Wilson Business Partnership is the business under which Trevor Wilson works as a high-end consumer electronics consultant. He provides leadership, problem-solving, business development support and strategic product development experience. With clients such as Bentley, Jazz Hipster and Sonus Faber, Trevor offers 20 years of experience specialising in automotive and consumer electronics.
Our Client
Our franchisee based in Southampton, Kara Birrell, has been working with Trevor for nearly a year. She provides EA support including expense management and billing, and various research tasks. She also provides special project support when a client of Trevor’s has a specific requirement. This Skills Showcase is about one of those times…
Our Client’s Client
Trevor works with large clients where their teams are spread across the UK with a mix of remote, hybrid and office working practices. With one particular client, Trevor felt getting the whole team together for some team bonding and face-to-face meeting time would be really beneficial as online meetings, although extremely efficient, just weren’t digging deep enough into the detail and creating the connection the team needed to thrive!
The Initial Brief
Trevor gave Kara a simple outline for the in-person event; a half-day meeting, a team-building exercise, a sit-down dinner with an overnight stay and breakfast in early December.
The challenge was finding a suitable location, close to major motorways and transport links for easy commuting, along with a team building exercise that wasn’t weather dependent!
Kara used her extensive experience of the hospitality sector to research numerous hotels and conference venues to establish what, if any, activities they were able to host onsite, their facilities and of course their prices. She contacted independent team-building providers to discuss what options they could provide too, based on the number of delegates, the venue space available, and the time of year.
Kara completely understood her client’s needs, but more importantly, the requirements of the end client too. She compiled all her research into one easy-to-follow spreadsheet with a firm recommendation as well as pricing, for Trevor to review.
The Solution
Trevor decided on one of Kara’s creative proposals, choosing the team-building exercise of a Murder Mystery Dinner Party, after a business meeting in the afternoon.
Kara booked and liaised with the venue, organised accommodation, managed with the team building company and circulated a live Google Form for delegates to pick their menu choices for the dinner along with the agenda for the team meeting.
Kara also attended the event in person too – which was an added bonus! She took the minutes for the team meeting and ensured everything ran to time. There was plenty of discussion highlighting different pain points in each department, whether it be the sales team or the technical department. It gave the team the chance to work through these issues and find solutions, together.
This teamwork took a different approach once the Murder Mystery Dinner got underway… with plenty of fun and laughter thrown into the mix!
Having come from a career in hospitality, event organisation and management is a skill Kara has perfected over decades. She was delighted that her client, and his client’s team, not only thoroughly enjoyed the event but it had the desired outcome – the team having a better understanding of each other to maximise their working relationships in the future.
