Month: July 2014

Tips for organising child-friendly outdoor events

Tuesday 29 July 2014 by Amazing News Editor

Outdoor venues like SaddleSpan tents are fantastic for family-orientated events, providing easy access to the great outdoors, lots of shelter, whilst also having plenty of space for kids to run around and have a great time.

However, if you’re planning a family event, one where a lot of children of all ages will be attending, you’ll need to take steps to make the occasion child-proof.

Is your outdoor venue kitted out for kids?

Here are a few handy tips to help organisers child-proof their event tent and make it perfect for families:

– Do a risk assessment before and after setting up your venue.  Health and safety risk assessments are essential when holding any event, and especially for family events. Carry out a detailed assessment of the site when the event tents go up, and then again once you’ve furnished and decorated your venues. Things may change a lot between these two stages, so carrying out the assessment again is crucial. Don’t forget to look for tripping risks (i.e. loose wires and uneven floors), injury risks like furniture with sharp edges and anything else that could otherwise injure or harm your guests.

Fire risk assessments are also important (and a legal requirement!), so don’t forget about fire exits and escape routes, smoke detectors, fire alarms and maximum venue capacities.

– Add extra facilities – you’ll need them! When it comes to family events, the toilets are likely to be the most popular place in your venue. With lots of children and lots of babies needing changing, you’ll need lots of toilets. If in doubt, go for more than you think you need!

– Set up lots of visible meeting points. If you have a very large marquee or lots of event tents set up on the same site, there’s a good chance that the occasional child is going to get lost. You need lots of very visible meeting points, so that parents and children know exactly where to go if they get separated. Then, reuniting them can be as simple as calling their names over the PA system and pointing everyone to the right meeting point.

-Recruit some helpers. With lots of families in one place, there are likely to be lots of crises and mini dramas to deal with on the day. You can make things easier on parents and help smooth over any problems by recruiting plenty of extra help, preferably people who are good with kids, used to big events and calm in a crisis!

– Set up a first aid station. Hopefully you’ll get nothing worse than a grazed knee or the odd bump and bruise, but having at least once trained nurse and plenty of first aid supplies is still a very good idea at family events. Make your first aid station visible and easy to find, and make sure everyone knows about it.

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Dressing your SaddleSpan to impress – 5 top tips

Tuesday 22 July 2014 by Amazing News Editor

SaddleSpan tents are great venues for a range of different occasions, giving you all the space you could ever need. The only problem is, SaddleSpans are so roomy that unless you decorate, plan and furnish the space, you could end up with a big empty tent without much character.

With so much space to play with, where do you start when it comes to decorating? Follow our 10 top tips for dressing your SaddleSpan tent:

Tip 1 – Decide on a colour scheme first

With a palette of colours to work with (choose no more than three main colours), it’s a lot easier to choose all the other decorations in your tent. This includes lighting. So, before you do anything else, decide on your colour scheme. You can take inspiration from the theme of your event, using brand colours or, if it’s a birthday or wedding, the favourite colours of the guests of honour.

Tip 2 – Branding, banners and posters

Although it depends on the nature of your event, a great place to start with decoration is with the things that really need to be there – posters, banners and marketing materials. This is particularly important when it comes to product launches, exhibitions, trade shows, fundraisers and other marketing events. Before you put anything else in your event tent, plan where you’re going to put these vital decorations.

Tip 3 – Create a focal point

With such a large space to decorate, little bits of furniture and decoration could end up getting lost. You need to plan out the space properly and the best place to start is with a focal point. To put it another way, you need to put something in the middle! Good ideas for focal points include a bar, dance floor, ice sculpture, help and information desk, display unit or exhibition stand. Once you have your focal point, it’s a lot easier to plan the rest of the space around it.

Tip 4 – Light up the ceiling!

By far the hardest to decorate in your event tent is the ceiling, mainly due to the difficulty in reaching it and the huge amount of surface space. You can add lighting and banners to the frame of your SaddleSpan, but an easier and more creative way to add some flair to the ceiling is by actually pointing lights upwards. You can create a range of colourful decorative effects using lighting, project films or still photos on the canvas or plan a light show (a great idea for parties!).

Tip 5 – Lay down the parquet flooring

Being the largest surface area in your venue, changing the flooring in your event tent can make the biggest difference of all your decorative efforts. There are lots of temporary flooring solutions available, many of which click or snap together for easy installation. You can create a dance floor, create zones within the space or simply cover the whole floor with gorgeous decorated tiles.

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Outdoor weddings could get the green light – will you hold yours under canvas?

Wednesday 16 July 2014 by Amazing News Editor

The government is considering giving the green light to non-religious wedding ceremonies, meaning that they could be held anywhere from the top of a mountain to under the canvas of your very own amazing tent.

In a recent Ministry of Justice consultation paper, a proposal has been put forward which could create a whole new category of weddings – called ‘belief marriages’. These are weddings for people who aren’t part of a religious movement and as such, don’t have their own designated buildings (such as churches) to get married in. Both Scotland and Ireland have already legalised a similar kind of wedding, but England and Wales could soon follow.

If approved, the new plans could mean that humanists, ecological groups, Freemasons and even existentialists could have the green light to hold legal weddings anywhere they like. According to the Daily Telegraph, this could be “anywhere meaningful to the couple, including outdoors”.

To counter concerns about ‘jedi’ weddings and ceremonies from other more unusual groups, there are plans to draw up a few rules and restrictions to go along with the new laws.

Where will you hold your ‘belief wedding’?

The proposals haven’t become law yet, and may not for some time, but those wanting to get married in this kind of ceremony might want to start looking at locations. As couples will not be confined to a traditional building such as a church, there are a huge number of different options to choose from.

Here are a few ideas:

Event tents! An outdoor wedding is a great idea on paper, but the great British weather may have other ideas on your big day. If it’s windy or rainy, having a shelter like a marquee or tent is a lifesaver – sheltering everyone from the elements whilst being a unique and fun venue in which to hold your ceremony and reception. Go for a large event tent and you can design your very own bespoke wedding venue, adding in bars, dance floors, dining and seating areas.

 

On the beach. If you want something simple, relaxed and beautiful for your wedding, the beach is the perfect spot. Invite a few close family and friends, light a few candles and say your vows with the waves lapping in the background. You don’t have to head abroad either, as there are many lovely coastal destinations with fantastic beaches right here in the UK. The weather can’t always be relied upon, so it might be a good idea to have a backup plan (i.e. an undercover venue for the reception) in place just in case it pours down.

 

In the forest. A forest wedding, under the canopy of lush, leafy trees, can be a truly magical experience. You can create your own forest wonderland, complete with candle-lit forest trails and music and dancing under the large marquee at night – all in a location so quiet and rural that you’ll feel like there’s no one else around for miles.

 

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Indoor luxury in an outdoor venue – it is possible!

Thursday 10 July 2014 by Amazing News Editor

Outdoor venues such as event tents and large marquees make fantastic venues for professional events such as conferences, exhibitions and trade shows. They’re also good for corporate events, such as team building days, training programmes and networking events.

This kind of venue offers something a bit different to the normal kind of venue. A large tent can be placed practically anywhere where there is space for it, it offers a taste of the outdoors and the chance to use outdoor space while also offering shelter from the elements.

However, an outdoor venue also offers more complicated challenges than a standard indoor venue. For example, toilets and other facilities, power, heating and lighting and other things we take for granted in buildings. With a little creative thinking and the help of some well-chosen experts, you can overcome these challenges and add a touch of indoor luxury to your outdoor venue.

Flooring

This is one of the most common issues raised when choosing an outdoor venue like an event tent for a conference or exhibition – what happens about flooring? You don’t necessarily want your guests and visitors walking on grass or concrete, but what other options are available? The good news is that there are lots of different things you can do to create a proper floor in your outdoor venue, including laying marquee flooring. Specialists in professional outdoor events will be able to advise you on temporary flooring solutions that clip, snap or otherwise fit together, so that a floor can be installed very quickly across a large space affordably.

Toilets

You have two options when planning bathroom facilities for your guests. The first is to site your event tent near a building which already has toilets, or ask a nearby business if they could allow access to their facilities. The second is to install temporary toilets on the site – these don’t have to be horrible festival toilets though, as there are better quality options available.

Power

Depending on the size of conference tent you choose, you’re going to need to use a generator or other temporary electrici ty supply to power your event. Again, this is where you’ll need to speak to a specialist, to make sure your power supply is both reliable and safe. Luckily, venues such as SaddleSpan tents are designed to be wired up for lighting, heating and sound, leaving plenty of space for safe and efficient power solutions.

Decorations

Holding a conference or exhibition in an event tent doesn’t mean that you can’t decorate and furnish the space just as you would in an indoor venue. In fact, there are even more opportunities to unleash your creative side and give the space a complete makeover to suit your event. You can design the space, furnish it, add accessories and decorations, banners and exhibition stand, so that your guests get the full ‘wow factor’ as soon as they walk in.

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7 Tips For Conference Success

Tuesday 01 July 2014 by Amazing News Editor

If you’re planning a conference, you’ll know just how important it is to get everything just right and to create a professional event that runs year after year. If you want to attract industry leaders and really make a name for your event, you’ll need to know a few crucial tips.

What makes a good conference?

There is not one, but 7 keys to conference success. Simply get the following right and you should have something really solid to build on next year:

1. An accessible, central location. The easier you make it for as many people as possible to attend your conference, the more will come – it’s as simple as that.

2. Clear signposting and scheduling. It’s very important that everyone know what’s going on at any one time and how to find the seminars and sessions they want to attend. Make your event easy to understand and easy to navigate – you can do this by planning the space properly (i.e. dividing your conference tent into zones), providing clear scheduled and highly visible signposting.

3. The latest technology. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, your conference needs to be ahead of the game and this means using the very latest technology. Do some research and perhaps bring in an expert to help you integrate technology into your conference – this will definitely get it talked about, if nothing else.

4. A great theme or unusual venue. Standing out in a crowded conference market can be tough, especially if you’re aiming at a very competitive industry. If you want the elite of business leaders to choose your event, you need to give them something a bit different. Choose an unusual venue like an event tent, or go for an attention-grabbing ‘zeitgeisty’ theme (but don’t go too wild or you’ll lose the sense of professionalism you’re aiming at).

5. Attract the best speakers. Whatever you need to do to get the crème de la crème of guest speakers at your event, do it. Even just a short lecture from an industry leader or respected expert will do wonders when it comes to filling up your guest list, and it will help you publicise your event.

6. Dedicate time and space to networking. This is one of the main reasons why people go to conferences – so that they can make valuable business contacts within their industry. You need to dedicate a specific zone to networking (this is a lot easier when you have a modular space such as a TriSpan event tent with its three defined sections) and encourage it throughout the conference. Leave enough free time within the event for networking – don’t fill your schedule with wall-to-wall seminars and speakers.

7. Make your conference interactive. No one will be engaged if they are sat listening to someone else for the entire event – you need to encourage debate, discussion, interaction and contribution. Have these aims in mind when planning every part of your event, as people who feel valued and stimulated are always likely to return to your conference again next year.

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