The Phoenix Partners gets award nomination

We've been shortlisted for a special award run by Communicate Magazine to recognise industry best practice for our work with Canon Europe.

We'll find out more at the Corporate Engagement Awards ceremony in London in July as we have a chance of winning the category for ‘best relationship building programme.'

Commenting on the nomination, Rachel Hargrave, MD at The Phoenix Partners said: “Businesses partner up with us for our sense of pizzazz, originality and flair.”

She continued: “This is really excellent news for our agency. Working with international businesses such as Canon Europe helps build on our existing capabilities and extends our expertise in this area. The award shortlisting helps recognise all the hard work we put in to make it a success.”

If you would like to know more about the work we can do for you in the agency, please contact: Rachel Hargrave or Roger Bradshaw on 01509 815026

Carl Zeiss Vision hires The Phoenix Partners as event partner

We've been busy at a series of roadshows we created for Carl Zeiss Vision.

We provided five hospitality events in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh and London at top notch venues including The Landsdowne Club and Royal Armouries which have gone down really well.

We produced design elements, and a video to portray the strength of the Zeiss brand worldwide. It featured the use of Zeiss lenses for historic occasions such as the capturing of images during the first manned mission to the moon with Neil Armstrong, and the use of Zeiss lenses by Google Earth in their photography of the world for Google Maps. Pretty iconic stuff...

Peter Robertson, marketing and communications director at Carl Zeiss Vision said about working with the agency: "The Phoenix Partners stood out because of its track record in bringing creativity and sparkle to live events. It’s very important for us to use every opportunity to get feedback from the people who meet and support our end users so their professional and well-managed approach will be key to our success."

If you would like to know more about the work we can do for you in the agency, please contact: Rachel Hargrave or Roger Bradshaw on 01509 815026

Rachel's determination on Mount Toubkal

Rachel is back from her trek of Mount Toubkal in Morocco and we’re amazed by the experience she’s had! She spent five days surrounded by beautiful Moroccan scenery and battling nature’s elements, at times using crampons and an ice axe.

It was a real journey in terms of mental strength and overcoming adversity, because unfortunately Rachel experienced altitude sickness for the first time.

Rachel said: “The group quickly progressed from sea level to 4167m above and unfortunately the speed of ascent meant that I got altitude sickness. Fortunately I recognised the symptoms as I’d seen friends get it on my Everest base camp trip.”

“The views were stunning and I got within a few hundred metres of the summit – but it wasn’t about reaching that point in the end. I was at the stage where I was crawling on my hands and knees and I realised that the sensible thing was not to ascend any higher.”

“I now know what more I need to do for my Kilimanjaro trek in September. It’s got me more focused and more determined to do it. I felt strong all the way through the walk, but once you have altitude sickness, there is very little you can do than descend. The weather started to change on the mountain too and it becomes a very lonely place to be.”

When asked what her best piece of equipment was, she said: “My sleeping bag –I slept like a log every night and got more sleep than most people, I am fortunate in that I can sleep anywhere and it’s a great help with altitude sickness!”

Roll on Kilimanjaro in September.

If you would like to support Rachel in her Kilimanjaro quest and help Leicester Charity Link, please go to www.justgiving.com/Rachel-Hargrave or for more information about Leicester Charity Link please call 0116 222 2200 or visit www.charity-link.org.

Phoenix Moments - we've had great response

Well, we've had a fantastic response to our next Phoenix Moments event and if you have responded to our newsletter and are one of the guest attendees, we look forward to seeing you on 2nd June.

It promises to be a fun night and I don't know about you but I'm fascinated to learn how to put sushi together to impress guests at my next dinner party! So that combined with some saki tasting will hopefully make me a connoisseur (of sorts.)

So we'll be boarding an elegant tall mast ship at 6.30pm for the ‘hands-on’ experience, whilst cruising down the Thames until 10.30pm.

Our expert chef, will teach us how to make three types of sushi and then the best thing is we get to eat the fruits of our labours. We even get to see Tower Bridge opening up especially to let us through - definitely a good photo opportunity.

We are now taking a reserve list or a priority place on our next event in October. Email joanne@thephoenixpartners.com for further information.

Rachel heads off to Morocco

As you must know by now, Rachel is in the middle of her training for her mammoth task to scale the heights of Kilimanjaro in September. She's doing all this in aid of Leicester Charity Link but first she has to put in all the training and believe me, it's not long til September in terms of what has to be done.

To this end she is about to embark on a training trek up Mount Toubkal in Morocco - It's a 5 day trek, so none of this walking round the footpaths of Sileby. No this is going to be getting more of a feel for the real thing.

"I think it's going to either be a wake up call or a ‘yeah I'm on track’ kind of venture" said Rachel from her exhibition venue in Manchester today.

"It's going to be good to get a feel for the climbing that will be involved in the real thing and I'm really looking forward to the benefits that altitude training can bring."

If you would like to support Rachel in her Kilimanjaro quest and help Leicester Charity Link, please go to www.justgiving.com/Rachel-Hargrave or for more information about Leicester Charity Link please call 0116 222 2200 or visit www.charity-link.org.

What words do you like to hear around the office?

Words are our business, so we thought it would be a nice idea to ask around the office and see the sort of words that we're particularly fond of for whatever reason...!

So here we go... Rachel likes the word galloshes, balderdash and serendipity but doesn't like the word sandal. Maybe it goes hand in hand with not liking sandals in themselves. In any case, we bet you'll be saying these words to yourself right now!

Nikki, 'our wordsmith' likes the following words starting with the letter p; provocative and prerogative and says the reason is because they flow nicely when she says them.

Jenni likes the words pandemonium, cantancarous and flambuoyant - maybe it's the number of syllables that is the attraction!

Justine came up with the town name - Pontefract - and to be honest, we all nodded our heads at this one. Mmm good name... it's also one of those names that you think should be Welsh!

Gita has a passion for using the phrase "Beaut". Everything is well if it's beaut!

When it comes to regularly used phrases we use around the office, Nina likes to say "You love it you do" - apparently she and her friends say it all the time referring to anything they're doing. They've also finally caught on to the phrase LOL.(laugh out loud) - that took some doing!

She said "This started off as a bit of a joke between herself and her friends as they never used to say LOL at all and laughed at people who did.

She continued: "We've now said it so much we find it really funny ..... LOL! Ah but what about ROFL?

If you would like to know more about the work done in the Agency and would like us to help you tell your story, please contact: Rachel Hargrave, Director, The Phoenix Partners Tel: 01509 815026 - www.thephoenixpartners.com

How do you spend your week at work?

We asked Rachel to summarise a typical week in her life for us... see what you think....

Monday
Up at 5am on Monday morning and walk the dogs to help with my Killimanjaro training for September.

Attend a sales meeting with a client who’s moved to fab new offices in Ibstock and get my proposal in for a staff ‘Away Day’.

In full swing with my production on a video for BT and then have a liaison call with my Director Brian Becker.

Meeting with Jenni to review our Marcomms plan and then focus on the final edit of our new Virtual Portfolio.

After a quick change, time to relax - dinner with the team to celebrate Gita’s birthday!!


Tuesday
Tuesday morning, client cancelled a meeting down South so I’ve won a whole day back!

Helped package up goodies to support the new Guess sales incentive campaign which will run through all H Samuel stores in the UK, before turning my attention to writing a big Olympic corporate hospitality package for one of our major clients. It’s so close!


Wednesday
On Wednesday, a video proposal is the order of the day. Creative written and all budgeted up! Over to design to add in their magic bits and then over to the client.
Out for meetings with Honda and Insider later on, then helped package up the post-event memories photos for a large incentive and Gala Awards Dinner event which took place a week or so previously in Berlin. They look stunning and I’m sure the clients will be pleased too!


Thursday
Thursday sees me off to Leicester to buy a new pro-Canon camera and all the accoutrements. Accompanied by my Head of Design (Mr Roger Bradshaw) as I really can’t be trusted on my own!!
Catch up on personnel today – filing, checking all records are up-to-date and training requirements.
Meeting with my Exec Assistant for a review of HSSE, ISO9001 and the month ahead. Later on, time to get my head in gear and over to Loughborough for the LATI pub quiz.


Friday
Plenty of sales calls today and then a meeting with a venue in Kegworth to talk AV installation. Later, catch up with a photographer freelance friend of mine and fellow Kilimanjaro trekker! She goes in May and I’m going in September so feel armed with all the inside details on how she’s training and what she’s doing!
Another busy day to end the week … but I wouldn’t have it any other way!! Looking forward to more dog-walking at the week-end with Dalmation Dyson and Lurcher Zoe.


If you would like to know more about the work done in the Agency, please contact: Rachel Hargrave, Director, The Phoenix Partners
Tel: 01509 815026 - www.thephoenixpartners.com

What is international etiquette?

As a travel and event agency, our experience is that understanding and accommodating cultural differences is absolutely vital to our clients and therefore to the success of our projects and ultimately to our agency.

We’ve worked in over 53 different countries world-wide including China, India, Turkey, Azerbaijan, South Africa, South America and across Europe – and as such have been involved in many and various conversations regarding culture / cultural sensitivities and how we will accommodate them.

As part of our clients’ briefs we are also very often tasked with ensuring that our working methodology encompasses cultural differences and includes locally sourced products, services and labour. So for example, we’ve operated in countries where we’ve worked with local companies and have arranged prayer rooms to be set up for our crew’s use; where we’ve had to arrange catering with care as the event falls in the month of Ramadan and some of our crew are observing Ramadan and some are not.

We’ve also had to sensitively deal with the issue of alcohol being drunk onsite by local crews when our client has a strict no alcohol consumption policy. This is as much an HSSE issue as it is a cultural one and we have had to deal with it from both angles accordingly.

As an organisation we love working abroad and with different cultures and we ensure that the solutions we come up with become truly integrated within each project. Each new challenge helps us to develop as an organisation and increases our knowledge and operating skill.

Our experience is that if you engage with people and are open and honest about what you do and don’t know, firstly people know you’re serious about ensuring cultural sensitivities are observed and secondly, they are happy that you are taking a genuine interest in their country and their culture. This has only ever been a positive for us and has helped us to build long standing and mutually respectful relationships with organisations around the world. This in turn has meant that, as an agency, we have great stretch and a competitive edge that few other agencies of our size could boast about. …And let’s not forget that there may be cultural issues from the incoming group too which need to be comfortably accommodated by the host country. So it is never a one way street!

If you would like to know more about the work done in the Agency, please contact: Rachel Hargrave, Director, The Phoenix Partners
Tel: 01509 815026 - www.thephoenixpartners.com

The Phoenix Partners attend the 'Broad Appeal' fashion show

A few of the Phoenix Partners team went along to a fashion show at the Carriage Hall in Plumtree, Notts. It was no ordinary show. We were there to help raise funds for the 'Broad Appeal' - a charity set up to support families affected by motor neurone disease and to help raise money for research into a cure.

Famous cricketing father and son Chris and Stuart Broad were there to champion the event.

We shared a fabulous afternoon tea together, watched the fashion show and took part in a raffle. Several cakes, sandwiches, cups of tea and coffee later, Stuart told us that he'd just been made captain of next year's England Twenty20 team that day.

A fitting accolade to the memory of his step mother. We had a few photos taken by Nottinghamshire Today magazine and highlights were recorded on Midlands Today.

If you would like to donate to the appeal, visit: www.thebroadappeal.org.uk