With only 5 weeks to go till Canvas Holidays host their overseas staff reunion the tension is mounting, Please read on for an account of last years event.
The day we had all been waiting for finally arrived on Friday 27th November, the Canvas Holidays Reunion! After much behind the scenes work in Head Office in Dunfermline the venue and was ready and the guests started to arrive.
Everyone arrived at the Ramada Hotel just after 4pm. They were met by the Recruitment and Welfare department and Regional Managers. Each courier received a goody bag of Orange items and a personalised area hoodie!
Many of the couriers had an afternoon of swimming and relaxing in the hotel facilities whilst the Operations team frantically got everything ready for the evening.
7 o’clock arrived and everyone went through to the bar for pre-dinner drinks and had their photo taken on the way in by a professional photographer. Everyone mingled with each other catching up on stories and gossip from the season, then suddenly the curtains drew back and a huge room appeared with a dance floor, dining tables and a stage with a big Canvas Holidays logo projected onto the far wall. The room looked fantastic and elegant and as soon as everyone saw it they suddenly got into the party spirit.
The evening kicked off with speeches from the Operations Director and the Managing Director. Then the raffle started, many of the couriers won big prizes such as holidays, tickets for international rugby matches and much more. After the raffle the buffet opened and everyone ate some lovely buffet food and had a few more drinks!
Then the most exciting part of the evening came… The Orange Awards ceremony hosted by the European Product Delivery Manager. It was like being at the BAFTAs! The Recruitment and Welfare Team and Regional Managers read out the nominations and the winners were presented their awards by one of our Directors. There was a short speech read out about each of the nominees on their time with Canvas and this added to the building excitement until the final winner of each category was announced.
As soon as the awards finished the Black Eye Peas’ song “Tonight’s Gonna
Ge a Good Night” kicked in and everyone jumped to the dance floor. There wasn’t much room on the dance floor all evening! Earlier in the evening video clips which the couriers had sent in of their time out in the field were shown on a big screen. These were greeted with much laughter and a few tears too!
What an excellent night we all had, with many not getting to bed until 3am. Everyone looked fantastic in their dresses, suits and the occasional kilt too!
I can’t wait until the 2010 reunion!