New Forest Hospitality

A weekend of luxury ‘thank you’ events for a group of Senior Executives and their partners.

Event Background

At the beginning of 2011, EMG was asked to put together a bespoke weekend event package for approximately 20 Senior Executives of a large, international company and their partners. The event was to be held in June, with guests arriving on the Thursday afternoon and departing Sunday mid-morning. On Friday the Senior Execs would be working so an engaging activity was required for the partners during this time. Guest ages varied from 30 to late 60s and they came from a variety of European countries.

Event Objectives

The brief provided could be broken down into four areas:

Thank you: the Senior Executives worked long hours and spent a significant portion of time away from their friends and family. As such, the event was to be a well-deserved ‘thank you’ to those employees and their partners for providing significant support.

Flexibility: due to the diverse ages and nationalities of guests the flexible and inclusive nature of the itinerary was key.

Unique: simply put, the partners were bored of museum tours! It was vital that the ‘partners’ programme’ for the Friday was interesting and original.

Relationships: guests came from all over Europe so they had little opportunity for face-to-face time, thus the programme had to facilitate employees and partners getting to know each other to enable better working relationships.

Event Proposal

EMG proposed an itinerary, which contained a diverse blend of relaxing and exciting activities, giving guests the opportunity to interact and build relationships founded on shared experiences. Friday would see the partners turning their hands to hat-making with expert guidance from an award-winning milliner, followed by dinner at The Jetty with Michelin starred chef, Alex Aitken.

The main event proposed for the Saturday was a Land, Sea & Air Experience, incorporating a variety of activities suitable for all ages and fitness levels, which guests would rotate around. For the evening EMG suggested a casino and acoustic band as entertainment which again would encourage guests to mix with up to 10 people on each table.

Event Outline

Friday

Partners’ Millinery Experience – with classical music playing and tea served from antique sets, this unique activity gave guests the opportunity to talk and get to know each other in relaxing environment. Guidance from an award-winning milliner gave the activity a luxury feel and left the partners feeling spoilt rather than ‘occupied’ while the employees were working. The hat making was appealing to guests of all ages, transcended language barriers and left the guests with something that they can treasure in years to come.

Dinner at The Jetty – following an afternoon of relaxation at the Chewton Glen Spa, a leisurely dinner prepared by a Michelin starred chef and served overlooking Christchurch Harbour was the perfect choice. The meal was prepared with local produce and devised with sharing in mind to encourage communication and a group experience. Alex Aitken and the Jetty’s entertaining sommelier played a key part in the evening, introducing each course and the thought process behind it, giving the meal the added feel of a theatrical performance.

Saturday

Land, Sea & Air Experience – incorporating apache racing buggies, clay pigeon shooting, a helicopter ride and a RIB Blast this event offered guests a series of once in a life time opportunities. Whilst all activities were popular the helicopter ride was a clear winner for the guests with the RIBs coming in a close second. Teams were organised so that partners in the same team but employees from the same office were split up to encourage cross-border team building.

Exbury Gardens – during the morning’s activities EMG suggested a private tour of Exbury Gardens for three guests who were keen to do something relaxing in the morning. The tour was provided by Exbury’s Commercial Manager who has fantastic knowledge of the garden and its family history.

Iron Man Cycle Training – one guest was keen to go on bike ride in the new forest with a very high difficulty level as part of his iron man training. EMG organised an iron man athlete to be his cycle guide and provided all specialist equipment including a racing bike and sustenance for the journey!

Relaxing RIB Ride – as an alternative to a high-speed RIB Blast around the Solent, a number of guests who were nervous to begin with on the water, were taken on a gentle ride, sightseeing ride around the Solent and to Beaulieu.

Evening Casino & Acoustic Band – following dinner at the hotel, guests were treated to an evening of entertainment supplied by an acoustic band and a casino. The casino tables included poker, roulette, blackjack and dice with a professional croupier on each table to guide guests through the rules.

Client Perspective

Just a quick thank you for all you help in making this event such a success…the feedback has been excellent. It was a real pleasure (but unfortunately something of a rarity) to deal with people who know who actually know what they are doing! From the very beginning, you have taken a massive workload from me and I really do appreciate it.”

“The Italian job team was a hilarious, fun packed team building exercise full of problems to solve and challenges to complete. This was the first time a number of our remote team had met face to face and it was the perfect activity to break the ice and get people working together.”

“The team at EMG is passionate about enhancing our ‘guest journey’ and constantly take the time to understand our guests’ objectives in order to seamlessly deliver the most creative and engaging events.”

“Just a quick thank you for all your help in making this event such a success…the feedback has been excellent. It was a real pleasure (but unfortunately something of a rarity) to deal with people who actually know what they are doing!”

“EMG is an excellent company to partner with in order to support team growth and development. We have used them on several occasions…the results have always been excellent.”

“We’ve worked with EMG for more than five years, not only do they provide engaging and exciting events but the service supplied mirrors that offered by ourselves to our guests… making EMG an ideal partner.”