The Conference News sales team blew the autumnal cobwebs away with a trip to Camber Sands, in East Sussex, for some teambuilding and kitebuggy racing.
Boutique hotel The Gallivant was the venue for the morning conference element.
The Gallivant’s meeting rooms can host up to 100 delegates and the team made good use of the private deck area for breaks between sessions.
General Manager and co-owner Tudor Hopkins says: “Traditionally teambuilding and away days tend to focus on country hotels, which seems crazy given that we are an island and it’s a well known fact that sea air revives the senses and soul.”
Our team’s senses were ready for the sea air after a high speed rail link to nearby Ashford in just over an hour from London.
The hotel’s Beach Bistro which served up lunch can also transform into a meetings space for up to 100 delegates.
Accommodation was in 18 bedrooms on site, with extra space at the neighbouring Peninsula cottages behind the hotel.
After lunch, it was off to Camber’s four miles of sandy beach in front of the hotel and home to a British Kite Surfing Association centre of excellence.
Our group tried the taster lessons for land buggies and kiting at the Kite Surf Centre, although equipment hire and lessons range through to to three-day programmes.
If you want to go higher than a kite, then flying lessons are available at nearby Lydd Airport. You may wish to take your delegates across to France for lunch, something that QHotels in Ashford did last year for one group of association clients.
And if you want to keep your team’s feet firmly on the ground, then there is Lydd Race Track for Go Karting and Littlestone golf course.
“This space at Camber is perfect for blue sky thinking and the best meetings we have hosted have been those put on by creative/media companies looking for a unique hotel/location to meet in,” says Hopkins.
Dinner, prepared by Head Chef Trevor Hambley who worked under Marco Pierre White in London, finished off a busy day.
Hambley’s kitchen is supplied by local farmers and fisherman who bring the best of their produce to The Gallivant kitchen door.
IT and business services company IBM brought a team down to Camber for two days of meetings, dinners and surfing and Hopkins says the hotel has benefitted from a downturn in the economy, “with the Staycation approach now transferring to corporate away days”.
Any comments? Email conferencenews@mashmedia.net
