Making waves in Southampton

Tom and Ian started the Bank Holiday weekend in style with a trip down to sunny Southampton to see what was on offer for corporate sailing groups on the south coast.

After a meeting at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club, the pair were treated to canapes and drinks on board a luxury powerboat moored in the marina, before donning their lifejackets and heading out onto the River Solent.

The Chillisauce duo enjoyed a white knuckle rib ride flying across choppy water left by passing ferries and plenty of 180 degree turns at speeds approaching 40 knots, before boarding a racing yacht to have a go at sailing themselves. Although it wasn't a particularly blustery day, the yacht managed to get plenty of speed up and under the guidance of the professional sailors, Tom took the helm and was soon sailing like a modern day Sir Francis Chichester.

Tom and Ian then headed back to the marina to have a look at some more of the boats available for corporate days before heading back to the yacht club for a cool drink. There have been harder days at work!

Tom gets dirty with T-Mobile

Next month at Chillisauce, we're launching a range a community-based and environmental regeneration team building projects. We will give businesses the opportunity to give something back to their local communities and reduce their impact on the environment though volunteer schemes throughout the UK.

To kick this off Tom went to visit a project in Welwyn Garden City where 20 staff from T-Mobile were at a primary school clearing a pond and building mini-allotments where the children will plant vegetables.

Tom, who knows little about healthy eating and even less about gardening, got straight to work with a fork digging over the mini-allotment areas to make them suitable for planting. Over the next few months, with good weather and a bit of luck, the children will be able to enjoy carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuces, onions and leeks which they have nurtured themselves.

This project will play a key role in helping the children learn about heathly eating at a time when child obestity in Britain has reached record levels.

Although this was not the type of team building day that any of the T-Mobile staff had experienced before, all of them really enjoyed the day and shared a great sense of achievement when the work was completed.

HSBC get sporty

May 31st was undoubtedly one of the biggest nights in British sporting history. Teams of finely-tuned athletes went hammer and tongs as one of the biggest prizes in sport was on offer. Competition was fierce and there were a few tears from the losing team, but that's how much a gold medal in the Chillisauce Pub Olympics means...…..oh and Manchester United were playing Chelsea in the Champions League final as well.

HSBC wanted a fun night out for a team in London to coincide with the first ever all-English final in Champions League history, so in keeping with the sporting theme, Suzy organised a Pub Olympics at a top bar in trendy Shoreditch and brought in big screens so the HSBC team could enjoy the football whilst having a go at a variety of pub games.

The drama of the football was matched by the drama at the venue as HSBC staff battled it out for honours at darts, table football, skittles and air hockey, before toasting victory or drowning their sorrows at the bar:

‘I just wanted to thank you for your excellent organisation of last night's event. The event was a huge success, great venue, worked with the numbers, where we had 74 people in total, which we were happy with.

A big thank you to Nathan and Spencer (the Chillisauce team on the night) and the gang, as the team were very well organised, very enthusiastic and friendly with both our clients and HSBC staff. I look forward to working with you again soon.’

Fancy yourself a Pub Olympian? Click here:
http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/team-building-days/pub-game-olympics/productid_4903/

RBS mix it up

Making cocktails? That’s not team building is it? Well that’s where you’d be wrong. Just because you’re not driving a 4x4 blindfolded or trying to diffuse an explosive device, doesn’t mean you can’t learn skills that will benefit you at work. The fact that you can have fun and enjoy a few drinks whilst you’re at it is a welcome bonus!

RBS wanted to get shaken and stirred in Edinburgh so Claire organised an afternoon of cocktail making on a private floor of a top cocktail bar for their group of 45. Under the guidance of an experienced mixologist, the team learned to make several delicious drinks including a Mojito, a Pear Caipirowska, a Cosmopolitan and a White Russian, playing competitive team building games as they went.

The group also had a three course dinner to help soak up some of the alcohol before they unleashed their secret weapon- Singstar on the Playstation. As everyone knows alcohol and singing are natural bedfellows and there’s nothing like a few cocktails to loosen the vocal chords and get everyone up and belting out their favourite tunes. Apparently one of the directors is a huge S Club 7 fan, and had been threatening to rope some of the other members of staff to help him sing ‘Reach for the Stars’!

‘It went very well!!! It was so well organised and the venue perfect, but a big thank you has to be to the staff - they where GREAT! Am busy collating feedback forms from the team now and that is one thing that everyone has commented on was how great Craig, Charlotte and Eloise where. The whole afternoon was just fun and really relaxing.

Thanks for all your help too, it all went well and nothing was missed so it was all plain sailing on the day!

p.s. I didn't have to sing S Club 7!! Did Wham instead!!’

Take a look at our Cocktail Making packages here:
http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/cocktail-making/

Start the fans please!

RSA Group wanted a morning meeting followed by a team building event for 30 people in Cheshire which would encourage interaction within the team and would help improve communication.

Ian sent the group to a luxury manor hotel and after their meeting the group enjoyed all the thrills and spills of the Crystal Challenge, a combination of testing team building activities where groups can win crystals to spend time the UK’s only mobile crystal dome. As ever with the Crystal Challenge, the feedback was fantastic:

'The day was excellent thanks - everyone had a really good time and, as a team, we all got a lot out of it.

Could you please pass on my thanks to the Chillisauce guys who were there on the day as it was their enthusiasm and hard work that made the day such a success.

I will definitely be recommending both Chillisauce and the Crystal Challenge to both colleagues and partners and I'm sure that should we require a event like this in the future, we will come back to Chillisauce.'

Read more about the Crystal Challenge here:
http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/team-building-days/crystal-maze/

Deloitte team make their directorial debuts

Who said that accountancy couldn’t be glamorous? Deloitte contacted us wanting a venue for a morning conference, an afternoon of fun-filled team building, a meal and some evening entertainment for a team of 90.

Ian organised a blockbuster day for them at a beautiful 4* hotel in south London. After the morning conference, the teams split to take part in Director’s Cut and Commercial Break- two events require teams to work together and get creative behind the camera.

For the Director’s Cut, teams of ten tried their hands at film making as they planned, scripted and acted in versions of ‘The Wizard of Oz’, ‘Indiana Jones’, ‘The Apprentice- The Movie’ and ‘Magnificent 7’. The teams had to budget and buy props and costumes from the before weaving their magic in front of the camera. To make matters even more difficult they were challenged to shoot all of their scenes in one take, so there were no second chances if you fluffed your lines!

The teams taking part in the Commercial Break had to make adverts promoting the 2012 Olympics. Amongst the compelling pieces of television one team even managed to incorporate a recreation of the protests about the Chinese torch relay. Very topical.

Over dinner the films and adverts were premiered on big screen much to the amusement and occasionally embarrassment of everyone involved!

After dinner, things got competitive as the Pub Olympics got underway. Like the actual Olympics but better as you can enjoy a few drinks whilst taking part, the Deloitte team worked their way though a modern pub-tathlon of events including table football, air hockey, giant Connect 4, bar skittles and a selection of games on the Wii.

The feedback is short and sweet, but sometimes less is more:

‘Just a short note to thank you for organising yesterday's event - a good day (and night!) was had by all.’

Take a look at our Director's Cut here: http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/team-building-days/directors-cut/
Commercial Break here: http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/team-building-days/directors-cut/productid_3790/
and Pub Olympics here: http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/team-building-days/pub-game-olympics/

Alterian motivation

The marketing moguls Alterian wanted a day out of the office for a team of 40 near Bristol. There’s no better way to re-energise a team than with some activities in the fresh country air, so Charlotte organised a day of orienteering, quad biking and archery.

If you don’t know what archery or quad biking are, you must have been in solitary confinement for the last 500 years, but what is orienteering? Well, orienteering involves charging cross-country between concealed checkpoints armed only with a map and compass for guidance. If you were in the Scouts or Guides during your youth you're at a huge advantage as success in the event is dependant on being able to figure out the fastest route possible, so ability to read a map is key. It's a great way to get a bit of competition going amongst your group and also developing teamwork skills.

Charlotte travelled down to Bristol to personally oversee the event and the whole Alterian team enjoyed themselves, especially the boss who managed to come out on top in all of the activities, winning a much coveted teddy.

The biggest cheer of the day was reserved for one of the female employees whose rather conservative riding on the quad bikes led to some of the other team members chasing her around the course on foot encouraging her to open up the throttle!

‘It was a great day - lots of positive feedback from my team. Just what we needed after a week of intense meetings, and coming during a very busy period it was good to get outside.
All well arranged and thanks to you for chaperoning us around, and arranging the coach.

The teddy is now tied to a pillar in our area of the office as a trophy! I will bear Chillisauce in mind in the future and have passed the good word to other department heads. Thanks again.’

Quad biking, archery and orienteering is just one of a myriad of Multi Activity Days which we can organise all over the country. Take a look at them here:

http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/activity-days/multi-activity-days/

May newsletter mailed

The May Chillisauce was emailed out to over 5,000 of our clients this afternoon. If you've got a head for business you can check out our 'The Apprentices' days, and also featured are our new and improved Family Fun Days. You can also win £250 to donate to an environmental cause or community sceme of your choice.

Take a look at the new newsletter here:
http://chillisauce.cmail1.com/e/411858/f7dlijd/

LSC play the spying game

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) exists to make England better skilled and more competitive. They have a single goal- to improve the skills of England’s young people and adults to ensure we have a workforce of world-class standard.

If you want world-class workers, team building can play a vital role. If you want to energise and motivate your team, and improve their communication, decision making and leadership skills, team building activities help develop all of these qualities in a fun-packed format.

That's where Chillisauce come in. LSC contacted us wanting an event for 28 members of staff in London which would get them out of the office, developing their team work and having some fun. Corporate Fun Manager Ian, who worked briefly as a spy during his gap year, suggested an Incognito Spy Mission and LSC loved the idea.

The LSC team donned trench coats and dark glasses and hit the streets of London where they were plunged into the murky underworld of espionage, following a trail of intelligence, cracking codes and completing challenges and information drops:

'My colleagues and I had a wonderful (and very tiring) afternoon. Within a few days a colleague from another department asked me who organised this event for us because she’d heard it was really great.

Thanks for making the afternoon such a success!'

Read more about Incognito Spy Missions here:
http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/team-building-days/spy-days/productid_3975/

Top 5 summer holiday destinations

If you've got no idea where you should go on holiday this summer, Galapagos Stevens, Professor of Travel and Tourism at the University of Ipswich gives us his top 5 destinations for 2008.

Margate, England: The place to see and be seen.
'The quintessential English seaside holiday resort. The media may portray Margate as a crumbling, chav-ridden, hell-hole on the Kent coast but the reality couldn’t be more different. Since fire destroyed 95% of the town in 2006, over £100bn has been invested in regeneration.

Margate’s brand new marina has led the town to be compared to Monaco and many of the richest and most influential people in Europe have yachts moored there. The town boasts Britain’s only 7* hotel and last summer George Clooney held his 60th birthday party at the local Dreamland amusement park. Expect to pay around £5,000 per night for a double room in a 3* hotel in peak season.'

Kabul, Afghanistan: For those with a sense of adventure.
'If you’ve got a sense of adventure, a week in Kabul simply can’t be beaten. There’s not much opportunity to get legless in a Muslim country, but you may come back legless as mines litter the roadsides. This is definitely one of the most picturesque cities I have ever visited, although I do like pictures of war.

Hotel accommodation, although cheap can be a little basic. Some hotels lack basics like ensuite bathrooms and outer walls. I took my wife and she said that the earth moved for her virtually every night, mainly because our hotel came under regular attack from rocket propelled grenades. Expect to pay around £109 for a week all-inclusive in a 4* hotel. Flights go daily from RAF Northcote.'

Harare, Zimbabwe: Great for couples on a budget.
'The economic crisis is great news for tourists. Your pound will go miles, although you won’t be able to travel many miles unless you fancy queuing for hours for petrol. Food is not all that plentiful, but that’s great news if you’re on a diet. Travel light as you’ll need several suitcases full of currency to buy anything.

In a new initiative aimed at boosting the ailing economy, you can play a round of golf and have tea with Robert Mugabe for US $30. Hotel accommodation is expensive and standards have slipped considerably in recent years. Expect to pay Zim $95,000,000 for a ten day trip not including flights or transfers.'

Xzanhse, Greece: Clubbers paradise.
'If you’re a fun-loving youngster who loves nothing better than supping a light ale and doing the twist at a discotheque, Xzanhse is the new place to go. Dubbed ‘the new Ibiza’ by Saga Magazine, the Greek island has three enormous social clubs which can accommodate up to 250 for an evening tea dance and regularly feature big name DJs including Mike Read and Dave Lee Travers during the summer months.

Rumoured to be a favourite with celebrities such as Carol Thatcher and Bobby Davro, Xzanhse has plenty of excellent guest houses which are perfect for youngsters who want to party all night and sleep during the day. You can fly Easyjet from London Stansted for £29 return and a week in a 3* guest house should cost around £400 in peak season.'

Kog Harm Lou, Thailand: Great if you’re man over the age of 60 who has needs.
'The smallest and most beautiful of all of the Thai islands, Kog Harm Lou is an undiscovered gem off the west coast of Thailand. This was the place where the film ‘The Beach’ was meant to be filmed until they decided to make it somewhere else.

I travelled to Kog Harm Lou last year on my own after my wife was taken ill in Bangkok and I can honestly say it’s the one of the friendliest and most untouched places I have visited. The women on the island are particularly friendly and for only £3 per night you can stay in a beach-front hotel complete with live-in maid. It’s an absolute bargain. Flights start from £850. Go there now, it’s enchanting!'

Professor Stevens' new book 'Lonely Old Man Planet- South East Asia' is available to all good book shops priced £18.99.

Corporate team shine in Sheffield

Whoever said 'It's grim up north' clearly had never been to Sheffield in May. The Chillisauce team were up bright and early on Friday morning to travel to the steel city to have a go at some of our most popular events and visit some venues.

The sun was shining as they arrived at Sheffield station from where we headed straight to the home of Sheffield Collegiate CC, England captain Michael Vaughan's club, to take part in a Crystal Challenge, one of our most popular team building events.

It was girls v boys as Suzy, Claire, Charlotte and Isabel faced off against Ian, Spencer, Will and Tom. The teams were challenged to construct a free-standing shape out of wooden blocks (much harder than it sounds!), retrieve dangerous chemicals from a cordoned off area, build a huge catapult capable of hitting targets 40ft away, solve a murder at a casino and diffuse a bomb by answering a series of brain teasers. The prize for each challenge was a crystal and ten seconds of time in the crystal dome.

Much to the consternation of the boys, the girls won five crystals to their four, even though they suspected that the girls had been getting more than a bit of a helping hand from the instructors!

With their extra ten seconds of time in the excellent inflatable dome, it should have been simple for the girls to snare the most golden tickets but their hesitant ticket collecting style led to them garnering a frankly pathetic number of tickets and they were trounced by the boys whose aggressive style and bigger hands paid dividends.

After lunch they headed up into the Yorkshire dales to test their skills behind the wheel of a Land Rover over a challenging off road 4x4 track featuring more lumps and bumps than an acne-ridden teenager's face. Both teams displayed admirable skill behind the wheel, not least Charlotte who, after looking suspiciously capable, revealed that she had been driving off road on her parents' farm since primary school.

The team then visited a couple of top Yorkshire hotels to check out their facilities before driving back into sunny Sheffield for a meal with some our suppliers and a well-earned Friday night drink.

Check out Crystal Challenge here:
http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/crystal-maze/

Go off road by clicking below:
http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/4x4-off-road-driving/

Dress Up Friday

When it comes to fashion, some Chillisauce staff leave a lot to be desired. We have a fairly relaxed dress code in the office, by which we mean you can wear exactly what you want. Whilst some of the team abide by the dress smart, think smart mantra, others look like they've just raided the bargain bin at a charity shop.

Some of the girls in the office decided enough was enough, so once a month we're going to be having a themed day where everyone will dress up.

We kicked things off last Friday with a 'dress up' day where everyone had to don their smartest clothes and give the Chillisauce office a much-needed touch of sartorial elegance. This came as a shock to some Chillisaucers who normally only wear a suit at a funeral or court appearance, but virtually everyone made the effort and looked spiffing. Top marks went to Commercial Director Will (pictured) who looked like he'd just come straight from a pheasant shoot on a country estate, and Gavin who's three piece suit, but no shirt, set tongues wagging.

Crystal crackers

Crystal Challenge has become a phenomenally popular corporate event since we first started selling it last year. Mixing conventional team building with a fantastic finale in the UK's only mobile dome, it’s no surprise that we keep getting fantastic feedback.

Aston University spotted Crystal Challenge on our website and wanted us to base them at a venue near their Birmingham base. Corporate Fun Manager Suzy polished off the Chillisauce crystals, dusted of her leopard skin coat and booked the group into one of Warwickshire’s most picturesque hotels:

‘I am pleased to say the whole event was absolutely brilliant. The hotel was absolutely beautiful, the food was great, the staff more than helpful and very friendly and the rooms and facilities provided were excellent. Everyone completely enjoyed the Crystal Challenge which was fun and well organised.

The staff organising the event were very friendly and made everyone feel at ease. The whole event was of a very high standard and well organised. All of my staff certainly enjoyed themselves and this has been one of them most successful away days we have ever had.

I would like to thank you and your team for all your hard work in organising this event and no doubt we will be looking to you in the future. I think the staff want a re-match next year at the Crystal Challenge so we will have to see. Many thanks again.’

http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/crystal-maze/