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Last year we announced our chosen charity of the year as Daisy Chain and it has been uplifting to support families affected by Autism. We set ourselves a target to raise at least £1000.00 by participating in numerous challenges including: The Great North Run, Cleveland Four Peaks and the Daisy Chain Boat Race. Through sweat and pure determination, we raised an amazing £3400.00.

Hospitality Guaranteed and the team at Daisy Chain (including Daisy Bear, the Daisy Chain Mascot) would like to say, ‘Thank You’ to all our supporters who donated and helped us to achieve this.

For 2018, we have chosen PAPYRUS which is a charity for the prevention of young suicide. To kick off the fundraising this year, we are going to place a team in ‘Gung Ho’ on 31^st March., at Wynyard Hall. The Just Giving Page will be available shortly and we would love to have your support again.

Emma Hall

We know how the year can run away with you. All of a sudden it’s November, your diary is getting more and more full, the Christmas party has been put back (again) and with all these updates, you have no idea when you can brief your team.

 So, instead of exhausting yourself to fit everything in and missing the festive season, why not kickstart the year as you mean to go on?

 Begin with a party

Sometimes, getting everyone together for a December bash can be nigh-on impossible. With family, friends and hobby commitments, it can be difficult to get the team together in one place without it being a Wednesday at 3pm.

By moving your Christmas party to January, you’re starting the year on a high – keeping the festive spirit alive and maintaining that good mood on what could otherwise be a dreary and depressing season.

We just hope no-one is doing Dry January…

Set your goals

The New Year is a perfect time to set goals both personally and professionally, so involve your firm!

Holding a conference at the beginning of the year gives the whole team the opportunity to find out plans for the following 12 months, the progress of the Company and the challenges ahead.

Kickstart the year with everyone on the same page, with the same goals.

Build on what you have

It’s easy to wait for Summer to hold your teambuilding day. But what about the ongoing conveyor belt of annual leave that begins in June and ends in September?

Get your team motivated and start the year reconnecting, identifying your weaknesses and building into a stronger unit.

Although maybe not advisable to go white water rafting or sailing in January, there are plenty of activities you can do together to get the team on track, set those targets and start smashing them!

Consider cost efficiency

As with most areas, budgets for the above are regularly reduced but this doesn’t make them any less vital.

Rearranging the diary to feature your ‘Christmas’ party, annual conference or team building day in January can often mean reductions with venues and suppliers during this generally quiet period.

To start planning your January event, get in touch today on 0344 822 3227 and we can help find a venue, source suppliers and kick start your year in style.

Already planned your event but need help managing your delegates? Try EventStop to keep track of guests, payments and requirements. Visit www.eventstop.co.uk

Emma Hall

We always love to hear about the events being put on by venues, not just Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties but tribute nights, murder mystery evenings and everything in between! 

What we do not like to hear about is the hassle you go through to manage your guests. It’s hard enough trying to spread the word, sell the tickets and explain the evening without having to add calls from partygoers, taking payment over the phone and chasing final details to your to-do list.

With EventStop, you can kiss that world goodbye.

It’s all in the design

Spent ages getting the right design? Don’t lose it in your booking paperwork (actually, lose your booking paperwork, but we’ll get to that).

With EventStop, you can create a personalised web page and email invitations that fit with your colour scheme and can even include your logo.

The page can have as much or as little information as you like, and even includes a map of the venue location – so no excuses for those pesky last minute “How do I find the venue?” calls!

Track, track, track

Want to know how many people are booked onto an event? Need to work out where you are with ticket revenue? Can’t remember how many vegetarians there are so far?

With just one click, all of that information – and more – is ready for you, saving hours of updating spreadsheets with guests’ details.

As all the information is in one place and accessed via login, the days of locking and ‘read only’ spreadsheets are gone.

Sweeten up the chef

If there’s one thing we know, it’s that to create a successful event, the chef must be kept happy.

As all guests are required to enter their menu selections and dietary requirements at the time of booking – and are unable to progress until they have – when you download your reports, it’s all there and ready for you to pass on, confident that this has come directly from the guests themselves.

Keep it clean

Remember that pesky booking paperwork we mentioned? Those days are over my friend!

When accessing your event page, guests have all the information they need.

The menu, timings and dress code are all there for their information. And when they book, they select their required number of tickets or tables, their menu and can even add on accommodation.

No more trying to decipher handwriting or negotiate huge piles of bulky files on your desk!

There’s a lot involved with staging a fabulous event at your venue – don’t let admin put you off!

 For more information on how EventStop can help you manage your in-house events, contact Emma on 0344 822 3227 or emma@hospitalityguaranteed.co.uk

Emma Hall

Who doesn’t relish an opportunity to get dressed up in an evening gown or black tie, to sip chilled champagne while listening to soft music, before being led into a dining room with hundreds of other guests to enjoy an evening of entertainment? 

If you are the organiser, then most likely you don’t. 

Organising a dinner or awards ceremony, no matter how rewarding the end result, is hard work. And for most, it’s hard work that has to be done in spare time or alongside full-time responsibilities.

Between choosing a venue, chasing menu choices and organising accommodation, by the time the evening comes around, you’d rather curl up in the corner.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, with EventStop you can take some of the pressure off, sit back, and look forward to the night. Here’s how…

You can invite everyone at the touch of a button

Now, paper invitations are lovely, but how often do you find yourself following up with an email or a call to chase up something you put hours into designing but the recipient threw on the pile of post in the hall?

By uploading your guest list, your custom email invitations can be sent to everyone at the touch of a button, but still be personalised to your event style, brand and message. No fighting with mail merge, no calling to make sure it arrived. 

Public event without a guest list? No problem! Use the link provided from EventStop to promote the event on social media, in newsletters or on marketing materials to direct all guests to your personalised event page.

Tracking is easy

Constantly updating a spreadsheet after every email, call or sometimes hand written response is arduous at best. Using EventStop means you can see who is attending, who has declined and who has cancelled. Not only that, you can see the payment status of those attending and their full details, all in one place.

With an easy way to track ticket sales and revenue, you are able to further promote the event if needed, or cut back before you become over-subscribed.

Offer the best seats in the house

If your dinner includes a VIP drinks reception, premium seats or any other special experience, promote them! EventStop gives you the opportunity to list as may ticket options and prices as you like to maximise opportunities at your dinner or award ceremony, so make sure this is used.

Make your venue’s life easier

An event organiser’s life can be ten times worse without the support of a great venue, so make sure you ease their burden while also keeping your admin time minimal.

‘How?’ I hear you ask? Simple; include the menu options in your ticket selection. By not being able to progress with purchase until the options are selected, this removes the need for you to spend hours making endless phone calls to get them, as well as alleviating the chance for guests to upset the chef with last minute indecision.

These are just a few of the ways EventStop can help ease the burden of planning your dinner or awards evening, giving you more opportunity to think of the decorations and entertainment.

The only thing we can’t help with is the table plan; that’s up to you.

For more information on EventStop and how to use it for your next event, please contact Emma on 0344 822 3227 or emma@hospitalityguaranteed.co.uk

Emma Hall

What do you think when we say; ‘Away Day’?

Let us guess; raft building, a stuffy meal and maybe even a trust exercise that leaves you feeling less than trusting of your colleagues.

Now, we understand that this is the reputation they have gained over the years, but things have moved on! There’s no reason why your residential conference and team building should be anything other than a great opportunity to bond with your team (with a presentation or two thrown in).

Need some inspiration? Well, we’ve thought about it and here’s what we think will make your next away day one to top!

Put your Google maps skills to good use

We use it every day to get to meetings, find a friend’s house or just to see how long it’ll take you to get home – so why not step up your digital navigation skills with a spot of Geotagging (that’s digital orienteering to you and I.)

Giving you the opportunity to explore the location you find yourself in, you’ll solve clues and answer problems to gain points – and what do points mean? Prizes! Some systems even provide a real-time score board, so you can see how rival teams are doing and where you need to step it up!

Sports day, but not as you know it

We all know the drill; a five-a-side tournament, some canoeing and maybe some rock climbing thrown in for good measure.

While it is important to get everyone out of their seats and blood flowing, reverting back to the days of school trips might not be the best way to go about it.

We love the idea of Office Olympics. A great way to mix things up, this activity can be so much more than just the sports! Throw in activities such as creating a country, a uniform and team anthem and before you know it, you have a competition like no other. 

But, hands down one of the best activities we’ve found is a Haka workshop. Train as a team or split the senior managers from the employees so you have something to really scare each other with when back in the office!

Be at peace

Not something that always springs to mind when it comes to being around your colleagues, but perhaps this is your opportunity?

With spa facilities available at a range of venues across the country, spend some time really getting to know those you work with around the pool, in the sauna or with a magazine on a lounger.

Being able to relax around each other gives you the opportunity to really get to know who you spend eight hours a day with and, you never know, you might develop some great ideas in your zen state.

Plus, a hot stone massage on the company? You can’t lose!

Back to school

We all love learning something new but don’t always have the time to commit to evening classes.

Why not get the team together for cookery classes, wine making or even the latest craze; spy school? All useful skills in the workplace…

Unfortunately, there is no way around the content of your training, AGM or conference potentially being a little less interesting than you’d prefer, but that doesn’t mean your team building should be too!

For help and inspiration on putting together your next residential training course, give the team a call on 0344 822 3227, or visit our website www.hgonestop.co.uk  

Emma Hall