T: +44 (0) 1509 815 026
F: +44 (0) 1509 815 427
E: rachel@thephoenixpartners.com
A: The Phoenix Partners,
3 Barrow Road, Sileby,
Leicestershire, LE12 7LW, UK
Awards
Five appearances on the awards podium in two years:
Chamber Awards 2005: East Midlands regional winner, Entrepreneur of the Year category
Televisual magazine Top 50 2005: ranked 42 out of UK top 50 companies, joint 9th in Live Events category
EMDA Business Champion 2005: winner in the Championing Change category
E-Commerce Awards 2004: East Midlands regional finalist
Startups Awards 2004: Micro Business of the Year national finalist
Leicestershire Businesswoman of the Year 2004: finalist
And twice on the panel of judges:
Edge Awards 2005: national judge (contest only applies to England)
Enterprising Britain Awards 2004: East Midlands regional judge
News - Peter Strange joins The Phoenix Partners
Before he joined us, Peter worked for a year as a freelance industry events organiser, taking care of a range of blue-chip clients including Friends Provident and H Boss plc. Before that he was employed by PowerGen and Texaco. He's as familiar with the complexities of the international energy business as he is with the glitter and razzmatazz of a celebrity black-tie event.
"Nothing beats this job," says Peter. "Event management is about creating something brief yet unforgettable and - to an outsider - apparently out of thin air. There are so many strands to pull together and so many opportunities for a slip-up, and you only get one shot at it. So you give it your best and it turns out even better than you expected."
Where We've Worked - a global reach with a local touch
We can help you influence an audience in Oslo as easily as one in Osaka. Nothing's left to chance because we check every venue and every detail personally before we commit. If your audiences straddle time zones, we'll draw them together via satellite. If you need local suppliers, we'll find them. Wherever you want to go, whatever you want to say, we'll give you the confidence to say it.
What Clients Say
"The Phoenix Partners understood BP's culture and grasped the key messages that we wanted to get across."
Urbain Bruyere, Project Manager, BP Projects Academy
"...one of my main aims is to ensure that the people we use provide a point of differentiation. This usually manifests itself in the servicing of the account and this is where your strengths lie. There are many that can do the job, but few who get on with everyone so well and become part of the team."
Sarah Dale, Marketing Services Manager, Canon (UK) Ltd
"The Phoenix Partners were great and they created a really brilliant stand that gave us everything we wanted; we made maximum use of the space, created an area that was visually dynamic but not threatening and kept on budget. A great success. Thank you."
Barney Hooper, PR and Events Manager, HomeChoice
"You've wired me up like you are a member of the KGB!"
Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union
"I'm reading this now. It's 4:30am my time but I just wanted to read it as soon as it came through! I'm very excited!"
Michael Fairweather, BP America
Press Releases
Chamber Awards - October 2005
Televisual press release - June 2005.pdf
Olympic PR- May 2005.pdf
Championing Change Award - April 2005.pdf
Peter Strange - April 2005.pdf
Member of the Month January 2005 - UK TEN.pdf
Enterprising Britain PR - November 2004.pdf
Business Start-Up National Awards - September 2004.pdf
BP Awards Contract - May 2004.pdf
Women of Year Awards - March 2004.pdf
A picture tells a thousand words
A single illustration can bring a complex story to life. Complicated ideas become instantly understandable when represented graphically.
The Graphics Studio is where we reduce your ideas to the bare essentials - the must-have concepts that your audience should be telling their friends about long after the show is over.
Speaker Support - electrify your audience
When you stand up before an audience, you don't want support materials that steal the show. If everything you say is repeated on-screen, you might as well email the slides to your audience and stay at home.
So that's our starting point: the production of support materials that add to what you're saying without distracting from the message you want to deliver. Simplicity and ease of use are important too, while lively graphics and telling photographs will get your message across far more effectively than endless bullet points.
Print - thinking deeper than the surface gloss
Print technology has moved on. You can print on just about anything in 2-D or 3-D; on plastic, wood, or metal; on a truck or in a food-safe environment; with varnish or with hot foil.
And yet life is never quite so straightforward. What works on a 48-sheet poster won't work on a supermarket shelf. The typography of a conference document looks wooden on an exhibition panel.
Luckily our designers have printed on just about every surface under the sun. Just as well really, because, when deadlines loom, they complete much of their work by the light of the moon.
Film and Video Graphics - move the audience, as well as the image
Video doesn't have to mean filmed footage. Within our graphics studio, we produce images that can be as simple as a name plate on a moving image or as complex as an animation within a simulated environment.
In every case we choose the approach that fits the scenario. Sometimes a well-paced series of static images can generate as much adrenalin as a roller coaster ride.
Live Event and Installation Design - turn a space into a storytelling arena
Every venue is different, so we check it out in person before we commit to a design. If appropriate, we'll render the finished venue in walk-through digital format before we start to build. You'll be able to see the event from every angle, and we'll have a chance to experiment with different formats.
By the time we're ready to go live, we'll know every nook and cranny as intimately as the venue staff. And when you finally step up to the microphone, it'll feel like coming home.
Web design - engaging, informative, sticky
As browsers, we're as fickle as you are. If we can't tell what a website's about, we move on. So we design websites that tell simple stories in an imaginative way. They're sticky sites that make the most of our shortened online attention spans.
A good example is Sherwood Energy Village. It proves that an engaging and informative website with numerous features including content management doesn't have to cost the earth. This one came in at a shade over £10k. www.sev.org.uk
Sometimes it's much easier to absorb information at your own speed and in your own time. That's how delegates to a BP event in Hamburg felt. They were representatives of a group that was changing its name and focus, and it was the first time any of them had ever met.
They asked if they could take material home with them, so we put together a huge, two-CD package containing all the presentations and videos they had seen, plus event photographs and speaker notes. The interactive format meant they could pick and choose the running order and set their own learning priorities.
Identity - dress for less: corporate ID on a budget
Good design doesn't have to be expensive, as the University of Leicester discovered when they came to us for help with their Enterprising Student project.
For less than £1,000 we developed the look and feel of the project's corporate ID, together with a complete set of printed collateral. Another cost-saving trick was to deliver copies of the artwork in PDF format so that it could be dropped straight into the Enterprising Student website.
No boundaries
The world may be shrinking, but that doesn't make it any easier to manage. Wiring up a conference in Bangalore is not the same as plugging one in Birmingham.
But we've already worked in more than 50 countries across the globe. We've already overcome the cultural differences and solved the technical problems that can trip up the best-planned event.
We keep on top of technical developments too. We actively hunt out the people and the technologies that are changing the way we communicate.
Project Management - on time, to budget, and to brief
Business is about deadlines and budgets. We take them as seriously as you do, so we assign a project manager to every project.
The project manager is responsible for all the contractors within the project. They can easily have a score or more of project stages and technical trades to control: sound, video, projection, construction, crewing, lighting, web, live camera relay, telephone, rehearsal, presentation, health and safety, scheduling, transport... the list goes on. It's the project manager's job to bring them all in on time, to budget, and on concept.
Installations - change your environment
Every room can be redefined; every space has a myriad of alternative uses. Our job is to bring them to life.
This is how we suggested turning the interior of a 45-foot articulated truck into a multi-use space in which Avon can tour the country. It's a mobile training and recruitment zone that doubles as customer demonstration space. It has the same reassuring signals of prestige, intimacy, and discretion that you'd find at a department store cosmetic counter.
Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) - the first message is safety
We use a lot of kit at The Phoenix Partners. We design and build entire auditoriums, and we wire everything up for the magic of sound and vision. But first we think about safety.
Neither you nor we can afford to get things wrong at a public event. Your audience expects to walk into a safe environment, and you expect us to provide one. That's why we're accredited to IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health), Europe's leading body for health and safety professionals.
IOSH accreditation is much more than a framed certificate on a wall. It involves regular training for the entire team on a continuing basis. For us, it's a fundamental part of the way we work; for you, it's peace of mind.
Working Drawings - starting from first principles
Complexity needs thinking through, so the first stage is a set of scale drawings. They show how practical it would be to run your event in any given way (circulation, sight lines, power needs etc) and they let us check the health and safety aspects.
Event equipment takes up more floor space than you think. It often reduces the capacity of a venue below the numbers quoted by the venue owners. Working drawings tell you whether your event will meet your needs. They also show how a limited budget might go a bit further.
Web streaming and Satellite Broadcasting - one planet, one audience
If you get the connections right, you can speak to the world as easily as you can speak to your next-door-neighbour. And that's exactly how BP wanted to play it when they had some financial news to release simultaneously in London and New York.
This was a complex project by anyone's standards: a live audience face-to-face with the directors in London, a live audience connected via satellite from New York, live transmission and feedback on the internet, and incoming phone lines on global conference call.
We had 20 technicians working in London and another 15 in New York. The event went off without a hitch.
Film, video, and audio on tap
No project is too complex. We can count the cream of industry professionals on our team:
Turning raw images into a stream of emotions
Films are made or destroyed at the editor's console. This is where we make sense of the rushes, where we alter the pace and bring out the tension. The result, after all that cutting, pasting, and synchronising of music, is a film that captures a mood or a moment and - most important of all - captures the audience's imagination.
Video - graduation and recruitment video
BP's Projects Academy is an in-house training programme for its top-level project managers. Among the many projects we've undertaken for the Academy was this graduation video which also doubled as a recruitment video for later waves of trainees.
We made the video a year after the Academy was launched. It brought in dozens of new recruits and earned us a grateful slap on the back from BP's Group Vice-President.
Audio - thought-provoking audio
When you're the world's fifth largest company, the pressure is relentless. But thinking creatively about the future doesn't come from sitting in a stale environment. So BP Lubricants asked us to create and manage a three-day global gathering in Shanghai - conference is too formal a word for the process - that would unleash the thought processes of 120 of its senior leaders.
The event began with this surround-sound track that set the creative process in motion.
Copyright
The contents of www.thephoenixpartners.com ('The Phoenix Partners web site') are protected by copyright: © 2004 The Phoenix Partners Ltd and / or its clients and suppliers. Reproduction of part or all of The Phoenix Partners site is prohibited other than in accordance with this Notice.
All rights are reserved.
Notes on use
We grant you the non-exclusive right to use material from The Phoenix Partners web site provided that:-
1. the material is copied solely for educational and personal use and will not be copied or posted on any network, computer, web site or publication or broadcast in any media or distributed by any means for any commercial purpose whatsoever;
2. the material shall not be amended or modified in any way; and
3. the copyright notice originally included in the material shall appear on all copies. Some parts of The Phoenix Partners web site contain images that are the copyright material of our clients and / or suppliers.
Other web sites
We cannot accept responsibility for any other web site which you may access through The Phoenix Partners web site. Such links are provided only for convenience and we cannot endorse or accept any responsibility for the contents or the use of any such web sites.
We also disclaim any responsibility for any views which may be expressed on The Phoenix Partners web site or on any web sites which may be linked to The Phoenix Partners web site.
Disclaimer
We do our best to ensure that information on The Phoenix Partners web site is correct but we do not accept any liability whatsoever for its content or for errors or omissions. We cannot guarantee that everything on The Phoenix Partners web site is free from viruses or defects and assume no responsibility whatsoever for any damage to visitors' computers or any other equipment.
Information on The Phoenix Partners web site is provided "as is" without any warranties of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we and our suppliers exclude all warranties, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, non-infringement of third-party rights and fitness for a particular purpose.
We and our suppliers make no warranties about the accuracy, reliability, completeness or timeliness of the material, information, services, software, text, graphics or links.
In no event will we be liable to any party for any damages whether direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other for any use or inability to use The Phoenix Partners web site or its contents, or of any hyperlinked web site, including, without limitation, any damages for lost profits, business interruption, loss of programs or other data, even if we are expressly advised of the possibility of such damages. Information on The Phoenix Partners web site may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. The information contained on The Phoenix Partners web site may be changed at any time without prior notification to you.
Privacy policy
If you give us personal information in order to receive information from us, we collect and store that information. That information enables us to fulfil your information request. If you review or download information, we track the visit. That information is helpful, amongst other things, to provide you with tailored information and to give us information about your use of The Phoenix Partners web site.
Information submitted via The Phoenix Partners web site will not be passed on to any other organisation.
English law
These terms and your use of the The Phoenix Partners web site shall be governed by and in accordance with English law. If any provision of these exclusions and disclaimers shall be unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable then that provision shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.
In safe hands
Every project needs someone to drive it. In our case it's the producer whose role is to bring the complete project in on time, to budget, and in accordance with the brief. It's the producer's job to oversee development of the concept as well as the translation of ideas into reality.
There's no such thing as an account manager at The Phoenix Partners. The person you deal with on a day-to-day basis is not just a good manager, they understand the job and can provide instant practical solutions to problems as they arise.
Trade Shows - designing an environment for buisness
SkillCity 2005 is the UK's largest interactive careers and training event for young people. It's the size of seven football pitches and it attracts over 120,000 visitors.
But every new city needs a plan. This one was part of our initial concept proposal. It shows how an urban theme would link the different zones of opportunity. A 'high street' leads visitors straight to a central registration area where expert guides and a key-shaped visitor pass help unlock SkillCity's potential.
Conferences - changing the way people think
A successful conference is a meeting of minds. It's a place where information flows and ideas develop.
BP's DreamReality meeting in Shanghai was just such an event. We surveyed the venues, created the event name and logo, and developed the look and feel of the gathering. Event theming was subtle yet pervasive.
Most of what we needed was sourced locally, often manufactured to order at a fraction of western prices.
Exhibitions - theatre-land
An exhibition stand is like a sideshow at the funfair. It works hard for its living, drawing in the crowds for a day or two in fierce competition with dozens of other attractions. Afterwards you pack up and move on to the next event.
We like that sort of challenge. We revel in the showmanship of it all, the drama and theatricality that makes your exhibition presence memorable and unmissable.
Gala Dinners - secret service
Everyone enjoys a good night out. But not us. We're too busy keeping the lights twinkling, the speeches short, and the celebrity guests happy. The evening runs so smoothly, you won't even notice we're there.
Mikhail Gorbachev was the main after-dinner speaker at one event we organised. Afterwards, as we unclipped his mic, he quipped that we'd wired him up like the KGB. Praise or insult? - we'll never know.
Scriptwriting and Editing - the words are the message
Too many messages are empty. The graphics are inspirational; the packaging, superb; the ambience, electric; and yet the story that underpins it all is weak.
So we start with a strong script, and we edit till it's stronger still. A good story, simply told, is far more persuasive than a limp idea that's been dressed to kill.
The people who make up The Phoenix Partners have a great deal of experience in working with an array of companies, charities and organisations. These include:
Thinking first, acting second
With every project, our starting point is the same. We look at what you want to achieve, not at what we can do. We think about the people you want to speak to, not the mechanisms by which we might reach them.
It's an approach that keeps us focused on the goal rather than the method. Keeping an open mind means we're not limited by technology, by location, or by preconceptions. We look instead for the freshness and the excitement that come from hearing a story for the first time. It's our inventiveness that drives your message home.
Exploring Ideas
We often use mood boards to tell a story. We drew up these samples for a client to express the essence, feeling, and flow of two consecutive events. They show brand development, expression, and execution.
Marketing - getting to the heart of the matter
If we need additional talent, we're not afraid to bring it in. When faced with a project involving life-saving medical equipment, we worked with an experienced medical marketer to devise three linked campaigns for the three markets for Response Medical's portable defibrillator. Each concept appealed to a distinct need, and yet all three were unified by strong branding and consistent typography.
Brand Building/Brand Awareness - drip-feeding ideas
When the first oil flowed through the BTC pipeline in the Caucasus, it was time to celebrate in a way that put the people of the region in no doubt about the scale of their collective achievement.
This oil-drop identity underpins a year-long series of events taking place in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey - the three countries that worked together with BTC to build the world's longest overland pipeline.
The oil drops also provided the motif for a suite of stylish gifts (locally made earrings, cuff links, tiepins etc) that would appeal to presidents, ministers, and multi-national CEOs.
Live Events - maximise your environment
Live events include any kind of occasion at which people gather to learn, exchange ideas, socialise, or be inspired. The trick is to use the environment to get the most out of the event. It doesn't have to be expensive: a few imaginative touches can transform the mundane to the magical.
For instance, when the Chinese premier and his entourage visited BP's City of London head office, we decked the building in chrysanthemums, Chinese flags, and red bunting. The touches were steeped in symbolism that the VIP guests would recognise and warm to.
Film, Video and Audio - graduation and recruitment video
BP's Projects Academy is an industry-leading in-house training programme for its top-level project managers. But the first cadre of recruits were not so sure. They were sceptical - possibly even a little resentful - of its back-to-school disruption. Our job was to inspire them from the outset.
So we made a film to rekindle pride in the work they'd already done. Suddenly the class understood: they'd seen a vision of how much more they could achieve with the right training. That video made such an impression that, two years later, it's still in use.
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