World of Hoare Lea. Us being awesome.
READY TO READ
Phil Hill has added two new books to the library in Bristol. These are extra special, as he is featured in one, and a co-author of the other.
Book 1 – The Book of Dreams is a puzzle book that Phil co-wrote during Covid times. He and a bunch of puzzle designers from around the world wrote and produced it and crowdfunded nearly £30,000 with the profits going to Doctors Without Borders.
Book 2 – Joined-Up Thinking is a great book about the power of collaboration and collective intelligence by neuroscientist and presenter, Dr Hannah Critchlow.
FOOTLOOSE AND FINANCE-FREE
After a busy and successful year, our Finance team took some downtime, spending an afternoon together. They painted their own piggy banks (what else!), hosted a quiz, and enjoyed some home baked treats.
SZIDY HY-ROCKS!
Szidy Henter competed in a HYROX competition. This cross-functional challenge combines both running & workout stations, where participants run 1km, followed by one functional workout station, repeated eight times. She said “it’s one of the toughest things I’ve ever done!”
PIVOT
A team from Cardiff entered the Women in Property annual charity tournament. They were joined by others from etra Tech and RPS.
They saw a major improvement from last year (7th/8), with the team coming 5th out of 10 teams!
HANDLEBARS GALORE!
Our OMC offices raised:
for Movember – a Men’s mental Health, Prostate Cancer and Testicular Cancer Charity.
In two years, they have raised just under £4000.
You can see their team page here!
2 MONTHS HARDWORK
Our Bournemouth office raised:
Bournemouth have continued their monthly charity fundraising efforts to raise a total of £719 in November and December.
In November they supported The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, and many from the office raised money as part of the national Movember campaign. In December, they hosted a raffle for Dorset Mind and Hope Housing, Training & Support.
WAVING GOODBYE
Our Acoustics team had to say goodbye to Lander Yaben recently, but they had a great send off in Bristol. They had a curry evening followed by a darts tournament in Flight Club Bristol! You can check out some more photos, animations and stats here.
TEAM CHALLENGES WRAPPED UP
Across 2024, teams in our Southeast region competed in a variety of challenges. This included things such a Mario Kart or Pool, a sports day, a bake off and even pumpkin carving.
At their Christmas party they celebrated all who had took part and announced the winners.
For Reading, Team Thames took the win with 120 points, with Team Avon coming a close second with 118. For Bournemouth - Team Blue took the lead with 230 points, beating their close rivals Team Green by 7 points.
HOW ARE YOU STANDING?
In January Plymouth had a Chiropractor visit the office to do a talk and offer free posture checks. It was a great opportunity for people to learn about their composition and - although a lot of them knew their posture wasn’t great - they didn’t realise how bad it was!
PLYMOUTH PARTIES
Plymouth spent the festive period having a couple of parties. One was their formal event – one held at the Victualling Old Tavern. The second was their fantastic in-office lunch and Secret Santa—where all sorts of things were gifted! From lanterns to mini-Henry Hoovers, Nerf guns to mugs, and of course, a multipack of J20s, everyone headed home with a little something.
RIGHT IN THE POCKET
Bournemouth recently hosted their annual pool tournament with 32 people taking part.
Dave Dymott was crowned as the champion against fellow finalist Joe Macklin. They battled it out over three matches scoring 2 – 1. Dave made it through several rounds and going against some tough competition, but ultimately spending his youth playing pool cinched him the title.

AA-AWAY DAY
The news Advisory and Advocacy group met in London before Christmas to kick-start their work together.
They spent the day networking, collaborating and discussing where they want to go, what they want to achieve – and where they see the group going in future.
To start the day – a game of people bingo was played. James Ford took this very seriously, networked like a pro and scraped the win!
