Turn Key Blog. Things we've done and the things we love.

I’m Sacha, a 21 year-old student studying International Business with French at the University of Birmingham and was recently lucky enough to spend a few days as an intern at Turn Key. Having just completed a year abroad, I was keen to get some more work experience under my belt to help with my future business career, and when I contacted Turn Key they were more than happy to help me out.

Interested in a career in finance, I was placed in the finance and operations department. It is here where all the company’s accounts are handled, as well as the general day-to-day running of the firm – which, trust me, is a lot of work! Being the freakishly organised individual that I am, I was immediately impressed with how well everything was managed. With only a small team working in this department, it’s impressive how hard they work to complete tasks, and I realised straight away that I had a lot to live up to!

Despite my placement at Turn Key being fairly short, I was given the opportunity to undertake a diverse range of tasks – from credit control (scary!) to completing and checking expenses forms (not so scary!). It was great to be trusted with these tasks and made to feel like a valuable member of the team – not just an annoying spare part! After just a few days I felt my confidence grow, and working within the finance and operations team has confirmed to me that this is definitely the type of career I want to pursue.

My favourite memory about working at Turn Key has to be the company ethos and the friendly vibe. Unlike previous jobs where I haven’t been able to stop looking at the clock, the days flew by and I found myself really wanting to stay!

So, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone at Turn Key, especially Vikki and Kirsty who’ve been more than welcoming and given me some invaluable experience. Although I won’t miss the early morning wake-up calls (I’m a student – it’s not in our nature to get up before 10am), I will definitely miss life at Turn Key and look forward to hearing all about its future ventures.

On Friday 10 ^th August, we embarked upon our annual Turn Key away day for what was to be an experience never to forget. Planned to perfection by our lovely Business Support Executive, Kirsty, this year’s action-packed day of fun was at Nero Training near York, situated on the Ampleforth College estate.

After a shaky journey in which our old coach struggled to climb the steep North Yorkshire hills, we were split on our arrival into three teams – ‘Mustang’, ‘Sabre’ and ‘Panther’. As we gathered in our groups it became obvious that Team Panther – featuring (by random selection) some of Turn Key’s strongest, most active and most competitive members – was a clear favourite.

After an inspiring pep talk from Nik and Nero Training leader Neil – we headed outside to begin the day. An intense “warm-up” had us piggy backing each other, mastering the art of star jumps and jogging around an idyllic lake. We then commenced our first challenge, a time trial to dismantle, move and rebuild a canon with two (very heavy) tyres, an oil can and a giant log. We were instructed to do the same thing three times, using strategy to improve our times and delegating responsibilities based on strength, ability and capacity – a typical day in the office for us!

After a short lunch, we then completed the second round of challenges – building a catapult, passing a ball around a circle without our hands and, a highlight of the day for most of us, riding Segways – a special mention must go to Derrick and Christian who, despite being given firm reassurance that it was impossible, achieved some impressive falls.

The final challenge of the day saw us transform from creative professionals into soldiers of the British Army – our mission (and we chose to accept it) was to locate water and supplies needed by refugees across the lake. It was a race against time to orienteer through the forest to find the supplies, build a raft and successfully paddle it across the lake. Unaware of our scores from the previous tasks, each team was determined to be the first to get across.

Thanks to their athletic prowess, Team Panther were the first to reach the supplies and soon started work on building an interesting shaped raft. In second place, Mustang took their time and put together an incredible floating creation. Paul’s experience of watching Bear Grylls paid off as their raft triggered approving nods from the coaches as it entered the lake. The underdogs, Team Sabre, reached the supplies somewhat belatedly. With no knowledge of how to tie knots and limited resources available, they quickly hatched a plan to copy Mustang’s design and get it in the water as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, by the time the somewhat unsturdy raft was ready to depart, Panther had already reached the imaginary refugees and Mustang was half way there. But with admirable strength and heroic integrity, James and Phill mounted the strange contraption and paddled across the lake, with Nicole and Gina swimming alongside, pushing.

Cold and wet, we posed for our team photo with pride. Derrick may have turned blue in the lake, Christian may have had a disastrous fall and Nik’s hair may have fallen out of place for the first time in 13 years (according to Rich), but we felt good. So good in fact that finding a frog in the shower afterwards did not even dampen our spirits!

During a well-deserved three course meal at the nearby Fairfax Arms ,the  surprising results were announced along with the long awaited Turn Key Awards Ceremony. Congratulations to the winners, TEAM MUSTANG who consistently excelled in every task, meaning Panther’s victory at the raft challenge and Sabre’s unrivalled Segway performance were pipped to the post.

With aching muscles and happy memories made, we’re now back in the office working as one strong team and looking forward to next year’s away day already.

First things first, I’m Tom Richmond, 21, and entering the third year of my Language, Literacy & Communication degree at the University of Manchester. This past week I have been Turn Key’s most recent intern. With just a week-long placement, I wanted to throw myself into the PR and marketing deep end and, to put it bluntly, find out what on earth I want to do with my life!

I’ve learnt a lot about the company, about the PR and marketing professions, and about myself (I definitely don’t like tea!). Here are just some of the lessons I’ve learnt in the past week:

Lesson 1 – #teamturnkey

Upon entering the office, the team ethos and welcoming nature of every member of staff was thrust upon me. After half an hour I’d received my first tweet, ten minutes later I was sitting in the Monday morning PR team meeting and within a few hours felt like I’d been at TK for years.

Lesson 2 – Be careful what you wish for!

Throw myself in the deep end? If I hadn’t, I’d have been pushed! Straight away the extra pair of hands I provided was utilised to the absolute maximum. There’s no sitting around making tea (although Nik did ask for a black coffee or two!) Competitor research, team brainstorming and developing the PR ideas board was all in a day’s work for me, I even wrote my very first press release about Turn Key!

Lesson 3 – If you can’t juggle, this isn’t for you

I seriously couldn’t believe how many tasks these guys successfully juggle on a day-to-day basis. The planning, time management and commitment to every second in the office was staggering and something I immediately felt rub-off on me.

Witnessing the intricate workings of the PR and marketing machines, I soon understood the time that goes into liaising with existing, new and potential clients effectively. On top of that, seeing first-hand the extensive research that goes into every single project and how each department works fluidly to present themselves as one to the client.

Lesson 4 – Bring earplugs if Samara’s singing

No elaboration necessary!

Now, sitting writing at the end of a hectic week, it’s odd not to have that ‘Friday feeling’, as for me it inevitably means the end of my time with Turn Key. So Turn Key, thank you. I have had an incredible time and I really feel, in only this short space of time, I have taken a massive step towards shaping my future. I look forward to seeing you all soon!

In the meantime, follow me on Twitter

We all like to muck in at Turn Key, so when we were asked to complete a photo shoot for innovative mobile accessory company, MyBunjee, our team literally jumped at the chance to get in front of the camera – as well as behind it! Throughout the shoot the team were jumping about on skateboards and snowboards and we finished the day not just happy we’d got some cracking action shots, but that everyone was still in one piece!

The shoot went really well and you will be able to see the fruit of our labour on a brand new website and a host of marketing collateral very soon. However, in the meantime, here’s a sneak peek behind the scenes.

Thank you to our models, Oliver and Olivia for doing a great job!

Whilst everyone in Leeds celebrated the visit of the Queen, the Accoya team braved through a political rally in Sunderland to see our Accoya Exhibition designs coming to life.

Meeting with our clients in a warehouse (complete with in-house seagulls), we came face to face with the latest life-sized Accoya exhibition stand, which is an impressive sight at 4m high. Along with the printers and stand builders, we looked at every aspect of the stand in close detail, from the design, printing and build, thinking of ways to make it smarter and look even better. We have been designing the Accoya and Tricoya stands for many years, and have seen the brand evolve and the stands become ever more popular. In fact at Ecobuild this year they had 238 contact badges scanned on site, compared to just 120 the year before. At least 600 product brochures were given out and the client was very happy!

We look forward to taking even bigger and better stands to Timber Expo in Coventry , Bolig Forum in Norway, Greenbuild in San Francisco and Hout and Habitat in Belgium this year, with plenty more to follow in 2013.

Those of you who follow us on will already know, we’ve moved! After years of searching and months spent in temporary offices on Wellington Street, our new home was finally ready to move into – and boy was it worth the wait!

The new and improved Turn Key HQ is situated in the heart of Holbeck, at the Victoria Foundry – it’s just a stone’s throw away from some of Yorkshire’s funkiest and most successful companies and the Round Foundry Media Centre , home to a few of our favourite media contacts.

Now let’s move onto the interior – when our MD, Nik, first chose the office, it was a blank canvas – a vast space characterised by large wooden beams and exposed brick walls, it had potential but needed the Turn Key twist. Nik began the long and effortful process of transforming the top floor space and he rallied the troops. This included working with one of our clients – principal contractor, Sanderson .

The company installed a giant mezzanine floor above the office space whilst premium bespoke joiners, Crafted & Co (who we also work for!), created an impressive long bench to install in the new floor. This is now known as our studio, or as many of us have started referring to it as, the ‘boys’ bedroom’.

The rest of us, PR, digital, marketing and business ops, all live downstairs. Like any good home, we have a lounge, A.K.A the ‘Breakout Area’, complete with beanbags, sofas and (thanks to Nik’s lovely wife) sweets. We have a kitchenette equipped with our legendary branded SMEG fridge, a robotic ‘auto sensor bin’ and a picnic bench complete with parasol. We also have our giant desks, snazzy meeting rooms and, like any good office, a ‘foosball’ table – a new addition which makes lunch breaks a lot more fun. And that’s not all, we’re currently brainstorming ideas to decorate the space even more!

So Google, eat your heart out, Turn Key’s new home is the ultimate creative hub and a very exciting step forward for the company. We hope you’ll drop by and see us soon for a cuppa and a game of table football, but for now, have a nosy at the snaps below!

Although Tiger Woods might not be shaking in his boots just yet, the standard of golf on display from the TK team at a recent charity event in Wakefield was more akin to Wentworth than West Yorkshire!

Raising a staggering £14,000 for Wakefield Hospice , the charity extravaganza at Wakefield Golf Club was the setting for Nik ‘Nicklaus’ Entwistle, Mike ‘Mcllroy’ Robinson and Chris ‘Couples’ Hughes to don their dodgy plus fours and swing into action to do TK proud. The trio were joined by Bret Smith from Depuy, making it a formidable foursome, on paper at least.

Despite the wet conditions, the TK team started off strong with Nik and Mike holing some audacious putts and pulling some majestic fairway shots out of the bag to keep the scorecard ticking over. Nik’s stunning tee-shot to within just four feet of the pin on the first par 3 hole was certainly one to remember (as if Nik would let us forget!). Chris was sadly finding every tree and bunker possible on the opening holes, but his moment in the sun (rain) would surely come later in the round.

The heavens really opened on the back nine and the TK team would have found more use out of a snorkel than a sand wedge. Chris finally got in amongst the action and picked up some points for the team as the conditions started to deteriorate badly. ‘Mystic Mike’ as he is now known, finished the round off by putting his psychic powers to the test and attempted to predict the scores for the final hole – before he’d even taken his tee-shot. Sadly the promised birdies – and points – failed to materialise.

A slightly sodden Team TK can only be praised for keeping their spirits high and sense of humour intact as they battled through the elements to complete all 18 holes.

Soaked to the skin, the boys trudged off the final green to make sense of the scorecard, dry off and spruce up ready for the evening presentation. Despite missing out on the first prize, the team achieved a respectable top five position, leaving Nik to claim his ‘nearest the pin’ prize and the raffle for good measure.

A great day was had by all and a big thank you must go out to sponsors Ashleigh Signs for laying on a superb event. No doubt the TK team will be gunning for glory again next year!