Leicestershire-based agency Ashfield Meetings & Events and its sister brand SPARK THINKING recently welcomed some special delegates to take part in The miniLab, an event inspired by Ashfield Meetings & Events’ annual staff conference, The Lab.
The day was designed to provide the children, who ranged from 3-12 years of age, a taste of the work event organisers undertake in addition to an exciting opportunity to plan their own event.
The children began their day with an introduction to the agency before commencing activities including name-badge making, an informal ‘getting to know you’ session and an office treasure hunt (an opportunity for them to familiarise themselves with their new environment).
The children the watched some short films designed to help spark ideas for their own event.
Ashfield’s head of global sales support, M&E, Janina Monaghan head of global sales support, M&E) said the children were later tasked with hosting their own Christmas-themed event. “Working with our in house designers, they used interactive resources to collaboratively design invitations before delivering each invitation by hand to the Ashfield and SPARK teams. They then unleashed their creativity by decorating cupcakes and biscuits and bedecked the room with their handmade decorations and games. As the staff entered the event, the children sang festive songs.”
Ollie (delegate, aged 10) commented: “Everyone loved getting to make their own party. The Ashfield and SPARK teams were really helpful and ready to talk about their job and what they did. Not only were we inspired to consider a future in the industry, we made lots of new friends by taking part in the activities. My favourite activity was the cake decorating because I got to utilise my creativity and add as many toppings as I liked… I would love to come back next year!”
Monaghan concluded: “Education is hugely important to our agency. The miniLab is just one of a number of initiatives that we deliver that demonstrates our commitment to supporting future generations of thinkers, leaders and doers. The children had loads of fun exploring full service event agency life and left feeling inspired, engaged and probably, very tired.”
Ashfield Meetings & Events is part of UDG Healthcare PLC, a full service global event management company specialising in serving the healthcare sector.
In 2016, the agency delivered 2,500 events, across 50 countries and managed the attendance of 141,000+ delegates.
