QStory 10th Corporate Milestone Event: Conference and Dinner

Objective

Celebrating 10 years in business is a significant milestone, but for QStory this was about much more than marking a date in the calendar.

Throughout the year, the company brings its teams and customers together for smaller conferences and events. Its 10th anniversary was different. This was an opportunity to bring 100 employees and customers together in one shared experience, reflect on the company’s journey and look ahead to its future.

The objectives were simple but important: inspire customers, create happy team members and leave everyone with a lasting memory of the occasion.

MGN Events was brought in to help bring those objectives to life, creating a two-part experience that combined a focused daytime conference, with two tracks, along with an evening of dinner, entertainment and celebration.

The challenge was to make the two experiences feel connected without making them feel the same. The daytime conference needed to be engaging and purposeful, while the evening needed the wow factor expected of a 10th anniversary celebration.

The brief

QStory needed a venue for a daytime conference with accommodation for 100 delegates, alongside a memorable evening venue within easy reach.

The evening venue was particularly important. The brief was to find somewhere distinctive, somewhere guests were unlikely to have experienced before and that felt worthy of such an important company milestone. We also felt it was important to find somewhere that reflected the brand story. Our insights-led venue finding led us to Control Room A at Battersea’s iconic power station.

The two venues also needed to share a clear visual identity while retaining their own character.

With the locations chosen by MGN Events, our team was responsible for the creative direction, event production, logistics, delegate experience and the all-important transition between the conference and evening celebration.

What we did

Creating one identity across two very different experiences

The first challenge was finding a way to connect a contemporary conference environment with the industrial character of Battersea Power Station’s Control Room A.

Our design and production team created a bespoke QStory 10-year anniversary identity, bringing the company’s branding together with subtle visual references to the engine room setting.

That identity appeared throughout the experience, from delegate badges, information leaflets and presentation screens to the event backdrop and photography area.

At the Hotel Pestana Chelsea Bridge, the conference space was transformed using QStory’s purple and orange brand colours. Uplighters, moving fixtures and stage lighting gave the room energy, while a branded stage backdrop and twin screens created a polished environment for the presentations.

The evening was deliberately different.

Rather than compete with the architecture, we took a more restrained approach at Control Room A, allowing the original engine room to remain the star of the show. Lighting was used to enhance its industrial features, while carefully chosen furniture, florals and styling added warmth and sophistication.

We helped shape the content as well as the environment

Our involvement went beyond what guests saw around them.

MGN Events worked closely with the QStory team on the presentation content, helping to shape its look, flow and overall experience. This was particularly important for an anniversary event, where the story of the company needed to feel engaging rather than simply becoming a chronological run-through of 10 years in business.

During the conference, illuminated table centres featured the logos of QStory’s clients. These became part of the presentation itself, lighting up as the relevant clients were mentioned during the CEO’s presentation about the company’s journey.

It was a relatively simple idea, but one that helped turn the company’s history into something visual and tangible.

A standout memorable setting for the celebration

The evening began with drinks in the Directors Bar at Battersea Power Station before guests moved into Control Room A for dinner.

With its dramatic industrial architecture, the space needed very little theming. Instead, we added details that complemented rather than concealed it. Control Room A was the perfect setting for a 21st Century tech company focussed on powering the nation’s workforce.

Two long dining tables were dressed with white floral bud vases and old-fashioned mushroom-style lamps, creating a stylish contrast against the industrial surroundings. A bespoke bar front reinforced the anniversary identity, while menus included information and fun facts about Control Room A, giving guests something to discover between courses.

Every place setting also included a personalised acrylic keyring featuring the guest’s name and an image of Battersea Power Station, giving everyone a small reminder of the occasion to take home.

Personalising every guest’s experience

Good event management is often about the details guests barely notice. And that is what MGN Events, is famously known for… MAGIC IN THE DETAILS.

We organised branded QStory tote bags, filled with notebooks and pens, for delegates to receive during the event. We also managed the practical side of bringing 100 people together across two venues, with accommodation at the Pestana Chelsea Bridge and the evening celebration at Battersea Power Station.

At the hotel, the conference breaks included pastries, brownies, fruit skewers and yoghurt with muesli, alongside tea and coffee. Lunch was served in the hotel restaurant, with a choice including baked chicken with creamy Tuscan sauce, fish of the day with puttanesca sauce and a selection of vegetarian dishes.

For the evening, the menu moved up a gear, with canapés including Sussex Charmer tartlets with summer truffle, prawn and scallop toast and bulgogi beef skewers, followed by a choice of caramelised onion houmous, crab risotto, slow-cooked Hampshire pork or yellow Thai curry.

Desserts were presented as a buffet close to the dance floor, encouraging guests to continue mingling rather than interrupting the evening’s flow.

We overcame the practical challenges behind the scenes

Neither venue was completely straightforward from a production perspective.

At the Pestana, the hotel team was not accustomed to production on the scale required, so MGN worked closely with the venue to explain requirements and find the right balance between production impact and the hotel’s operational limitations.

At Control Room A, set-up time was limited and the distance between the supplier loading area and the event space created an additional logistical challenge. Working with our network of experienced preferred suppliers who understood the venue helped us navigate those restrictions and keep the build on schedule.

The result was a complex two-venue event that felt effortless to guests.

The results

A 10th anniversary that achieved its three key objectives

For QStory, the measure of success was clear: inspire customers, create happy team members and create a lasting memory.

The feedback from the client confirmed that the event delivered against all three.

The CEO described it as a great success, specifically highlighting that the team had achieved its goals. The marketing team also commented on how stress-free the day felt from their perspective, despite the complexity involved behind the scenes.

That is one of the most important measures of successful event management. The production, logistics and problem-solving should be happening around the client, not in front of them.

By bringing employees and customers together for QStory’s 10th anniversary, the event created a shared opportunity to celebrate the company’s journey, strengthen relationships and look towards the next decade.

And, most importantly, a milestone that gave customers and employees something worth remembering.

Planning a corporate milestone event?

A company milestone is a valuable opportunity to bring people together around your story, your achievements and where you’re heading next. MGN Events can help you turn that milestone into an experience that feels genuinely meaningful, not simply another date in the corporate calendar.

If you’ve been tasked with planning a Corporate Milestone Event for your company then give us a shout.

Corporate Milestone Events by MGN

A corporate milestone event is an opportunity to do more than celebrate a company’s achievements. It can bring employees and customers together, strengthen relationships, share the company’s story and create a memorable experience around what comes next. For QStory’s 10th anniversary, MGN Events designed a two-part experience that combined a purposeful daytime conference with an evening celebration, helping the company inspire customers, recognise its team and create a lasting memory.

corporate milestone event FAQs