Engaging employees.
Engaging the community
Highlights
A captivating Family funday celebrating National Grid’s green wall project - the largest living green wall in Europe.
Background
National Grid are passionate about operating in an
environmentally responsible way, with sustainability at the
forefront of their project planning.
To demonstrate this, they designed and built a new car
park at its head office in Warwick, featuring the largest
living green wall in Europe. The wall encompasses more
than 97,000 individual plants anchored in the wall’s
panels to filter rain water and improve their surrounding
atmosphere.
Location:
Warwick
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Categories:
Community outreach
Employee engagement
​
Sector:
Utilities
Objectives
From the beginning, it was identified that a concept for an expected 1,000 attendees with a variety of family demographics was needed.
With the promotion of the living wall car park the main attraction of the event, all activities designed had to compliment this.
However, with the event being held at National Grid’s head office, a working site including weekends, the line-up of activities would need to work around the busy offices that would still be in use. Preventing any disruption to workers, a strong and simple security plan needed to be in place.
In addition to producing an imaginative set of activities, other requirements included the event material and brand identity, website design and delegate management, health and safety and first aid requirements, as well as on-site event management.​
We’ve never done an event of such a large scale. We honestly couldn’t have done it without them.
Senior communications advisor, National Grid
Solution
With sustainability the key focus, the event was shaped to captivate attendees of all ages. ‘Bee Involved’ became the brand identity, with the focus on bringing people together.
The fun, busy bees idea led nicely into the range of nature themed activities on offer, with the key activity allowing children to paint a canvas, after which was photographed and displayed in the stairwells of the car park.
Other activities included everything from a petting zoo, falcony experience, bird/inspect house making and a nature hunt watch... but that’s not all. We also had an appearance from WASPs RFC and the British Beekeepers Association (and other local associations). Oh, and don’t forget the go-karting!
Every detail was thought out and built into the planning process, including weather contingencies, preventing poor weather on the day from becoming a major challenge. All outdoor activities were moved inside the car park, which did not distrupt the guests, and in turn drew more attention to the main attraction itself.
Results
The event was a huge success as a result of the creativity and hard work of the events team. By bringing in local associations from the Warwick area and involving the local community, emphasis was placed on National Grids’ commitment to sustainability.
The event effectively delivered on the opportunity of bringing employees and their families together to celebrate National Grid’s pledge to creating value, preserving resources and respecting the interests of communities.