By Georgina Hallahan, an Eventprofslive member on behalf of the group.
I’ve been an EPL member for almost five years (where did the time go?) and have been fortunate enough to attend familiarisation trips to unique venues that support my knowledge not just personally but also the knowledge and insights I take back to my wider team. A scheduling clash for Michelle & Kate meant I got to take the reins and host this excellent FAM for EPL members. This was EPL’s second FAM for September, and it took us to the gorgeous De Vere Tortwoth Court.
De Vere Tortworth Court is situated in Tortworth, Wotton-under-Edge,just a 1 hour 40 min train trip from London Paddington and less than a 10 min taxi once you reach the station. In corporate events, we find the brief is always to choose a destination for an offsite or retreat less than 2 hours outside of central London, so this worked exceptionally well. On arrival at the property, we had a full schedule, allowing us to discover everything about the property.
Arriving at 2.00 pm, we had time to check into our lovely rooms before heading off to explore. There is a spa onsite; I took my hosting reponsiblities seriously, and it was my duty to explore it. The onsite spa has a fully equipped gym, and six treatrooms open daily from 8 am to 8 pm. Properties need to have fitness facilities onsite when running a corporate event. I find attendees love the opportunity to use the gym or, if a property has outdoor running or walking tracks, it is excellent to incorporate time into an agenda to allow your guests to use it. Wellness opportunities built into an agenda are vital.
Our agenda for the remainder of the day involved a fabulous drinks reception where we took the opportunity to get to know our hosts, Robin and Ben (and each other) and a cocktail masterclass which we loved. We then moved on to dinner before a fantastic sleep in our lovely rooms. The property boasts six different categories of rooms (you can check them out here).
The following day we were up bright and early, where we were lucky enough to sample the spa with our very own spa treatments before an informal show-round of the meeting and event spaces (there are a lot here), an excellent afternoon tea and then it was time to head home.
I loved hosting this FAM and look forward to having an opportunity to work with this property again in the future. I am also attaching some further literature on the property that I think helps support how fab this property really is!