Newsletter

To all our friendly travellers & bookers,

Things have been exciting and busy at MT* Towers and we thought it was time to tell you what we've been up to. We've also decided that a competition would be fun – the chance to win a fabulous prize! This is at the very end as we would like you to read the rest first. It's all interesting stuff though, so it's a win-win situation.

Musical Mayhem

We've said it before and, no doubt, we'll say it again: we simply haven't stopped this year. Our tame rockstars have been touring like mad things and, with the festival season about to start, we can't see things slowing down any time soon. Luckily, we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Great news that George Michael is well on the road to recovery and we're busy making the arrangements for the rescheduled Symphonica tour which takes place this Autumn. If you can get tickets for this – do it. It's one of the most incredible shows you'll ever see. It's fantastic that George is back in action and we can’t wait for the tour to start.

Petrol Pandemonium

As previously reported, we started our motorsports division last year. We’re delighted to report that it has gone from strength to strength. We've been arranging travel for teams taking part in many of the events which include: World Rally Championship, World Touring Car Championship, World Endurance Championship, Intercontinental Rally Challenge, GT1, British Touring Cars, British GT and Wales Rally GB and have had a fantastic time watching our teams achieve some huge successes on the grid.  We've  seen some sterling action from Bamboo Engineering, JRM Racing, RML and United Autosport. We're pretty sure that much of their success is down to the hard work we do behind the scenes making sure that they are garaged in style!

Culture Vultures

We're not all about Rock ‘n’ Roll at Media Travel. We're just as proud of the work we're doing for clients who have quieter tastes. The Southbank Centre features quite heavily in our calendar this year; we're working with them on a couple of really exciting projects. Poetry Parnassus sees poets from around the globe coming together for a week of readings, talks and performances. It is inspired by the history and spirit of the Olympics and looks set to become the largest ever gathering of poets in one place. We're also involved with the Wide Open School event, which brings together 80 artists from 40 countries to put on workshops, projects, seminars, lectures and performances that are designed to encourage creative contributions from visitors. We are not forgetting our musical roots: last month Berlin Staatskapelle gave performances in London and we are now looking forward to visits from Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, who is playing in the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games, and from Spira Mirabilis.

The Barstool Guru

It’s time to start tapping into the (sometimes murky) pool of knowledge that Fran has built up over many years in the industry. Not only does she have more tips than a bookie, but she can also spin a yarn or two (preferably over a beer). We’re starting small with a regular Barstool Guru spot in this newsletter, but we predict world domination before too long. Beer and chats solve everything – someone should tell the Government...

The first pearls of wisdom Fran would like to share relate to training your touring personnel. Not many people know this but the rules of dog training can be applied to people as well! In this article, you can find out how to make your pack do cool tricks for biscuits...sort of!

Our Guitar

Check out the picture! This guitar is sitting in pride of place in the Media Travel office. Words can't begin to describe how happy we are with the guitar situation. We went along to the re-opening of the legendary music store Rockbottom, which was hit hard by the riots last year. First it was looted, then gutted by fire. Carl Nielsen and friends have worked tirelessly to resurrect this iconic shop, and were thrilled to have members of Whitesnake present at the re-opening. While we were there we got chatting to the band (a longstanding Media Travel client) and we left with signatures on a guitar that we just happened to have with us, cause that’s how we roll!

The Office “Bake-Off”

We're a pretty cosmopolitan crowd at Media Travel. We have a team of the greatest travel consultants sourced from across the globe. As well as giving us some great insights into travel in strange places such as Wales, it also means that we have direct access to some international culinary delights. We’ve designated Thursday “Bake-Off” day and each week some serious delicacies have arrived on our desks. So far we've tucked into Kiwi Pie (we were relieved, but secretly slightly disappointed, to find out that it doesn't have Kiwis in it), Welsh Cakes, Banoffee Pie, Spring Rolls, and some cheesy little French things, with more to come (hopefully!). Recipes may be available, if you ask nicely.

Facetweeting...

We've been working really hard on the social media front, and we're really proud of our Facebook and Twitter presence. Our pages are not only a go-to resource for anyone who needs to know who's touring where, but we add regular updates about where we've been, and what we've been doing. We're well known in real life for providing the personal touch, and we're keen to be just as friendly on the www. Head over to our website (oh you're already here), join us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!

Competition Time...

It's a cracker of a prize! We don't do anything by halves at Media Travel so there was no way we were going to be dishing out a bottle of supermarket plonk or a branded T shirt as the star prize in our first competition. It had to be travel- related and we thought that one of you might be rather thrilled to win a weekend away in a Malmaison hotel. So that's what you're getting...you lucky, lucky person (whoever you might be!) It's not going to be easy though, we're going to make you work for it by answering the question below. That's it. Easy, huh? So what's stopping you?

Which Malmaison hotel has recently opened a new Smoak bar & grill?

Answers on a virtual postcard to competition@mediatravel.com. You can find the terms and conditions here.

That's it folks! One newsletter – duly read! All you need to do now is enter the competition, join us on Facebook/Twitter, and keep your eyes open for the next one. 

We'll completely understand if you choose to hit the “unsubscribe” button but, frankly, with what we have planned for the next one, you'd be mad even to consider it.