A Century of Excellence - “Making a Difference”. Sun City, South Africa

The Brief

To create an event worthy of the centenary year celebrations for Norgine’s global sales conference of 350 representatives.

Objectives

To celebrate the centenary in a motivating and memorable manner. To create a common sense of purpose and belonging. To thank, reward and motivate the sales teams and help review business results and future strategy.

WorldEvents Response

WorldEvents recommended Sun City Resort in order to make the Mabele-A-Podi township Community Housing Project an integral part of the event. In the township many families have lost their breadwinner to HIV and AIDS. The building of low cost houses for the families who have lost both parents makes a huge difference to the community. Each house costs £6000 to construct. WorldEvents recommended that prior to the conference each of the four business units raise the money required to build a house and then the representatives from that business unit literally build the house with their own hands.

Centenary Conference Highlights

The Big Picture teambuilding activity kicked off the event. Teams painted canvasses that became the backdrop to the conference set and acted as a powerful reminder that by working together they can make a difference. Before the opening plenary meeting, delegates enjoyed entertainment from a local drumming tribe, a South African pop artist and the national anthem, sung by the South African business unit. Simultaneous translation into five languages was arranged.

A Game Drive and Boma dinner with Marimba drummers created a wonderful African party atmosphere. The Gala Dinner was held in the Ball Room with an after-dinner party. Interactive drumming was the highlight of an emotive closing plenary meeting that included a video montage of the week.

Outcome

The housing project acted as an emotive, socially responsible team building event giving a focus to the conference. Groups worked over two days, brick making, digging trenches, mixing cement and bricklaying. Such was the eagerness to help that another three sites were started. Following the closing session more than £4000 in donations was added to the total raised by the group. 50 sacks of clothes, toiletries and school stationery were donated by delegates and distributed to the township. Post event, all delegates received a DVD of the conference and housing project highlights.

Full Event Management

WorldEvents provided a full event management service that included:

• Concept and creative development of all programme content
• Community Housing Project
• AV and Production management
• Coordination of all 3rd Party Suppliers
• Travel booking and ticket mailing; all transfers at destination
• Accommodation and meeting space management
• Teambuilding
• Collateral design and production
• Online delegate communication and registration via event website
• Team of 30 onsite staff including bi-lingual agency staff, simultaneous translators, production crew and teambuilding facilitators

“It was a magnificent event to help celebrate our centenary.Your whole team is very professional......we have only heard very positive comments about the whole event.”

Graham Roberts: National Sales Manager

"Building the houses really inspired the team and created a long-lasting bond. It was a magnificent event in which to brief the sales teams from all our operating companies on key business activities and plans, and also to take the opportunity to celebrate our centenary.”

Peter Martin: Chief Operating Officer

back