2006 Top 5 Events.....

1. Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) workshops.

This flexible and fascinating tool has helped clients develop winning relationships, interpersonal skills, communication, leadership, motivation and effective teamwork for many years. It remains a firm favourite with you, our clients, and is highly likely to remain a 'best seller' in our 2007 training and development calendar. The SDI has been the basis for developing customer service in one Swiss client in 2006/7 as they continue to remain ahead of the pack and be the Best in the World in their business.

2. Outstanding Teamwork sessions.

Despite being one of our original programmes, this simple and effective half or one day workshop was purchased by you on more occasions than 2005, pushing it back up the top 5 list! Thank you. Now we will have to revamp it for 2007 to make it even better for you. Its proven formula is the back bone of its ease of use, it is reliable and it delivers what you want - the hallmarks of outstanding team work in a user friendly fashion that your people create, buy into and use effectively. It helps create clarity, culture and teamwork..

3. Facilitated workshops and meetings.

In 2006 you decided to buy in from us more facilitated sessions than in any other year prior. You asked us to facilitate activities and team build challenges to ensure you received full business benefits; you booked us to facilitate your meetings and development programmes in the City; you took us sailing to develop and facilitate team building and thankfully you took PJ to Dubai again as he loves it there, and we wish you'd keep him! Facilitation was purchased by clients direct, and by many agents and third parties on behalf of clients - and we experienced a steep rise in team build activity providers buying in our service to compliment theirs and give clients even better ROI.

4. Conference Speaking & Presentations.

Last year we were asked to help more clients prepare for their conferences than we had expected. You asked for help in terms of the theme for a conference, some content, speaker preparation and co-ordination, and looking at the overall message and how to convey that to the guests, effectively and accurately. You also asked us to speak at some of your meetings and conferences to develop or inspire motivation, team work and champion behaviours. PJ & Jamie also spoke at a quarterly HR professionals Breakfast programme run in conjunction with a solicitors giving legal advice and updates, whilst we looked at the people side of HR development and training.

5. Simple facilitation and team activity mix.

Clients have a huge choice of activities, activity providers and venues when thinking about and organising team away days, team events and fun challenges that give business benefits. You can arrange 4x4 driving in the sand dunes of Dubai to learning teamwork in the Arctic. And yet, despite all this choice, many of you chose a simple 'excellent value for money' one-day programme, at hotels and venues within an hour or so of your offices. The most popular was a half day of theory and experiential learning combined with a half day of facilitated fun activities and team challenges to prove the theory, test the ideas and build the team based on these positive shared experiences. These one day programmes give excellent value for money, require short travel time, are easy to arrange, they allow everyone to participate and provide a high level of buy in.

Our favourite venues in 2006.....

1. Chelsea Harbour Hotel, London.

Its not the fact that every bedroom is a suite, or that Stars pop in and out, or that its so easy to get to, we love it because it is so cool, it feels so good to be there, and it makes us smile. Of course its very good as a venue. And it really is so cool!

2. Jumeirah Beach Resort, Dubai.

Dubai is amazing in many respects, and though we felt its not all its cracked up to be in certain aspects, there are some real gems, like the Jumeirah Beach Resort with superb views, pools, fabulous food and access to everything, yes everything. If you want to go skiing at an indoor snow dome and racing 4x4s across the desert and sand dunes in the same day, followed by dinner under the stars then you know where to go. If you like Polo, Golf, Watersports (very fast watersports as Dubai homes one of the Worlds Fastest Powerboat teams) or Shopping, go to Dubai. Great for conferences, activities, entertainment and impact.

3. Hotel L'Imperial, Annecy, France.

Perhaps the most beautiful region anywhere in the World that we have run an event. Annecy was chosen by Innocent for their 2006 Weekend Away, and what a stunning choice it was. Its so natural, healthy, clean, beautiful and memorable. We went canyoning, walking and raft building. We had dinner by the lake and on the lake. It might be the most obvious choice for a corporate client to make, nor is it the easiest to arrange, but we all - clients and team - loved Annecy.

4. Rhinefield House Hotel, New Forest.

Rhinefield House Hotel is surrounded on all sides by the New Forest and is sited ten minutes of out the village of Brockenhurst. It has a comfortable Country House feel, unique views, attentive staff and relaxed atmosphere. Within a few seconds of finishing a classroom session you can be outside in the many acres of private grounds for teambuild challenges or away across the forest walking and mountain biking on treasure hunts. We usually get very good responses from clients about programmes we run here because of its atmosphere and location.

5. Celtic Manor, Wales.

From the moment you see it looming above the M4 as you head West, to the moment you get told off for playing in the moving walkways in the enormous conference centre, you know you'll love the Celtic Manor. Everything does what it says it does at Celtic Manor and we find that most acceptable. May be you'll meet Ian Woosnam (Ryder Cup Captain) in the lift? You can organise a session for 12 guests in one of the small suites or a conference for hundreds of people here. You choose - either way you'll feel special.

New teambuilding events and programmes for 2008.....

AEBPTW - An Even Better Place to Work.

The programme and interactive web site combination is based on the life's work of Shay McConnon, developing people and people skills, leadership, communication, soft skills and in effect building high performing teams through people skills. This programme is a mix of facilitated sessions, motivational surveys, interactive workshops and activities, development workshops and business growth models that you can run on your own, in house, or with a qualified consultant. This programme can be run over 6 to 18 months, to suit your people needs, criteria and business requirements. As its available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it is highly flexible and gives immediate results. You can get a temperature check on your biggest asset, your people, in minutes. You can look at development needs, the level of motivation and the likelihood of the success of a project, through the eyes of your people. As a Sales Director, HR director, Project Director, team manager and individual, the insight this programme will give you is invaluable. From a business perspective the opportunities, uses and ROI are huge. The question is, how will you use it to develop your people, performance and profit? Clients for far have used it to get feedback from their people prior to making business changes, then using the 'language' to develop the culture and change in alignment, whilst others have used it specifically to develop people, motivation and impact on productivity. Motivated people do more. Focussed and motivated people produce more, more effectively. Available through LEAP, we can do as much hand holding, coaching and training as is right for you and your people.

Sales 101.

There was a very clear message from some of our clients in 2006 that you wanted to develop sales, sales skills and help sales people be more effective, more of the time. Whilst the SDI tool showed you how to create rapport and sell more 'naturally' through increased motivation, improved communication skills and understanding, you specifically asked us for sales focussed training and development, you said you wanted a programme to develop a sales process that could be easily understood and followed, resulting in increased success for sales people. So at the end of 2006 Jamie created 'Sales 101' - a simple, effective and specific two day programme to develop the sales process . This is a great programme and worthy of Jamie writing a book based on it (nothing like a bit of pressure). The trials have shown it to be very effective and we think you'll be very pleased with it indeed in its new 2007 format. So if you want your sales and sales team to take a Leap in 2007, call us.

Outdoor team building.

We will be offering a variety of out door team challenges this year, from 20 minute teambuild exercises to a full day of high and low ropes 'challenge by choice' activities. These will be offered in conjunction with a preferred supplier who we are delighted to have onboard. The activities we run will be valuable to the individuals, teams and your business, and will not be activities for activity sake, they will be pertinent and useful to you. And because of our many years experience in delivering outstanding teambuilding programmes, we can assure you of the benefits. We understand there are also tax benefits to your business in using professionally facilitated training and development sessions alongside team building activities, and hope to have some specifics for you on this in the near future through accountants BDO.

Sailing.

Has always been, and continues to be, one of the best natural team building activities available for corporate team development, leadership and soft skills. Sailing gives great feedback opportunities and instance results (or not) from your teams teamwork. We have run these events for years and many of our team love sailing, power boats and any water based fun, but this year we have stepped up the offering to you. Teams must work together in order to sail a yacht - communicating, co-operating and co-ordinating their efforts as one team in order to be successful, and to prove this, we have developed the '2007 minute Sailing Challenge'. In addition we have secured the input of three Round the World Skippers and Volvo Ocean Racers who can tell wonderful stories, open and close a conference on a high, deliver business benefits through sailing and of course, take you sailing, safely and successfully. Whether its just a fun facilitated team day activity, or as part of an ongoing leadership and development programme, sailing is a very powerful, and eco-friendly choice in the market place. And as we are based in the New Forest on the South coast, we have access to some of the finest yachts and most perfect sailing waters. So when do you want to come and take advantage of the best natural team building activity, in the best sailing waters in the UK with the best selection of yachts?

Coaching.

Whilst LEAP has always provided a coaching service to existing clients, more usually corporate clients requiring executive coaching, 1-1 coaching, performance coaching and coaching to reduce stress, misunderstanding and conflict, as part of a structured development plan, we find ourselves being asked by more private individuals for coaching programmes since PJ delivered high performance coaching and change management on BBC1. The programme brought in enquiries from Holland, UK and Spain - a few led to fee paying work with several young people, a professional Polo Player on the World Circuit and a City based company Director. With this in mind, coaching seems set to be a more recognised part of our service, and more utilised service by you in 2007. Looks 2007 really will be a LEAP year for many of you.