Afternoon Tea Week is coming – it’s on 10-16 August – and it’s a very good idea to prioritise this wonderful English tradition. But it’s an even better idea to add an Italian slant to that tradition, which is exactly what the gorgeous rustic Italian restaurant Cucina Asallina, in London, has done.
English sandwiches? Pah!
Forget those sandwich fingers with the crusts cut off and with a slithers of cucumber inside. The savouries in this exquisite afternoon leave English sandwiches in the shadows. Just look at the bottom layer on that fine tea stand pictured above. We’re talking homemade focaccia courgette, sun-dried tomato and pesto; and homemade crunchy ciabatta with smoked salmon; and Stracchino cheese; and behind those lurks another ciabatta with bresaola, rocket and Parmesan. The bread is made on the premises. And the fillings are, wait for it… filling! All too often afternoon tea is altogether too sticky affair in which you move onto the sweet stuff because, quite frankly, the savouries are not good enough. And this is not the case here. This afternoon tea is a meal.
Unforgettable amaretto
When you do finally move on to the sweet delicacies, you will be faced with classic scones, clotted cream and jam and home-baked amaretto biscuits which make the packet versions seem like digestives. These amaretti are not so full of almond flavouring and are beautifully soft and light, with a very gentle crunch.
On the top layer of the stand you will find a variety of exceptional sweet treats, but my favourite was the one with the Italian touch – the blackberry tiramisu. It’s mild and fruity and tastes a bit like an elegant mini trifle.
Tea brewing perfection
There’s an impressive choice of teas. I tried Chai (smoky and refreshing) and followed up with Palace Blend (which was very like English Breakfast). And here Cucina Asallina has a nice touch. They brew the tea to the right strength and serve it in the pot, having taken the tea out. The result: no stewing! You will very much appreciate that on your second cup.
Find it hard to eat all of the sweet stuff and don’t want it to go to waste? The gorgeous Italian staff offer a takeaway box. Perfect.
Turn afternoon tea into lunch
Italian Afternoon Tea at Cucina Asallina is served at daily between 1-5pm. Price £29 per or £35 with a glass of proseccio. My recommendation: go at 1pm: this is a delightful lunch. Cucina Asallina, Me London Hotel, 336-337 The Strand, London WC2R 1HA; 020 7395 3445. http://togrp.com/afternoon-tea-at-cucina-asellina
The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy By Jon Gordon is a self help book with a difference. Written as a fictional story about a negative businessman who’s life changes when his car breaks down and he is forced to take the bus. The driver, Joy, has 10 rules to a positive mindset. I found the book helpful with fascinating facts about the heart and Abraham Lincoln. Facts, rules and fiction are all woven together into a book that inspires positive energy and gives you the tools to bring that positive energy to your life and work place.
Easy to understand and implement. Recommended for work and home.
The book, which is written in the style of a fable, takes place in a business setting, and includes an Action Plan and 10 simple rules, using the analogy of a bus ride, to build a positive, high performing team. TheEnergyBus has proved hugely popular in the US amongst sports teams and their coaches and Gordon, a former College lacrosse player, regularly gets asked to address sports teams teaching them how to maintain a positive mindset throughout gruelling training sessions.
Discover how to stay positive and avoid ‘energy vampires’
According to a global Gallup poll, negativity in the workplace is rife, with only 1 in 8 employees being psychologically committed to their jobs and likely to be making positive contributions to their organisations.
Energy coach Jon Gordon wants to change that. In his bestselling self-help book, The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to fuel your life, work and team with positive energy, the author offers lessons on staying positive and avoiding ‘energy vampires’ who will ‘suck the life out of you and your goals and vision’ if you let them. Gordon offers 10 simple rules to achieving positive results which, when applied, have an impact on health, family, team and personal success.
The author draws on his experience of working with thousands of leaders and teams to provide readers with insights and practical strategies to help them achieve a positive team and culture. Written in the style of a fable, the book tells the story of a man, struggling in his job and marriage, whose car gets a flat tyre, forcing him to take a bus to work. The bus driver’s positive attitude helps him to turn his life around.
“While this fable takes place in a business setting, this book was written for everyone. We are all part of a team, and every member of our team – whether it’s our work team, sports team, family team, or school team, can benefit from the 10 simple, powerful rules shared in this book. After all, positive people and positive teams produce positive results, and the essential ingredient is positive energy.” Jon Gordon
About the author:
Jon Gordon’s best selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous sports coaches and teams, organisations, schools, hospitals and charities. He is the author of The Wall Street Journal best seller The Energy Bus, The No Complaining Rule, Training Camp, The Shark and The Goldfish and Soup: A Recipe to Nourish your Team and Culture. Connect with him at www.JonGordon.com
Having ‘grilled’ one of England’s top top beef scientists, we bring you tips that will make your barbecue season so much tastier. ‘The Science of Steak’ at The Meridian Hotel in London’s Piccadily involved some serious steak sampling, and whilst munching on Waygu and Aberdeen Angus, Carol Muskoron spoke to Dr Phil Hadley of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board to discover some compelling steak advice.
Why you don’t always need steak mince.
Do you walk proudly by the budget mince and head straight for the steak mince? Budget mince is the best mince for making burgers. With more fat than leaner mince, it gives a burger extra flavour and succulence and helps it hold together better too. Go for the mid-range mince if you like a little less fat, but you really don’t need to opt for steak mince if you’re making burgers. What should you use steak mince for? Lasagne or spaghetti bolognese of course.
Steak doesn’t have to be bright red when you buy it
You know those brownish, vacuum-packed steaks you tend to avoid in the supermarkets – well, it turns out that they’re just as fresh as the bright red ones. We might prefer our steak to look red and bloody when we buy it, but it makes no difference to the steak at all. Want proof? Take it out of its pack and leave it for half an hour and it will turn nice and red again once its re-oxygenated. Or just cook it – the colour won’t affect the flavour.
When NOT to throw out your steak
If your steak has turned a bit brown on the outside that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s off. Steak does brown as it gets older but it’s usually perfectly okay to cook a steak that has a brown tinge. And remember, if you’re pan-frying or barbecuing you’ll be heating it up so high that it will kill any small amounts of bacteria on the outside. The sell-by date is a good indicator of freshness but may not be accurate – the real test is to smell it. A steak that is off will make its presence known to your nostrils – it will smell bad!
Ageing – what’s that all about?
When you go to a restaurant and 35-day aged steak is on the menu, what does that mean? Should you be excited or horrified that a mouldy old lump of meat will turn up on your plate?! Ageing simply means storing meat so that the flavours and tenderness improve – it’s kept in a constant and very cool temperature under UV light to keep it fresh during the process. It’s common practice to age steak for 14 days, as flavour and texture both improve up to that point. After 14 days the texture won’t improve any more – it’s as tender as it’s going to get – but the flavour will move on and become more meaty (more game-like).
Grain-fed or grass fed?
Again, on a menu or in a butcher’s you might see this information. What should you make of it? In England, most of our cattle is grass fed, and the English consumer seems to mostly prefer grass-fed steak. In taste tests we say grain-fed steaks taste fattier. But give an American a grass-fed steak and they may well complain that it tastes off! Really, this seems to be a case of liking what you’re used to. FYI: Argentinian steaks are grass fed – and that may well be why so many of us love our Argentinian steak restaurants here in the UK.
With concerns about the state of our environment continuing to grow, businesses and individuals around the globe are looking to reduce their carbon footprint and minimise the waste they generate in their daily production routines. With this in mind, American start-up Terracycle was launched back in 2002 by 19-year-old American student Tom Szaky and spread to the UK in 2009.
More than five years later, the recycling initiative has expanded to include more than a million of Britain’s inhabitants collecting almost 23 million units of rubbish and recycling them to raise £368,400 for charitable causes… and counting! Among other areas, food packaging has become one of the most lucrative sources of waste recycling, thanks to the forethought of Terracycle and some of their like-minded partners.
A coffee revolution
Who doesn’t start the day with a scalding hot mug of delicious coffee? Think of all of those coffee pods, though, and the foil packaging which contained them and the amount of waste produced every time they are throw into the rubbish bin. However, such needless profligacy can now be avoided by recycling old and used discs.
Environmentally conscious brand Tassimo has struck a deal with Terracycle to make all of their T-discs (and the outer foil wrapping that comes with them) 100% recyclable. Those wishing to participate don’t even need to clean them off before mailing the boxes in – the coffee grounds will be separated at the other end and composted separately, thus making it easy to get people involved. As for the foil and plastic itself, it will be cleaned off, chopped up and then transformed into practical items that we can all benefit from, such as park benches.
A biscuit with your beverage?
The perfect accompaniment to a gourmet coffee is a good old-fashioned biscuit – and they also make great partners in recycling, too. Cookie tycoons McVities are conducting a “Wrappers to Riches” initiative with Terracycle, in which recycling participants can earn money for a charity of their choice, as well as goody bags full of the biscuits.
The project is open to businesses, schools or individuals who simply need to send in their used wrappers and their names will be automatically entered into a prize draw for the charitable donations. The top two contributors who send in the most units will be awarded for their industry by receiving even more biscuits… whose wrappers they can recycle again! The converted material will be given another lease of life as tote bags, pencil cases and plastic lumber.
Ella-cycle
Baby food company Ella’s Kitchen have long been renowned for their environmentally friendly methods of organic production, but now they have gone one step farther by ensuring all of their packaging can be recycled in collaboration with Terracycle, as well.
Baby food pouches, caps and snack wrappers are sent in to the recycling plant. Here, they can be either kept intact and stitched together to form nifty-looking tote bags and pencil cases or shredded down into miniscule pieces and melded together to make place mats or trash cans.
When it comes to the fashion industries obsession with waif like models, times they are a changing…well maybe just a dress size or two. In recent months the industry has seen a sidestep in to the usually unmentionable world of FAT! Several leading modelling agencies now have dedicated plus size divisions, recognising the huge surge in popularity of plus-sized fashion bloggers and Instagrammers. According to Public Health England, two thirds of people in the UK are overweight and are in need of taking better care of their health.
Candice Huffine became the first plus size model to feature in this years’ Pirelli calendar, has graced the front page of Italian Vogue, and has appeared in i-D and Harper’s Bazaar
Tess Holliday’s huge social media following, helped get her signed to modelling agency MILK Model Management who now have a separate division, Curve, which is dedicated to plus size models.
Advertisers using slim models for their ‘health’ campaigns have been heavily criticised by the public and media alike. Protein World’s infamous Are You Beach Body Ready? poster campaign backlash is a prime example of this shift in attitudes towards the ideal female body.
How difficult is it to maintain a super skinny body shape and still be healthy?
It is very difficult if not impossible to maintain a super skinny body shape and still be healthy. And for women it is important not to lose too much fat, because then periods will stop and it can affect not only fertility but also increase the risk of problems like osteoporosis because the woman has lost the protection of the female hormones.
Do you see women who struggle to lose weight more regularly now?
Yes. In my clinics in Harley Street and Tunbridge Wells, I frequently see women who struggle to lose weight. Most of them just want to be a healthy weight and to have a way of eating that becomes a way of life rather than being on a constant diet or having to do fad diets.
Many women I see also want to change their body shape as well as lose weight as they know they are carrying too much fat around their middles which increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, cancer (especially breast cancer), heart disease, Alzheimer’s and high blood pressure.
Do you think the fashion industry should embrace models who better represent today’s average British woman?
I definitely think the fashion industry should embrace models who look like the average British woman. It makes it easier for the average woman to relate to the clothes that the model is wearing and more likely to want to purchase them. If the model is super thin, then the average woman will think they can’t possibly attain that without starving themselves and knows that it is just not realistic for them.
Can you be healthy and bigger?
This is really dependent on body fat percentage rather than weight. A person’s weight cannot differentiate between fat and muscle and an athlete and a couch potato can have the same Body Mass Index (BMI – a ratio of height to weight) and yet have a completely different percentage of fat and muscle.
A woman can be bigger and healthy if she has the correct percentage of body fat (25-31%). Too low, it risks her periods stopping, infertility and osteoporosis, too high then it risks heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes.
Want to shift some pounds naturally?
Dr Marilyn Glenville (www.marilynglenville.com) has joined forces with luxury health spa Champneys.com, to deliver a series of very special women’s wellbeing weekends this year. These very special one and two day retreats are led by Dr Glenville herself and offer natural solutions and insight into four significant female health issues; Fat Around The Middle, Digestion & IBS, Menopause & Osteoporosis and Fertility.
Band/Artist: The Great Escape Location: Los Angeles Styles: Alternative, Pop Similar to: Black Keys, The Heavy, Adele, The Dead Weather, Janis Joplin, American Authors, Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse CD: Self-Titled
Members/Instruments:
Amie Miriello – Vocals
Malte Hagemeister – Guitar
Kristian Nord – Drums Production: Produced by Kristian Nord & Malte Hagemeister for Nordmeister
Bio:
This is why they still call it the Golden State: The 49ers found it in the dirt, a century later the Dogtown kids discovered it in the shape of backyard pools, and now, some four decades further down the road, The Great Escape, a foot-stomping, genre-busting three-piece from Venice, have struck that California vein again –
with their own blend of raw energy song craft.
Inspired by everything the West Coast has come to stand for – the surf, the sun, the laid-back attitude, the proverbial Dream –, every single track, every chorus, every story they tell oozes that fun-loving, grit-digging vibe and feel. And you can just tell they had to go the extra mile to unearth what they were looking for: After all, two of them, Kristian Nord (drums, production) and Malte Hagemeister (guitars, production), are originally from Hamburg, Germany – these guys came a long way to live that Dream. Joined by powerhouse singer Amie Miriello, a Connecticut native and seasoned performer, they are about to release their debut album, a collection of songs that offers just what it says on the tin – A Great Escape.
Having first met while songwriting for other artists, the three L.A. transplants quickly realized they had a shared vision: Together, they wanted to create an update to that 60s, 70s sound when rock and pop music was still raw and unpolished. When it didn’t come attached with layers of irony or slick braggadocio. When it was nothing but a celebration of emotional storytelling, bold statements and heartfelt sentiments, poured into lavish melodies and harmonies. Hence the chorus, “this is a time to celebrate/What a beautiful escape,” as Amie sings over the pounding, surf’n’blues-heavy bliss that is “It’s Getting Better”.
Channeling the classic, timeless approach of their all-time favorites (e.g. Hendrix, Joplin, Cohen, Stones, the Beatles), but also nodding to their contemporaries (Adele, The Black Keys, The Heavy, Jack White), The Great Escape’s self-produced debut full-length has this no-holds-barred approach written all over it: “All I Think About” is all clapping, until the track breaks open into a huge chorus about longing, whereas horn-fuelled “Rebel” showcases intense dramatics and the amazingly powerful, raspy voice of Amie: “some people call me insane/they just ain’t on my level”. Elsewhere, the playful, sun-drenched “Secret Song” even flirts with gospel, soulfully majestic “I Want It All” is pure retro splendor, and even though “Let’s Go” sees them take off to higher and higher levels, they certainly know how to conjure minimalist, sweet and melancholy daydreams (“Don’t Wake Me Up”, “I Just Can’t Help Myself”) as well.
“Lots of first takes made it on the album, and most vocals were recorded right after writing the songs,” explains Malte, whose “demo guitars often stayed because they just had that right feeling.” Keeping things spontaneous and DIY, it’s “all about the performance, not about perfection,” Kristian adds. “When a take had the right kind of vibe to it, we just moved on and didn’t even second guess it.”
Album guests include old studio hands such as Stanley Behrens on blues harp (Jimmy Smith, Canned Heat, War, Willie Dixon), Kevin Dorsey on vocals (Michael Jackson’s vocal director, Ray Charles, Santana, Aretha Franklin), Zac Rae on B3, piano and keys (Lana Del Rey, Norah Jones, Santana), as well as a shape shifting horns section comprised of Katja Riekermann (Rod Stewart, Al Green) and Marco Palos (Los Lobos, Louis Prima Jr).
Trying to discover her true self, she has “traveled far and wide, but never understood,” Amie sings on “I Just Can’t Help Myself”, and yet it seems that after all this traveling and digging, they have finally struck the kind of “pay dirt” that really shines in their hearts and minds: “Don’t need a stake in the ground,” she sings elsewhere, “that’s not for me/Flow with the rhythm of the sound and the beat.” That’s more like it: A steady flow, no blinders, no rules. Music that feels more like an endless Hang Ten, pure, unfiltered playfulness on top of a wave, rather than some quick, steely-eyed Eureka moment.
With packed high-energy shows around L.A. already under their collective belt, The Great Escape have come to bring that gritty rawness they scooped out along the way.
Breaking the bank at Monte Carlo is something we all dream of at least once in a while. It represents a wonderfully luxuriant fantasy that draws on the unmistakable glamour of the Principality along with the fairytale simplicity of a life transformed by nothing more than the turn of a card. The Azure allure of the Mediterranean, sweeping palm-lined boulevards, yachts and limousines, movies stars and beauty queens…. no wonder it is such a Hollywood staple; who would not want a champagne lifestyle like that?
Life can be every bit as remarkable as fairytales sometimes, and every once in a while someone does disappear into the night with a fortune. A massive casino win is one of those dreams that occasionally really does come true. The glitz and the romance of Monte Carlo itself may not always be part of the story but, for those who win big, such a picturesque destination quickly becomes a realistic option. (Image: http://farm1.staticflickr.com/79/230800331_09562765c6_z.jpg )
The Man who broke the bank…
The idea of actually breaking the bank at Monte Carlo all started in 1891 when English entrepreneur Charles Wells scooped an enormous roulette win in Monte Carlo’s Grand Casino to the tune of a million francs. Those were the days when a million francs represented a king’s ransom. His win became so renowned that a popular song was written in his honour. Whether it was the song itself or the dream it described, “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo” remained a music hall favourite from the 1890s well into the 1940s. Hollywood got in on the act as well in the form of a 1935 romantic comedy made to recreate Wells’ phenomenal win. That one in a million opportunity is one of those ideas that, it seems, no one can resist.
Wells is, indirectly at least, the most famous casino big winner, but he is not the only one. In 2000, humble cocktail waitress Cynthia Jay-Brennan enjoyed a return that was every bit as extraordinary. On a night out to celebrate her mother-in-law’s birthday, Jay-Brennan took a turn at the Megabucks slot machine, a state-wide lottery jackpot that had been rolling over for several weeks. On her ninth pull, she dropped the small matter of $34,959,458.56. At that point she was able to give up her waitressing job at – believe it or not – the Monte Carlo Casino in Las Vegas.
More recently, the online world has started producing a steady stream of gaming millionaires. In 2009, Finland’s Patrik Antonius won the (then) biggest ever online poker pot, pocketing a massive $1,356,947 in a single hand. And the world-renowned poker star Phil Ivey – ‘The Tiger Woods of Poker’ – was believed to have won close to $2million playing online – and that is in addition to the many millions the has picked up in person at some of the world’s most exclusive gaming rooms. And the roster of online winners keeps growing with popular weekly tournaments such as the PokerStars Sunday Millions
The Sunday Million has become one of the world’s biggest regular poker events. It is the online equivalent of the Monte Carlo Casino in your own front room. Every week, players from all around the world, including some of the biggest names in the professional game, are able to play together online for a guaranteed million dollar prize pool. It is a forum that allows everyone to turn that dream of a luxury lifestyle into reality. Low stakes qualifying tournaments are run throughout the week in the run up to the big event, with initial stakes as low as just one dollar. There is no bar to anyone with skill, judgement and knowledge of the game going all the way to that first prize. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Sunday Million attracts tens of thousands of players every week. And every week one of those players walks away with a massive first prize.
There are numerous other online tournaments, but none can match the scale of the Sunday Million. And, of course, there are gamblers who prefer alternatives to poker. Ivey is by no means the only high roller out there.
The world’s most famous ‘run’
Between 1992 and 1995, Archie “The Greek” Karas earned celebrity status in the US when he worked a meagre $50 up to a cool $40million. Karas’ feat was not achieved overnight. The one-time ship waiter’s win was the culmination of a series of increasingly extravagant bets that became famous as ‘The Run’. He combined betting on games of pool as well as a variety of more conventional casino games, but over the course of that incredible period he just kept winning bigger and bigger amounts. What was even more remarkable about Karas’ story is that he then went on to lose all of that money. He is, it goes without saying, an intriguing figure.
Karas has some justification when he claims to have played with more money than anyone else alive, but he attributes his success to a paradoxical relationship with his wealth. Famously, he has declared, “Money means nothing to me. I don’t value it… The things I want, money can’t buy: health, freedom, love, happiness. I don’t care about money, so I have no fear.”
Following in the footsteps of Wells, Karas’ story is set to be given the Hollywood treatment. Hollywood just cannot resist the extravagant allure of someone breaking the bank. But as Karas’ example shows, a big win is not an end in itself; it is merely one part of a wider story. Living happily ever after is all well and good in fairy stories and it makes perfect sense for Hollywood scriptwriters, but real life is invariably a little more complicated. What we say we want and what we really want may not be the same thing.
An unromantic observation
F Scott Fitzgerald, author of the Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night – both books that deal with the romantic allure of the rich – famously took the Hollywood view of wealth. Perhaps not entirely coincidentally, the phenomenal success of Gatsby in the 1920s had turned Fitzgerald into an overnight millionaire. He was the jazz age equivalent of a modern star like Benedict Cumberbatch. (Image: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3036/3009099385_4f0cc26241_z.jpg?zz=1 )
During a summer sojourn in the South of France, he once shared a famous exchange with his contemporary and friend Ernest Hemingway. It is a conversation that offers a telling backdrop to that fantasy idea of breaking the bank. “The rich are different from the rest of us” Fitzgerald had whimsically suggested. “No,” was Hemingway’s pithy reply, “They just have more money.”
Hemingway’s characteristically sharp put-down casts the whole Monte Carlo fantasy into a very different light. Hemingway, it is fair to say, would have had some time for the unsentimental and objective way that Karas appears to deal with his changing fortunes. Like Karas, Wells’ Monte Carlo millions did not last long. When Wells returned to England the money he had won stayed with the casino. He had played it all away. It is the sort of story Hemingway would have relished.
The poker lesson
As wise – or as cynical – as Hemingway was in his exchange with the starry-eyed Fitzgerald, he was clearly on the same page as the likes of Phil Ivey. Within the cold-eyed world of professional poker, money is divorced from its day-to-day utility. Instead, it becomes merely a part of the game, a means to play for bigger stakes and even greater wins. Building a bankroll is not about living the Monte Carlo lifestyle, it is simply a matter of demonstrating the quality of a person’s skill at the game.
And that wholly practical logic is the antidote to the ‘happy ever after’ sentimentality that is the stuff of music hall songs and Hollywood happy endings. We may all fantasise about breaking the bank at Monte Carlo but whilst the tangible reality of a mountain of cash is wholly achievable, realising the glamorous fantasy of a life of ease and enduring good health and happiness is something else altogether. Breaking the bank at Monte Carlo or picking up the Sunday Million will not make any of us a different person. It will just mean we have more money.
Whether it is a birthday, engagement, wedding, or corporate event, there are certain factors that need to be considered when planning the perfect event. As well as the obvious things such as food and venue, there are some not-so-obvious considerations to make sure your event goes with a swing.
Planning and research
First of all, brainstorm! Create an event wish-list to record your first ideas. Then you can establish your budget – this depends on the size of the event and its purpose. When you have an idea of the size of the event, get a team on board to help you; choose people with different skills, contacts, and areas of knowledge. Make a list of guests or attendees. Decide on a date for your event, or narrow it down to several dates – you should have a contingency plan in case the venue you want is unavailable on a certain date. Consider whether any special permits will be required from governing bodies. Send “Save the Date” notices if you want to invite guests more than eight weeks in advance; make a note of those that RSVP.
Choosing a dynamic theme
Consider involving an event design team for an event with a difference. You could style your event on a fashion show, sophisticated wine bar, hip nightclub, Hard Rock Café, theatre, award ceremony, circus or show with acrobatics. If you have ambitious plans, you may need some advice from experts.
Lighting and technical effects can make all the difference. Consider custom theme décor, sound, music, a DJ, and special effects to create mood and atmosphere. You could have strobe lighting, projected images, spotlights, neon lights, or lasers; or maybe your event calls for intimate lighting or candlelight.
Decorating the venue
Room and table decorations will really set the scene – consider wall hangings, furnishings and drapes, and chandeliers. Decide on the dress code and make a plan for food and drinks. Think about entertainment or professional speakers, and don’t forget to plan how you will photograph or film the event.
Advertising your event
Promote and advertise your event; create an event website to include details of agenda, location and ticket purchase. Post links on social media sites, advertise and contact the press. Keep attendees engaged by posting updates on social media.
The run-up to the event
Send out invitations eight weeks before the event and keep a list of replies. Set a schedule and delegate; establish deadlines. What equipment will you need, and can you hire it? Get quotes, ask for recommendations, and obtain samples. You need to finalize catering arrangements, music or entertainment for your guests, event staff such as bartenders and waiting staff, volunteers to guide guests, florists, gifts and favors, tables and chairs, officiants (priests, rabbis, etc.). Consider name badges or passes, and how to manage the attendee list.
Finally, don’t forget to plan how you will clean up afterwards, get the venue back to how it was before, and return the hired equipment. You will also need to send out thank you messages. You can then post photos and videos of your event on your website. With so much to think about, detailed checklists and being able to rely on your team of helpers will really help you keep on top of things.
Afternoon Tea Week is coming – it’s on 10-16 August – and it’s a very good idea to prioritise this wonderful English tradition. But it’s an even better idea to add an Italian slant to that tradition, which is exactly what the gorgeous rustic Italian restaurant Cucina Asallina, in London, has done.
for her thoughts…
