On Friday 14 June 2019, Farnborough Business Park hosted their first ever ‘Sleep Out’ to raise funds for Step by Step, a charity based in Aldershot who support young people going through hard times, including homelessness.

45 slightly crazy, but totally community minded occupiers from Ashdown Phillips, Syneos Health, Fluor and Willmott Dixon and their families joined forces to support this local charity by giving up the comfort of their warm cosy beds for the night to sleep rough under the balloon hangar frame which is the focal point of Farnborough Business Park.

Katy Marlow, Event Coordinator at the Park said, ‘as soon as I started working at Farnborough, I was keen to host a Sleep Out. The Park offers the ideal environment and the iconic hangar provides the perfect backdrop to showcase our commitment to supporting our community on the Park, as well as our local community’.

On the evening Step by Step joined the ‘Sleep Out’ to provide some background on why events such as this are so important to the charity. After the talk, occupiers were treated to pizzas and an outdoor film screening before settling down into their sleeping bags for the night. In the morning, The Village Hotel, provided much welcomed bacon and egg rolls before participations were free to head of home at 7.30am to the welcomed sight of their warm cosy beds.

Anda Chun, Fundraising Manager at Step by Step said ‘We are thrilled with the support from Farnborough Business Park tenants.  We are so touched that nearly 50 people came together and gave up their beds to help local young people.  Their support makes such a big difference to the 245 young people that we have staying with us every night.  It enables us to empower young people to break the cycle of homelessness and dream of a better future’.

Currently, the event has raised a fantastic £2,311.49 for Step by Step with more donations still due in.

 

 

Between the 10 to 21 June, The Hub at Farnborough Business was transformed into a Pop-Up Gallery Exhibition hosted by Zimmer Stewart Gallery. The plain white corridor of The Hub was brought to life by a variety of paintings by six established and emerging artists, Matt Bodimeade, Nick Bodimeade, Tom Farthing, Katharine le Hardy & Emma Rimer and Phil Tyler; as well as selected works from Fine Art Students at The Sixth Form College Farnborough.

Research shows that the introduction of artwork in the workplace reduces stress, increases creativity and encourages thought-provoking conversations, and that certainly happened at Farnborough. The pop-up gallery provided occupiers a reason to step away from their desk and busy workloads, to take some important time out and browse the artwork on display.

James Stewart, Gallery Owner said, “the reaction from staff, tenants and visitors has been phenomenal, much better than we could have expected. The placement of these artworks had prompted discussions between colleagues and different companies in ways that seemingly had not happened before. This is just one of the benefits of well place, good contemporary art in the workplace.’

The collaboration between Zimmer Stewart and the Sixth Form College continued on Wednesday 19 June, when students were invited to attend a masterclass with professional artists Nick Bodimeade, Tom Farthing and Phil Tyler. This was an opportunity to discuss their pathway into the world of art and for the artists to pass on their knowledge to assist the students with their own journeys.

James Stewart continued, ‘we held a masterclass led by three of the exhibiting professional artists, for nine first year Fine Art students. Students were engaged in the discussion and asked questions including how to put together a portfolio, commissions, the importance of networking & social media and much more. We set out to put up and exhibition paintings and maybe sell a few, but in the end I think we achieved much more, and are thankful to Farnborough Business Park staff for making this exhibition possible”.

 

 

On Thursday 6 June 2019, occupiers at Farnborough Business Park joined us for our annual ‘Grow Your Own’ workshop to raise funds for The Community Matters Partnership Project (CMPP).

This event, which is run by our talented on-site landscape team, Nurture, saw the largest turn out we’ve ever had. This year we raised an amazing £470 which will go directly to CMPP who support projects and charity to raise the aspirations of young people in our local area. Occupiers were able to choose between three fantastic workshops where they were taught how to hand-tie bouquets, create the perfect hanging basket and pot a range of herbs to compliment their cooking.

Rachel Bishop, Administrator at Moffatt and Nicol said ‘I would like to say a massive thank you for the Grow Your Own Workshops today. I learnt so much and have some lovely treats for my garden. It was great fun and a nice opportunity to chat to other people from across the Park.’

 

Farnborough Business Park in partnership with Nurture Landscapes are delighted to be working with Farnborough College of Technology to support their students to gain valuable work experience with our landscape team.

Students will be joining the Nurture team every Wednesday to assist with upkeep and maintaince across the grounds of business Park.

Jacqueline Doe, Employment Support Specialist at Farnborough College of Technology said, ‘we are really excited for the students to have the opportunity to work alongside the Nurture team at Farnborough Business Park. We hope that it helps the students to build their work skills and experience a different work environment. Josh and Luke are looking forward to getting to grips with some of the equipment and helping to keep the Park looking lovely.’

Please join us in welcoming Josh and Luke to the Park!

 

Occupier’s children and the little ones at Busy Bees Nursery were treated to a free Easter Egg Hunt on Thursday 18th April, thanks to Nurture, our on-site landscapers, who ran this event. Over 100 enthusiastic children were out in full force ready to meet the Easter Bunny and to help him find his missing eggs, which his misplaced around Heritage Square and Busy Bees garden. The children dashed around the Park to find the eggs to return to the bunny. Once the eggs were returned, the children were rewarded with their very own chocolate Easter Egg to take home.

 

On Thursday 4 April, Farnborough Business Park (FBP) hosted The Community Matters Partnerships Projects (CMPP) Quiz Night. The event was a fundraiser to support projects for young people in our local community.

The quiz, which took place in Aviators Café, was a sell-out with 12 teams from across the Partnership taking part; 5 of these teams were made up of companies and suppliers from across the Business Park.

The evening kicked off with a curry and welcome from CMPP before they turned into official quiz masters for the evening. The atmosphere was abuzz with healthy competition in the café whilst everyone battled it out to be crowned champions of the quiz. In the end, Zurich came out on top, closely followed by our very own Nurture who came in 2nd place and who won best team name for ‘Photosynthequiz’.

Tracy Jarvis, CMPP founder said ‘We are delighted to announce that we raised more than £1000! I’d like to express my thanks to Farnborough Business Park for their help with this event and allowing us to use this space free of charge.’

To celebrate Mother’s Day, Farnborough Business Park hosted a Mother’s Day Bouquet Cupcake Workshop on Friday 29th March. It gave Occupiers the opportunity to create thoughtful, stunning homemade gifts for those special ladies in their lives.

The workshop, which was led by Rachel from Austen’s of Frimley Green, taught participants clever pipping technics which allowed them to turn their pre-baked cupcakes into roses, zinnias and hydrangeas. Rachel then showed occupiers how to assemble their decorated cupcakes into a bouquet arrangement by using cake boxes and tissue paper.  

The event, which was the first of its kind on the Business Park, was a great success and resulted in jaw-dropping, edible Mother’s Day gits! It also allowed us to continue our fundraising efforts for The Community Matters Partnership project by raising £60 in donations. These funds will go towards raising the aspirations of young people in our local area. 

 

On Tuesday 5 March, maybe better known as Pancake Day, occupiers at Farnborough Business Park were treated to freshly made crepes.

The crepes were available for a suggested donation of 50p and were served up by the lovely staff of Crepe Britain, from their converted blue horse box. Occupiers made their way to Heritage Square during their lunch period to make the difficult choice of choosing between traditional lemon and sugar crepes to more interesting toppings such a Nutella, banoffee and marshmallows.

Needless to say, the crepes were delicious, and the event was a flippin’ success which raised a brilliant, £118.31 for The Community Matters Partnership Project.

We’re delighted to announce that Lisa Jones, Receptionist at The Hub, has won The Ashdown Phillips January Supplier Dare Devil Award and has received a £50 lifestyle voucher as a thank you for taking swift action when an Occupier was having an expected heart attack. Lisa called for the ambulance, called for back-up and stayed with the Occupier whilst waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Lisa helped to keep the situation calm and reassuring throughout.

The Ashdown Phillips Supplier Dare Devil competition was launched in 2018 to give colleagues the opportunity to nominate individuals who give exceptional customer service. All the monthly winners are then entered into an annual competition to win £500 of John Lewis vouchers – good luck and congratulations Lisa!

We were delighted to welcome student photographers from The Sixth Form College Farnborough to Farnborough Business Park on Wednesday 13 February, where they took part in a real-life photography brief.

The students were asked to take photos of the business park from a unique view, paying particular interest to shapes and materials. The next stage of the project will see the students submit between 10-15 images, and the management team on the Park will choose a selection of the proposed images to be turned into artwork and displayed throughout the corridors in The Hub.

Katy Marlow, Events Co-ordinator said, ’We were delighted to be able to support this opportunity for the students, which will allow them to gain invaluable work experience in a professional environmental, as well as offering them the opportunity to show case their work to the Occupiers and visitors of Farnborough Business Park.’

Thanks goes to the staff at the College for coordinating this project.