Welcome to Lauren

We are really pleased to announce that we have a new member of the team!

Lauren has joined us as Events Assistant at an exciting time for Grapevine with our events season well underway and new projects on the horizon. Welcome to the team!

Hello, I’m Lauren and I have recently joined Grapevine as an Events Assistant.

After running my own bar & restaurant for several years, I made the difficult decision to close it down earlier this year. However, as they say, when one door closes, another one opens and I took this as an opportunity to have a career change.  

In my downtime you’ll find me either spending time with my friends and family, walking my dog Lilah, lifting weights at the gym or sipping on a margarita cocktail- all in moderation. 

I look forward to meeting you or helping plan your upcoming event, if you see me, please come and say hello!

Myth busting Event Management

Mythbusting Event Management

If I had a pound for every time someone said to me “Event Management, so you boss people about?” I’d be able to retire at 30. 

So let’s look at myth busting Event Management, with some common misconceptions of the industry.

Event Managers just boss people about SLIGHTLY TRUE.

Hear me out, Event Management companies do take charge of your events and we deal with as many or little of your suppliers/sponsors/attendees as you wish. We live and breathe events, it’s our passion, so believe us when we say we know what we’re doing. By you handing over the reins to us, we can negotiate prices, organise guest lists, and help find that new quirky venue that fits in with how you envision your event so when it comes to it you can just sit back and enjoy the final product. Leave the stressful last minute guestlist changes (yes there’s always one!) and technical glitches to us.

Event Management is just party planning MYTH

Yes, Event Managers can plan parties, but that’s not all we do. Think business clubs/charity dinners/industry conferences/sports games…they’re all events, and all need Event Managers. Don’t get me wrong it’s incredibly satisfying looking back at pictures of the team all bossing the event scene in black-tie apparel, but it’s also just as satisfying seeing pictures of the sleek and professional conferences we’ve put on for local authorities and other corporate clients.

Hiring an event manager will be expensive MYTH

Event Managers don’t work for free, that is correct, but when you look at the broader pictures, we can quite often save you money. Working in the industry day-in day-out we build up a list of reliable, tried and tested suppliers, who we interact with on a regular basis and as a result can sometimes get you a better deal due to us giving them repeat business. Not only that, think about the times you’ve tried something new and made mistakes because you’re new to it. Handing over the responsibility to an Event Management company means that they’ve done this before so can advise and step in where necessary to avoid costly and embarrassing mistakes.

I can do this myself TRUE

Yes, that is true. An opinion which is quite commonly voiced, and we don’t dispute that. However put things into perspective and think about the fact that unless you’ve been assigned the project as a priority, you have to fit this in around your day-to-day responsibilities. Suddenly meetings and tasks you think you’d have ages to do are limited to a significantly smaller time frame, and the deadlines that you thought were ages will creep up on you, and all of a sudden you’re pulling an all nighter just to make sure your printing can be finished because you hadn’t realised the printers need to schedule in your print jobs and they require a lead time of several days.

Moral of the story, LEAVE IT TO THE EXPERTS! Get your 40 winks, keep your stress levels down, and out-source the job to an Event Management company. At Grapevine Event Management, no job is too big or small, drop us a DM or email to chat about your event today.

-Rhiannon

The importance of an event running order!

Anyone that works within the events industry knows that a running order is more or less the holy grail. Trying to make an event run smoothly without a running order could be compared to a pilot of a plane having a rough guess of the flight route, time and end destination, no-one else knowing any info and then hoping for the best.

Having recently watched the first episode of the newest series of The Apprentice, the importance of a running order of some sort was apparent. The teams were tasked to host a ‘corporate away day’ in the Scottish Highlands for a business teams’ day out. The team that lost ultimately did so due to the attendees asking for a refund as a result of the whole day running late. Arrival for lunch was an hour late, the food was cold, the last activity couldn’t take place, and by the end of the day you could see the guests desperately just wanted to go home!

 The event running order is essentially a script for all involved in the production of the event to follow. Everyone is on the same wave length and everyone can more or less work to exact timings (of course there can be room for some wiggle room if needed).

Now the event running order doesn’t need to be sentences upon sentences, actually the clearer and more to the point it is the better. During the inevitable hustle and bustle on event day, you want to be able to quickly see what’s coming up next and at what time. It’s a good relief mid event to take a look at the running order and see that things are going to plan!

If everyone used a running order consistently in their every-day lives then we would all be efficient punctual machines not wasting a single second (not likely). Whether you’re managing a 300-person awards ceremony, a large conference, or a small business meeting, having a clear running order and sharing it with all suppliers involved is a fantastic start to a successful event.  

 At Grapevine a running order is created for all of our events to ensure everything runs smoothly. We will take control of this for you, so on the day you can be confident everything is in safe hands and you can focus on enjoying the event.

 -Dan

Let's talk alcohol

More specifically alcohol at events, and the introduction of more non-alcoholic options.

I’m partial to a glass of wine, however for the first time I took on Dry January last year, and attempted it again this year too (with partial success). One thing that I noticed over the past 12 months was the lack of choice for non-alcoholic drink options when attending events.

A YouGov survey found that 44% of 18-24 year old drinkers now regularly or occasionally opt for non-alcoholic alternatives, which has risen from the 31% in 2022. It’s great when you go to a pub/bar/hotel and see the growing range for alcohol-free lagers, an exotic range of mocktails, and even non-alcoholic spirits on offer behind the bar, but when you try and translate this into larger events, it just doesn’t seem to work yet.

Think about when you arrive at a charity event, gala dinner or awards ceremony, what’s the first thing you experience when arriving at the reception? A glass of bubbles, wine or orange juice. We all know that OJ, is a classic and satisfies a lot of people, but it’s 2024, why can’t we leave the juice for breakfast, and get creative and step outside the comfort zone a little!

Just one google search will give you lots of websites dedicated to Alcohol Free drinks with a vast range, no matter what your favourite tipple is. Now I’m not saying we do away with the Chardonnay, (I’ll fight anyone who tries to take mine away from me) but it would be nice to be able to offer the choice of both at events without incurring extra charges for something that should be offered as standard, that way everyone is catered for.

So with that in mind, here’s my current drinks obsessions at the moment

·      19 Crimes Chardonnay – My old faithful, in my opinion you can’t go far wrong with a bottle from the 19 Crimes range and it’s at a decent price point

·      Cranberry & Raspberry Juice with Cream Soda – This is so refreshing, low calorie and reminds me of the red and white Campino sweets, can never get too much of this!

-Rhiannon

Grapevines chosen charity of the year

Tenovus Cancer Care -Here for everyone affected by cancer | Yma i bawb a effeithir gan ganser 💙

Grapevine has chosen Tenovus Cancer Care as its charity for the upcoming year. Fundraising will take place throughout the year with the team taking on challenges as well as donation opportunities at all our events. Initiatives throughout the year include Dan completing a Sky Dive, Rhiannon and Gwen are looking at undertaking a 10k inflatable obstacle run and the fundraising efforts will conclude with Liz running the 2024 Berlin Marathon on her birthday weekend! With training underway we hope you can support this incredible charity, updates on our progress and donations can be made here: https://tenovuscancercare.enthuse.com/pf/liz-brookes/post/4545584

If you are attending one or more of our 2024 events, please keep in mind to donate to help us raise as much money as we can for this worthy cause!

Client Event Spotlight

Our first client event in the spotlight is the Industry Wales showcase event of Hensol Castle.

We worked with Industry Wales to deliver an informative visit to guests on the collaborative work between Industry Wales, Waldon Phillips and Hensol Castle. This event showcased the digitalisation of production at the distillery. The collaboration of the three companies created a higher performing production line, offering new and improved service for clients and their own bottling. The event provided an opportunity for networking, idea sharing, tour of the facilities and the opportunity to sample Hensol Castle gin!

When working with Industry Wales we advised creating effective and more immersive event content is key to attendee engagement. Therefore; shorter presentations in the traditional theatre style set up and requesting attendees join the tour of the distillery where more information could be shared with a backdrop of the live production line as a visual aid for attendees.  Feedback from attendees following the event highlighted the event had the right balance of networking and informative presentations.

This event was held on two occasions providing the opportunity to reach more organisations and individuals who may be of benefit of the services provided by Industry Wales.

Industry Wales with their specialist forums offer a range of services to support companies already established within Wales, in addition to this can attract and support companies that are seeking a world class location for their business.

Our second spotlight event is the One Planet Cardiff Summit

The One Planet Cardiff Summit offered a unique opportunity for attendees to network, gain insights, and share their experiences in promoting sustainable futures. Led by Cardiff Council, a distinguished panel of keynote speakers and contributors shared their expertise and vision to accelerate Cardiff towards its Net Zero future.

For this event we sought out individuals who can provide valuable insights into their aims for sustainability within their own organisation and what they see as the wider opportunities available within the city.

To seek immediate feedback from attendees who included organisations, residents and the council, the event programme incorporated breakout workshops, Q&A’s with panellists and small exhibition stands across the venue. Varying the format or styles of communication allowed attendees to offer ideas and feedback in open and honest discussions. Creating great conversations for what is coming and idea share of what can be done to accelerate the city’s journey towards a carbon neutral future.

Our role for both events included pre-event communication, on site management including delegates, speakers, suppliers and venue liaison as well as gathering the important post event feedback. This is part of our event management service allowing the clients to enjoy the event.

At Grapevine Event Management we are happy to be on hand in making our clients events a success without the stress!

Wales STEM Awards

A Wales wide awards ceremony celebrating the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths sector. These awards were set up to highlight the incredible work taking pace in Wales. For the inaugural Wales STEM Awards back in 2020, due to the pandemic the awards were held online, however, the feedback following the event highlighted this did not dampen the experience of guests.

I wanted to congratulate you on such a successful event last night. I watched it live and it’s the best virtual awards event I’ve seen – the look and feel was excellent, it was expertly hosted by Sian and the tech all ran really smoothly. And it all finished on time!! Congratulations! (Attendee in 2020).

Behind the scenes of the Wales STEM Awards 202

The first awards held in person took place in 2022 and allowed guests to come together to network and celebrate.

It was fantastic, to see what other individuals and companies are achieving in the STEM sector and to be able to celebrate it all together. And as someone who has only worked in one STEM company, it was interesting to see what other companies are achieving and what type of other work is happening in Wales. (Attendee in 2022).

And this year, the second in person but third awards took place with guests already looking forwards to 2024!

We really enjoyed the awards and hope to be able to take part again next year. (Attendee in 2023).

The 2023 awards ceremony saw winners from across Wales, from; Afon technology, who developed a non-invasive blood glucose monitor the “holy grail” of diabetes monitoring, University of South Wales researching Air-Quality Control to combat the deteriorating air quality in residential and school areas and in the educational sector Menai Science Park M-Sparc were winners for their Skills Academy; a series of lessons delivered in primary and secondary school which ensure the direct skills required for local STEM careers are delivered and developed.

Prof. Sir Chris Evans, was the 2023 Outstanding Contribution Award recipient, a home-grown entrepreneur who’s built more than 40 life sciences companies.

2023 Wales STEM Awards Winners

The feedback and comments made following the event by our sponsors and guests are what makes it worthwhile, knowing we have been able to shine a spotlight on the deserving and sometimes unknown companies behind incredible products/services or innovations provides us with satisfaction of a job well done! The task of running an awards could not take place without the sponsors and supporters and to them we say thank you for your continued support in 2023.

Torfaen and Monmouthshire Business Awards

In February 2023 we saw the launch of the inaugural Torfaen and Monmouthshire Business Awards. We created the awards as we saw the opportunity to bring together the business communities of Torfaen and Monmouthshire to celebrate the achievements of the entrepreneurs and businesses operating across both counties.  

We’re no stranger to a challenge at Grapevine, as such, with a clear vision in mind, we chose to host the first of these awards in none other than Abergavenny Market Hall. With a little imagination and a determined team, the fully functioning Market space was transformed into what we’re sure you’ll agree was a black-tie worthy venue. Bringing in a whole purpose-built kitchen, bar and stage, the scene was set.

Abergavenny Market Hall set up

After a warm welcome from Monmouth Male Voice Choir, The Torfaen & Monmouthshire Business Awards commenced, it saw over 50 businesses shortlisted, with upwards of 260 people from all over the counties gathering in Abergavenny Market Hall to recognise the outstanding entrepreneurial endeavours, where we crowned 14 winners and 7 Highly Commended across a broad range of sectors in the business community.

With the likes of Dragon’s Den success story, Kelli Aspland and Laura Waters from Solar Buddies taking home the Entrepreneur of the Year trophy and 88-year old, Martin Lewis of Homeglow Products, bagging the Innovation and Technology Business of the Year, it’s safe to say the event was a roaring success.

2023 Winners

With the satisfaction of a job well done and the 2023 awards drawing to a close, the venue was transformed back overnight, ready for the traders and customers to arrive for Abergavenny’s Friday Morning Market.

Abergavenny Market Hall the morning after the awards

We were so pleased to see how well supported the awards were by finalists and sponsors alike, with a special mention to our headline sponsor, Johnsey Estates UK Ltd. We can’t wait for the return in 2024, with the second Torfaen and Monmouthshire Business Awards to take place in the county of Torfaen this time around.