By 17:30 on Saturday 15th September Touch of Taste and Business Pursuits had delivered The Concerto Group's largest event in the last 5 years; Ovafest 2007.

Ovafest at its simplest was a picnic! At its most complex, it was an event for 4,500 people travelling from all 18 Arup offices around the UK! This year the event was held at Warwick Castle and for the first time in the history of the venue, its gates were closed to the public. Guests were able to explore the castle and grounds, visiting its numerous attractions. To complement the venue there were numerous strolling entertainers and several displays including jousting, birds of prey and the trebuchet.

On arrival each guest had a choice of tea, coffee or Pimms with Danish pastries and for lunch received an individual picnic box complete with picnic rug and a half bottle of wine. The catering was rounded off with afternoon tea of strawberries, cream and shortbread biscuits. With 4500 guests there were many special requirements. To ensure that guests with particular dietary requirements were catered for information was gathered before the event. On the day, to minimise queuing and waiting time separate picnic points were set up for standard picnics, vegetarian and special diets. In addition guests received their pre-selected choice of white or red wine.

An enormous amount of pre-event planning was required for ordering the food and wine and managing the logistics of serving this number of guests, in order to minimise delays and eradicate errors in serving the pre-selected choices of food. All went to plan with no complaints.

The event was a real Concerto Group effort. Along side Touch of Taste, Business Pursuits not only delivered the event but also co-ordinated the invitations, transportation and administration of all guests from around the UK, using RSVP-online.com. Once all the responses and choices had been collected each guest received a programme detailing the schedule and site plan. Witney UK provided all the structures and Full Circle the entertainment.

To give an indication of the scale of the event, there were 1,200 cars and 56 coaches on site, 60 flights from Scotland and an event crew of over 200.