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As event professionals we are constantly asked for our opinion on what 2012 will have in store for the event industry. So, we’ve asked Nicky Wrighte, Commercial Director at KDM, and here are her top four predictions for 2012.

1) Events will move out of London in the run up to and immediately after the Olympics due to reduced availability, increased venue costs and traffic congestion.

2) Events for staff motivation and reward will be key in 2012 – in part using the budget which hitherto was spent on Christmas parties and Olympic themes will prove to be very popular for internal events.

3) Free Wi-Fi will become a standard offering from venues. There’s a clear call from consumers that this has to happen to allow for the advent of increasing technology based elements in events.

4) In planning their forthcoming hospitality packages, companies might needlessly spend massive amounts of time ensuring that they are adhering to the Bribery Act coming into force in April. This act is designed to prohibit high level ‘improper inducements’ e.g. all expenses paid trips for entire family to the Maldives rather than a ‘thank you/networking’ day out at Ascot!

Please contact us to discuss any aspect of the event industry and we’ll be happy to chat!

There has been no settling back in gently for the KDM team after the lovely long festive break as due to last minute bookings everyone has had to hit the ground running to keep up. In fact, last minute bookings have become so common at KDM we’ve given them their own acronym – LMBs.

Way back in October 2011 we blogged that we actually love LMBs and it seems we’re not alone. We’ve discovered that they are something of a trend in the industry right now.

In a quick bit of research we’ve discovered that of the last 80 bookings, which have taken place over the last 2 months, there has been a lead in time of less than a month for over 50% of the enquiries and a lead in time of less than 10 days for nearly ¾ of those.

If you’ve been put in charge of organising a last minute booking for an event, whether it is a meeting, conference, team build or theme night, read KDM’s top tips for a successful event here:

Information To save time and energy making enquiries make sure you have all the information regarding your planned event, including guest numbers, timings, objectives and the all important budget right from the beginning. If your budget is £50 per person for a day delegate rate tell the venue you are asking for quotes. If you don’t advise your budget and they quote you £60 per person you’ll only have to go back and negotiate which will cost you valuable time. If you advise your budget and the venue can’t accommodate at least you will know right away so you can contact somewhere else.

Be flexible If you are looking for entertainment and the band you have booked for the last 5 years isn’t available be flexible and try someone else. You might just find that the alternative band/hospitality package/magician achieves exactly what you wanted anyway.

Use it to your advantage Some venues and entertainers will offer promotions if they have availability last minute and want to fill the date. So, when enquiring last minute it’s well worth asking if there are any promotions being offered, after all, if you don’t ask you don’t get.

Call in the experts If it’s all too much to cope with, just give KDM a call and we’ll take on all the hard work. We can recommend venues, negotiate discounts, organise AV, team building, theming and entertainment.

This will be last blog for 2011. The next time I write it will be 2012!

There are only 5 working hours left and then the KDM office will close for the Christmas and New Year break – although Kevin is likely to pop in to the office as he’s a bit of a workaholic!!

Here at KDM we’ve had a great year – we’ve worked with some great clients (both old and new), had some weird and wonderful enquiries and created some excellent events (even if we say so ourselves).

Here are our highlights of 2011:

1. New Recruits – 2011 saw four new recruits as Claire, Katie, Jo and Vivian all joined the company. All recruits have settled in very nicely and now very much part of the KDM team.

2. BIG Product Launch – Between 26th May and 21st July 2011 KDM managed the UK wide product launch for a leading boiler manufacturer, with 24 events at different locations in 8 weeks. Regarded as a great success across the company and within the industry, the client has proposed to realign their marketing budget away from exhibitions to live events as a more successful means of communication with installers in line with feedback from the event.

3. Emerald Partner Status with Donna Louise Trust – KDM have donated over £10,000 to the charity, which provides a range of specialist care and support for children with a shortened life expectancy and their families, over the last two years including supporting them with their annual summer ball.

4. New Website – OK so it hasn’t been launched to the general public yet but work on the brand new KDM website started in earnest at the end of June and will be launched (fingers crossed) in early 2012.

5. Charity Support – KDM have been proud to support a number of charities with their fundraising efforts including the British Heart Foundation, the Donna Louise Trust, Breast Cancer Awareness, Children in Need, Comic Relief, the Poppy Appeal and Douglas Macmillan.

6. New Events – Weird and wonderful enquiries meant KDM developed the following new team building events, corporate entertainment and themed events and parties: Olympian Challenge, Rollercoaster (hour long icebreaker), Fairyball Themed Evening, Cirque du Soleil Theme Evening (including Rope Performer and Accordion Player), Jazzmatazz Charity Summer Ball, Dry Stone Walling (client’s fixed a wall on the Chatsworth Estate), Artistic Challenge (teams recreate works of art such as Birth of Venus by Botticelli and yes guests do take their kit off!).

7. Over 500 Events – KDM prepared, planned, organised, managed and ran over 500 events in 2011 – we’re hoping for even more in 2012

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year on behalf of everyone at KDM Events!

Christmas came early to KDM yesterday as presents were moved from under the tree and piled into sacks ready to take to the Salvation Army.

KDM staff have spent the last few weeks Christmas shopping for boys and girls as part of the Salvation Army’s toy appeal.

Presents collected included a toy kitchen, a work bench, a Disney princess easel, a Ted Baker toiletries set and a remote control car.

The Salvation Army will wrap and then distribute the toys collected through the community to children and families that would otherwise have little or nothing under the tree on Christmas morning. Sometimes it really is better to give than receive.

In the KDM Christmas Newsletter, KDM launched a Christmas Limerick Competition. To win £50 of Say Shopping vouchers all contestants had to do was write a humorous limerick and send it to us!

The judging was very difficult as we received so many fantastic entries. The whole KDM team voted to decide a winner who I am pleased to announce is Michael Walsh, from Kingston Smith, with the following limerick:

Outrage has been caused by Santa Claus himself,
He mistakenly referred to a dwarf as an elf,
This has caused Mrs Claus to say ‘for heaven’s sake’,
Yet Sepp Blatter insists it can be settled with a handshake.

A £50 Say Shopping voucher will be making its way to Michael very soon and the limerick will feature in our digital Christmas card.

The below limericks were favourites too so many congratulations to the writers!

There once was a polar bear named Serge,
Who had a peculiar urge,
To leave his igloo, and join Santa’s crew,
So with the reindeers did he emerge.

And

There was an old man called Santa,
Who had several reindeer to canter
Up high in the skies
Transporting sacks full of surprise
Enough to make reindeer a-panter!

Many thanks to everyone who entered and look out for more competitions and news in our newsletter. If you don’t currently receive the newsletter but would like to please email events@kdmevents.com.

Are you a poetic genius?

All you have to do is write your best Christmas limerick and the most humorous entry will win £50 of Say Shopping vouchers.

Have you got your pen at the ready?  Here’s a limerick example to get you thinking:
“There was a young elf from Lapland,
Who has a mishap with his hand,
He cut off his fingers,
Making carol toy singers,
So Santa had power tools banned!”

Send your entry to competitions@kdmevents.com. Please keep limericks as clean as possible as the best entries will be compiled and sent out (anonymously) in our digital Christmas card this year! The deadline for your entry is 30th November 2011.

KDM are joining the likes of Sainburys, Stoke City FC, Port Vale FC, Britannia Building Society and many local schools by supporting the Salvation Army’s Christmas Toy Appeal.

Each staff member will take a tag from the Christmas tree and buy an appropriate gift – whether it be a toy for a young girl or a present for a teenage boy.

The Salvation Army distributes the toys collected through the community to children and families that would otherwise have little or nothing under the tree on Christmas morning. The Salvation Army have been running their Christmas Toy Appeal for 7 years and in 2010 they collected 9,350 presents and are hoping for many more this year!

KDM are pleased to support such a worthy cause and if you’d like to join us by donating a present please contact us on 01782 646300.

All Fridays are ‘Fat Fridays’ in the KDM Office but Friday 28th October had a pink make over in aid of breast cancer research, raising £100 for the charity in the process.

Cakes and cookies outnumbered people for a time, admittedly not for long, as the goodies were scoffed pretty quickly! In the great KDM bake off there was stiff competition from Katie’s fairy cakes, Caroline’s cup cakes and a Blog Writer’s chocolate and cherry cookies but the KDM winner’s medal must go to Claire for her excellent pink monsters!

Jo created a fabulous pink pig and everyone took part in a game of ‘pin the tail on the pig’ in a twist on more traditional ‘pin the tail on the donkey.’ The prize for which was a bottle of rosé (pink for those less well educated) wine. Though his tail was placed closer to the pig’s snout, Kevin definitely looked the best in the flowery pink scarf that was used as the blindfold!

Having accepted the challenge of filling a jar with pink sweets to play ‘guess how many pink sweets in the jar’ game Katie actually delegated the task to her younger sister so she could have the chance of winning the jar of pink sweets! Her plot succeeded as she guessed 124 sweets which came closest to the 133 contained within the jar. Katie made a ‘Brownie promise’ that she didn’t cheat her way to victory. I’ll leave it to you to decide. Luck was clearly with Katie on Friday as she was also victorious in the ‘what’s next on the washing line’ game with her guess of a tutu!

In the midst of all the pink, cake, monsters and pigs let’s not forget what we did all the fundraising for. The Wear it Pink breast cancer campaign and the funds raised supports pioneering breast cancer research with the greatest potential to save and improve lives and, ultimately, find a cure for breast cancer. One in three people are affected by cancer at some point in their lives so we can be sure that cancer isn’t just something that happens to other people. Having been affected myself by cancer, a close family member was diagnosed last year; I’ll give any support I can to research which may, one day, develop a cure for cancer.

KDM have recently achieved Emerald Partner status with Donna Louise Trust after donating £10,000 to the charity over the last two years.

The Donna Louise Children’s Hospice, www.donnalouisetrust.org, is based in Stoke-on-Trent and provides a range of specialist care and support services for children with a shortened life expectancy and their families.

KDM first got involved with the charity in 2009 when selected to provide an African Dream themed fundraiser evening to celebrate the charity’s 10th anniversary. After the success of the 2009 event the summer ball became an annual event and KDM has been involved in the organisation of the ball ever since, providing a Flight of Fantasy themed event in 2010 and a Jazzmatazz Ball in 2011.

The charity is a very worthy cause and KDM are proud to be able to support them in the invaluable service they provide.

When informed that Account Executive, Craig would be leaving us the bubbly came out and we began planning goodbye celebrations – only to discover he wasn’t going very far!

Craig has swapped the 9 to 5 life of suits and computers for his event kit as he moves on to the event staff team, remaining part of the KDM family.

Look out for Craig on a team building event near you soon!