Tag: featured

Dinners and parties

Life begins at 50

victoriahl November 20, 2017

Celebrating your 50th birthday should be done in style, and what better way to do it than with a huge party in a tipi?

That’s what one client wanted when he came to us to organise his big 5-0… he had a very strong vision of what he wanted; vintage styling, tipis, a live band and a flash mob choir. “Absolutely no problem” we told him, and got to work!

We found the perfect countryside location for the party where there was plenty of room for three tipis, and most importantly, no neighbours to complain about noise! Bundles of wild flowers, orchard crates, candles and fairy lights created the vintage feeling he wanted, and we even stacked blankets up for chilly guests who came without their coats…

The guests arrived by classic bus and were welcomed with a choice of cocktails, handpicked by the birthday boy. Served in jam jars with paper straws, they looked absolutely delicious!

Once everyone had arrived and had a couple of cocktails (or more) the flash mob choir started their set. They’d cunningly blended in with the rest of the guests, so as soon as they started singing, nobody expected it; they were a real show stopper!

Wood-fired pizza’s were served from a specially adapted Land Rover and the live Motown band got everybody dancing inside the tipi. Even though there were log fires and blankets to keep everybody warm, I don’t think they were needed with the amount of boogying going on!

It was a fantastic party and the feedback from the guests was amazing; if this was his 50th, I can’t wait to see what he’s got in mind for his 60th!

Attendees: 125

Location: Warwickshire

Duration: 1 evening

Who needs Glastonbury?

victoriahl October 24, 2017

Festivals are fantastic; dancing outdoors to some great bands whilst eating noodles – what’s not to love? It all goes a bit awry though when you have to contend with sleeping in a tent that’s half collapsed and then having to brave the *gulp* festival toilets…

What better then to have your own personal festival in the grounds of a country hotel – all the fun of the music but with a comfy bed at the end of the night?

That’s what Procure4 got when we organised them their very own music event, as a part of their 2 day End of Year conference. We took them to a lovely hotel in Worcestershire where they started off with meetings and speeches, but it was in the afternoon that the fun began…

For their team activity they took part in a series of games and challenges based on a festival theme, including putting a tent up in the fastest time, making the best outfits out of various bin bags (some were VERY eye opening indeed!) and painting the best psychedelic sign for outside their tent…

Everyone got really involved and the competitiveness between teams was brilliant to watch! They finished off by competing in a treasure hunt around the hotel grounds to find the ingredients for an extremely boozy cocktail, which then had to be drunk by the whole team to win – this proved a very popular game!

After popping back to their rooms to get their partying gear on, everyone returned in the evening to the hotel’s ‘secret garden’ for the festival. With their personalised rubber wristbands, and ‘access all areas’ lanyards it really felt like Glastonbury! A local Britpop band played all of their favourite hits and fuelled by an outdoor bar and barbecue, the party went on long into the night…

Attendees: 42

Location: Worcestershire

Duration: 2 days

Spreadsheets & limbo poles

victoriahl October 23, 2017

How do you add some fun and pzazz into a day long conference of meetings and speeches?

This was the dilemma we had when organising Procure4’s annual 2-day End of Year conference. They spend the majority of the first day in a meeting room listening to various departments giving their review of the year, but we were aware this can sometimes be a little…heavy going?

We wanted to bring some movement, colour and excitement into the agenda so we transformed the hotel meeting room by adding a stage, creating a backdrop with orchard crates and uplighting them. This made it feel more like a TEDtalk™ than a run of the mill speech.

We also felt that having a change of scenery between sessions would keep everyone feeling motivated , so we created another room which we called the ‘chill out area’. With bean bags, bright posters, flowers and coffee served in takeaway style cups, this certainly gave a ‘Google office’ vibe which everyone loved! It definitely made everyone feel more at ease with giving their honest thoughts and feedback during the Q&A session – more so than sitting in a stuffy cabaret style room.

After their intense day of facts and figures we thought they needed some entertainment so took them go-karting for some competitive fun! A couple of hours racing around the track certainly blew the cobwebs away…

Afterwards it was back to the country house hotel which we had booked exclusively for the company, where they all enjoyed a Hawaiian themed evening, complete with steel pans, a barbecue, some drunken limbo action and a DJ late into the night…

The next day there was no time for being tired and hungover because after breakfast it was back into the meeting room for work – but we had once more transformed the room to feel different again. We finished the conference off with a ‘family style’ lunch with everyone sitting together to share their food and thoughts – a great end to another fantastic event.

Attendees: 42

Location: Warwickshire

Duration: 2 days

Team activities

Fire! Fire!

victoriahl October 10, 2017

“Do you want to set a car on fire then put it out with a massive hose?”

It’s not the usual kind of question we ask a client, but Procure4 came to us looking for something a bit ‘different’ for their next event. Bored of the usual team activities such as raft building, archery or potato harvesting (ok, I may have made the last one up) they wanted to do something that was really exciting and competitive to pep everyone up after their conference.

So we took them to a fire training college where they train real life firefighters from all over the world.

They spent the afternoon putting out fires, rolling up hoses and rescuing dummies from car crashes, all in full uniform. Everybody absolutely loved it, and it was a fantastic opportunity to get everyone together and experience what real firemen have to go through.

Afterwards they returned to the country manor house hotel which we’d hired exclusively for them, for a dinner & a band well into the early hours – all that firefighting is thirsty work after all…

Car fire at the fire fighting activity

Putting out a car fire at the fire fighting team activity

The winning team at the fire fighting activity

Themed table setting for fire using matchboxes for name places

Number of attendees: 42

Duration: 1.5 days

Area: The Cotswolds, Gloucestershire