I used to be an outdoor pursuits instructor. I did everything – sailing, rock-climbing, canoeing. Clients used to come for the team-building elements of the activities and they would say they needed to find something else for next year. The light bulb went on and I decided to set up an events company. Now I'm organising Christmas parties.
Anything out of the office fills people with dread, but once you are at a party, 99% of people thoroughly enjoy themselves because of the production efforts that go into it. I think if your company didn't have a Christmas party, you'd be a bit miffed.
My company, Christmas Connections, does enormous amounts in Manchester, London and Liverpool. We do massive parties that host 2,000 people, and we also do more small-scale stuff. The first Christmas events happen on the 29 November, and then it's full on after that.
You go to some amazing venues. I've worked on big parties at the Tower of London pavilion, which is fantastic, and Billingsgate, the world-famous fish market. Either companies come to us with preconceived ideas, or some people just ask us to put something together for them.
A lot of the parties are organised within the venues themselves. So the scenery will be set up with the venue's designers and all that information will be fed through to us. Some venues suit Christmas parties really well. For example, the Natural History Museum has an ice rink at the front and it's beautifully lit up – it's absolutely perfect. Fake snow is obviously in high demand at this time of year.
We sometimes have different opinions about the party, but ultimately the client is always right. If they want something ridiculous, I would suggest something else. But if they really want it, they get it.
We don't do it all ourselves. Our speciality is that we pull in the best people for whatever the event is, so we contract caterers, acrobats, musicians or whatever the client wants. We put everything together and make sure it runs smoothly.
We get all the drunken party stories. All the cliches come through because people are people. A lot of our parties have drinks included, so people really let their hair down – but nothing a hangover won't cure the next day.
Statistically, retention in companies is much better if they invest in their staff. That could be a summer event or just going down the pub. If you're looked after, you're going to look after the company.
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