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I-EVENT
So I was perusing Twitter this morning, as you do, and one of the top trends caught my attention. It was a company called Boston Dynamics which is part of the Google corporation, and for the last few years Boston Dynamics have been developing a humanoid robot. They have been improving their already existing model and they now have a polished prototype of their ‘next generation’ Atlas robot. It’s wireless instead of battery powered, it’s 5 feet 9 inches tall (same as an average man) and it weighs in at 180 pounds which is almost half the weight of its predecessor. People are starting to debate the capabilities of robots, and are wondering if one day robots will be able to complete our jobs more effectively than we can, and therefore make humans obsolete. According to NBC News, some of the jobs that humans are ‘most likely’ to lose to robots in the future include Astronauts, Soldiers and Rescuers. While I can understand that there may be certain jobs where there would be a distinct advantage to having robots instead of people, I also think the same can be said the other way around. But this got me thinking… could a robot ever run an effective and fun teambuilding event?

In the events industry, our clients thrive on having a good relationship with us from the initial contact all the way through to the delivery. We, as events experts, have to understand exactly what it is our clients are looking for and be able to create a bespoke event that’s tailored to them. We have to take into account many varying factors such as the purpose of the day, their individual preferences, the number of delegates and their budget, the venue they have chosen and the time of year (among many other factors). After all, there is no ‘event formula’ that works for all events. Furthermore, our clients want fun, energetic and motivated staff running their events with whom they can enjoy some friendly banter with throughout the day. Could a robot ever do this?

On an event, as humans, we can effectively read a group of people and alter the way we approach them, talk to them and lead them through certain activities and tasks. If we see there is an individual struggling with a certain task, then we always do our best to encourage the rest of the team to recognise their teammate is struggling and help their comrade to complete the challenge. In some cases, we would even step in ourselves and aid them to succeed. After all, that is what teamwork is about and we want to practice what we preach. The ability to recognise that a human is struggling requires you to sympathise with them and register that you also have struggled whilst performing a similar task. Either this, or you need the ability to read their facial expressions and body language and recognise that they are not comfortable and are finding the task either physically or mentally challenging. This requires a level of consciousness and a sense of empathy. Could a robot ever do this?

So, you arrive at a venue and you are shown to the events space provided for your event. The first challenge is to visualise all the equipment you have, and try to mentally setup the activities. How would you utilise the space provided to ensure you get the maximum from it? How could you maximise the space to accommodate all the delegates without bottlenecks or space issues? This requires experience and knowledge of all your equipment and how your games run. For this you need your memory and some common sense. Perhaps you think back to previous events that you’ve done in a similar sized space and lay out the activities the same way? Perhaps you visualise all the different games set up and move them about to fit them all in, like a giant game of tetris. Could a robot ever do this?

As England is now evermore becoming a multi-lingual country, we all have to be more aware of people who may struggle with the English language. Often on events we meet people for whom English isn’t their first or even their second language and we need to spend some extra time with them, one on one, to explain the objectives and rules of each activity so they can actively take part with confidence. After all, there’s nothing worse than people looking to you for help if you don’t know what on earths going on! Natural language communication is therefore a big part of our job, and this can take several different forms. It can be very different depending on the person we are trying to communicate with. If you explain the rules and they don’t understand, then a different approach is required to try and communicate the objective to them. Sometimes this can require a bit of body language, pointing and acting! Perhaps another member of the events team or one of the other delegates can speak a bit of their language, and we can try to explain that way. A bit of determination and common sense is required. Could a robot ever do this?

I’m not here to tell you whether robots would or wouldn’t be able to do these things, because who knows what’s possible in the future, especially taking into account the phenomenal advancements in science and technology over the last few years alone. But imagine for a minute that you have the task of booking a teambuilding event for your company. Would you want to deal with a friendly human with years of events experience, or a circuit board with a formula in its head? I know which I’d rather…

It is sunny outside, all the teams are out and about on events all over the country and I look up at our event board in the office and the busy period looks like it will never end (We are not complaining). For any business like ourselves it is absolutely manic in the summer season and we are producing our event magic for all types of clients. We have been trying to keep staff sane and keep those spirits up from the long and hard days so here is a few of our tips to stay as up beat and positive as you can through those mental months.

1. Stay calm under pressure – “What ever is thrown at you with any event is so important to stay calm, if something isn’t going quite right then take a big deep breath, have a little think of how to get a solution and not another problem and make the event the best is possibly can.”

2. Stay hydrated, -“I know this sounds silly and everyone should but when on events you seem to get taken over and forget about the small things like staying hydrated. You should consume at least 2 litres of water a day and that will keep you fighting fit to enjoy the day wherever you may be.”

3. Simplify your schedule, “Have a plan in your head already and make things as easy as they can possibly be, always have that buffer time in case of traffic or any minor issues. Remember you have a team there so delegate when you can so minimise the workload and release that stress.”

4. Get Moving, “If you are just sitting at your desk all day get up and move about, get those limbs moving and you will be fine, if you are on an event all day then make sure you take a little bit of time for yourself and make sure you stay in a great mood all day!”

5. Managing People, – “Realise what the skills are of the team, if someone is great at hosting then let them host, if someone is great with the people then get them in the mix, it is important to know your team but also important to know your clients.”

Hope you enjoyed reading these tips and most importantly take action on some or all of them.

Here at Out The Office we wish you a smooth events season

NO MAKE UP SELFIE – BEING A TEAM AND GAINING THE SAME RESULTS.

The Corporate Events and Teambuilding Activities we provide are here to bring clients together, improve morale and really have some fun with some team bonding on a fun day out of the office. Bringing people together is key to get some great results and you can link this to the latest social media craze.

You all must of seen the recent social media craze of #nomakeupselfie and I really hope you have all done a photo and donated. The craze has been exceptional and is here to raise Cancer Awareness.
This was all started on Tuesday, girls were asked to post up photos of themselves with no make up and to donate money to Cancer Awareness and it really did take off, £1million was raised within the first 24 hours and you can’t ask any better than that. Brave women have been flooding to the site and you have to applaud these bare faced women who are doing their bit to raise money and awareness by just a simple photo and text.

It hasn’t been all good news; there have been many critics from people not understanding as it has little or nothing to do with breast cancer, which was the original campaign. A lot of people don’t see the point as it’s not raising the money for charity but the stats don’t lie and with raising over £1million in 24 hours why would you complain as every little helps.
We should be applauding the women that have made a contribution and raised awareness because even if it saves one person that is better than nothing right? If it can inspire more people to donate then great and if you can even add another charitable spin to these then happy days all round, as any awareness is good awareness.

Even more fads have come from this with the boys now doing makeup selfies, which has been great fun to look at, and now the latest craze is cello tape selfies. Everyone loves a bit of fun and if it builds one relationship then great as good results can only come from this.

You can relate this to teambuilding as these fads are bringing people together by making a difference and having some fun, it’s the same with our Corporate Events and Teambuilding Activities. They just look like fun from the outset but they really do bring teams together in a fun environment with a big emphasis o n communication and leadership to get the best results.

Waking up everyday looking forward to your day at work is always a good thing and this is no exception for event professionals, every day is different and with meeting new people it’s a great job. From the out it may seem an easy fun job but it is quite the opposite and you won’t get people as passionate and dedicated. The job can really have its ups and downs with being rewarding and fulfilling but also stressful and daunting.

I was looking over a website for the most stressful jobs and Event co-coordinator comes in at number 5 which I can really understand. Although completely different from Airline Pilot, Firefighter, Military General and Military Personnel I think it comes down to how dedicated the event professionals are to their events. A lot of work goes into it dealing with a number of people such as guests, clients and venues and you really need as much patience as possible.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-most-stressful-jobs-2014-190451361.html

I am pretty sure that if you ask a Firefighter they are not too excited about diving into flames to save someone, but with the adrenaline and the reward at the end of it by saving someone’s life really makes it worth it.

Nobody is happy or enthusiastic with every aspect of their job and this can be said the same as Event Professionals yet the joyful feeling after doing an amazing event makes it all worth it and seeing those happy faces of the client makes us attached to our jobs.

So please join me though our journey of the real ups and downs of being an event professional, all rewarding and irritating.

We hate – When clients want to be event planners

We love – A plan coming together

Plan Together

We hate – Guests not showing up

We love – The after party with the team

We hate – When we become the personal assistant

We love – Being the boss

The Boss

We hate –

We love – When we have done 100 things better than Jennifer Lopez in “The Wedding Planner”

We hate – Last minute changes or requests

We love – Your Childs birthday is the event of the year at school

We hate – Technology messing us up

Techno

We love – Technology that works

We hate – The stress of the night before

We love – Being the assistant, chef, handyman, project manager, social media expert, cleaner etc

We hate – Travelling

We love – Travelling

We hate – Poor weather

Bad Weather

We hate – Clueless, unhelpful Venue people

We love – When clients say thanks J

Meeting and greeting people in the events industry is vital and first impressions really matter as they live long in the mind, those handshakes matter. They are an important and fundamental part of our personal and business life. It may look simple from the outset, but it really can turn awkward and distract from doing such a good first impression.

We can all remember those bad handshakes and that initial introduction to somebody new and instead of the solid, firm and confident hand shake that we expect we are thrust into a limp fish, a crushing gripper or a sweaty slip.

That good impression you were looking for can really go wrong with that first handshake mess up, my favourite big handshake mistakes are as follows;

• The Limp Fish– This has to be one of the worst, not gripping properly and just grabbing skin, this really does portray no confidence and that they are a push over so please be a bit stronger and give off a better impression.
• The Sweaty Slip– Sometimes you really can’t help those sweaty palms especially when you are nervous and it can be normal for a lot of people but when shaking hands in stressful situations like a job interview it can be quite awkward.  All you have to remember is to dry your hands before hand there is no excuse.
• The Pinch– When shaking hands there is no place for a pinch, ok the Queen might do it but there is no place for it in real life. This to me gives off a real impression that I am not bothered about shaking your hand or that I am better than you I don’t want to shake your hand.
• The Hand-Holder– There is definitely a timelimit on how long you shake hands with someone as no one wants a hand holder, there has to be a limit of up to 3 shakes then anything after that just gets a bit weird. If any longer it can be distracting and you miss the proper introduction of meeting someone, so lets not be awkward.
• The Avoider– Again you don’t want to be someone who does it too quick and avoids eye contact, this sends out signals of under confidence, shy or they just don’t want to meet you.
• The Crushing Gripper– A handshake is not a power competition, there are people out there that just want to crush and prove how strong they are, nobody likes these people as you don’t want all your fingers broken. It can get quite uncomfortable; you start you wonder why they want to hurt them and think you just want to run away.

Ok maybe there is a little bit more to a handshake that meets the eye and it takes a little getting used to, but it really does help to gain that great first impression. To me, if I get any of these handshakes, then I know they are lacking the basic social skills and emotional intelligence. Then I thought, maybe people just don’t realise what they are doing and not aware of what is happening, but I have some excellent news.  It can be changed quickly and easily.

Here is a few tips of what I think can help (Free help) to make a good handshake.

• Confident Attitude
• Good posture and stance
• Give a big smile
• Hands interlink at the web of your hands
• Firm grip (not too limp but not too strong)
• Eye Contact
• Shake 2 or 3 times from your elbow
• The let go
• DONE!

So now we have the fundamental areas of a handshake, but come on, nobody is perfect and it can go wrong. If this happens then we have a fail safe, for whatever reason you end up with an awkward grip or an unintentional pinch or those sweaty hands. It is best to say sorry, tell them its not what you expected and that it wasn’t a proper handshake and lets try again. Always remember, you never get a second chance to make a first impression so it’s vital not to mess up.

Last but not least there is a number of cultural differences and customs to consider. What I have said is appropriate here but over in Asia and the Middle East things are different. When I was over there they much prefer a weaker handshake, not always appropriate for men to shake hands with women in Islamic countries and that people in Thailand don’t like shaking hands at all.

I really hope you can take some of this and use it to shake hands properly and really give that great first impression you are looking for. Here is a little video for you to look at the worst handshakes.

Things that motivate employees more than money!

Keeping your work force in check and making sure they are all working hard is a must for any successful business. People are motivated in different ways and that counts in all businesses, within Out The Office some of the staff love praise this keeps them going because people love being told how great they are, others love opportunities and being pushed to their limit with something in their sights. Some of the guys love feeling wanted while others love competition trying to be the best.

At our weekly meeting we were all discussing what motivates us and what we thought of others and how to get the best out of each other by utilizing everyone’s skills. Below is a list of what we came up with and it really is something for you to think about in regards to getting the most out of your employees and motivating them to succeed.

• Generous Praise

Praise costs nothing – Everyone loves feeling wanted and told how great job he or she is doing! Hearing good things from the top helps even more as then you feel really wanted. Praising every improvement that you see the team doing is well worth it because having smiles on our teams face is a great thing to do.

• Making your ideas theirs

A lot of people hate being told what to do, instead of telling people what you want done, ask them in a way that will make them feel wanted and that they came up with the original idea. Once they think it is their idea they will take more of an ownership and responsibility over this and that is what you want.

• Never criticize or correct

No one, and I mean no one, wants to hear that they did something wrong. If you’re looking for a de-motivator then this is it. Why not try an indirect approach to get people to improve, learn from their mistakes and fix them. Ask, “Was that the best way to approach the problem? Why not? Have any ideas on what you could have done differently?” Then you’re having a conversation and talking through solutions, not pointing a finger.

• Make everyone a leader

Highlighting your top performer’s strengths is a must and let them know that because of their excellence, you want them to be the example for others. You will set the bar high and they’ll be motivated to live up to their reputation as a leader.

• Taking an employee to lunch once a week

Surpriseeeee. Don’t make an announcement that you’re establishing a new policy, literally walk up to one of your employees, and invite them to a lunch with you. It’s an easy way to remind them that you notice and appreciate their work.

• Giving recognition and small rewards

These two things come in many forms, within your weekly meeting why not give someone a shout out that deserves it. You could even run contests or internal games and keep track of the results on a whiteboard that everyone can see. Tangible awards that don’t break the bank can work too. Try things like dinner, trophies, spa services or even a plaque.

• Throw a company party

Doing things as a group can go a long way, why not throw a party, go out for a meal or just a few drinks as that always jeez the employees up, celebrating when doing something well is great. Organizing events throughout the year to remind your staff that you’re all in it together and one big happy family.

• Share the rewards – and the pain.

When your company does well – celebrate. This is the best time to let everyone know that you’re thankful for all their hard work. Go out of your way to show how far you will go when people help your company succeed. If there are disappointments, share those too. If you expect high performance, your team deserves to know where the company stands. Be honest and transparent.

One way to really motivate staff is holding an away day or a team building event, here at Out The Office we organize it all, get you all the details and run the event in house. This means it turns completely stress free and a lot of fun, why not enquire with us today and speak to one of our amazing sales team that will run through everything from start to finish.

Having a budget for most things in life is important and keeping to that budget is fundamental, knowing what is important is vital for that event to be a success. It doesn’t matter how big or small the budget is, the budget is crucial in order to know where you stand and what you can achieve; from weddings to parties, conferences or team building events, every event needs a budget to act as the glue that keeps everything together. This is key in knowing what we can or can’t afford, yet sometimes we tend to want more than we’ve accounted for.

For my own finances I have a budget plan and it works really well, knowing what is going out and coming in allows me to budget and know what I can spend to ensure I am never in the red. This is a great tip when looking at any type of event, create a budget plan from the start and you’ll find it easier to plan and you won’t be disappointed by any unexpected costs. It does help to stay on top of your budget – it isn’t an easy task but an absolute must to keep your event calculated correctly and hopefully stress free.

Here at Out The Office we have set three easy tips to help you keep your budgets on track and still have a great time.

1. Review any and every expense

From day one note down exactly what you plan to spend or need to spend on your event. A host, travel, venue and activity soon add up. Making a checklist is a great way to know who or what you have organised along the way, and recording the costs of each enables you to accurately keep a record of which tasks have been completed and how much of the budget has been consumed by each. Everything needs to be accounted for and you need to cover everything to reach all expectations for the event so having that understanding of how each item requires payment is golden. Storing information of anyone you are dealing with is essential and to help yourself out this should all be kept in one place so you can easily contact them. If you use the services provided on a regular basis then there is always room for negotiation. Working with the same people over and over means you can build a solid relationship and trust; every vendor is different so having that master list is always handy

2. Setting goals and targets

From the start it is always best to write down what you want out of the event, would your team benefit from being brought closer together? Do they need to improve on their communication? Do you need to integrate new staff? It might just be a fun day out! Whether it’s an end of year party or just a conference, study the needs and requirements closely as these need to be matched as best they can. Take a look at the amount of guests attending and work out a rough cost per head, this makes it a lot easier when keeping in touch with the bigger picture.
If you have a team of people around you discuss everything from the outset, this way everyone is aware of what it is needs to be done. If items that are being bought which were not discussed or planned for then it may be a good idea to bring this to the attention of the culprit spender! Going over the budget even a little bit sometimes can’t be helped. As the event planner do not be afraid to say no if one of your team has some ideas for an extravagant extra.

3. Discuss your plan of action regularly

Staying 100% within your budget means you have done an amazing job, but just remember there is always those last minute items that are needed so make sure you have a little bit left over which will cover most situations. If you are super organized then you could even create a list of situations you may encounter and how much you would need to rectify the problem. Creating checklists and event survival kits for event staff is much needed to make sure everyone keeps on point and knows what is needed from them from start to end.

Conclusion

The event budget should be set from the get go, checklists and shopping around is vital and having that all important plan can really set the difference between having an “ok” event to providing an event that will never be forgotten.

One little slip up can make or break you as the Event Manager or organizer but don’t let this put you off.

We know it all seems stressful but we do it here at Out The Office as a job and we love it, so why not offload the stress and let us help from start to finish and we promise we won’t disappoint.

When the words ‘Team Building’ are mentioned it is often met with mixed reactions, some people see it as a dirty word, a solution to poor performance and de motivated staff and of course there is always moans and groans about the waste of time and money.

But come on, we obviously don’t agree with that here at Out The Office and neither should you, so I thought this week why not look at the funny side to team building and look at it from a completely different perspective. Basically all I am trying to do is open peoples eyes to team building and see it in a completely different light and really emphasize teamwork in an amusing way!

Everyone likes fun and having a laugh so here is some videos I have pinpointed out that I think you may like and enjoy.

Video 1 – Teamwork

If you want to emphasize the subject teamwork during a conference or training day then look no further, this will really lighten the atmosphere with this cracking opener.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RnohUnZrqg

Video 2 – Roles with a team 

This guy really does knock it on the head regarding the importance of mixing up a group in terms of a team for your event, as it really will have an effect on the outcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4gH6O-KTpw

Video 3 – Working as a team 

Here is an excellent example of really working as a team to get the end result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIhuTovT4eM 

Video 4 – Fast thinking always helps to overcome 

Working together and quick thinking can really save the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Psl0nFEzw – 

I hope you enjoyed all of these lighthearted videos and I hope these bought out the funny side of teambuilding.

At Out the Office we have been touched by this viral video about women’s choices and perception of what is beautiful. I’m proud to announce at Out of the Office, it’s an 80% split of “beautiful” girls and 100% of “beautiful” men. However, it’s the missing 20% of women in our office we know to be beautiful, and why they didn’t #choosebeautiful; that is the basis of our discussion.

Firstly, how can anyone describe themselves as average? By definition it is a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number. There is nothing about the way we look which is typical and therefore we can never deem ourselves as average. There’s nothing about our personality that is measurable as average, so let’s start on a positive that we none of us are average!

But let’s face it we all know beauty is not skin deep. The most beautiful person can be made very ugly by their persona.
Watching his viral video, we were concerned to see outwardly beautiful young girls choosing to walk through the average entrance, but why? The same reason why 20% of our office choose average? Equally, where do those who are not as outwardly beautiful find the inner confidence to stride with confidence through the “beautiful entrance? Does it come down to what you believe to be beautiful and your self-worth and confidence? Where does that come from?

This begs the question, why did all the men in the office #choosebeautiful? Being in a teambuilding company, their job is to bring out confidence and self-worth in the guests we represent, therefore is that why our male ‘Event Managers’ were able to see beyond physical appearance to find the confidence to #choosebeautiful? Or do men care less about either the way they look or people’s opinions?
We believe confidence is integral to this choice. The ladies in the office on questioning were more embarrassed to outwardly declare their beauty, rather than have a true belief that they were actually average, and declared if they were asked anonymously they would be more likely to #choosebeautiful.

Top tips to #choosebeautiful
1. Find something new you like about yourself
2. Tell someone else something you think is beautiful about them
3. Remember your confidence looks beautiful to those around you
4. Smile at yourself in the mirror
5. Do something to laugh at yourself

Without wanting to sound cheesy, we are all beautiful in our own right; whatever parts we obsess over in the mirror, we can all find something beautiful about ourselves. In the words of Dan Solen Head of Events, “we are all beautiful in our own way, some more than others” (with a large cheeky grin and a point at his chest).

The main thing we derived from this is we need to have belief in our inner beauty. It’s fantastic to feel beautiful outwardly too, and we were proud of those girls that strutted their stuff through the beautiful entrance. In our office this got nothing but “Go girl” and “good on you!” and they certainly looked more beautiful with this show of confidence. I think the lesson here is if we don’t feel beautiful, we need to feel that inside with the help of those around us, to remind us. The mum that dragged her daughter through, those that on reflection wish they’d chosen beautiful are all reasons for us all to make sure those around us in our office feel beautiful today.

Outheoffice.com ask you all to #choosebeautiful today; go and tell someone they did a good job, tell them you like their hair or notice their new dress. If anyone in your office makes a negative choice today, it will be easier with a supportive colleague to make the positive choice for them.