Ospreys players and management made their way to Bluestone National Park in Narbeth this week to help launch their brand new corporate activities and enjoy a day of team building exercises ahead of the crunch back-to-back Heineken Cup ties against French giants Toulouse.
Players and management from the Swansea-based RaboDirect PRO12 side were thrown in at the deep end at the launch of Celtic Quest, where they spent a day using brain and brawn to strengthen team bonding.
The new Celtic Quest activity forms part of the expanding corporate facilities at Bluestone. It follows growth within its conference and events services over the past 18 months and the launch of The Pavilion in September, a new corporate and event venue for conferences, gala dinners and events.
“Team building is paramount on and off the pitch,” said Andy Lloyd, Rugby Operations Manager at the region.
“What’s interesting is that building a successful team on the pitch is just as important off the pitch in a business environment - and that’s where team building is critical.”
He added: “You need to have a team that’s gelling well together in order to succeed. You’re not going to achieve growth, success or profitability without a strong team behind the business that’s working cohesively.
“Celtic Quest is a great way for businesses to identify their strengths and weaknesses and work together for an end goal – achieving bonding and, more importantly, results. It’s quite unique in that it allows individuals to focus on their stronger abilities while being part of a team. It ensures that nobody’s left out, which is imperative as part of team building.”
Celtic Quest takes participants on a range of physical and mental challenges designed to bring team members together in a fun and sociable way, while ensuring they leave as a focused team capable of achieving results for their employees.
Yvonne Buckingham, Head of Marketing at Bluestone, said:
“We realised that with the development of our conference and meeting facilities many clients were coming here to undertake their own team building activities. We wanted to take that to the next level by allowing them to utilise the great all-weather facilities and setting up a programme that can support their team development.”
“With 500 acres of countryside, the steep ravine, our Tournament Field, the woods, cycling paths and walks, combined with our modern indoor facilities incuding our award-winning holistic spa, water park and luxury accommodation, we can provide a bespoke business team build and one that supports a company’s objective to grow and develop.”
Bluestone, which opened over four years ago, hosts large and small corporate events. Earlier this year more than 600 guests from and international blue chip company attended a conference at the resort; hiring the entire site for accommodation, meetings and gala dinners.
“We’re seeing significant growth in our corporate market. From meetings and conferences to staff and customer incentives and loyalty offers. Companies are looking for cost-effective and bespoke solutions and we’re lucky to be able to provide that here,” added Yvonne.
Ryan Jones joined teammates at the Celtic Quest event, and he said:
“It’s great to get out of the normal working environment and for us it’s not just about on the pitch training. There’s a lot of strategic thinking as well as physical activity.
“Celtic Quest has been a great way to bring the team together and highlight where our strengths and weaknesses lie personally and professionally within the team. It’s brought us together and helped management to identify areas that we need to work on to ensure we’re all working collectively to achieve one goal - to win.”
More details about Celtic Quest and Bluestone’s corporate services can be found at www.bluestonewales/corporate.
To see some photos from the event visit our Facebook page here...