It's Friday and I am in an exceptional mood! I'm heading out this evening to meet the girls for a birthday celebration so its seems very fitting that I should read about the exciting inhouse innovation that is the Sodexo female networking group on our intranet this morning.

A Day at the Races

I am missing Ascot already! This year was absolutely stunning - the grass was its greenest, the sun was at its sunniest and hospitality was full to the rafters with beautifully dressed ladies and gentlemen.

Royal Ascot is synonymous with quality, style and excellence in providing unparalleled racing, hospitality and a memorable day out and I had the pleasure of attending as a punter on the Wednesday. I took my housemate Tash and friend of old, Georgie - neither of whom let me down on the dressing up front. No one needed telling twice to wear their very finest and it paid off - photgraphers loved our head-wear and I have been assured I am going to be made very famous in a highly regarded (?) publication in Norway ....

Royal Ascot hospitality provides the ultimate stage for the best racehorses in the world. The quality of the horseracing is simply outstanding, with over £4 million in prize money on offer and a total of seventeen "Group" races over the five days. Royal Ascot runs more group races than any other race meeting in the UK, including 7 Group Ones, the elite level of races, throughout the five days.

We managed to pick up a little something in each race and everything went into a kitty dubbed 'The Champagne Fund'. We were very giggly by the end of the day!

Golf doesn't get better than this

If you’re a golfing nut, there’s one thing you’re not going to want to miss. On the 14^th July, on the eve of The Open Championship at St Andrews, we’re hosting the ultimate in golfing events.

Tiger Woods, Tom Watson, Stewart Cink and Seve Ballesteros are just four of the 28 golfing greats who’ll battle it out across the 1^st, 2^nd, 17^th and 18^th holes on the Old Course.

After watching them play, sit back and enjoy a champagne reception and sumptuous four-course Sportsman’s Dinner, hosted by BBC’s John Inverdale, at The R&A Links Restaurant behind the 1st tee.

And, for the perfect finish to the day, Tony Jacklin, one of the greats of British golf, will be our very special guest speaker.

For more information about the Sportsman’s Dinner at the Champions’ Challenge, click here or call +44(0)844 3710883.

And, if you’re following us on Facebook or Twitter, we’ve got an exclusive offer for this event, so follow us now to keep in the loop. 

The place to be seen daaarling!

Well its been a few weeks since the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and pretty soon I will have to change my tune and talk about another event - but not yet!

As you may or may not know (depending on how many of my blogs you have read - eh hem!), this was the first year that I headed up the sales for the event - adopting Chelsea as my own project from the sales and marketing, fulfilment to some operational support onsite. Happily, I can say that this was our best year yet on the sales front - a testimony to changing times in the economy, the continued focus on hospitality as a indispensible business tool and of course, the phenomenal popularity of the show.

It was great to see so many old faces (not necessarily indicative of the age of my clients) - and I was delighted to welcome many new ones to the village this year. We had a lot of first timers and so this made it even more exciting for me, watching the picture I paint before hand become a reality for those who have never attended before.

For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of seeing the village yourselves it can best be described as a peaceful haven, away from the hustle and bustle of the show. Pavilions are nestled in a private garden, in an L-shape; scattered with garden furniture and parasols, with wooden decking, water features and local artwork. Typically you will find hospitality guests chatting in the sunshine - Pimm's in hand and the summery tones of the Spanish guitar in the air.

Client feedback was universally glowing with a focus on the fantastic food and attentive service - and having witnessed the hard work of the events team behind the scenes it was my absolute pleasure to forward on the many complimentary and appreciative emails received from clients around the Prestige team.

Lots of early starts and late nights, several laps around the show ground daily - and I confess the odd glass of champers or Pimm's with a client or two - made for a very broken Lorraine by the end of the week; but I loved it. There is nothing better than witnessing first-hand all your plans and hard work come to fruition - and there is a lovely sense of fellowship onsite between us Prestigers that comes with sleep deprivation!

The Open Championship Hospitality gets social

With just a month to go to The Open Championship golf at St Andrews, we’re getting social. So, to keep up with all the latest golfing news, or to have a chat with fellow golf fans, join us on our Open Golf Championship Facebook page and The Open Hospitality Twitter feed.

And, we’ve just announced a very special hospitality deal, only available to our fans on Facebook and Twitter. To find out more, head on over to Facebook or Twitter - but you’ll need to be quick as spaces are limited!

Click here for more information on all of our hospitality packages for The Open Championship.

Chelsea Flower Show hospitality is now on Facebook

You heard it here first folks.  We've decided to go social this year at Chelsea Flower Show, and we'll be keeping you in the horticultural know with regular posts from our RHS Flower Show Hospitality Facebook page and live Twitter feed.

We'd love to hear from you so please do drop us a line.

New Chelsea Flower Show Twitter feed is now live

To get up to the minute updates and news on this year's Chelsea Flower Show why not tune into our Chelsea Twitter account.  For all things green, visit twitter.com/RHS_Hospitality or watch our gorgeous Chelsea Flower show video below.

Paul Boon, Event Director sits in the Hot Seat

Paul, you're new at Prestige Head Office, although of course, you were with us some time as Ascot Racecourse. Can you tell us what your new role as Director of Events for Prestige is all about- apart from being SUPER important?

Of course Lorraine. I oversee the operational side of our event profile and manage the specialist events team who deliver the events from start to finish. My goal is to meet and exceed our client’s expectations, and to be innovative and creative in everything we do. I'm involved in every aspect, from staff scheduling, recruitment and training, risk assessment and site management - right down to the tasting of the menus.

What did you do today?

 

Today we were concentrating on staffing for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show; ensuring we get the right people in, and in the right places. I have also been negotiating some new contracts for 2012 - which I am very excited about. Unfortunately I can't go into more detail at this stage, as it's quite confidential, but rest assured 2011 will bring in some exciting developments. I've also been working on some brand new offers and innovations for our most popular catering item - the baguette! And we have been designing the Event Team's new coat - its black with an accent of pink for our new logo. Very sexy.

What Event are you currently focussed on?

 

Well, as I'm sure you're aware, Chelsea is the opening event of the hospitality season so that’s a strong focus for us right now, but we have to think a lot further ahead than one event, so I'm currently focussing a lot of my energies on Royal Ascot in June, and The Open Championship in July. We're even planning ahead to the Burghley Horse Trials, which aren't until September!

What's new for 2010?

 

2010 has seen a lot of change to our hospitality offerings. As much as we would like to, we can't ignore the impact that the recession has had on business, but we've adapted accordingly and come out stronger. You'll be reading a lot about our fine dining packages in the up and coming months - these aren't quite the full blown hospitality our guests have come to love, but they still provide stunning food and drink in delightful surroundings. They provide a simpler alternative to hospitality and are proving to be very popular at the flower shows.

What do you love most about working for Prestige?

 

I love the variety, and the prestige of our events. Coming from a fixed-site background it’s extremely motivating to work with so many different venues, locations, offers and types of customers. I have to be very flexible and adaptable, especially as I am working on the premier events of the season - it keeps me on my toes!

Lastly Paul, I understand that when you joined you somehow managed to escape the standard Sodexo interview question of 'What animal would you be and why?' - So, what animal would you be and why?

 

Hmmm, strange but I like it. I think a monkey is definitely my animal. I'm cheeky and like to have a laugh - and I am flexible and I adapt to my surroundings. I work hard but like to have fun on the job.

Thank you Paul - have a banana for your troubles.

Sodexo Prestige E-Commerce Manager, Andrew Nicholson, answers industry questions from Prestige Blogger Lorraine Blake

Tell us a little bit about what you do at Prestige the Andrew?

Quite a bit at the moment actually Lorraine. We’re moving a lot of our sales and marketing activity online, so I’ve been a very busy boy. We’ve found of late that as more and more of our customers communicate in the virtual world, we’re able to talk to them directly this way. We’re engaging via Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc, and by doing this we’re able to talk to our customers, rather than talking at them. There’s been some resistance to this new way of doing things, but I’ve hopefully played my part in convincing people that this open dialogue is something we should be embracing, rather than being scared of.

I’ve also been working hard on launching our new online event booking tool. This will enable customers to book and pay online for a range of events throughout the Prestige family. It doesn’t matter if they’re looking for a Christmas party for 100 in Hampden Park in Glasgow, or a romantic dinner cruise on board Bateaux London, guests will be able to go through the same online portal knowing that they’re in safe hands. This will be going live later in the year, so I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

How does this relate to the event-world?

Ahhh. You mean that thing you sales guys call the real world? It’s funny. People look at live events and think there’s no connection with online. But what they fail to grasp a lot of the time is that the online world is based on the real world. Videos uploaded onto YouTube (currently at a rate of 24 hours worth of footage every minute of the day) are videos of live events, whether that be an exhibition for 1,000 delegates at Ascot Racecourse, or a panda cub sneezing. Photos of The Open Championship and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (where we do hospitality) are uploaded onto Flickr, and if you search for Ashton Court Mansion (which I’m visiting today) on Google, you’ll see members of the public posting event reviews.

What is the best aspect of your job?

The great thing about working online is you can see the results of your work instantly. If you produce a bill board, you may see a surge of interest over a few months, if you put out a newspaper ad, you’ll see a surge of interest that day (hopefully). When I sent out a Tweet advertising our new partnership between City Jet and Open Golf Official Hospitality just now, I’d had 40 people click through to the package information before I’d even had time to refresh the page. It’s this instant gratification that I love!

Which is your favourite Prestige event and why?

Oh, now that’s a tricky one. From a purely personal perspective, I enjoyed hospitality at Royal Ascot two year’s back, and met the Queen. Twice! That’s an experience money simply can’t buy. I love the energy of Ascot. The passion and the fashion. And let’s be honest, the racing is without compare. That said, this month I brought my mum two hospitality places for Hampton Court Palace Flower show, for her 60th birthday (She’s going to kill me for putting her age down on here). Don’t get me wrong, Chelsea Flower Show is still the peak of the social season, but for my mum I thought something a little more sedate might be the order of the day, and as she’s a bit of a gardener herself, I know the earthiness of Hampton Court would appeal. I must have been right, as she’s over the moon and can’t stop talking about it

If you had to be a canapé what would you be and why?

Um… Odd question, but here goes.

I’d be the Three-Course Dinner Chewing Gum from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (though I’m not sure if this is strictly classed as a canapé). Because just like the chewing gum, online is constantly evolving and changing, and you never know what you’re going to end up with. This is what I love about the industry, and why I thrive on it. Hopefully I won’t end up like poor Violet Beauregarde though!

The Merseyside Derby

Go team!!!

Just got back from Liverpool, where I caught one of the most of exciting spectacles Liverpool has the offer: no not the Beatles - The Merseyside Derby!

My housemate Paul is a massive Liverpool FC fan (who knew Liverpool had such an influence on Australia?) and I had promised him that the next time the Derby was on at Goodison Park I would take him to watch the match. Goodison Park is one of our venues and I used to work in the Sales Department there, so I called my good friends to ask if by some small chance my staff pass would still be valid that day ......

Slight dramas ensued on the way up when I woke up at 8.10am, and my train had left Euston Station without me at 7.46am! Thankfully Paul suggested we drive, so after a gruelling journey having to listen to him croon along to the radio, and a nightmare parking situation, i.e. no spaces - we finally arrived just in time for the first half.

It was wonderful to see my old colleagues again and to be able to put faces to the names of the people I speak to regularly on the phone when I arrange my clients' hospitality. I really miss that Scouse sense of humour sometimes.

I was able to give Paul a quick tour of the facilities - although it may have pained him to be on enemy ground. Working in both Hospitality and Public Catering, I remember how overhwelmed I was by the size of the stadium and the maize of corridors and rooms behind the scenes. Now experiencing the Hospitality at Goodison first-hand, I could truly appreciate the effort that goes into the seamless delivery of their events. It certainly beat eating the left overs the next day.

Liverpool won 2 -0 much to Paul's delight, and in honesty, to most of the staff's too as lots of them are Reds. I was only there to see if I could accidentally (on purpose) bump into Steven Gerrard. No such luck I'm afraid.