Team building

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In the workplace good communication builds trust between colleagues in the corporate world and helps us to get the job done more efficiently- but it can be tricky to get it right. If your team is struggling with trust and communication problems, find out how team building events can save the day.

From the constant buzz of emails to our ever-growing to-do lists, office life is becoming increasingly fast-paced. When colleagues are stressed out or under pressure, good communication can go out of the window, leaving your team feeling unmotivated and resentful.

It’s easy to make a mistake but it’s not always as easy for colleagues to forgive and forget. In a fraught environment, even something as simple as a missed email or snappy response can cause colleagues to lose trust in each other. In some companies, you may find yourself with ‘more chiefs than indians’ or employees who would rather do everything themselves than delegate tasks. Personality clashes, poor communication, fallouts and office gossip can also damage relationships between colleagues, leading to lack of trust and poor working environments.

Team building events isn’t just about delivering company messages and building brand awareness, it’s also an opportunity to patch up relationships between colleagues and develop their communication skills.

Getting employees out of the office will encourage wallflowers out of their shells and give more outgoing employees the chance to blow off some steam. It also takes people away from day-to-day stresses so they can get to know each other on a personal level, relax, bond and have some fun.

Team building exercises throw people together and demand quick solutions. With no time for indecision or disagreements, teams learn the best ways to communicate to reach their shared goal most efficiently. All of this should be reflected in their work back in the office, leading to better procedures and working patterns.

Whether it’s staying calm under pressure when you’re lost in the middle of London or finding a secret talent for solving treasure hunt clues, team building has a way of unlocking people’s potential. Increasing self-confidence and boosting trust amongst employees, team activities are a great way to bring out the best in your colleagues.

Team events that push people out of their comfort zones, and encourage them to try something different. Allowing groups to engage with each other’s strengths and weaknesses, experimenting in a fun, pressure-free environment helps teams learn how they can combine their skills and support others.

Themed party Ideas

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Themed Events are fun and exciting provided they are planned and thought through properly, and we have some great acts advertised, providing the right entertainment so that each event is truly unique and personal to you.

From elegant James Bond themes, through high-roller Casino themes to Halloween themes (not for the faint-hearted), you just need to browse through our various themes and choose any one that you like. Don’t worry if you can’t see one that takes your fancy, just take your time and read the biography and you can talk to your potential choice to go through details.

We want your themed event is the best it can possibly be. We have years of experience and extensive contacts, so we guarantee all acts you see advertised are the best and we are certain you will choose an event that will be just right for you and your guests.

Everyone works to a budget, and we appreciate that the budget cannot be unlimited, so a lot of artists work to your specification, producing an event that suits everyone’s requirements.

Themed events work perfectly for private parties, corporate events, weddings, theatres, nightclubs and hotels – the list goes on and on.

Your chosen act will be sure to attend to every detail, their main focus is on the quality of the event and professionalism to make your event perfect for you.

Exhibitions & Trade Shows

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You go to a Trade Show or Exhibition to expose your products and services to as wide an audience as possible, to generate sales and to collect data on potential customers. To be successful at a tradeshow, you need to attract the maximum number of people to your stand rather than your competitors’, and keep them there until your brand has worked its’ magic.

One way to pull people in is to put on some high quality and engaging Trade Show Exhibition entertainment. Red Masque Directory advertise a wide range of options for Trade Show and Exhibition entertainment, appropriate to and supporting your brand and marketing messages.

For example, space is always limited, so the ideal Trade Show and Exhibition entertainment must pull people to your stand without using up all the available space. Hiring close up Magicians are a good, space-efficient draw, and so are solo musicians or singers who can grab the crowd’s attention and engage the audience, keeping them in situ for long enough to absorb your messages.

A Caricaturist is an innovative and engaging entertainment option – drawing caricatures of your potential customers, on media bearing your brand. This is fun for the sitter, who gets to take away a highly personalised branded memento, and fun for the onlookers who can enjoy the spectacle.

Ideas to surprise your guests

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It’s fair to say that despite what we in the industry try to do, many people roll their eyes at having to go to certain events. The mind numbing drudgery of chatting to people you don’t know, the leaning in to read the name tag at a networking do, and the fact that the food can often be unappealing or cliche.

It’s time to change all that by sourcing some top notch entertainment for your event. Whether you’re organising a corporate event, an awards show, or a private party, event entertainment is a great way to keep your guests…entertained!

1. Event Walls

An event wall? If used correctly you will get great reactions by simply putting up an event wall that adds style and character to your event. Whether it’s used to promote your brand or simply look stylish, a bespoke event wall can help your event stand out as soon as your guests arrive. This could also be a great place for attendees to take selfies and ‘red carpet-like’ images of themselves.

2. Living Topiary

With a Living Topiary on hand, your event will really spring to life. What at first appears to be human-shaped hedges, are in fact hedge-shaped humans. They can happily walk around your venue, waving, hugging and generally putting a smile on the faces of your guests. A unique novelty act!

3. Silhouette Artist

Strolling acts are perfect for making sure that nobody misses the fun by coming to you! There are various types of wandering acts including magicians and caricaturists. Silhouette artists gets a great reaction as it’s generally something attendees have never experienced. A form of art extremely popular at the beginning of the twentieth century, guests have their profile cut into paper and stuck onto a card for them to take home. This is a perfect momento your guests can take to remember all the fun they had at your event!

4. Edible Mist Orbs

Many parties make do with basic nibbles, whilst catering companies serve up dishes that unfortunately we’ve all tried before. Change things up with edible mist orbs, allowing your guests to literally taste the air! Pop a straw in your mouth, breathe in the air from the orb, and see what flavour you get. Mint? Apple? Cheesecake? It could be one of many different flavours. The best bit thing about these are you can even put in a request for a bespoke flavour to be made!

Milestone Birthdays

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Big Birthday milestones don’t necessarily need to be celebrated in a big way. For those who have a large family, an extensive social or business network, or those who enjoy mingling amongst a crowd of well-wishers, bigger may be better. For others who may have a close inner circle of friends, or perhaps a small, close-knit family, more intimate gatherings may be preferable

The key point here is to weigh in with your host regarding his or her thoughts on their celebration. If the event is a surprise, then talk to the guest of honour’s spouse or partner or closest friends to determine which approach is best. Surprise parties can be fun, but the surprise element should be a positive experience stemming from the timing of the celebration, not missing the mark on the party itself.

Personalisation is key to making a birthday party memorable. Research back to the year they were born and incorporate newsworthy details from that time period into the party theme. Depending upon the year, invite guests to dress as they would have if it were that year. 1960s hippie clothes and 1980s big hair can make a party fun and provide great opportunities for photos, laughter, and reminiscing.

Hiring entertainment for a Birthday Party can be as imaginative as you like. Think party bands, DJ’s, Celebrity Lookalikes, Photo Booths or even a great Magician!

Making a Birthday Special

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Birthdays are personal and birthday parties should be as well. If you don’t know your guest of honor, gather some information about him or her. What are their hobbies and interests? How do they spend their free time? Learning whether they enjoy football, cooking or traveling, will present numerous opportunities for you to personalise their party with creative details.

For example, use a favourite hobby as a theme for the birthday cake and decorations.
For the footballer set up a net in a corner of the venue, for guests to try their hand. Use green tablecloths with football candle holders. If your guest loves to travel, send out traditional tourist postcards in lieu of customised printed invitations and offer a varied international menu from some of the places they have visited.

If the birthday child is fond of pirates and adventure, hold a treasure hunt. For younger children, keep it simple and have them work in teams of three and keep the list of items short. Older children will enjoy the challenge of finding numerous items on their own. Children remember what they did at a party and whether they had fun playing games. Less important is whether the balloons matched the napkins and the overall colour scheme.

When children reach a certain age, they become well aware of when their birthday is, even though their concept of actual time may not be that accurate. It doesn’t take long before they associate a birthday with a party, cake, candles, decorations and….presents!!!

Fun and games for all can often leave the host frazzled and exhausted. To minimize the stress level when planning a children’s birthday party, follow these tips:

Limit the number of children: the rule of thumb is to match the number of guests with the age of the birthday child. For example, invite four children for a four-year-old’s birthday party. While that may not be reasonable in circumstances of a large family, in general, it is better to invite fewer children to a children’s birthday party. It doesn’t take long for a well-planned party to spiral out of control when too many children, excited for the party and fueled on sugary cake, take over.

Keep it short: While an hour and a half may seem like a short period of time to celebrate a three-year-old’s birthday, that 90 minutes can seem like 900 minutes when tired children in need of the afternoon nap begin their meltdowns. So keep the official party time to an hour and a half; many parents, when picking up their children, stay and socialise at the end of the party so the party will go for two hours anyway.

Fun Corporate Event Ideas

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Rewarding employees with a fun corporate event should be just that – fun! For these types of events, look for something more interesting and creative, a change from the standard “golf outing and dinner” routine. If your event is a company-wide event, then your venue will need to be large enough to accommodate all the employees and their mode of transport, if they are traveling individually. Some fun corporate event ideas include:

Company picnic with food produced from local farms, music, and games. Bring both blankets and chairs for seating.
Plan a trip to a sporting event for an early afternoon game, complete with scarfs, hats and hot dogs.
Wine tasting day out and winemaking demonstration followed by a picnic outdoors on the grounds for a real day away from the office.
A River Boat cruise complete with sightseeing commentary and lunch.
For a small group, a trip into a nearby major city for a live show and dinner.

Whatever the choice, keep the staff in mind when planning event entertainment. If employees consider this outing just “one more work event” they have to attend, you will have missed the mark.
Keep the employee demographics and the office atmosphere in mind when planning a corporate event of this type.

Ideas for Corporate Events

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Planning a corporate event? One of the most challenging aspects of corporate event planning is coming up with an idea. The event theme is the driving force behind every other aspect of an event, from the invitation to the selection of entertainment and food. Before you get busy with any other part of the corporate event planning process, first find out the goal of the event.

The best corporate event ideas take that business objective — after all, corporate events have business objectives — and use it as the springboard for the event theme and the overall atmosphere of the event.

Corporate events can set the stage for presenting information regarding a company’s upcoming product launch, a new approach to corporate training, or simply for conducting team building exercises in a fun, engaging environment.

Is the purpose of this corporate event to reward a sales team for exceeding targets by providing a retreat focused on rest and relaxation? Is the goal to bring employees of two different companies together due to a merger, with the priority resting on connecting people and building relationships?

Whether the purpose of the event is business or pleasure or a combination of the two, the right corporate event idea can meet the objective and deliver a successful event.

For many employees, reporting to work every day at the same time, dressed in the same business attire, with the same people, becomes a bore.

While they may enjoy the work itself and their colleagues, the predictability of it all gets old quickly.
Why not mix it up?

Take a corporate meeting to another venue, away from the offices and cubicles. Even if employees must spend the day poring over reports or sitting in meetings, the change in surroundings can be refreshing.

A few suggestions:
Change the dress code for the event, allowing employees to dress comfortably
If weather and venue permit, schedule part of the event outdoors
Skip the standard meeting sandwich platter and offer an assortment of foods from local restaurants or made-to-order food service stations
Schedule a fun, interactive activity during the mid-afternoon slump
On the last day of the event, and earlier than the usual going home time; they will appreciate getting out of work early

The key to having a productive corporate event is to take employees out of their usual work routine. Changing the attire, location, and overall vibe can change their interactions and re-energise staff, even if they are staring at annual report figures all afternoon.

The quiet room

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When it comes to booking event entertainment, guests normally want something that produces a bit of a sound and has people reacting with one of any number of emotions – smiling, laughing and being amazed – but it turns out that in order to be entertained in the US, you might not need any sounds at all. That brings us to this rather curious venue in Minnesota, a room that the Guinness Book of Records’ has dubbed the World’s Quietest Room.

The so-called ‘anechoic chamber’ at Orfield Laboratories in South Minneapolis is 99.9% sound absorbing. Created from 3.3-foot-thick fibreglass acoustic wedges and with walls made out of insulated steel that are surrounded by a foot of concrete on every side, you might be forgiven for thinking the space has been envisaged and built from a mad scientist. You’d only be halfway right – the company behind the room are involved in design, research and testing for various companies with both Whirlpool and Harley Davidson using the anechoic chamber to evaluate sound quality of their products and assess just how loud they may be. NASA have also taken to using the room, with astronauts experiencing a ‘simulation’ of what they can expect once in space.

According to the man in charge, Steve Orfield, the record for time spent in the room in one go is only around 45 minutes because anybody inside actually becomes the sound. You’d be able to hear your heart beating, your lungs inhaling and your stomach processing the lunch that you ate earlier that day. Standing up isn’t an option either; humans use sound to help with their orientation and movements, which naturally become impossible when there is no sound to hear at all. As Orfield explains, “In the anechoic chamber, you don’t have any cues. You take away the perceptual cues that allow you to balance and manoeuvre.”

There are actually a few anechoic chambers in the UK – once again used by companies and academic institutions – but they aren’t generally available to the public and haven’t yet been designated as being ‘the quietest in the world’. The Faculty of Brain Science at UCL use theirs to study how the brain reacts to a lack of sound, which is probably more interesting and useful than what we would want to do with one…

The Postal Museum Venue

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If there’s one thing we love about London it’s the fact that there are always new and exciting things going on within its bustling confines. One of the hottest openings this year is undoubtedly The Postal Museum, a unique look at how London’s postal services have been ran for over 100 years. We don’t want to hype it too much but you do get to ride a two mile train underneath London so… Let’s see what we know!

The Postal Museum will offer a fascinating and often surprising look at the very first social network. London’s letters and parcels used to manoeuvred from place to place via a special train line, which has now been modified for guests to enjoy as they travel through this subterranean landscape. We ourselves have not ridden it yet, but we are pretty certain this will be cool as hell. And the best bit? You can book it for events!

We love providing ideas for entertainment for events but naturally having your very own private train is probably the best entertainment of all. What else can you get when you hire the Postal Museum for your event? Available for both corporate and private hire, the venue’s spaces include the Mail Rail depot and the Postal Museum itself.

The Mail Rail depot is a must-see for your exclusive party! Within captivating architectural features, guests will be able to dine and drink to their heart’s content and there can even be an opportunity to ride the train! A hugely adaptable space, you could hire a band for a dance or make use of the vaulted brick arches in a completely unique way. From receptions to product launches and even award ceremonies, this is a truly exciting new space in London’s event world and holds up to 275 people!

Perhaps you’d prefer your guests to stay above ground? No problem! The Postal Museum itself offers a contemporary space that’s light, bright and perfect for a stunning summer’s night. Featuring a private courtyard and innovative living wall, it’s ideal for cocktail receptions or summer parties. Looking to enhance the space by booking some entertainment? No problem! Holding up to 140 people, you may even like to enjoy a private museum tour whilst in attendance.