It’s been a pretty big week for us as we delivered one of our famous grand Corporate Boomwhacker Ice Breakers to 400 delegates at the Wyvern Theatre in Swindon. I am proud to say that myself and my team.

Really seemed to have nailed the whole logistical process for these events. It still requires a good few hours of prep – but this stuff really pays off on the day.

Before an event of this scale we meticulously plan the logistical operation of getting 800 Boomwhackers handed out to everyone within seconds (everyone gets two each).

We plan which colour Boomwhacker is going to be played where, using a big plan of the auditorium and then prepare and label everything so our team know exactly where to put everything when we arrive.  It is a laborious process but it means that on the day we feel calm and organised and can concentrate on creating an amazing session of Boomwhacker magic with the client. All good! Nothing could go wrong could it? Well not quite.

Despite a wonderfully organised operation, there was a little adventure the night before. At 23:00 we arrived at the Swindon Premier Inn and the man at the desk said ‘Ahh you’re our last guests!

And you must be Mike?’ My name is not Mike. This was not looking good. Anyway after I gave my booking reference, it seemed that our rooms were booked for the following night instead of the night we actually needed it!

The man at the desk was wonderful and was so good at making me feel like I’d done nothing wrong and it was all the Premier Inn’s fault – this might have been debatable! He rang round every hotel in Swindon and found absolutely nothing – all booked.  ‘Perhaps there’s an inn keeper who might have some stables with a manger!’

It was only when I was contemplating sleeping in the van (much to the distress of my team) that Zoe found a place 10 miles out with her IPad.  Not only did we all get rooms that night, but the hotel was brand spanking new and really comfortable beds which were particularly zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Don’t know what the event the next day would have been like if we had all slept in the transit! One thing’s for sure – we would defiantly have exhausted all the coffee at the venue! But fortunately we arrived the next day refreshed and ready to go!

The Boomwhacker session was an absolute cracker – it always sounds fantastic in a theatre auditorium, as these venues are designed to create good acoustics. The message for the Boomwhacker Session was ‘As one team we are stronger’.  The delegates definitely showed their strength as one complete team.

As a result of everyone participating, a complex piece of rhythm music was created within minutes. It is amazing to witness what can be achieved with the Boomwhackers when a really big group all work together.

Great things really can be achieved when everyone participates – as one team, people really are stronger! Special thanks to Gemma McGrattan from Synergy Creative for a wonderful testimonial from the event and for being a great person to work with on this project!

Thanks to my team – Justine, Barry and Laura and Zoe who made such a great Unbeatable Energy team.  Special thanks the fantastic Steve at the Premier Inn Swindon who was so helpful and accommodating in a moment of crisis – and also to Zoe and her very useful Ipad for browsing laterooms.com!

Create a fantastic Ice Breaker for your next big conference event with Boomwhackers.

The drum circle at the beginning was outstandingly amazing! 100 people from 4 years upwards (children, parents and music teachers) all came together to create an amazing sound.

The room’s grand high ceiling was perfectly suited to the scale of the drum circle as the sounds and beats reverberated throughout the huge hall. Who could imagine facilitating a family group who were all experienced musicians with an already strong sense of rhythm and timing?!

And what about the final Boomwhacker session at the end of the evening! What can we say about this? Perhaps our letter to the Suzuki group says it all:

Dear Suzuki violinists, Here is the footage from your drumming and Boomwhacker session.

Please forgive my clumsy shakiness of the camera – you were all so amazingly brilliant I think my hands were trembling (In the Boomwhacker video).

Despite the shakes I think you will agree that it captures (at least) some of the magic. You can hear the F and D (lime green and Orange) putting the wonderful 3 pulse over the 4 pulse of everyone else – to sustain this is unheard of with normal community events!

Then there is the conversations going on between the E ( yellow), the Gs (green) and the high and low C (red) and the light purple B# (or is that Bb?). Then the final thing – everyone is moving and grooving!!!

It was a travesty to have to abruptly finish things last night! It felt like we could have played till Xmas! I’m not joking about this but you were so good I could have cried!

Keep tuning and grooving!!! Steve Rivers

We provide outstanding African drumming workshops for festivals, galas, corporate events and celebrations throughout the UK in cities such as London, Sheffield, Leeds, York, Leicester, Chester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Manchester and Stockport – to name but a few!

This month started with an amazing African Drumming and Boomwhacker workshop for the Suzuki Violin group residential at Queen Mary’s School in Baldersby Park, Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

The Suzuki Method of music education is based on the philosophy and teaching methods developed by the Japanese violinist, pedagogue, educator and humanitarian, Dr. Shinichi Suzuki.

Dr. Suzuki believed in the great potential of music to enrich children’s lives. He developed a method of music education to enable children to play music totheir highest possible level of ability.

His method was derived from his observation of the ease and facility with which young children learn to speak their own language. He analysed and adapted these precepts of language development into a system of music education which was aptly named the ‘mother tongue’ approach.

On arrival at the venue, we were greeted by a young string ensemble who were creating the most exquisite sound on their violins. We knew we were in for a very special day. Given the high quality of the musicians present, we knew we would have to ‘up our game’.

The Boomwhacker Energiser session we delivered for one of our clients in Sweden this month was definitely one to remember! Here is Steve Rivers’ account of the trip:

”The venue at our recent event in Gothenburg was quite different to what we are normally used to when delivering rhythm events for conferences.

Most of the conference venues were booked up for one of Sweden’s big annual hockey championships and this venue was described by the client as ‘the bottom of the barrel’. Despite the client’s advance apologies about the room , I was rather excited about something – most conference facilities are carpeted but this venue had a hard floor.

A hard floor is one giant stamping percussion instrument! (I think you can see where this is going!)”After the fabulous group of corporate delegates had got to grips with the Boomwhacker tubes and a rhythm was playing in full swing, we invited everybody to try out a final ‘bonus’ excercise.

This involved integrating foot stamps – everybody stood up and stamped a beat on the floor while ‘Boomwhacking’ an ‘off beat’ ‘Cha! Cha!’ in between the stamps. What is so great about this exercise is that there is a hard and easy way to approach this. One way is to stamp an even beat with your feet and then try and clash the Boomwhackers in the spaces in between. For the more coordinated, this poses no obstacles, but many people find themselves playing the Boomwhackers on the foot stamp. The easy alternative is this – clash the Boomwhackers when you lift your knee; your foot has to come down to hit the floor anyway and, when it does, you get the stamping beat.

However your mind can better handle focusing on the knee coordination because your arms feel more integrated. It is really a very small adjustment of focus – which creates big results. I will never forget the smiles in that room when everybody could see that they were now playing multi-task beats like a kit drummer – their feet providing the down beat and the Boomwhackers creating the off beat. Don’t forget that 99% of this audience would probably believe they had no sense of rhythm at all! I think the session surpassed everyone’s expectations (including mine) – the sound of that room with the’Boom-cha-cha-Boom-cha-cha-boom’ will stay with me for years to come!”

Why book a corporate drumming event for your conference? Our unique events really harness the power of team work! Giving your workforce or delegates the chance to express themselves creatively in an engaging and exciting environment, there are so many benefits to group drumming that we can’t help but shout about them… Increased confidence

• Motivation
• Inspiration
• The chance to connect with others
• Develop new skills
• Discover a new hobby

Whether you have 10 delegates ready to take part or 1,200, we can tailor-make our events to suit you. We design, prepare and deliver with care and attention to detail from the set up through to the delivery to ensure you have an unforgettable experience that you’ll remember for years to come.

Following the ‘Boomwhacker’ ice breaker we delivered for Skanska UK’s management conference last month, we have received some fabulous photographs.

These pictures really capture the mood of this session which involved up to 175 delegates getting ‘tuned in’ to one another through rhythm and harmony. Boomwhackers are a fabulous way of bringing a big conference to a close. Although everybody was spread out on tables, the Boomwhacker percussion tubes created a fantastic way of drawing everybody together. Once all the different coloured tubes on each table started playing, you could really hear how all the combined rhythms made the ‘whole greater than the sum of its parts’.

All of a sudden the big room felt a whole lot smaller as everyone became connected through the music!

It was an incredibly busy week for corporate drumming events last week! First there were two big Boomwhacker Conference Ice Breaker events – one at the beginning of the week for 150 delegates at the Forest of Arden in the Midlands, the other on Thursday for Skanska at the Hilton Heathrow. The final event on Friday was a Drum Circle team building event for the Walt Disney Company UK and Ireland.

Walt Disney had picked an extraordinary venue for their drumming session. We remember they were extremely excited about their choice of venues when they first contacted us. When we arrived on the day we understood what all the fuss was about.

The photo you can see above may look like a lovely garden in the country, but it was in fact a roof top garden right in the middle of London – six storeys below was the normal everyday noise, hustle and bustle of the city! ”My god!” you exclaim – ”that’s a fully grown tree!” That wasn’t all – just around the corner you could find a flock of flamingos gracefully dipping their heads in and out of a pond. Then round the other corner and up the alleyway was what looked like an Italian Village with a fountain and sunken garden.

It was a shame that it was in late November as it would have been lovely to drum outside – perhaps as a drumming spin on the Beatles famous roof performance!

It was however way too cold for that and the drumming session took place in one of the luxury rooms overlooking the garden.

The Disney team were really fun to work with. The group not only had a good sense of rhythm (always helps) but were able to have fun! Highlights for the session leader (Steve Rivers):

The drumming ‘point and sweep’ game – brilliant group dynamics, leadership, and eccentric musical conducting by certain characters in the team! The Boomwhacker session – the sound of all the colours coming together sounded beautiful!

Unbeatable Energy would like to thank the Walt Disney team for their participation and sense of group spirit. Also special thanks to the staff at The Roof Garden for their help with the event logistics!