Month: February 2015

Health and safety at corporate events – your essential checklist

Thursday 26 February 2015 by Amazing News Editor

Before you can give your corporate event the ‘wow’ factor, you need to get some essentials in place to ensure the smooth running of the event – this is something that all event organisers will know. Health and safety should be your top priority, before you start adding fancy lighting to your event tent or rolling out the red carpet.

Here are the five essential areas you need to investigate and check off your list, to make your corporate event safe:

  1. Capacity. Before you do anything else, make sure your chosen venue has enough capacity – as specified by fire safety authorities – for all of your guests, as well as staff members, entertainers, vendors and volunteers. If you’re holding your event in an event tent, you still need to check the capacity, even if your event is in summer and you plan to have parts of your large marquee structure ‘open’.

 

  1. Temporary structures (i.e. stages and platforms). According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), event organisers need to use contractors who specialise in temporary demountable structures (TDS) for everything from the design to the final installation of the stage or platform. You need to provide accurate details on what the structure will be used for, by how many people and the weight of equipment placed on it.

 

  1. Risk assessment.  If you feel you lack the knowledge or experience (or time), instruct a professional to carry out a full assessment of all potential hazards. These include obstacles and tripping hazards, fire safety issues, electrical safety, flammable materials and anything else that could potentially cause harm. You need to think through every possible worst case scenario, no matter how remote the chances of it happening, and have a plan in place.

 

  1. Emergency routes, lights and signage. Signs pointing to fire escapes and emergency exit routes, as well as emergency lighting (if the power goes out) and all relevant health and safety signage, are required by law at public events. Don’t forget to fit smoke detectors and fire alarms (or test them if already installed) and designate an assembly point in case of evacuation, placing more signage to tell people where it is. Signage and lighting are easy to fit in a versatile venue like an event tent, often used for corporate events.

 

  1. Training. Whatever safety plans you put in place, every member of your team needs to know about them. You should carry out basic training to ensure that every steward and staff member knows enough about your safety plans to instruct delegates at your event.

Responsible event organisers will have a list of safety precautions twice as long as this one, but these are the essentials to tick off in order to ensure a safe and productive event. Remember, if you need any advice about safety in event tents, one of the Amazing Tents team will be happy to help.

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Amazing Tents director Steve Haddrell celebrates nearly 30 years with WOMAD

Thursday 19 February 2015 by Amazing News Editor

The World of Music, Arts and Dance festival, also known as WOMAD, celebrates its 33rd birthday this year, but there’s another important landmark that everyone at Amazing Tents will soon be celebrating.

In 2016, Amazing Tents director Steve Haddrell will be marking an impressive 30 years involvement with WOMAD, which remains one of the most exciting and diverse music festivals in the world since its inception.

Steve started working with the WOMAD team back in 1986 and was full time Production Director for 14 years between 1990 and 2004. He was lucky enough to be centrally involved in organising WOMAD festivals all over the world, as well as in the UK. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be a country that Steve hadn’t visited as part of his duties, from France, Sicily, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Spain and Portugal to the USA, Canary Islands and even Sri Lanka and Singapore.

After all of his travels, Steve returns year after year to undertake Site Management at the main UK event – WOMAD at Charlton Park, which in 2015 takes place between 24th and 26th July. He has many fantastic memories from his work with the festival, which included liaising with suppliers and local authorities to make sure the event was built on time, but his lasting impression of 30 years with WOMAD is, in his own words:

“Being with such amazing musicians from all over the world when they are off stage. Seeing the spontaneous interaction, in hotels, buses and planes, between diverse artists from many different countries and witnessing the fact that music really is an international language.”

WOMAD – looking back to its roots

WOMAD was founded by progressive rock superstar Peter Gabriel back in 1980 and took place for the very first time in 19282 with acts such as Echo & The Bunnymen, Simple Minds, The Beat and of course, Peter Gabriel, on the bill. The festival has now travelled all over the world and entertained over a million music lovers, whilst all the time communicating a strong ethos – to embrace inspiring music and passionate musicians from all over the world, and to communicate without boundaries through movement and music.

Amazing Tents and WOMAD – a lasting partnership

Steve isn’t the only one with a strong and lasting connection with WOMAD, an event that has touched so many people’s lives across the world. Amazing Tents and in particular, its SaddleSpan tents, are a regular fixture at WOMAD Charlton Park each year. In fact, we’ve recently confirmed that the SaddleSpan S5000 event tent will once again be sheltering artists and providing amazing acoustics on the Charlie Gillett stage in summer 2015. You can also keep your eyes peeled for SaddleSpan stage covers and tents at many other UK music festivals.

So, here’s to another fantastic summer of inspiring world music, and for Steve, many more years with one of the world’s most exciting, boundary-breaking music festivals.

 

 

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Conference layout – tips for a professional, successful event

Friday 13 February 2015 by Amazing News Editor

When you start to plan a conference and you’ve just booked your venue, you are often faced with a huge empty space. It’s your job to come up with a space-efficient layout to fit in as many delegates as possible, but whilst also facilitating the objectives of the event –  for example, getting delegates to engage with speakers and each other.

This can be a daunting task, but we’ve come up with some useful tips that could make conference planners’ lives a little easier.

Facilities

Before you can start to plan any other part of the layout for your event, you need to see how much space you have to work with. You might think that the footprint of your event tent will determine the total square footage, but this doesn’t include the space taken up by facilities. Mark off space for toilets and washrooms, cloakrooms and hospitality spaces (i.e. food preparation areas) first, then see what you have left. It would be a mistake to try to squeeze facilities in afterwards, as your event could end up being cramped or the layout not working at all.

Seating styles

This is one of the biggest layout decisions any conference planner will need to make. There are lots of seating styles to choose from, such as:

  • Theatre. A simple style of seating where everyone faces forward, allowing you to get the maximum seat capacity in the space but not allowing any table space for note-taking or consumption of food and drink. You must also remember to leave aisles for access, and bear in mind that this isn’t the best layout for audience interaction or engagement (especially with the back rows).

 

  • Classroom. Everyone faces the speaker in this layout and audience members have trestle tables for note-taking and food and drink. Due to the tables and the need for access aisles, bear in mind that seat capacity is reduced with this layout. It is, however, popularly used for conferences, lectures and training events.

 

  • U-shape or horseshoe. This layout does take up quite a bit of space, but it is ideal for seminars and discussions where discussion and interaction between speakers and delegates  is important. If you were taking a ‘zoning’ approach to your layout, made easier by the modular configuration of event venues like SaddleSpan tents, this seating arrangement could be placed in its own dedicated area.

Creating dedicated ‘zones’

One of the best ways to plan a large space, such as that of a SaddleSpan conference marquee seating up to 1,700 people, is to break it up into dedicated zones. This allows your event to perform many functions at once, without the space becoming cluttered and confusing for delegates. For example, the main body of the conference tent could be used for keynote speakers, providing seating for the largest number of people. In a separate ‘zone’, there could be a dedicated seminar/discussion space, whilst another module of the tent could be dedicated to networking and socialising.

Breakout spaces

Whilst it is important to create stimulating and efficient environments for your delegates, you must also provide them with space to relax, socialise and get refreshments. A few comfortable chairs won’t suffice – you need to provide a dedicated space away from the main action of the conference.

 

 

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8 essential dos and don’ts for hosting corporate events

Friday 06 February 2015 by Amazing News Editor

 

The success of a corporate event not only hangs on things like key speakers, attendance, or an impressive venue. It’s often the way that guests are treated and looked after that they tend to remember, whether a good or bad experience. If hosting and hospitality levels are exceptional, guests leave feeling just that little bit special, and of course – they tell everyone they know about their experience, as well as coming back to the event year after year.

If you’ve got all the other details for your event sorted – an amazing event tent, renowned celebrity speakers and a full list of positive RSVPs – it’s now time to think about your hosting style. Here are some essential dos and don’ts to remember:

  1. Do get more help than you think you’ll need. It’s far better to have more stewards directing people to their seats and answering questions than not enough, so over-estimated when it comes to staffing.

 

  1. Don’t forget that you’re a brand representative. Your whole team needs to remember that you are representing the brand at all times during your event, so speak positively and confidently about it when talking to guests and especially journalists.

 

  1. Do mingle and break the ice. Part of your job as the host of an event is to introduce people to other people, to facilitate networking, so make sure you work the room and don’t talk to the same people all day.

 

  1. Don’t appear too stressed. You might have a lot to do, but you can’t be running about the event tent looking stressed and tired. Stay calm, appear relaxed and you’re more likely to stay organised and focused.

 

  1. Do keep the objectives of the event in mind. You need to ensure that your guests are comfortable and having a good time, but everything you do should still be with the objectives of the event – i.e. getting customers to engage with new products, networking, team building – in mind. Otherwise, you’re just hosting a very expensive cocktail party.

 

  1. Don’t be afraid to delegate. You can’t do absolutely everything yourself, which is why you’ll have a team to help you. Make good use of them and you’ll be able to manage the smooth running of the event efficiently.

 

  1. Do prepare answers to FAQs in advance. Guests will want to know things like where the toilets are, what the schedule for the event is, how to navigate their way around the event venue and other basic questions – make sure you know these answers or you could damage the professional image of the event.

 

  1. Don’t forget to smile! If you want your guest to have a good time, you need to look like you’re enjoying yourself too. Besides, you’re a brand or company representative as well as a host, so you need to present a positive and upbeat image to guests and members of the press.

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