 separate regions around the world. Each region has its own panel of 31 members including a chairperson to head it up. The panel is made up of food critics, chefs, restaurateurs and highly regarded ‘gastronomes’ each of whom has seven votes. Of the seven votes, at least three of which must be used to recognize restaurants outside of their region. At least 10 panelists from each region change each year.

The creative events design and Audio Visual production for this prestigious event provided some interesting challenges, but the result was a fantastic and energetic event that generated a huge amount of press interest, with journalists from around the world in attendance, generating a huge amount of printed, online and social media presence.

Super Hero Themed Event Makes Money for Sweet Charity

Corporate Events are pleased and proud to have produced this year’s “Candy Ball” at The Park Plaza Westminster on Saturday 28th April, for Sweet Charity – the Charity for the UK Confectionery Industry.

Following on from previous successes, the creative events team at Corporate Events designed and created a unique “Super hero’s” theme for the event that worked over the whole event communications, web site and through to the event experience within the event space at Park Plaza Westminster.

Using the current zeitgeist for all things comic book, the gala dinner production featured a massive bespoke built twin screen set and stage that was designed and created to look like a comic book city skyline, a bespoke animated introduction sting in the style of comic book pages and a number of live acts.

Gala Dinner Production manager Julie Brogan commented, “We were pleased with the look and feel of the event. The way the theme worked throughout all of the client touch points – from web site and printed materials through to the room set décor – all went a long way to creating a solid and cohesive event theme.”

Audio Visual production manager Adrian Toulson adds, “Working at exclusive London venues such as Park Plaza Westminster is always an experience – the shape and scale of the room always needs special consideration for sound and making sure that the audience experience is maximised. Every time we do an award show production or a conference production, we always start with a knowledge base but a clean sheet of paper as well. Each event is unique and needs to be planned accordingly.”

Being one of the first Audio Visual production companies to work within Park Plaza Westminster, Corporate Events has extensive experience in producing large-scale events in this exciting event space.

Corporate Events Launches Tubular Bells Concept for Audio Visual Production Sets

Corporate Events are proud to bring a new and exciting innovation to the Audio Visual Production market, in the form of our exciting new “Tubes” Award show production set.

Utilising an amazing lenticular material fixed to Perspex tubes, lit from within with custom made LED colour changing fixtures, this new set design provides an innovative and different approach to the age old problem of “doing something different” without exceeding budget allowances.

Corporate Events Managing Director Andy Ashley said, “Having been to hundreds of award show productions and park lane awards where star cloth is used to death, it’s really exciting to be able to go back to our clients with a viable and creative events solution that addresses the twin issues of “I want something different” along side “I have less to spend this year”.

“Having spent lots of time in various management meetings with a number of our clients, we went out to the market, sourced and tested a range of materials and now we are really proud to have created our own unique creative events solution that we can offer to our clients, safe in the knowledge that it’s the first time anyone will have seen anything like it.”

Corporate Events has deployed this solution to a number of Award show productions this year, all to great effect.

Tim Christian, Creative Director at Corporate Events adds, “The tube set is something that we are all very close to, having designed it from the ground up. It provides an excellent mix of creativity, audience experience and commercial viability. But, what I consider to be more important, is that it is OUR innovation and our drive that has delivered this to the market, ensuring that once again, Corporate Events provides innovation to our clients.”

Corporate Events Celebrate the Opening of Their New Facilities with an Exclusive Preview Experience

Corporate Events are hosting the opening evening on Thursday 17 May 2012, at their new premises in Swindon from 3.30 until 8.00pm and business and companies are welcome to attend to discover the new production technologies that Corporate Events are now able to offer as part of their events production.

Corporate Events will be demonstrating some new and innovative creative services within the events industry. The showcase will feature 3D Projection Mapping, ultra widescreen projection, augmented reality, LED animation star cloth, awards dinner staging, voting systems etc. In attendance will be our clients who are drawn from BP, Heineken, Nationwide, Clarks, WRBM plus others so it will be an excellent networking opportunity accompanied by great canapés and entertainment with prizes.

As an organisation Corporate Events produce in excess of 300 events per year. Corporate Events are in a unique proposition in that they own all of their technical equipment and have in house event management, technicians, design, video and animation services which means that you as a customer are buying at source.

Corporate Events would love to meet you and your colleagues on the 17th and show you around the Corporate Events offices, studio and warehouse and to introduce you to the team at 1 Marshall Road, Hillmead, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN5 5FZ.

RSVP Michelle Kennedy - 01793 849300

Event Management – What’s it all About?

Event Management Companies have become the catch word for many looking for services offered by companies given to manage events. Event management industry has grown up drastically and dramatically in the last 15 years. But what is involved with event management? With the help of an Event management company you can outsource and organize the business, social or both occasions in an effective way.

Event Management is very important aspect and part of today’s corporate life. Without event management it is nearly impossible for all big and small companies to organize parties and events, and also arrange things for their clients.

Event management is considered one of the strategic marketing and communication tools by companies of all sizes. From product launches to press conferences, companies create promotional events to help them communicate with clients and potential clients. Promotional events are also used as a tool to generate media coverage and reach out to countless people in one go.

Event management companies are able to give guidance and advice during the initial conception and planning of any event that will greatly increase the success of that event. An event management company generally offers a number of services including strategy planning and development, conceptualization, idea and creative management, designing, production, staging of the event and promotional advertisements. Your budget gets planned as per the guest list and types of services you require. Whatever the size your event is, an event management company offers solutions to all types of events.

Event management is a great experience, however it’s a tough job as not only do you have to have everything organised, but you'll also need to be a quick thinker when disaster strikes. Event management companies handle all the creative, technical and logistical elements of an event so that you can focus on the events objectives and not the labour intensive event preparations.

Looking for Conference Production Service to Create Your Perfect Conference Production?

Special events can cost a lot of money and it is certainly worth it to use the services of a conference production team. Conference production services extend from small scale morning or afternoon seminars to major international events with over a thousand delegates. No matter what your conference production requirements are, you will want to achieve a perfect conference for you and your guests.

You may want to be hands on when it comes to planning themes, stage design, audio/visual display styles and even the seating and catering aspects of the event, these are all possible as conference production companies welcome client input. Conference production services want to create the perfect event for you, so your ideas are important in making sure the event is bespoke to your requirements.

Conference production service help to ensure that your visitors have the best possible experience and enjoy talks and presentations that are easy to hear and see without having to strain or shuffle around to get the best spot. Having professional conference production ensures that this is the case and you can even enjoy some additional features which conference production services can offer. Conference production and live event packages provide staging, audio-visual, lighting for event production and have all the latest presentation technologies, including broadcast conference production, production company specification video facilities, the latest projection equipment and state of the art presentation software and fully trained staff to work the technology to it greatest effect.

Most conferences today rely on audio visual systems to deliver information in an entertaining way. The advantage of hiring professionals to undertake your conference production is that you can feel safe in the knowledge that everything will run smoothly on the day, leaving you to concentrate on the actual subject matter of the conference and your delegates.

The latest presentation technology allows the integration of multimedia, animation conference production and video clips. By using multiple high-resolution projectors a vast, seamless projection wall can be created for any event, adding impact and wow factor to your conference. Conference production design teams create presentation visuals well in advance of the event so you can see what your presentation might look like before the day itself so that you can make sure that the production company project leaves a lasting impression on your guests.

Allowing a professional company to help with the conference production means that you will have the experience to make sure your event runs as smoothly as possible, providing assistance for all aspects of conference production from initial planning and design through to the design of the set and end production.

What Are Creative Events and How Would a Creative Event Benefit Your Company?

A creative event sound more exciting that what the term actually refers to. The word creative event conjures up images of exhilarating and creative entertainment ideas and venues, after all when you are being creative you are using your imagination, which has no limits. In reality, in the industry the phrase ‘creative event’ is a phrase that refers to making an unexciting event more thrilling, or giving an event the ‘wow’ factor.

When a customer goes to an events management service that they want to employ to take over their corporate event, they usually have a few ideas of what they would like to include in the event. Because most companies don’t host events every week, they think of the main aspects of the event, but usually haven’t given much thought to the details of the event. It’s these details that make an event special.

However, when you employ event management specialists you tape into their rescores and their events knowledge. With this resource brings their creative events experience as well as their attention to detail. They listen to the customer’s event ideas, and they suggest tried and tested ideas, entertainment and detail enhancements that adds a little more sugar coating, or a bit more sparkle to the event. Events management teams are always holding events and they have lots of experience of creating events which are tailor made to their customer’s requirements. Because they are managing events every week, they already have a database of entertainment acts, decorations and usually bring to the event great ideas to make the event out of this world.

Corporate events of any kind are laid on by the hosts to entertain and maybe to impress their guests, to network and to raise the companies profile. Having an event that isn’t as good as it could be; has less on an impact on guests. So it is always worth considering a creative event and using an events expert to make your event breath taking and memorable.

How to Create the Perfect Gala Dinner

Nowadays, most gala dinner events are organised by an event management company who specialise in Gala dinner production. With experts taking care of every little detail of your gala dinner event from the colour scheme at the venue to the food and beverages catering, and the amusements and contests lined up for the entertainment of guests.

A gala dinner is usually a formal event, where a private room is hired. Events management services usually have tried out many such grand halls and rooms that are perfect for gala a dinner, which means that you can rely them to select a room which not only looks the part, but also provides additional facilities that makes your event perfect. The management services will know to ask all the sorts of questions that you wouldn’t probably think about until the day of the events.

Gala dinners are usually expensive events to organize and host, so your outfit should be formal and classy to compliment the event itself. A "lounge" dress code does not mean "informal" or "smart casual", although people often mistakenly interpret it to do so. Gala dinner events are fancy black-tie affairs where guests dressed to the nines for an evening of food, drink and entertainment.

Gala dinners are all “live events” that bring people face to face and give the gala dinner hosts the opportunity to spoil their guests, whilst also providing the opportunity to make contacts, network and raise the business profile. Having a corporate events management team arrange your gala dinner will help to ensure that your event will run smoothly and will be a success.

Gala dinners that are delivered as planned and run smoothly are very enjoyable and can be very beneficial to the company hosting the event. Having an events planner on board ensures that your gala dinner production is one of those successes and takes all the stress out of arranging, preparing and delivering the event for your guests to enjoy. Having them take the strain also means that you are free and focused on spending the event with your guests.