The Brief:
The Lensbury, situated by Teddington Lock, Middlesex, was constructed in the early 1930s. It is set within 25 acres of landscaped grounds. Facilities include a 4* Hotel and Conference Centre for events, special occasions and leisure and it also boasts a private members club. Wildgoose have run many events at The Lensbury over the years, and we are often asked if we can incorporate challenges on the Thames, a stretch of which passes The Lensbury. Moody’s completed one of our on land Venue Explorer events the previous year and were looking for something unique and different. With that in mind, we decided to develop a combined land and water activity that would deliver the ‘wow’ factor to our client.
The Solution:
In order to achieve our aim, we had initial meetings with the Water Sports Manager of The Lensbury and went out on the stretch of river all the way up to Hampton Court. We then came back a week later and plotted our clues, which included a site visit at Hampton Court Palace, allowing us to include this unique venue should our client wish to do so.
Our client’s timing constraints meant that they were not able to get all the way up to Hampton Court, so we structured the event so that they would be able to do the clues on the water as well as around The Lensbury. This gave the event plenty of variety and an element of fun. For logistical purposes, each team were allocated a time slot for the river section of the challenge, so that they would know when to do their land-based clues and could plan their time accordingly.
After the initial enquiry, we had several detailed phone and email conversations where the itinerary and structure of the day were arranged. We provided an Event Project Plan with an outline of the day, as well as a more detailed document with the timings and logistics of the whole activity. Right up until the day of the event, changes were being made by the client and we were able to easily incorporate these changes into the event.
The Results:
We had a total of 70 participants split into 10 teams and they had a total of 2 hours to complete the challenges. The teams were briefed in a central area and sent off to complete the challenge in their own time, with the only structure being their allocated time slot for the river hot spots. We provided 5 members of staff to facilitate the event, all of whom were on hand to answer any questions, help with the technical side of things and provide assistance when called upon.
Each team had a team pack which included a Samsung Galaxy Tablet with our unique GPS Challenge app pre-loaded and ready to go, ponchos in case of rain, pens and paper, contact numbers for our staff, and emergency tab chargers. The Lensbury was full of fun and laughter on the day, with teams fully focused on the activity. We were also rather fortunate with the weather – sunshine being the order of the day!
