Why is Rob so excited?

Rob Baxter is our logistics manager based in the warehouse at Progressive. He also looks after all the vehicles.

Rob is delighted because tow new vans have arrived. They are Citroen's and the new models are a full 18 inches longer. They also have Trafficmaster built in. This provides satnav and an interesting little feature which tracks the vans, so Rob can log in and see exactly where they are at any moment in time. The question is whether to tell the crews of his new all-seeing powers!

We buy new vehicles every three years because reliability is of critical importance in our business. A van broken down on the motorway can mean 50 people standing around with nothing to do and a very embarrassed organiser. We believe that we have the newest vehicles and equipment in the business.

You don't get a second chance with events. It has to be 'right first time'.

Nicola Abad is one of our project managers

At the moment I’m working on putting together a new event which is based on a “Going Green” theme. The teams will each have their own low carbon vehicle with driver along with GPS, maps, clues, riddles etc which will help them make their way around the New Forest finding activities along the way. All of the activities have a“Green” theme that is eco friendly, they then finish with a Tree planting group finale. My job is to ensure that all of the details for the event are in place and all staff as well as the client knows how the day will run by putting together a detailed Event Schedule and Itinerary for the day.

David Getzig's blog

David is Progressive's Director of Operations and has responsibility for the warehouse team in Ringwood and the entire field operation, ranging from vehicles to equipment and managing our team of more than 50 instructors. It's a key role in the Progressive Resources team.

What is David up to at the moment?

I am currently in the process of introducing a new activity into our event portfolio. We have purchased a Pinzgauer, which has been described as one of the most “competent off-road vehicles in the world”. This will be used for delivering 4 x 4 activities to clients up and down the country.

The Pinzgauer is a remarkable offroad vehicle Its capabilities are comparable to that of the American Hummer.

45 degree approach and departure angle
100% slope or until tyres lose traction
700 mm (27.6 in) fording depth
Can climb down a 360 mm (14.2 in) wall
43.5 degree side-slope
1000/1500 kg of payload (4x4/6x6)
335 mm (13.2 in) of clearance (lowest point when fully loaded)
110 km/h (68 mph) / 100 km/h (62 mph) top speed(4x4/6x6)
Full engine power available at 4 km/h (2 mph)
M body type carries 10 people (4X4), 14 people (6x6)

Hannah from the Projects team

Hannah is with us on a placement and, sadly, will be going back to uni soon. However, she's determined to come back and work for us after her studies, so we won't lose her for long. What has Hannah been up to recently?

"I am currently working on updating and finishing a few larger projects before returning to University. The first of which, event analysis, has involved recording all events and activities within the events to identify which are most popular and what equipment does or doesn't get used. This goes with the dot board analysis to find out hot spot days and which months are busiest at Progressive, such as a record July this year with 84 events.

I am also analysing expenditure on suppliers and where operations buy equipment from. This will allow us to see where we spend money regularly and find out if we can set up trade accounts or bulk discounts for loyal custom."

Newsletter and new website

Our Spring Newsletter headed out this afternoon. We publish this quarterly and send it out to our steadily growing database of now 5,000. We hope you all enjoy it!

We have also launched a new website; www.productlaunch.co.uk. We were able to get this url towards the end of last year. We feel that only having the best domain names underscores our commitment to any service that we promote and we now have an impressive stable of names. We added www.treasurehunt.co.uk earlier last year.

We feel that this approach says that we're serious about what we're doing and that if we do something we do it well.

Sea Business Launches

Sea Business, the water based event division of Progressive Resources, has officially launched with a mailshot to the company database. Chris Welch has moved from Progressive in Ringwood to head up the new division backed up by experienced event manager Sam Griffiths. Sea Business is based on the historic Quay Hill, the cobbled street at the bottom of Lymington High Street which leads down to the Quay.

Business is reported to be brisk after the launch. Sea Business arranges a variety of events including team building on yachts, ribtec treasure hunts and sailing regattas.

Preparing for the 2008 Season

It's all hands on deck at the moment preparing for the main season. We're painting, reparing and building to get our kit up to scratch and cope with higher demand this year. The world seems to be full of doom and gloom but we're experiencing a higher volume of enquiries than usual. One theory is that companies who are doing well are organising team building events to keep their employees feeling positive and motivated in the face of the media onslaught of negativity.