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By Eve, November 17, 2011 4:55 pm

The 16^th November 2011 saw the first ever global Virgin Social Marathon, a groundbreaking event that took place around the world bringing together all sorts of digital types from Virgin offices near and far all working together for a day-long event at the Facebook office in London. Starting in Australia, then over to the UK and South Africa and finally ending in LA, California at Sir Richard Branson, Eve Branson and Virgin Unite’s event Rock the Kasbah.

The aim of the day was to reach out to our fans and followers across all of our social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+ with the theme and hashtag #FirstTimes. A fun packed and fast-typing day, we started posting and tweeting in the UK at around 6am and continued through until almost midnight.

With Mini Draws of lots of Virgin goodies up for grabs plus a Grand Prize including 2 hot air balloon rides, an Aston Martin experience day, a 1 year membership to Virgin Active, a Virgin London Marathon place and a Virgin Media TiVo box to name but a few, getting all of our social media fans entering and playing with the brand new app Virgin First Times was great fun.

In keeping with the theme #FirstTimes and to mark the the launch of the new app, we asked some of our colleagues here in the Virgin Balloon Flights office to share their ballooning first times with us.

“Describe your first balloon ride in three words?”

“What did you think of your first balloon ride?”

First Timers

We also wanted to know what our colleagues have been up to for the first time lately – here are some of their firsts:-

“Became a Dad” – Alex F, “Produced work for my very first public exhibition” – Ben H “Saw Bruno Mars in concert”- Sophie E “Bought my first home with my fiancé” – Caz S “Attended a Management Board meeting” – Ryan L “Skydive!” 10,000ft of pure nerves” – Liz M “Planning a Vegas wedding. Won a comp to go to SA with @RichardBranson” – Kirsty M

If you fancy flying in a balloon for the first time, please visit our Experience page where you can learn all about what’s involved on a Virgin Balloon Flights ballooning adventure.

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By Eve, November 16, 2011 4:58 pm

Today heralds the first ever global Virgin Social Marathon, a groundbreaking event that takes place around the world bringing together digital Virgin types near and far all working together for a day-long event at Facebook’s office in London. Starting in Sydney, Australia, then handing over to the UK and ending in Los Angeles, California at Sir Richard Branson, Eve Branson and Virgin Unite’s event Rock the Kasbah, the social media marathon is a unique and exciting experience.

In celebration of the launch of the brilliant new Virgin Facebook app Virgin First Times, we asked some of our pilots to share their ballooning first times with us.

Martin Collinson

“My first balloon flight was in a crispy old blue balloon that had been flying for many years. I went along as a passenger with the infamous balloonist Kim Hull conducting a training flight with another chap. It was a beautiful morning floating across the fields and woods of north Hampshire, the dew still dripping from the leaves of the trees.  Blissfully unaware of the concentration required to actually fly the balloon, I leant over the side admiring the scenery.  It was a smooth and relaxing experience. In one word I’d describe it as serene. Some #FirstTimes for me recently; mobilised as a Military Observation and Liaison Officer to complete a 6 month operational tour on the United Nations Green Line in Cyprus.”

Dave Sutcliffe
Remembering his first times… “We were out on a Saturday night in pub with a work pal and got asked what we were doing in morning. So we got up at 7am (a November morning) and were greeted with a hard frost. Headed to Escrick Park south of York in a pick-up truck to be greeted upon arrival by what looked like a hairy Viking (Hugh Wright) which was very appropriate as he was flying the Yorvik Viking Centre balloon. I got involved getting the balloon ready, Hugh inflated it and Ian told me to get in. He had arranged for me to fly and he would follow and retrieve. I didn’t have any time to worry about it. The view was fantastic and after a little while we landed in a field. I was asked to swap places and can go and pick them up. So off they went and I tried to work out how to follow a balloon by myself. I set off then I got a shock as I heard Hugh talking to me in the truck. Worked out how it worked (years before mobiles) and was told which way to go. Found them in the end and went for breakfast. It was a great morning with lots of firsts that day. Pick-up truck ride. Balloon flight, towing a trailer and retrieving and made a friend for life.

Overall it was a, in three words, life changing experience.

More recently I have started cycling longish distances for the first time.”

Mark Simmons AKA “Nobby”

“My first flight was in April 1989 from the Thunder & Colt factory (now the Lindstrand factory) in Oswestry as a passenger in a new balloon’s first flight. It was piloted by Lars Eric Moores (quite a well known balloonist who started one of the first ride operations in Turkey). I was visiting the factory with Peter Mason whom I had just started working for as a full-time ground crew for his new Financial Times Special Shape balloon.

I don’t remember much about the flight as I hadn’t given the possibility of becoming a pilot myself any thought. I do remember the feeling when we touched down of “this is what I want to do with my life”. I loved it, although I did spend most of the 45 min flight looking through the lens of a video camera. My next flight a month later in Ireland was in a can shaped balloon which was very exciting!

In three words ballooning is absolutely bl**dy brilliant!

For the first time this year I met UK soul queen Beverly Knight at the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta. I also flew my 2000 hour!”

Neal Parry

“My first flight was back in 1993, in someone else’s balloon, in Jan 2006, in a bright striped balloon.  I was flying 16 excited, happy pax, under supervision of the chief pilot, as usual when gaining a new (Kenyan) licence.  We inflated in the dark, to catch sunrise from the air, over the Mara river, with its wallowing hippos, and crocs, and then onto the plain, where wildebeest, giraffes, elephants, big cats, and scores of other species roam free.

It was STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL!”

Visit Virgin First Times to share your first times with us.

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By Alex, November 11, 2011 6:21 pm

Hi there,

I’m Alex Ferguson (the real one – not a certain grumpy Scottish football manager!) and I’m head of marketing at Virgin Balloon Flights in the UK. I’d love you to help me raise money for Virgin Unite.

When was the last time you did something for the first time? It was probably just this morning. Was it cool, fun, interesting, surprising, scary, disgusting or totally unforgettable? Life is made up of first times and the first time is often the best. Life also tends to be more fun if you’re open to trying new things, even if they take you out of your usual comfort zone. I’ve recently become a dad for the first time – so this has opened up a whole new world of first times!

Like life, there could be some hiccups along the way and this list may change a bit (some things are more difficult to arrange than others and some substitutes), but I will definitely do 50 Firsts Times and I may even add some bonus ones along the way…making myself look extremely stupid for your viewing pleasure.

I really appreciate all your support and thank you for any donations.

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By Eve, April 28, 2011 3:04 pm

It’s not every day  that us Virgin folk get the chance to all work together under one roof. Spread out all over the UK we sometimes meet for meetings but never before have we met in one place to work towards one common objective for the good of the brand.

Enter, the Virgin Social Marathon! The very day after the Virgin London Marathon, on Monday 18th April 2011, Richard Branson kicked off a day of social interaction with a difference with a video tweet.

Virgin Media turned charitable private member’s club The House of St Barnabas in London’s chic Soho into ‘Our House’; the ultra fast 100Mb fibre optic broadband came in very handy with all of us tweeting for 7 hours non-stop!

Virgin’s digital teams tweeted and Facebooked their collective fans and followers to build brand awareness, grow fan bases, start the Twitter trend #ifvirgindid to encourage new ideas for the Virgin group and to give away the Ultimate Virgin Lifestyle Prize which included amongst other things a place in the 2012 Virgin London Marathon, flights to New York, balloon flights and free Virgin Active gym membership (lucky Tom Chalet won!).

Richard Branson’s famous ‘RBT’ mugs were dished out to people who tweeted photos of themselves with their boring old office mugs or who actually came to Our House for a cuppa with us.  The guys back at the office got stuck in too.

Nobby the pilot and his passengers achieved the accolade of ‘highest tea break’ with a photo of his passengers enjoying a tea break in the sky.

Even singer Josh Groban made an appearance and got tweeting too…

Virgin Balloon Flights gave away prizes to people who got involved online including David Cruise from California who only seemed to sleep for a few hours before waking and tweeting us again, local Social Media expert Jan Minihane who published a blog post on her site about the event and Michaela who tweeted that she would most like Alan Carr #inmyballoon.

We particularly liked the post by one budding entrepreneur who tweeted #ifvirgindid Olive Oil, which made us chuckle.

The day was a great success in scoring yet another Virgin first, raising our profile across the social media networks, increasing all of our fans and followers online but most of all we would like to say how amazing it was for all of us to just work together in one place, let’s hope it’s not the last time.

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By Alex, April 18, 2011 12:42 pm

Hi there from Virgin Media Our House an amazing private members’ club in London W1!

Today we’re at the Virgin Social Marathon where people from across the group are chatting together while Tweeting and Facebooking you guys out there in the big wide world.

We’d love you to get involved by Tweeting your ideas for new Virgin businesses using the #ifvirgindid tag.

You could win the ultimate Virgin lifestyle by entering the prize draw.

Here are Eve, Antony from Virgin Money Giving, me and guys from lots of other Virgin companies, busily Tweeting away.

If you’d like to see more pictures of Our House check out the Flickr page of our friends at Virgin Atlantic VTravelled

Thanks Virgin Media – this place is fantastic!

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By Eve, April 14, 2011 3:57 pm

Not unaccustomed to all-time firsts, several members of staff from across the Virgin group will be coming together on Monday 18^th April 2011 under one very groovy roof to take part in the first ever Virgin Social Marathon, the very day after the Virgin London Marathon.

With a view to raising awareness of all of our social channels, to give people a chance to win some amazing Virgin lifestyle prizes, to get a trend going on Twitter and to give everyone a chance to participate in shaping how we do things here at Virgin, we will be Tweeting and Facebooking for 8 hours from the very funky Virgin Media Our House in Soho, London.

We’re all very excited about the forthcoming social media day and look forward to working together to create and inspire some fresh ideas. We’re looking to fans and followers to suggest new entrepreneurial ideas so get your thinking caps on…

To find out what prizes are on offer and how you can be a part of this social first take a look at the social marathon blog on Virgin.com.

We look forward to seeing you online on Monday 18th, watch these spaces closely…

http://twitter.com/VirginBalloons

http://www.facebook.com/virginballoonflights