Events of all kinds can be essential staging posts in campaigns. We are specialists in providing the right ingredients for successful events.

Below is a list of projects we have worked on in this area. They are presented in more detail further down the page.

ACT: voices for change launch
Association of Children’s Hospices: parliamentary reception
Connexions: parliamentary reception
Connexions South Yorkshire - V Reception
Forum of Private Business (FPB): annual summit
Neighbourhood Renewal Unit: youth matters weekend
NDC Network: national events
Newham Council: community forum development
Newham Council: The word festival
Newham Council: operation clean sweep
Newham Council: big sunday event
People’s History Museum: stakeholder management
University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN): medical and dental education
Wakefield Council: fastforward

ACT: voices for change launch
We worked with ACT (Association for children with life-threatening or terminal conditions and their families) to launch their Voices for Change report. This involved organising the launch event at the House of Commons, as well as conducting the relevant research and producing a DVD.

Association of Children’s Hospices: parliamentary reception
We organised a parliamentary reception for MPs on behalf of the Association of Children’s Hospices (ACH) in order to launch and promote a toolkit aimed at people interested in opening a children’s hospice. This included research to identify appropriate guests; securing a relevant minister as the key note speaker; audience-building for the event; choreographing the event; and promoting the event in the national and specialist media.

Connexions: parliamentary reception
We have worked with both NACP (the National Association of Connexions Partnerships) and Connexions Partnerships in the Humber, West Yorkshire and North and North Yorkshire, to raise the profile of Connexions Partnerships amongst politicians. This work included organising a presentation and dinner with MPs and NACP representatives, and organising a parliamentary reception for young people to meet with their MPs and demonstrate how Connexions had benefited them.

Connexions South Yorkshire - V Reception
Youth volunteering arrangements will change in April 2007. There will be a phasing out of the Millennium Volunteer scheme and the introduction of V, a new organisation which will introduce a new national framework for youth volunteering. We are working with Connexions South Yorkshire and the current volunteering projects across South Yorkshire to introduce V to a range of organisations across the sub region, particularly those in statutory sector. With key note speakers including Ed Miliband MP, Minister for the Third Sector; Rod Aldridge OBE, Chair of V and Professor Tony Crook, pro Vice Chancellor, Sheffield University, the aim of the lunchtime reception is also to demonstrate the mutual benefits to young people and employers of successful and well managed volunteering.

Croydon Council: neighbourhood partnerships
We facilitated ten separate meetings involving a total of 370 people over a three week period. This involved presenting a complex and controversial subject – the level of council tax and service levels – facilitating detailed discussion in workshops and reporting back to a plenary at the close of the event. We developed a rapid feedback system to undertake this work.

Forum of Private Business (FPB): annual summit
With our associates, Vista, we are assisting the Forum of Private Business with the organisation of their first annual summit for small business. The event, jointly sponsored by Barclays Bank, includes speakers such as Rt Hon David Cameron MP, Dawn Gibbins, founder and chair of Flowcrete, and William Sargent, executive chair of the Better Regulation Executive. We have assisted in identifying a suitable venue; developing an interesting and stimulating programme for the day; identifying speakers; and sourcing sponsorship and exhibitors.

Neighbourhood Renewal Unit: youth matters weekend
We devised and implemented a residential weekend event to consult with young people and youth workers from New Deal for Communities (NDCs) and Neighbourhood Management Pathfinders (NMPs) on the government’s Green Paper, ‘Youth Matters’. The event, which was funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minster’s Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, brought together 60 young people aged between 11 and 25, and 20 youth workers, to discuss the issues in a fun and innovative way.

Click here to read this case study.

NDC Network: national events
The New Deal for Communities programme was set up by the government in 39 of the most deprived areas in the country under its national strategy for renewal. Each NDC receives around £50 million over a ten year period. NDCs are currently half way through their programme of development. The NDC Network is the umbrella body for the 39 New Deal for Communities partnerships in England. Its members are the chairs and chief executives of the NDCs. We organise three national events a year for the members of the network.

Newham Council: community forum development
We have organised a wide range of events in the course of our work for Newham’s community forums, which included working with faith groups and young people. This work has involved recruitment and all aspects of event management – from facilitating visioning for the community and organising public meetings. We have succeeded in involving people from all sections of Newham’s diverse community throughout.

Newham Council: The word festival
Together with partners Spread the Word and the London Libraries Development Agency, we worked with all of Newham’s ten elected community forums to organise the borough’s first festival devoted to reading and writing, with the aim of promoting social cohesion in one of London’s most ethnically diverse boroughs. We worked to engage with local schools and libraries, encouraging reading group meetings and creative writing workshops.

Click here to read this case study.

Newham Council: operation clean sweep
Working with the London Borough of Newham and the Green Street Community Forum, we implemented two clean-up days designed to engage the local community in taking care of their local area. It also gave us an opportunity to promote the community forums to residents. The events attracted representatives of local schools, religious institutions, councillors, community forum members, residents and traders. In bringing together the key stakeholders, we set in place a process of sustainable environmental improvement in the area.

Newham Council: big sunday event
The London Borough of Newham commissioned us to capture on film the views of attendees at the borough’s largest indoor event, to tie in with London’s successful bid to host the 2012 olympics. We used our VideoQube and vox pops to record attendees’ views on Newham and its future. We also used pledge cards to encourage future involvement in the borough.

People’s History Museum: stakeholder management
We have organised two events for the museum. The first was a high profile reception hosted by the Chancellor at Number 11 Downing Street. This was attended by senior politicians together with other key stakeholders. We also organised an innovative showcase project, Take Your Place in History, at the Labour Party’s 2005 conference, where people were able to have their image incorporated into key scenes from Labour’s history – such as the first Labour cabinet of 1924.

University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN): medical and dental education
We are working with UCLan and a consortium of higher education providers to increase medical and dental education in the Cumbria and Lancashire region. This has included organising parliamentary events, and meetings with North West MPs and other key stakeholders, in order to raise awareness of issues in the region, and to influence decision makers.

Wakefield Council: fastforward
When we were approached by Wakefield District Council it had just been judged as a poor performing council with a bad record of community participation. The incoming management team wanted to make a big impact on the community. We were employed by Wakefield District Partnership to devise and implement their community strategy visioning exercise and to relaunch the community strategy. We developed a brand, FastForward 2028, (exemplifying the 25 year long-term vision) and carried out a wide-scale community engagement exercise which focused primarily on engaging with young people. This involved encouraging young people to use video cameras to ask friends and families for their views and aspirations for Wakefield. We also organized the FastForward launch event with key stakeholders including the young people who had taken part in the process. Wakefield District Council has gone from a poor to a good council in 13 months and the Audit Commission has praised the FastForward consultation process.