The weekend of 9^th to 11^th September was here at last – it was time for the IAStival down in Englandshire. A Fifth Ring posse of party-goers from the Aberdeen office packed their (many) bags and squeezed themselves onto the first of what was to be seven eventful but fun-filled train journeys at Aberdeen’s station. Mr Potter and his sidekick Asa got on at Stonehaven (I think it was platform 9¾) and all eight of us were now on board and very much in the mood to party.

Having survived the journey down, we played the ‘how much can you fit into two cars?’ game at Macclesfield station and somehow made it to the festival site itself – and what a site it was too. One huge field, several marquees including our favourite food and drink specific ones, a big stage for the bands with all it’s electronics and lighting, tent town, portaloo corner, sand covered cow ‘presents’, a load of IAS’ers (some who had obviously been there a while – if you know what I mean) and a generally great vibe. In short, everything you’d expect at any of the top festivals.

Once we’d all been labelled with our colour-coded wristbands we set off to tent town and pitched our tents. William cheated however by bringing with him a pop-up one – I think it took him longer to unpack his travel chair, but the rest of us were to have the last laugh as he tried, and failed, to fold it back down to it’s original size and shape when the weekend was over.

Wellies on, and the first stop on our ‘lets check the place out’ walk was the drinks tent (don’t act surprised) and we got mingling with the locals who were all extremely welcoming and seemed genuinely happy that we’d made the journey down south. The first of what seemed to be an endless weekend’s worth of excellent bands plucked their first guitar strings and this, interspersed with some excellent DJ’s pumping out the beats, kept things going. It was a party atmosphere that Russ Abbot would have been proud of (one for the oldies among us).

I think it’s fair to say that the eight of us got into the mood pretty quickly (the free drinks vouchers may have helped) and we partied late into both nights – the ‘silent disco’ being an obvious highlight as we went into the early hours so as not to disturb the neighbours (this essentially involved everyone wearing headphones and dancing like maniacs next to the bar).

There were also dodgems, an ice-cream van, the hula-hoop guy (love his ‘Lord of the Rings’ business card) and even a free cocktail bar (thanks to our BBN friends for that one) – what more could we want!

There are obviously many stories that I could not possibly publish on here in a ‘what happened at the IAStival stays at the IAStival’ kind of way – but they were all perfectly harmless I promise you. Dog toys, a monkey suit, Kenny the mad neighbour, the rude Scotsman (none of us), gel mouth spray, fluorescent pink bands, straw cowboy hats, ceilidh dancing to hardcore dance music, annoying couple on our train seats who got ‘removed’ (eventually), a bouncy castle, Zara Vaughan’s missing bag (with strapless bra), Percy Pigs and loads more all played their part towards an excellent weekend and I will leave it to you to use your imagination as to how.

It wouldn’t be right to not say a final, and very big thanks to all our friends at IAS and to everyone who organised it. It was a very successful and memorable event that we wont forget in a hurry – in spite of our alcohol intake.

Let’s hope they do another one – they’d better as I found a stray ‘free drink voucher’ that I need to use up and there’s no expiry date.

Andy 'Monkey Suit' Wainwright

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So here I am, my 10^th anniversary at Fifth Ring has just passed. So what’s happened over the past decade? Well, quite a lot as it happens…

On a personal front it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride (that probably wont be the last cliché I use so will make my apologies to Reuben Webb right now). I became a father (planned), had a car accident that resulted in an operation and 3 months off work (not planned), travelled to lots of nice places, made some great new friends and got back in touch with some old ones, contracted arthritis (by contracted I don’t mean that I raised a Purchase Order, I just have to now avoid that bumpy rollercoaster I mentioned earlier), fell in love with the game of poker (well I need to supplement my income somehow – hope the company Directors are reading this) and have struggled to sell my house during the worst market slump in  decades (40 months and counting). All of this with my understanding, patient and far better half Michelle at my side.

As for work, well, in my best X-Factor contestant voice, it’s been a journey (told you the clichés would continue). The company has grown dramatically from when I started all those years ago from an Aberdeen-only agency with around 15 employees to what is now a leading international B2B agency with additional offices in Houston and Dubai and a five-fold increase in staff numbers (give or take). Not all solely down to me, granted.

Our visibility, our offering and our expertise have all increased greatly and we’re now proud, leading members of the prestigious BBN network to help take us to that next level.

It’s not all been plain sailing though. Like all companies, we’ve had our ups and downs, our good times and our bad. I’ve seen people come, people go and even people return. Like everyone else, we were not recession-proof and it took its toll, but we’re coming out the other side stronger for it on several fronts. We’ve made some big strides of late, not least of which was to increase ties with our friends at IAS, an extremely successful, award-winning B2B agency from south of the border. Just doing our bit for Anglo-Scottish relations – it’s not been the same since Mel Gibson sacked York.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve still got a lot of work to do and are already in the process of making some very positive changes to benefit both the company and our clients. You can’t stand still in this business without falling behind pretty quickly so it’s onwards and upwards for us (couldn’t resist squeezing in a couple more clichés there but hey, it’s true).

As for me, well I’ve gone from Production Co-ordinator to Production Manager and now Operations Manager over this period of time. Much of my work is now done behind-the-scenes but impacts on everyone and at all levels to varying degrees – though most people don’t realise it half of the time, which tells me I must be doing something right. Either that or they’re just keeping me on for my good looks and great sense of humour. I like to think it’s all of the above. Anyway, who else is going to organise and run the office sweepers, poker evenings and quiz nights?

As for what’s going to happen over the next 10 years - well, who knows? Life is just not that predictable. No doubt it will be full of twists and turns and highs and lows, with a few surprises along the way (though less of the ‘unplanned’ events please). Bring it on.

Now, does anyone want to buy a house…?