For those who didn’t spot Bar Wizards doing their thing on Britain’s Got Talent then take a look at this YouTube piece.

Professional flair bartenders, they’re amongst the world’s best and will certainly liven up your event - and you won’t mind the wait for your drink.

Montenegro is a relative newcomer to the incentive destination market and one that’s been proving popular with clients recently.It’s a destination that also provides professional and competent ground support and has geared itself up to the quality demands of the incentive market.Such a wealth of beauty in one small place.  Clear lakes, rivers, mountains, wonderful beaches and plenty of activities including boat trips on Lake Skadar, sightseeing and great shopping in Budva.  A location for Bond movie Casino Royal and visitors like the Rolling Stones, Montenegro has a good deal to offer.  The 5* Hotel Splendid – Conference & Spa Resort provides comfort, contemporary design and state of the art conference facilities.At a glance:

• 322 bedrooms
• 4 restaurants
• 5 bars
• Spa & Wellness Centre
• Conference Centre – main room seating 800 theatre style

Charter flight into Tivat airport, 45 mins to Hotel Splendid.

Tell us about your most successful destinations and venues!

Rich Mix is a dynamic new cross-cultural arts and media centre in the heart of the East End.

This vast former garment factory now houses a three screen cinema larges seating 200, exhibition spaces, cafe and a broadcasting centre for BBC London. In short, it’s 62,000 square feet of activity and innovation, designed to bridge cultures and disciplines to create an entirely new kind of arts centre – and a unique new venue for a range of events especially those needing a (funky) auditoria. 

It’s not new, but it’s stunning, and you might not have seen it yet.  A breathtaking aerial ballet, featuring an aerialist suspended beneath a helium balloon as it floats through your crowd. Illuminated and set to music, a Heliosphere performance is truly unforgettable. 

Click here for Cool YouTube video

(Paragon joined the C&IT CSR Challenge in South Africa team to KwaZulu-Natal, SA, 3 - 9 Sept - on a two-day build of two houses at the Mziki Argi Village project and visited some amazing destination properties -read all about it here).

Wow..lot’s to organise!  I’ve just taken my first malaria tablet today….

Managed to elbow my way through a bunch of builders yesterday to buy steel cap boots - only to find they don’t do them in girlie sizes (funny that!), so I’ve bought a pair 2 sizes too big.  I’ve also got a hard hat, pair of safety goggles and 4 sets of building gloves.  We’ve been told it’s best to put talc into the gloves as we’re going to get very sweaty.  And on I can’t tell you the trouble I’ve had trying to find a bandana (also on the list of ‘must bring’).  When was the last time you saw anyone in a bandana?  Still - best to be prepared.

Anyhow, I’m very excited and a little apprehensive, but my motto is always to try and do one thing each day that scares me.  However, we’re all in very safe hands with South African Tourism and Habitat for Humanity.

The final Itinerary looks truly amazing.  Here’s just a very brief run down:

• Monday - fly out to Durban
• Tuesday - arrive and travel to ‘Kings Grant Country Retreat’ where we’ll be staying during the build.  Country and safety briefing followed by a ‘braai’ - traditional SA BBQ
• Wednesday - off to the building area at the Mziki Agri Village Project for a day of building and community interaction (we’ve included their profiles in the diary).  Really looking forward to meeting them
• Thursday - more building with the promise of a sundowner and snack at the ‘brickfield dam’ at the end of the day
• Friday - fly to Phinda to stay at the Phinda Mountain Lodge (lots happening here - including a snake presentation?…!)
• Saturday - whale shark tagging, tracking them via GPS and maybe going up in a plane or on a boat to spot them
• Sunday - travel to the Zimbali Coastal Resort…

The Challenge team are home.

Read Jac’s Daily Africa Diary - her personal record of this amazingly rewarding, educational and exciting Challenge and CSR incentive programme:

Building for two families at the Mziki Agri Village, KwaZulu-Natal and visit to a local school.
Kings Grant retreat, Phinda Private Game Reserve, Safari, Zulu Warriors, whale shark tagging, snakes and more…

 

Didn’t sleep much as excited, so got up at 5am to do some last minute washing and re-packing of bag.  No matter which way I tried I couldn’t get the builders boots in, so had to resort to 2 bags.  Thought I’d donate the them and the hat to the Project after the build. 

Dashed to the office to finish a couple of things and now I’m ready to go.  The cab comes at 2pm to take me to Heathrow to tie up with the rest of the Challenge Team.  Then it’s off we go…

It’ll be late Tuesday before I can post another installment…when we arrive at Kings Grant, Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal.

Jacqui Loftus, Paragon’s MD packed steel toed boots and hard hat before jetting off to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa from 3 – 9 September to take part in a three-day build at the Mziki Agri Village project, in the Ixopo area of South Africa. 

Talk about intrepid!  What will be next - skydiving, the 3 peaks.  Needless to say we’re all very proud of her and looked forward to reading her daily diary on our blog.

But what was it all about?  Well, was an amazing challenge that brought together environmental education and emotional hands on experience when the chosen team worked together with local families to help build two houses. Plus a fabulous opportunity to enjoy some of what South Africa has to offer the incentive traveller.

Conference & Incentive Travel Magazine threw out their first ever CSR challenge to the events industry to show their commitment to CSR by outlining how their policy had developed over the past 12 months.

Paragon was one of 10 agencies chosen to take part.   

“The purpose of the event is two-fold,” says C&IT editor Yasmin Razak. “We want to highlight the agencies that have made the strongest commitment to CSR and put it at the heart of their agenda during the two years of our campaign. Additionally, we want to provide a clear template of an incentive that can be pitched to clients who need their event solutions to match their CSR policy.”

The event is supported by events industry association Eventia and arranged by C&IT in association with South African Tourism, Charity Challenge and the charity Habitat for Humanity.

Sanibonnani!  (Good afternoon).

We’re here!  Arrived at Kings Grant, Ixopo, today just around lunchtime after nearly 18 hours of travelling, to a welcome buffet lunch and, so we gathered, a very rare treat.  All of the staff came out and sang two traditional Zulu songs especially to greet us.  Dressed in their work gear, cleaners, cooks….all with the most wonderful voices.  Absolutely fantastic.

We’ve just come out of an informative briefing,  covering safety on site during the build, cultural considerations and what to expect during the week.  We also had a briefing from Sue from Habitat for Humanity.  The Charity has thousands of building projects throughout the world.  

The project we’re helping with is the Mizki Agri Village, about 30km from Ixopo, where HFH have bought some land adjacent to a village and by completely integrating and involving the local community, are building solid homes to replace their mud and wattle houses (that disintegrate in wet weather), working with the families to provide the means to farm, have clean water, a school, Church and establishing a sustainable environment.

We will be helping to build a house for each of two families.  The build is only part of what we’ll be doing over the next two days.  We’ll be working alongside the families, talking to them, getting to know them, so we can understand their lives more, as well as providing them with extra hands.  The community drives the project - it’s very much theirs and we’re all really looking forward to meeting them.

I’m lucky to be sharing this experience with a great bunch of people, all of whom have been chosen for their commitment to CSR.

They are:

Lucy Collins from Black Tomato, Julia Jawnyj from Euro Skybridge, Izania Downie- Eventia, Aileen Reuter-Maritz, John Strachan-Maximillion, Fional Pelham-Organise This, Bernadette Moss-Universal CIT, Victoria Pratt-World Events and John Kelly-Zibrant. 

Our Hosts:

Rufus Bullough from Charity Challenge, Yasmin Razak-Conference & Incentive Travel Magazine, Patricia D’Arcy-South African Tourism and Brad Glen and Taryn Paola from DMC, Inside Edge.

We’ve settled into our comfortable rooms and I’m about to go down for dinner.  After that, it’s definitely to bed!  We’re up at 6am tomorrow for breakfast and then to travel to the Village.

MORE ABOUT THE MZIKI AGRI VILLAGE & KINGS GRANT:

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We all met for a great cooked breakfast at 6am at Kings Grant.

Then, running a little late, as we all had such a good night’s sleep after our flights, we boarded the bus with our rucksacks, hard hats and building paraphernalia and set off for Mziki village.

Alf our driver, is great and full of stories and a few dirty jokes! He, Sue from Habitat for Humanity and Gavin from Africa Exposure are all staying at Kings Grant with us.  40 mins later after rattling through the bush dirt tracks past the wonderful countryside, peppered with small round Kraals, we arrived at Mziki village.

We peered through the now steamed windows to see two plots side by side where foundations had already be laid and and one course of bricks (yes….just the one!).

Sue called all the villagers who are working on the two houses to join us. We stood in a circle whilst a lovely lady called Eunice said a Zulu prayer.

We were given our work cry of dagga dagga dagga, oy oy oy. The villagers find this very amusing as dagga is Zulu for cement!

We were split into two groups and worked with the two women who will be benefiting from the new houses, Lalisile Dlamini and Tholakelle Ngubane, and the local Mziki village site supervisors. (See more about Lalisile and Tholakelle here.)

Each team nominated a member as a ‘water fairy’ to make sure we are all drinking lots of fluids throughout the day.

There was a cool breeze coming up from the valley so the 25 degrees did feel cooler which was great for us to work in.

Bongiwi is the supervisor for our house. She’s 24 and her family live in the huts in the kraal next to where we are building. She is one of 13 children and her family will be having a house built in phase two of this programme. She is currently living with one of her elder sisters in one of the houses up the hill from our build site.

So we got stuck in.  Moving breeze blocks, off of lorries and placing them in piles around the outside of the house.

All the while mixing dagga dagga….lots and lots of dagga dagga!

Enjoying lunch and chat with Bongiwi

Having arrived at 9am with a tea break at 11, we were hungry and very ready for lunch at 1.30.

At lunch we had an opportunity to ask the two families questions about themselves and their lives.

Tholakele said that the new house will change her life. At the moment she and her family live in basically a run-down hut. They have to cook on open fires in the centre of the room and the smoke from the fires cause respiratory problems. Also white ants get into the mud and wattle and the walls just start to crumble.