175th Anniversary Family Day
Client: Cazenove & Co
Our Brief & the Client's Objectives:
To organise and manage a Family Day for employees and their families that was worthy of a 175th Anniversary. The client required a quintessentially English Garden Summer afternoon. It had to be a fun, imaginative day with safety and variety of activity at the core.
There was an emphasis from the beginning that the day was not to be a 'production line', almost public feeling fun day but rather an original, intimate and stylish day that emphasised family and acknowledged the role the guests played in the continued success of the company.
The beautiful grounds of an English country estate were already available and decided upon, and provided the perfect setting for a fantastic day.
Guests: 1400 adults and 300 children
The design and management of this event could not have been more detailed and thorough. We arranged many meetings and tastings of menu suggestions, and between Complete Events and the client there were well over 100 letters and written correspondences to ensure that the product was perfect on the day.
Because the site for the day was across several acres, with activities taking place in separate parts of the estate, many site visits were required to ensure the event infrastructure was seamless, especially given the high number of children attending.
Draft Schedule:
Five months before the event we had an agreed draft schedule:
11.30 a.m. |
Guests arrive in own car or by coach (Approx 10 Coaches and 600 Cars) |
When it came to the day itself, unfortunately we were not able to plan the weather, and it rained almost constantly! However, this did not dampen our spirits, or most importantly those of the guests!
Complete Events reacted quickly to the deteriorating conditions. For example, The Royal Marines were due to give a huge Beat the Retreat display within the grounds, but when the Heavens opened yet again (right on cue) our event crew rapidly cleared a vast area within the main dining structure to accommodate all 1700 guests and the Band itself. The display was on time and a complete success, and the guests had a chance to dry out!
Our Services Included:
Complete event management, including:
- Marquee Complex totaling 4600m2, including reception, dining marquee for 1700 to be seated, crèche area, several bar areas, information point, catering preparation and much more
- Plant and associated equipment, including generators for entire event power, meticulously planned power distribution, refrigerated trailers, mobile lavatories, skips and waste removal, hand-built bridges across a ha-ha
- Marquee decoration, including floral displays and company colour co-ordination
- Catering, for 1400 adults and 300 children, including 3 course lunch, full English Tea and a multitude of refreshments through the day
- All Drink requirements, soft and alcoholic
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Huge array of Entertainments, including:
- Caricaturists
- Simulators
- Laser shooting
- Golf Range
- Fly Fishing
- Tug of War
- Face Painting
- Helter-skelter
- Bouncy castles
- Fairground Games
- Clowns
- Steel band
- Jazz band
- Royal Marines Band...
- Photographic & Film services
- All furniture and related equipment, Dining furniture, colonial shades, outside furniture, litter bins, picket fencing, over 1000m of bunting!...
- Communication systems, all key event staff had two-way radios, and a vast PA system ran throughout the estate
- All event personnel, including:
- Event managers
- PA announcers
- Sound and Lighting Engineers
- St. John's Ambulance
- security
- Carp park marshals (500+ cars and 10 coaches
in a VERY short space of time!)
- All catering and bar staff
- Information/Lost Property
- Litter Patrol
- Professional crèche facilities
- Life guards (the grounds had a pool)
In total over 150 event personnel to ensure the smooth running of the day and to entertain the guests.
Despite unforeseen terrible weather, the event was a complete success, and the client said:
The Client said:
"May we congratulate you on a job so well done. You seemed to have thought of all the problem areas. You pulled together all the various requirements that we had...you came out with glowing colours"
