Government Business

With Christmas excess fresh in the memory, many of us will still be struggling to stick to New Year’s resolutions. But away from the must lose weight/must drink less/must get fit worries of our personal lives, the beginning of another year is also a perfect moment for organisations to motivate their staff. And there’s no better city than London, with its endless roll-call of attractions, business venues, hotels and restaurants, to get your team committed and excited about the next 12 months.

Objectives, milestones, plans – increasingly, business people find that standing back and mapping out the year ahead is best done away from the distractions of the normal working environment. And for those who want to take staff away from the office, London is an understandably popular choice.

Yet as any business person will tell you, as well as clear goals and intelligent management if they’re to thrive, there’s nothing like some downtime together to cement team relationships. A meal in a inspiring restaurant, motivating courses, or experiencing one of the hundreds of specially-created corporate team-building activities are all on offer in the capital – all important ways to knit a team together. And what better place to start that with people’s stomachs?

Feed the mind
Cuisine, of course, is a real speciality of London. Gone are the days when the city was a poor relation to the more refined dining available in Paris, Rome or New York. Today London is home to no fewer than 49 Michelin-starred restaurants, and the heavyweights of the industry are all represented. Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Marco Pierre-White, plus a long and illustrious list of their peers, all offer customers world-class dining.

And if that wasn’t enough to whet the appetite, plans are already afoot for the second London Restaurant Festival in 2010. The inaugural event, held last October, was a celebration of the quality and diversity of the capital’s eating scene. Hundreds of restaurants created great value fixed-price Festival Menus showcasing the very best of their specialist cuisines. Meanwhile, the six days of the festival were packed with once-in-a-lifetime foodie events. From eating dinner cooked by a top chef in one of the pods on the London Eye, to several hundred hungry Londoners tucking in to the capital’s biggest ever Sunday roast, there was something for everyone.

Grabbing the headlines though was the much-anticipated Pierre Koffmann pop-up restaurant on the roof at Selfridge’s. The chance to savour the cooking of the grand-daddy of fine dining proved such a draw that his residence at the world-famous department store had to be extended no fewer than three times.

One great choice for eating out on a team-building evening is the rejuvenated area of ‘London Eastside’. The term coined to describe the five ‘Olympic’ boroughs of east London (Newham, Hackney, Greenwich, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest), this area is one of London’s best-kept secrets.

From the Dockmaster’s House Restaurant set in a graded Georgian building, to the Plateau Restaurant with its futuristic décor and views of the surrounding Canary Wharf, to the traditional charm of Greenwich gastro-pub The Gun with views across to The O2, there’s good food at every turn.

And if you think a bit of retail therapy might be best for bonding your team, the markets will leave you spoilt for choice. Columbia Road flower market, Petticoat Lane market, Old Spitalfields market – they’re all in London Eastside.

West end girls (and boys)
For some glamour in the heart of the west end, treat your team to cocktails, a meal, or even a stay at the celeb-magnets that are the Sanderson and the St Martin’s Lane hotels. Uber-stylish decor and beautiful people make both a great destination to wow your staff.

Just as likely to knock their socks off is the Renaissance Chancery Lane. Set in a stunning 1912 building with sweeping marble staircases, grand archways and stately public rooms, it is also home to a renowned day spa, as well as Pearl, the critically-acclaimed restaurant overseen by executive chef Jun Tanaka.

Sticking with the theme of pampering, another popular top-end destination is The Landmark London, three time winner of the prestigious ‘Best Hotel in London’ award – this place ranks among the finest of the capital’s leading luxury hotels. With its own distinctive style and ambience, it combines classic British elegance and grandeur with the deluxe facilities. For those looking to reward or motivate staff, these include a health centre featuring a 15-metre swimming pool, fully-equipped gymnasium, spa treatment rooms, Sanarium and steam rooms. While for pure luxury and pampering, ESPA beauty treatments and massages are available.

Staying in the heart of London, excellent food, accommodation and business facilities are on offer at each of Park Plaza’s four hotels, with two more scheduled to welcome guests early this year. Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel will be one of London’s most eagerly awaited hotels to open in early 2010.

Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London is located only steps from the city’s most iconic attractions including Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, London Aquarium and Royal Festival Hall. From its 1,021 spacious guest rooms which will include 54 suites and penthouses to its six distinctive dining and entertainment experiences, the hotel’s design-led, contemporary surroundings will provide the perfect setting for work or play. Hotel amenities will include a luxurious spa with eight treatment rooms, a fitness centre complete with 15-metre swimming pool, two executive lounges and Wi-Fi throughout the hotel.

Another major hotel offering stunning accommodation is the range of Radisson Edwardian London hotels. The hotels offer a wide range of special offers on accommodation, dining, meeting rooms and leisure activities for team-building or motivational business events. And at the Radisson Edwardians in Mayfair and Canary Wharf you can even treat yourself to some end-of-the-day pampering at their wonderful in-house spas.

At the Novotel London West an exclusive ‘5 Senses’ experience has been designed specifically for managers looking for ways to motivate their teams. The 5 Senses experience, for up to nine people, promises not just to offer gorgeous food but also ‘a series fun experimentations around touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight’.

A bit of old-fashioned architectural elegance does wonders for the soul too. And the business venue One Great George Street offers this in abundance. Housed in a Grade II listed building, this is a venue steeped in history but packed to the gills with modern facilities. One such motivational idea is a team building treasure hunt around the Houses of Parliament and areas of Westminster, followed by lunch in One Great George Streets in-house restaurant and maybe a film in their in-house cinema.

Going green
A little further afield, drenched in natural splendour, are a whole host are country hotels with wonderful business functions and leisure facilities. They’re the perfect combination to get down to work before rewarding your team with everything from golf, to spa treatments to world-class food and drink. Elite Hotels has four such venues – Ashdown Park Hotel and Country Club, The Grand hotel in East Sussex, Luton Hoo Hotel and Tynley Hall in Hampshire.

If you’re looking to stage a slightly larger event and don’t want to use one of the big hotels, one choice that’s attracted business people for many years is the Business Design Centre. A hugely flexible venue, the centre houses a total of 14 rooms of varying sizes, many with moveable acoustic walls to enable clients to tailor the space to their specifications. And for those holding an event there, a conference manager is appointed to provide advice and input at every stage.

At the bigger end of the scale, things don’t get more large or state of the art than the £300m ExCeL London. Able to accommodate events and groups of almost any size, this venue was recently named as the capital first official International Convention Centre, and will host no fewer than seven events at the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. No matter scale of event you want to hold, this is a venue than can meet your needs.

Back of the net
London’s leading football stadia also offer amazing facilities. Away from the weekend fixtures, these cutting-edge facilities are geared up specifically for business. Take the magnificent Arsenal FC’s Emirates Stadium. A landmark piece of modern architecture dominating the north London skyline, it boasts an array of bright, modern and versatile suites, all with impressive views of the pitch. Teamed with sate-of-the-art audio visual infrastructure, excellent transport links and a dedicated, experienced events team, Emirates Stadium has rapidly established itself as one of the UK’s leading meetings and events venues.

Over in west London Chelsea FC is an equally versatile, sophisticated and well equipped event venue. Combining hotel bedrooms, adaptable meeting spaces and a range of world-class facilities it makes an ideal events destination. The venue includes two leading restaurants including Frankie’s – a member of the hugely successful Frankies family but with a sporting twist, Frankies Sports Bar Grill at Stamford Bridge offers the opportunity to watch your favorite sporting events while enjoying a delicious Italian menu in a family friendly atmosphere.

Also located within the Chelsea Football Club is ‘Marco’ – a collaborative effort between restaurateur Marco Pierre White and Roman Abramovich fusing culinary delights from both sides of the Channel. The restaurant offers exclusive hire, team building events and cocktail/canapé options.

If all that food makes your staff want to burn off some calories and get healthy then Chelsea also offers one of London’s most exclusive health clubs located on-site. After an extensive overhaul in 2009, the 40,000sq foot space reopened to rave reviews. Take advantage of state-of-the-art Techno Gym equipment, a luxury spa, unbeatable personal training programmes, a 25m pool, innovative classes, and an organic cafe.

The Chelsea club also offers an Escape spa – which offers a wide range of treatments that anyone can book.

A memorable event
Finally, when your start-of-year event requires something really memorable, you could do worse than team up with Brook Green UK, Mango Event Management or Unique Venues of London. Whereas the first two are experienced in planning and managing tailor-made events on your behalf, the members of Unique Venues of London are exactly what it says on the tin. Choose from over 60 famous locations, from Kew Gardens and Hampton Court Palace, to the British Museum and the Imperial War Museum, to the London Eye, the BFI IMAX and Shakespeare’s Globe. If an event at venues like these doesn’t motivate your team for the year ahead, nothing will!

The key to any successful business is clear team objectives and motivated, happy employees. London, a city with something for everyone, can meet both those needs.

For more information
Web: www.visitlondon.com/business