Corporate Events and Away Days Latest Events

How many other jobs will have you standing in Manchester dressed as a pound coin?

On 12 dates between 12th September and 14th October KDM provided PR staff to celebrate the introduction of current account servicing for Co-operative account holders that can now use Britannia branches for their everyday banking.

As part of a nationwide launch KDM provided two staff members – one of whom was a chaperone for the other member of staff who was dressed in a pound costume!

The staff travelled to Britannia branches around the country, concluding with Wolstanton on the 14th October, to hand out logoed chocolate coins outside the branch, entertain the children and encourage customers into the bank.

As you can imagine, all event staff fought for the role of Pound Coin but it was Colin who secured the coveted position for the most dates!

So whatever you’re organising whether it be a corporate event, product launch or conference we’ll be able to help and we’ll do it with a smile on our face – regardless of the costume you want us to wear!

When a client called the KDM office at 4.30pm on the 3rd August to say they would like inflatable beach volleyball at their summer party we advised this wasn’t a problem. The catch? The event was at midday on the 4th August.

As we own 99% of the equipment used to run our events and employ full time Event Managers last minute events aren’t a problem for us.

In fact you might say last minute events are our forte. They are what keep us on our toes.

So, if you have a corporate event enquiry, even if it’s tomorrow, give us a call. Chances are we’ll be able to help!

Inspired by watching her son Brad take part in last year’s London Triathlon our Director Kathy decided she could not be outdone. Off down the shops, for a wet suit and bike (she already has 63 pairs of trainers) and training began.
‘Oh yeah’, we said. We were wrong. The usual running regime had biking and swimming added and the tempo increased as the big day approached. Off to Excel last weekend with 14,999 other competitors for the world’s largest Triathlon and whilst she did look a wee bit nervous a little shopping was squeezed into the morning’s preparation.

Supported by husband Kevin – from the rigours of the beer tent – a 750m swim in St Katherine’s Dock was followed by 20 km on the bike and a 5 km road run resulting in the tremendous time of 1 hour 55 mins.
… and ‘The Tadpole’? – have you seen the picture?

Well, the crazy culprit was Caroline Archer, our recent addition to the direct sales team. Caroline switched organising Corporate Events for a day to organise and participate in a Charity Cycle Ride to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Caroline and 15 fellow cyclists cycled 106 miles from Lullington to Skegness in 11 hours, successfully completing the challenge to do it in a day!

After this energetic outburst Caroline is back gingerly seated in the office ensuring everyone’s Team Building and Corporate Event needs are looked after.

The bike ride raised over £6,000 which included kind donations from the whole KDM Events Team!

Every week we collate the client feedback we received from the previous week’s events. We are totally committed to maintaining our high standards and not allowing the inevitable pressure on costs to deflect us from our objective of delivering high quality corporate events every time. All of last week’s feedback is not yet in but the following will give you a flavour and confirms that we are succeeding. Well done and thank-you to all the KDM team.

“Nicky, I just wanted to say again a massive thank you to you, Kathy and the team for such a fabulous conference! It couldn’t have gone better and I am still on a major high. Your team were all so efficient and everything was extremely slick, controlled and timely. I was particularly impressed with Graeme, your event manager, and everyone had a great time with the team building.”
- Conference Management and Production, Magazine Mayhem Team Building and Hollywood Themed Dinner

“The event went well, was well received and I was pleased with how it went. I thought it met the objectives, everyone seemed to enjoy it; it was a good experience and useful.”
- Bigger Picture Team Building

“The event staff were excellent.”
- Krypton Factor and Quest for the Best Team Building

“Feedback from the event was awesome … best party so far. The guys were great as usual and the room looked fantastic!! I look forward to the next event we have …”
- Calypso Carnival Themed Dinner and Party

“The event went really well. It was excellent and a lot more fun than expected. The guys were great!”
– Crystal Maze Team Building

“The event went really well, my colleagues were all really pleased and they all noticed the branding on the balloons and the colours. The guys on the event were great too! I would definitely use you again if I needed any help!”
- Table Dressing for Product Launch

“They team told me they had a fantastic day, everybody really enjoyed all the events including the team building.”
- Crystal Maze Team Building

“Everyone had a fun night; the boys were excellent and did a good job! I was happy with the event and the pre-event service.”
- Horses, Hogs and Hounds Corporate Entertainment

“Thanks so much to you and your colleagues the evening went really well and everyone seemed to have a good time. The theming was lovely and the snowboarding was managed very professionally. Lots of people had lots of fun so thanks very much!”
- Winter Wonderland Themed Party

“The evening was marvellous! Everything was perfect and the staff were great as always. The entertainment suited the theme down to the ground.”
- Masquerade Ball Theme Night

“The event went very well and all credit to the guys for fitting the screens into the room. Garry and Shaun were fantastic.”
- Mega Quiz Corporate Entertainment

“As usual Graeme and the boys did a fantastic job, we couldn’t ask for anything more, please pass on our much appreciated thanks to them all. Once again thanks for all your help.”
- Fun Casino Corporate Entertainment

Strictly Come Dancing is back on the BBC, and ‘Strictly … Dancing’ is also back on the road with KDM and appeared this week at Eastbourne in a highly creative corporate event.

Here a group of 60 clients, coached by our professional dancers, will be strutting their stuff in four groups – dancing Disco, Salsa, Jive and Charleston – in a fierce competition to win the coveted ‘Strictly’ medals. Complete with glamorous frocks (girls only!), a dance off before a themed dinner will lead to a nervous meal as guests eagerly await the judges’ scores which will be revealed following dinner where the happy winners will again perform their winning routine.

It seems ironic that a Government elected to cut public expenditure and hence take money out of the economy seems to have created a sudden surge in demand for corporate events. The private sector has been watching its corporate entertainment and team building wallet very closely for the last eighteen months. Having minimal exposure to the public sector purse gave KDM no cushion as the private sector retrenched, and like everybody in our sector, sales dropped alarmingly and sadly job losses resulted.

Now with cuts in public expenditure en route we would expect the private sector to feel the first cuts as central and local government outsourcing and consultancy work dries up. The result should be to stifle any upturn in demand for discretionary expenditure as the corporate belt remains firmly tightened. Whilst it is early days and a minor recovery this time last year died with the cancellation of the corporate Christmas in 2009 seems not to be the case in 2010 and there is a growing demand for corporate events and away days.

Can it be that corporate Britain sees more economic stability ahead with a Government determined to keep public spending in check and, whilst many economic uncertainties abound, feel that they are in a position to retain profitability as they chart a course through the coming year? Or alternatively have we all got used to economic crises and now accept them as the norm?

Had a fantastic night out at the Donna Louise Trust Summer Ball last Sunday. The Trust is our local Children’s Hospice and does fantastic work but needs to raise over £3m each year to keep up its work. Whilst not the usual corporate event that we might organise the principles are broadly the same; KDM designed the table centrepieces and dressed the tables, created the theme – ‘A Flight of Fantasy’ – produced the graphics and media stings, theming and props whilst Jonathan Wilkes used his show business contacts to create some fantastic entertainment. With 300 guests the event had fantastic support from local business and over £30,000 was generated to help the hospice.

My client was organising a two day corporate team building event for their team as a thank-you for the team’s performance! With ten people in the group they wanted to incorporate both indoor and outdoor team building activities that were purely fun, but not too strenuous. (more…)

We hear it a million times – “I’m organising our annual event and looking to do something different this year”. That’s how my Pentathlon event at Sports City Manchester started out and so I set off in my quest for that elusive, ‘never been done before’ event.

My client, a member of the sales team for a large sportswear company, had come back to me for the third successive year looking for an energetic, competitive sporting activity for a group of very fit individuals. They had done our Out of Office Olympics and School Sports Day in previous years.

I produced the idea of a Pentathlon event and put forward a few venue suggestions. We finally settled on Sports City and arranged for the guests to take part in high jump, long jump, shot putt, 60m hurdles and 200m sprint. Guests were given a coaching session in each activity by qualified coaching staff after which they competed against each other in a bid to be the best.

Feedback from the guests was very positive, 5* service a very enjoyable night in a great venue. The problem is  – what to do next year?

Craig
June 2009