Back to Our WorkHappy birthday
First Event
No. of delegates: 70
Location: Carden Park
Event type: Employee engagement
Event objectives:
It’s been a crazy year here at First Event. Not only are we now a (of legal drinking age) 21 year old organisation, it’s also been a period of incredible growth for our organisation and our team, expanding from 40 to 75 so far in 2022.
We’ve been over the moon with the incredible new-starters that have joined us over the last few months. Yet, as with any organisation that’s expanded quickly over a short period of time, we were noticing barriers of communication within the team. With many of our First Event Fam choosing a hybrid working style, some of our new starters were missing out on the natural team building that comes with being in a shared working space for 40+ hours a week.
Our decision to host a 21st Birthday celebratory event combined with a team building event was the perfect tonic to this.
Event overview:
Arriving at Chester’s Carden Park on Saturday morning, the First Event Fam were greeted with the ultimate birthday party spread (think party food classics, but with an elegant, mature twist- we are 21 now, after all). We then got cracking with our afternoon of fun! Splitting off into teams, we tackled our first competition of the weekend (you can tell we love a bit of healthy rivalry). Team tasks are a great way to explore all the strengths that all team members bring to the table, all whilst creating fun-filled memories with new people.
Next up, we then headed through to our very branded conference room, where phase two of the weekend kicked off with a motivational speech from a guest keynote speaker, Jez Rose. Due to our recent growth and expansion as a First Event team, Jez’s inspiring messages remained with us all as we reflected on the amazing things we’ve achieved so far in the last 21 years!
Buzzing with inspiration from Jez’s incredible keynote speech, it was time for the real celebrations to begin! After donning our finest party frocks, we headed to meet our surprise guest. Shrouded behind a rather large feather boa and bingo set up was none other than RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni, Charlie Hides!
Charlie gave us one of the most entertaining hours of the weekend, filled with dancing, crowd pleasers, mind-boggling bingo prizes and hundreds of one liners that left us in stitches for the rest of the celebrations.
All bingo-d out, we headed to the lawn for our birthday BBQ! We were greeted with Pimms, an acoustic band, a 360 photo booth, garden games galore and a First Event ice cream station. As the sun set on a fantastic day of building relationships across a new team, we went inside to an open bar and a band ready to dance the night away!
The next day we were up nice and early for a lovely breakfast, not just to cure any foggy heads within the team, but to fuel us for the busy morning of activities that lay ahead! Saturday morning saw us tackle activities like segway racing, total wipeout, high ropes, and ziplining!
It was then time for us to have lunch, say our goodbyes and head back home after the BEST BIRTHDAY PARTY EVER!
Results:
At First Event we create unforgettable experiences that bring communities together. This 21st Birthday team-building event has been an amazing reminder for all of us of just how effective these events can be for creating and solidifying water-tight working relationships.
As we enter into a recession and a period of economic uncertainty, organisations will soon be evaluating which areas of business spend can be axed under the label ‘non-essential’. Some may be tempted to class events like this weekend under such a label, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
For companies experiencing a period of change and growth, the shared memories and sense of belonging that team building and employee engagement events can create are an essential tool to any growing organisation.
In the days following the summer party, our shared slack channels, whatsapp groups and social mentions went through the roof, as our party goers shared their pics, videos and highlights.
People want to spend their time working for a company that they love. By running events like this, your people will feel like they belong with the team they work with, and the reward and recognition they receive for their efforts will lead to employee retention, satisfaction and a higher level of input and effort. When your organisation’s people feel cared about, they, in turn, care about your organisation.
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