Event Cycle worked with the Hilton Birmingham Metropole to arrange for the commercial team to incorporate a local, environmentally focused, volunteering activity, into their annual business development meeting. This was all part of their ongoing commitment to address sustainability in all its forms.
With ambitions to add the activity as an offering to their corporate meeting clients, the team wanted to do their part and test the experience to see first-hand the many benefits it could bring. Event Cycle matched #teamHBM with a conservation project based on the canals that run through and around Birmingham.
Before the skyscrapers of Birmingham had been built, the Cambrian Wharf and surrounding areas were farmlands and fields full of the beauty of the British countryside. From bluebells to snowdrops, wild garlic to daffodils, flowers were abundant. Not wanting to lose this association, the Canals & River Trust makes sure there are flower beds that bring colour and nature back into the city along the length of waterways.
Two new beds were ready for cultivation as part of this project and the Hilton Birmingham Metropole were on hand to help out. The group started the day with a Health & Safety briefing before donning appropriate PPE and getting to work. They prepared the beds for planting by clearing both sites of leaves and weeds and then moved on to place the bulbs in multiple layers to ensure continuous growth through the seasons, covering each level with topsoil every time.
“On behalf of the Canal and River Trust I would like to thank [the Hilton] team for joining us at Cambrian Wharf. Your support of this project has contributed to a great beginning of the new year and the work that you carried out is excellent! Our thanks for your support of this project and please be sure to volunteer with us again.
Tara Sexton, Volunteer Team Leader
The completed plots will be one part of the variety of gardens on offer to the public including, sensory gardens, edible gardens and even a community orchard which stretches all the way out to Wolverhampton. The beds will be maintained by regular volunteers and other groups that come down to do their bit for the community too.
We can't wait to see when the blooms come out!
The activity was selected from a number of local organisations, from the Event Cycle network, that offers community activities with social and environmental impacts. If you want to know what more you can do at your enxt event, get in touch.