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Plymouth Community Events 2023: A Review

With thanks to Plymouth Octopus: POP, we had three of our events team up for a collaborative project. Here is the outcome to that project. You can view a flip book version of this document over on The Village Hub’s website.

We are a Co-op membership cause!

Diverse Events CIC has been chosen to be part of the next round of the Co-op Local Community Fund! The fund is open now till the 19th October 2024. If you are a Co-op member you can add Diverse Events to your membership profile so your points go toward Diverse Events CIC when your shop

Best Event Management Agency 2023 – South West

SME News Magazine has revealed the winners of this year’s UK Enterprise Awards, and Diverse Events has been awarded the “Best Event Management Agency 2023 – South West” Now in its seventh year, SME News’ UK Enterprise Awards programme is continuing to present the best of the best across a wide span of industries and

#BeSafeBeSound

ProtectUK and Counter Terrorism Policing are encouraging live music venues and festivals to: Empower music fans with safety advice via online and offline methods, such as: social media, websites, digital screens, email, mobile apps, and posters. Reassure music fans that they are safe and security checks are in place to ensure that they have a

Why hire an event organiser?

Written by ChatGPT As someone running an event, you may be tempted to handle everything yourself to save money and ensure that everything goes smoothly. However, hiring an event manager can actually be a wise investment that pays off in the long run. Here are just a few reasons why an event manager should be

Saltash Regatta – Most Colourful Land & Sea Event – Cornwall

LUXlife magazine has announced the winners of the 2022 Nautical Tourism Awards and the Saltash Regatta and Waterside Festival has been announced as the “Most Colourful Land & Sea Event – Cornwall”! There have been huge changes within the travel and tourism industry over the past few years. As we all know, there has been

Tesco Bags of Help – Thank You!

Diverse Events CIC has been successful in getting a share of a Tesco’s Community Grants fund. We were the third most voted cause, which means we have been granted £500.00 to go towards Brixham’s Lanterns, Lights, & ‘luminations 2022. Tesco’s Community Grants scheme has already provided over £90 million to more than 40,000 projects across

Best Events Management Company 2022 – South West

LUXlife magazine has announced the winners of the 2022 Hospitality Awards and Diverse Events has been announced as the “Best Events Management Company 2021 – South West”! Now running in its seventh consecutive year, the LUXlife Hospitality Awards is back to recognise and award businesses that have been consistent with adapting to keep up their customers satisfied

Call for votes – Lanterns, Lights, & ‘luminations 2022

Diverse Events CIC calls out for votes to get a share of Tesco’s Community Grants fund We are bidding for a cash boost from the Tesco Community Grants initiative. Tesco works with community charity Groundwork to run its community funding scheme, which sees grants of up to £1,500, £1,000 and £500 awarded to local community projects.

How to add OUR Facebook event to YOUR page

Every event we create on Facebook, we are inundated with requests to ‘co-host’ – there is a much easier way to get our event onto your Facebook page! Open the event you would like to put on your page alongside your other events, press the three dots, then select “Add to Page”. That is it!

Environmental Sustainability

Back in July 2019 we pledged to Festival Vision 2025 which stated that we would: 1 – Reduce waste where possible, aiming for 50% (or more) recycling rates by 2025 2 – Aim to reduce annual diesel consumption by 50% (or more) by 2025, primarily by working with audiences, suppliers and artists to positively influence

Tesco Bags of Help – Success!

Diverse Events CIC has been successful in getting a share of a Tesco’s Community Grants fund. We were the second most voted cause, which means we have been granted £1,000.00 to go towards a community event in Plymouth. Tesco’s Community Grants scheme has already provided over £90 million to more than 40,000 projects across Britain.

Saltash Silent Disco – Review

  Even though we were only partially successful in our application to run a variety of silent discos through Saltash, we still had lots of fun running a silent disco in the youth village on the Saturday of the Saltash May Fair, and running 9 silent wellbeing sessions on the Sunday of the Saltash May

Saltash Silent Disco

We have been semi-successful in our application to run silent discos through Saltash! We had initially planned for involvement with various community groups in Saltash, across various locations (silent disco under the lit up Cornish Cross at night, anyone?!), unfortunately we were only semi-successful with our funding bid. The bid will now fund one silent

Keyham Community Sparks

We are involved in bids on two projects for Keyham Community Sparks. The first project idea is to bring the community together, in small localised groups, at five events using silent disco equipment in novel settings around Keyham and to have fun. Locations may include: Alexandra Park, North Down Crescent Play Area, Keyham Green Places,

Diverse Events CIC call out for votes!

Diverse Events CIC calls out for votes to get a share of Tesco’s Community Grants fund We are bidding for a cash boost from the Tesco Community Grants initiative. Tesco works with community charity Groundwork to run its community funding scheme, which sees grants of up to £1,500, £1,000 and £500 awarded to local community

Thank you ASDA Foundation (and POP!)

Diverse Events CIC has been fortunate enough to receive a grant from the Asda Foundation‘s “Bringing Communities Back Together” fund which has the mission to “Transform Communities and Improve Lives”. We used this funding (topped up by Plymouth Octopus Project‘s £250 a pop) to purchase event resources, including two 3m x 3m gazebos, and some

Best Events Management Company 2021 – South West

LUXlife magazine has announced the winners of the 2021 Hospitality Awards and Diverse Events has been announced as the “Best Events Management Company 2021 – South West”! Now running in it’s sixth consecutive year, the LUXlife Hospitality Awards is back to recognise and award businesses that have been consistent with adapting to keep up their

Plant a tree!

It’s no secret that the event industry contributes huge amounts of CO2 emissions. We hire in huge diesel generators, we travel around to event sites, we bring in huge delivery lorries. The event industry is bad for the environment! To help us offset our CO2 emissions, we have added the option of ‘buying a tree’

2021: A bright future?

The recently announced Spring roadmap is, surprisingly, restriction-light for events. This is good news, with pilot events planned to run from the 12th of April, indoor events (up to 1,000 people or 50% of the venue capacity, whichever is lower) and outdoor events (up to 4,000 people, or 50% of the venue capacity) from the

Red Velvet Cinema

During the ongoing lockdowns the workload of an event organiser has, unsurprisingly, dropped considerably. As such we have had more time to work with community interests, such as Red Velvet Cinema. Since October Aaron, one of the Directors of Diverse Events CIC has been supporting Red Velvet Cinema in providing tech training, and device loans

The Village Hub

During the ongoing lockdowns the workload of an event organiser has, unsurprisingly, dropped considerably. As such we have had more time to work with community interests, such as The Village Hub in Stoke Village, Plymouth. Diverse Events CIC has been involved with Stoke Village for a number of years now, since supporting the relaunch of

Christmas Events in COVID times

With COVID still ensuring that traditional community events cannot go ahead, both the Saltash Christmas Festival and the Stoke Traders and Residents Association have moved their Christmas plans online. Saltash and Stoke Village would not be without their Christmas celebrations! With the Saltash Christmas Festival usually bringing thousands of visitors to the town, this naturally

Best Full Service Event Management Firm 2020 – South West England

SME News Magazine has announced the winners of the 2020 Southern Enterprise Awards, and Diverse Events CIC have been awarded the “Best Full Service Event Management Firm 2020 – South West England” Now in its fourth year, the SME Southern Enterprise programme continues to recognise SMEs of all sizes across the region who are endeavouring

Community Events and Covid

What a year 2020 has been for events. Nobody would have thought we would have been in this situation, with no community events of any real size being able to happen. We would usually be supporting events with tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of visitors, yet here we are in our home-office, writing

Put security at the top of your list

Help us keep everyone safe this festive season Diverse Events CIC is supporting Counter Terrorism Police’s campaign to help keep crowded places safe over the festive period. Officers are calling on the public and those who work in our busy towns and cities to remain vigilant and report any concerns to staff, security or –

Best Independent Event Management Agency – South West England

United Kingdom, 2019- LUXlife magazine announces the winners of the 2019 Hospitality Awards, and Diverse Events has been announced as the “Best Independent Event Management Agency – South West England”! We’ve no idea who has voted for us, or that we were even nominated – but thank you for your support! For the fourth year

What even is a CIC?!

Being a CIC is, conceptually, an amazing idea. We’ve taken the leap to become one – but what does that mean for you? And what even is a CIC?! The story so far… “Aaron Monk trading as Diverse Events” was started in 2013 with the aim to be a profit making entity. As the business

We’re going green!

No, we don’t plan on turning physically green and ripping our clothes off so all we are left in is shredded up blue shorts (how come they grow with the Hulk, but nothing else does? His clothing bill must be through the roof…) Our events are going green! Across the board we have signed up

Five Steps to Running an Event

The simply answer would be to hire us – we can guide you every step of the way; that doesn’t make for a good blog post though, does it?! Over the past five years we have established a number of new events, supported various events, as well as increased the profitability of some longstanding, well-established

Gazebo Top Tips

It’s a wet and windy day (as it often is in the South West!) and you’re holding on to your brand new gazebo before it blows away. It’s buckled and it it now leaking all over your wonderful stock. Where did you go wrong? We’ve seen this time and time again at Diverse Events. Exhibitors

I ❤ Diverse Events!

Do you ❤ Diverse Events? The guys over at FastLabels sure do as they reached out to us and sent us thousands of massive “I love Diverse Events” stickers! Once they received confirmation that the proof was fine, off to print they went and arrived the next day on my doorstep. Having no idea what to

Who even needs an event organiser?!

“The volunteer committee has been running this event successfully for the past twenty years, why would we need to hire an event organiser?!” That is something I hear often when suggesting hiring an event organiser. It’s a huge barrier to break through when dealing with long standing events, but once the committee see the benefits

Mr & Mrs Sings

Mr & Mrs Sings got married at Dunwell Farm, a beautiful venue with views over Dartmoor and Plymouth. The wedding was always to be a relaxed, fun and carefree day. The couple got legally wed a few days before in a registry office, but this was not their wedding, this was simply ‘a bit of

Do Wedding Services Cost Too Much?

I often get asked why certain services cost so much in relation to weddings. “My Photographer charges so much, he only stands around for an hour to take some pictures”, “Why is the cake maker so expensive? It’s only a cake…”Although I’m terribly polite when responding, I often want to rattle off the following list

Improving the events you attend

I often get asked, how, as an exhibitor, can you improve the events you attend? Other than the usual smile, interact and engage (which can be read about in a previous blog post), we have a few tips and tricks below on how to boost attendance numbers to help increase your earnings! Put every event

Stack them high, sell them cheap

I believe it was Jack Cohen who first said “Stack them high, sell them cheap”, way back in the early early in the 20th century before he founded Tesco. Although a fantastic way of running a cheap shop, stocking a huge amount of low quality good and selling them cheap – it is not the

Successful Wedding Fair?

I attended a Wedding Fair on Sunday, it was ran by Saltash Chamber of Commerce and looked as if it was a great success with lots of happy brides and grooms to be. Whilst chatting to a couple of people who were exhibiting there, I had some great feedback about the Dartmoor Zoo Wedding Fair.

Public Liability Insurance and HMRC

More often than I would like to admit, I have a worrying conversation with potential exhibitors that goes a little bit like this: Me: “To confirm your booking, please send over a copy of your public liability insurance.”Exhibitor: “Oh, I don’t have insurance, this is only a hobby you see, to make a bit of

Last Minute Cancellations – Based on a true story

Very often things change, exhibitors can’t attend an event. Generally I’ll try my best to refund the exhibitors space, if I can, however it’s an event organiser’s worst nightmare when exhibitors drop out at the last minute leaving you with a great big space to fill, with nobody to fill it. 7pm – 39 hours

What can you get in Plymouth for £15.00?

On occasion, we wonder about our £15.00 events. They are generally the cheapest events we do and we sometimes get asked what exhibitors get for their money. A previous post mentioned some of what exhibitors get, but this time we are focusing on what you could spend that £15.00 on instead in Plymouth to put

It’s ‘FAIR’ not ‘FAYRE’

That’s it, I’m done. I can’t handle it anymore and I have to speak out. You’re all spelling ‘fair’ wrong. It is not ‘fayre’. Look it up, go get the dictionary right now. Collins English Dictionary says that ‘Fayre’ is a “pseudo-archaic spelling of fare”. The Cambridge Dictionary doesn’t even list it as a word.The

Events: You Get What You Pay For

As with most things in the world today, you get what you pay for. If you buy a chicken from the supermarket, you might pay £2.50. If you buy a fair trade, free range, corn fed chicken, you might pay double. However, you are paying for the extra care, service and quality of that chicken

Twitter, Hashtags and Hours

I love social networks, they offer a potentially huge reach at the click of a button, but it’s been mentioned to me a number of times about how confusing it all is, with these #hashtags and #hours springing up all the time. I won’t overwhelm you with information about how to use social networks, as

Plymouth’s Independent Quarter and Trees

If you don’t support Plymouth, Plymouth’s businesses and the initiatives to promote the local shops then we might as well close down half the city and turn Plymouth into a huge Drakes Circus ran by corporations that care little for our city. Plymouth’s city centre is currently divided in two, with the larger shops in

Wedding Fairs: Do we really need them?

Wedding fairs are a wonderful thing. Everyone is happy, couples walk around browsing exhibitors and picking out things to make their dream wedding come true. Exhibitors are happily telling couples about the wonderful weddings they have done in the past. Everyone is cheery, but are they really? Over the next 12 months, in the South

How should you be approaching events?

When chatting to exhibitors, almost each and every one has mentioned the decline of sales at events or exhibitions. Wrong venue? Wrong weather? Wrong advertising? Maybe a mixture of all three? I, however, put this down to the economic climate, I can hear you groaning from here, more talk of this elusive “economic climate”. People

The busiest weekend of the year

The first full weekend of December is often considered the busiest weekend of the year, packed full of Christmas fairs, fetes and markets. I frequently get asked why I miss this ‘perfect’ weekend. I answer with two simple reasons; This weekend is saturated with events already It’s too late to hit Christmas shoppers The first

The Importance of Being Online

“Having a website is going to allow you to reach a wider customer base and could make you more money and more successful.” According to a recent study “the UK carries out far more retail online than any other major economy”. This is becoming more and more apparent when you look at the amount of high street businesses

SEO Basics: Increasing Website Traffic for Small Businesses

So you have a website for your business and you’re pretty happy with it. It has everything you think you want to say, a nice design and it’s got you out there on the internet where there are millions upon millions of potential customers who you are sure will want to hear about you and