A Work of Art: Creative Team Building in Watford, Hertfordshire

With the high demand for creative team building days, CCC Events provide an excellent selection for our clients to choose from. We run the glamorous Fashion Works with teams designing fabulous outfits for the catwalk challenge, many different cooking workshops and our increasingly popular Work of Art paint'athon!

Last week we held a team building event in Watford for one of our client's annual conferences. Our painting workshops are a really good way to encourage a whole department to get creative, communicate effectively and work together to produce a giant masterpiece. Just how big the final painting is depends on the size of your group, your programme and where you might like it displayed.

This group was split into 8 teams in the morning and 8 in the afternoon, and provided with quality art supplies, aprons, brushes and acrylic paints, as well as a set of large stretched canvasses that later form some of the crucial pieces of the masterpiece puzzle. They did some really fun and colourful ice breaker activities to get their creative juices flowing, which lead flowingly into the main challenge.

Some of our clients have requested bespoke artwork to be designed to communicate a message or brand, but for this specific client it was the size that mattered. The bigger the better! Both the morning and afternoon teams worked really hard to get the 70 canvasses matched up with the correct shades of colour and adjoining lines, and just look at their achievements below...

If you feel a Creative Team Build would suit your business needs then call 0845 006 06 06 or visit our website where you can live chat our sales team during office hours too!

Team Building for Charity

CCC Events are experts at providing clients with a good solid team building activity to meet particular needs or just a good fun day out as a reward. One great way to encourage staff teams to really throw themselves into their competitive nature is to provide incentives, and one way to do this is to play for charity!

Take for example the recent Starcom V's MediaVest Games, who chose to hold their annual team building event at Beaumont House in Windsor. The clients request was to design an Olympic style event involving sporting games for 400 people - an amazing 42 teams! What's more, Starcom were playing for Centrepoint and MediaVest for The Fred Foundation, both charities close to their hearts - and they were playing for money. £1000 to be donated to the charity of the winner!

With £1000 at stake and 21 teams playing for each charity, the seven fantastic activities were ready and waiting to be played. From target tennis and go-karts, to a giant ski biathlon and our hilarious (and rather wet) 4 x 400ml relay were some of the best! But the Human Table Football pitch was a sure favourite of the day, where team members are harnessed to the giant table football poles and have to try and score goals in the opponents end. It's hilarious to watch, as naturally it's hard to play football when you can only move sideways! There was a lot to play for and the scores for each of the charities teams would be totalled at the end of the fun filled day!

The staff on the day put the teams to the test on one area to the next in half hour slots, and the midway scores at lunch time gave them the incentive to give it their all in the afternoon to try and beat the opposition. Starcom, playing for the charity Centrepoint, had taken the lead by just a few points!

The whistles were blown at full time in the activity fields and the teams flocked to the outdoor bar for a well earned beer! The teams had slogged their guts out for a full day of hardcore sporting activities and this was the moment they were all  waiting for... the final scores.

And the winner is... MediaVest playing for The Fred Foundation! The teams roar in glory and there is jumping for joy across the field. But then an even more generous gesture is made... they announce that Centrepoint also deserve a donation for Starcom's points and they are going to match the winnings for both charities! That was £1000 donated to both charities for everyone's efforts for the day. Ahhhh, everyone's a winner, and fun was had by all!

For other fantastic ideas for team building events you can run for charity or to suit any bespoke brief please call our sales team on 08450 06 06 06 or visit our website.

A Bite-size Taste of Camden Lock!

The World has taken one giant size culinary leap in my lifetime, from Cooking with Mother jam tarts to Delia's baking, through watching in amazement at Keith Floyd's wine fuelled outdoor cooking adventures (Shhhhh, nobody mention the Puffin), to the gigantic platter of celebrity chefs that delight us with mouth watering recipes from around the globe today! And I LOVE food. I love cooking, and I love eating! Cooking events are becoming more and more popular as the hype of new foods take off, baking programmes become more competitive - even grown men cry on The Great British Bake Off, and new global cooking techniques emerge.

CCC Events also run really experimental Canape Creations events, which not only teach guests how to make some easy but impressive professional looking party pieces for their own social events, but gives the teams a chance to be introduced to a whole array of delicious ingredients which they may never have worked with before.

Having recently managed one of these events for one of our global clients I would like to thank the Holiday Inn, Camden Lock for being the ideal venue to hold our cooking events. The function room is built with floor to ceiling glass windows looking directly onto the Camden Lock, so it's beautifully light and a perfect setting. The staff were really helpful, and the exclusive use of the function room kitchen was absolutely perfect for the cooking master class.

As far as Team Building goes, the cooking events are my favourite to manage, enabling the teams to work well together to create some very ‘interesting’ results! The teams in this Canape Creations event paid great attention to detail and managed to produce perfect quail scotch eggs, mini lamb ragout pies and some delicious bite sized Tiramisu! I’ll be using some of these recipes at home!

For more information on our food events, chocolate workshops and general team building days please call our sales and events coordinators on 0845 006 06 06, or visit our website.

The Guernica of the Team Building World!

An enquiry comes in from one of our top clients to provide a creative team build for a group of 150 in a meeting room in Northampton which accentuates the need for communication, dedication and the whole group working towards one spectacular achievement. "OK, leave it to us!" we said. This will require creating a painting so big only Picasso could rival it we thought! Pablo Picasso was one of the World's greatest painters, and one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, with some of his most famous works including Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Guernica. But these paintings are not only an outstanding expression of his thoughts, they are on a particularly grand scale! Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which portrays five nude prostitutes from a brothel in Barcelona, stands 244cm tall and 233cm wide and is considered to be central to the development of cubism and modern art.

However, Guernica is a dark and moving representation of the terror and destruction of the German and Italian bombing, and the ultimate artistic anti-war symbol if ever I have seen one. The painting measures an outstanding 349cm high and 776cm wide! I have been lucky enough to view it in all its splendour and glory at Museo Reina Sofia, and it was truly magnificent.

So, what's this got to do with team building? Well, we have had years of experience of running successful team building days for our clients, finding them the best venue for their away day, and creating bespoke events, but to create a masterpiece usually only Pablo Picasso could be proud of is something that requires team work at its best.

Having commissioned a local artist, Kelly Penfold, to paint us our own 'Picasso style' work of art, we now set ahead to produce an 18 team event and scale it up to a 250cm high and 750cm wide masterpiece. Look out Picasso!

CCC Events have provided a wide range of bespoke Work of Art events for clients, and have commissioned artists to design branded images as well as abstract or modern art, but we don't often we get asked to provide a 750cm wide masterpiece (you require a pretty big meeting room for these!) The teams on the day had 75 canvasses distributed between them, and instructions on what their challenge was. But they had no idea what the complete image would be. Considering it was the hottest day of the year so far the Northampton Marriott staff were helpful in topping up cold water stations to keep our budding artists refreshed and cool. But the hard work paid off and the delegates couldn't believe their eyes when we did the big reveal at the end of a truly successful afternoon. And here is the masterpiece itself:

The client said:

"...feedback from all participants was extremely positive and it certainly helped the communication and networking theme around which our day was centred. While some of us are less artistic than others, cue some of the examples in the warm up exercise, it was a fantastic event which brought together many teams who work in different locations and never get to see or meet each other. It was arranged so seamlessly that it even managed to make me look good!"

For more information on our bespoke team building events, free venue finding service and creative options contact 0845 006 06 06 or visit our website.

CCC's Bushcraft expert stars in new series - Jimmy's Forest

Edible or deadible? asks our Bushcraft expert Heath Dawson, as he holds up two rather innocent looking bits of shrub from the forest. "Edible" cries one of the team members. "Then I'm afraid you would be dead within an hour if you ate this!" replies Heath. Heath Dawson is an absolute legend in the woodland, and the very best of our CCC Events Bushcraft instructors. Over the years he has taught bushcraft and nature skills to thousands of people from businessmen in corporate team building days, children, hen & stag parties, to park rangers and scout groups. And it is Heath's vast expertise and welcoming nature that makes CCC Events Bushcraft days so popular!

He is, in fact, so knowledgeable that he is now set to appear in the new series 'Jimmy's Forest', starting tonight at 9pm on More4 with Jimmy Doherty. Jimmy's Forest takes viewers on a modern boy's own outdoor adventure deep inside a pristine Norfolk woodland. Country boy, farmer, insect lover and natural history enthusiast Jimmy Doherty is in his element high up in a spectacular tree house, fully equipped with its own suspended walkways, zip wires and science lab.

Joining him around the camp fire and in the lab are friends and experts who help him make new discoveries and carry out experiments to understand the inner workings of a British forest. The series charts the seasonal transformation of the forest and the challenges and pleasures it holds for Jimmy.

Jimmy, also well know for being a good friend of Jamie Oliver and rare-breeds farmer, has had a string of successful TV hit series including the most recent Jimmy and the Giant Supermarket, A Farmer's Life for Me and Jimmy's Food Factory.

So if the skills of a bushman interests you, then tune in tonight and keep your eyes peeled for Heath! He's due to appear in -

Episode 1 - Spring. Broadcasting on 6th August @ 9pm on More4

Episode 3 - Autumn. Broadcasting on 20th August @ 9pm on More4

Episode 4 - Winter. Broadcasting on 27th August @ 9pm on More4

And for those adventurous corporate groups out there who like to break away from the norm and get out in the wilderness, contact CCC Events for more information on our Bushcraft skills days or weekends on 0845 006 06 06.

Two days of Team Building at Pendell House

The CCC Events team set off for a two day extravaganza of fun team building activities in Surrey at a privately hired estate. As a flexible team building company not only do we offer a free venue finding service for our clients, but we can adapt and fit in with privately hired grounds and manor houses. Pendell House in Bletchingly was a prime example of one of these events.

As we drive up the long and winding gravel driveway we are greeted by a smart team of service staff in their crisp shirts and bow ties. The house is breathtaking! Pendell House is something special: a Grade I listed country house designed by the architect Inigo Jones.

Friday night after the clients finish their sumptuous 3 course supper with champagne we led them to the lounge, where we had set up The Ultimate Quiz Show. Our compere for the evening, and one of our most experienced actors, Terry Bird, led them through musical, TV and general knowledge rounds using interactive voting technology from the comfort of their sofas!

After the winner is announced the clients retired to their rooms to save their energy for the next day's challenges. The company had chosen countries and have requested to run their own 2012 Games in teams out on the back lawn!

France, Brazil, Japan and Jamaica are now set to compete in a series of outdoor fun games - playing for Gold Medals! The teams had a fantastic time, despite the drizzle, grabbed their rain macs and fought to the bitter end! And the winner was France...although sabotage and foul play was suspected by the competing countries!  Overall, a successful two days of team building in Surrey and another happy client.

For more information on free venue finding, or team building events in Surrey please call 08450 06 06 06 or visit our website.

What a Work of Art!

As Event Managers at CCC Events we're trained to run a broad range of team building days from Treasure Hunts, Murder Mysteries  and outdoor activities, to Chocolate Workshops and cooking master classes. The events are fantastic fun and designed to get colleagues working well together, communicating and competing for a winning prize! However one of our most popular events, the Work of Art, not only gets the delegates to work wonderfully in their teams, but the whole group is working towards the same goal, to produce a huge and colourful multi canvass masterpiece!

It was a beautiful day in London when CCC Event Managers Katrina Shoesmith and Kate Packham travelled to the city to run the Work of Art for Ernst & Young at their offices. After spending the morning in meetings, our clients were delighted to come back from lunch to find we had transformed their offices into an Art studio. It looked fantastic, and the view of Big Ben and the London Eye out of the windows on the 11th floor was just breathtaking!

We all take pride in helping companies enjoy good team building days, but there's nothing that compares with the sense of achievement the teams get when we do The Big Reveal at the end of the day. This was one of the best paintings I've seen yet though. The teams worked so well together, communicating to get all the joining canvasses with matching colours and sharing the shades of paint with each other. You can tell that a group has worked well together when the end result is so perfect. Well done Ernst & Young!

Kelly Edwards at Ernst & Young was thrilled:

"Our entire team enjoyed the the work of art event - it was a nice surprise to see the final painting and how well we all worked together to achieve the wonderful end result. I have been on quite a few team building days but none have even compared to this one. I would highly recommend Work of Art for a team building day to anyone. I look forward to planning our next Strategy day with CCC Events!"

For more information about our Work of Art team building day, and many other team building solutions call our sales team on 08450 06 06 06 or visit our website

Just 18 days to go until London 2012!

I can't believe it's only 18 days until our capital hosts the worlds most prestigious sporting event in history, the Olympics. We've had years of build up, planning, controversial ticket sales and what seems like an eternity of talk of the torch relay, and now it's only two and half weeks away! As an award winning team building company we are used to encouraging competitive activities and games, but this is particularly exciting for us as we were lucky enough to run a team building session for our very own Team GB Diving Team in Palma, Majorca last month! The team, their families, coaches and sponsors at British Gas were split into 5 teams and competed in one of our most popular activities, The Enigma Challenge.  The event is a fun and frantic race against the clock to complete as many challenges as possible with the kit provided, tailored especially for the diving team and their needs. This was not the first time we've run an event for the Olympics, but one in a series of team building days for LOCOG, The British Swimming team, and the British Paralympic Swimming team.

This light hearted fight for the Gold Medals is not quite as intense as what we expect in the 2012 games, but at the end of the excitement there could only be one winning team and that was Pete Waterfield's, just beating his diving partner Tom Daley by a few points!

British Swimming Sponsorship Manager, Jenny Forbes, said:

"The Enigma Challenge was a fantastic event, with a great mix of challenge types, which brought all members of the diving team together. We will definitely be working with CCC Events in the future!"

As far as team building events go, this has got to go down as one of my favourite events ever. I wasn't lucky enough to get tickets to see the diving in London 2012, but I'll definitely be following their progress on the TV. What an absolutely lovely bunch of people. An absolute pleasure to work with. Good luck to Team GB and lets hope we see some more Gold Medals in the weeks to come. GOOD LUCK TEAM GB!!!!

For more information on award winning team building events like The Enigma Challenge call CCC Events on 08450 06 06 06 or visit our website