The brief
To create a Summer event and Family Day aimed predominantly at employees and their families plus activities that would appeal to associates (staff) with no children. The daytime section of the event was to run for six hours and had to involve a wide range of activities working to a specified budget. The evening had to appeal to everyone to naturally flow from the activities during the day.
Our solution
We recommended a number of different venues for this annual event, including an airfield and a magnificent country house estate. Both of these options offered enough car parking space for in excess of 1500 vehicles coupled with the required space for the activities. The event site was typically split into several zones, allowing the guests to experience a multitude of diverse activity and entertainment.
A corporate area that included elements of the manufacturing process was always featured to allow employee’s families an insight into their parents’ or relatives everyday working life. Each year a different theme was introduced such as ‘Carnival’ or ‘Wild West Adventure’ which was carried through the entertainment on offer and the overall internal event branding.
Example activities on the day included giant inflatables, large scale arena shows, workshops (circus, drums, crafts etc.), miniature train rides, animal displays, experiential activities using Honda products, laser clay shooting, archery and fairground rides, to name but a few!
Lunch was provided for between 5000 & 8000 people from festival style concession kiosks offering anything from Chinese & Indian food, to salads, baked potatoes and traditional English fare. We then staged an evening concert from a large outdoor stage with covers bands, well known UK tribute acts and to round the evening off, a main stream club DJ.
The events have always been very well received, proving to be a popular way to maintain or increase morale amongst their employees. During challenging economic periods the events were perceived as a great ‘thank you’ to their hard working staff.
Due to the phenomenal success of these events we have organised and managed Honda’s Summer event a total of 11 times.