
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
34 | THE BAKEHOUSE FACTORY
least expected. This remains our core
focus and for the vast majority of
events we work on, we are invited by
a client to create something that will
be placemaking or set them apart from
their competitors.
Our combination of skills is a key
element of our appeal: Dan can create
a set for any location, Hannah can
infuse the set with magic through
performance and I can liaise with
clients to find ways to design events
that will fulfil all of their aspirations.
Between the three of us, we are
uniquely placed to answer corporate
briefs with creative and authentic
theatrical solutions. Most of our events
are offered to the general public for
free and this will always be at the heart
of what we do. Beyond fulfilling the
objectives of our clients, this means
we can offer theatrical experiences to
those who would not usually visit the
theatre, going to where they are in
their day-to-day lives and pulling them
into another world.
As we have grown the business, we
have also come up with concepts that
we are so passionate about we are
looking to host and promote them
ourselves, branching out into ticketed
events. We are equally excited about
the prospect of producing our own
installations as we are those for our
brilliant clients.
A benchmark within the
industry
We have never worked with a client
just once; every client works with us
again and again. Retention has been a
key way of growing our customer base
and ensuring continued business. We
have won numerous industry awards
and are recognised as a benchmark
of quality within the industry. We are
also not afraid to contact those we
think we could work well with: we
are always hungry to reach out to
more people, expand our network and
introduce ourselves to potential clients.
A key element of our best practice
is how we select and work with
our performers, the vast majority of
whom hold Equity cards, and our
commitment to always remunerating
them fairly. We search for the very
best performers in their field because
with immersive theatre, only the best
experiences delivered by the most
effective performers succeed.
We support, nurture and pay all of our
staff properly and are proud to be able
to offer both performers and makers
a regular income. We never treat
staffing as an afterthought. All of our
customers, among both the corporate
sphere and the general public,
immediately identify the talent, passion
and commitment of our whole team.
Our team are incredibly
talented, passionate and
committed
Every client
works with us
again and
again
“
“
35THE BAKEHOUSE FACTORY |
DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA & SPORT
Handcrafting all of our
components
When it comes to creating magical
immersive theatre, the devil really is in
the detail. Having a cohesive nature
is key to our events. When you are
working in a temporary environment, it
can be tempting to buy dissonant parts
and cobble them together. We take a
polarly opposite approach. We treat
every production as if it were a touring
theatre show and we hand craft all of
the necessary components. We bring
in the highest quality craftsmen to
support this.
We are also extremely rigorous in all of
our health and safety procedures and
planning. As we are dealing with the
general public, we are committed to
ensuring they are protected and that our
productions are accessible and available
to all. In order for the production to
be performed at the highest level and
often in very high footfall locations,
this preparation isessential.
In addition to proudly programming
many events that have a strong eco
message, we are also always looking
at ways of making our business more
sustainable. We therefore repurpose
as much as we possibly can. If you
deal with the amount of props and set
that we do, finding affordable storage
space will always be a challenge. We
have an Aladdin’s Cave of sets, props
and backgrounds which means we
have to find storage space which incurs
significant cost. This is something
that remains at the forefront of
ourplanning.
We have not struggled with recruitment
as we naturally attract those that are
passionate about what we do. Our base
in Bristol supports this as the city has a
rich and diverse scene of creatives who
understand our world. We adapt our
team’s skillsets to each job we take on
and we constantly challenge ourselves
to try new build techniques and adopt
newtechnologies.
As we continue into the future, we are
looking to take on larger challenges,
mainly related to the size of our
productions. This will span both our
retail briefs and our own projects. This
does not necessarily mean a greater
volume of work but we will try to
balance these larger projects with
our roaming characters, a part of our
portfolio we never want to give up.
The key will be striking the balance
between the two while achieving
strong growth.
I mmersive theatre gives both us and
our clients a credible, authentic and
creative way to engage with people
and build long term relationships with
customers. We are seeing competitor
event companies with a shallower
engagement model leave the industry,
as audiences expect and deserve more.
Immersive
theatre gives
both us and our
clients a
credible,
authentic and
creative way to
engage with
people and
build long-term
relationships
with customers
“
“
A performance at the
intu Trafford Centre