Surprising London walks for teams, clients and colleagues
Are you looking for a fun, thought-provoking away-day activity for your team? Are you seeking new ways to engage your clients’ imaginations? Do you want to avoid the usual tourist traps when showing London to visiting colleagues?
Dotmaker Tours are an entertaining and enlightening way to help groups bond, get a fresh perspective, make creative discoveries and learn about pressing contemporary issues while exploring London. All our tours offer novel insights into the city and richer ways of looking at the world at large. They’re designed to spark curiosity and discussion and can often be weighted to your big questions and topics. For details of the walks, read the highlights.
The walks generally take 2-2.5 hours, and can be organised to suit your schedule. Whether you’d like to make your tour part of a breakfast outing or wrap it around lunch, we can advise on the best places to eat and drink nearby.
Who we are
Most walks are led by Dotmaker Tours’ founder, Rosie Oliver. She has a background as an environmental lawyer in government, and now divides her time between leading the tours and producing spoken audio features for Tickertape Productions. Rosie developed the walks to share her deep interest in London, in environmental issues and in sound in all its forms.
A Genius Tour is led by Cathy Haynes. As well as leading tours for Dotmaker, Cathy is Head of Academy at Scriberia. Previously she was a founding faculty member and the Curator at The School of Life, and the Curator for Art on the Underground (TfL).
Fading are the days of being led between predictable sights by a self-satisfied guide armed with an umbrella and dad jokes. In are trips led by proper, passionate experts who don’t just show you stuff, but surprise you, help you understand a place and, in [Dotmaker’s] words, make you “stop, look, listen, think” — Sunday Times Travel supplement feature on Dotmaker Tours Rubbish Trip, 21 September 2014
What we did for Innocent
When innocent’s Creative team approached us we talked through their objectives, and developed a full day’s Genius Tour with exercises and discussions tailored to their needs. Next, innocent asked us to take their international copywriters on London In Slow Motion to give a fun, unusual introduction to the city and to spark group discussion. Here’s what Katie Rosen, Head of Creative, said about Dotmakers:
A really interesting and enjoyable day. Far and away the best team ‘working’ away day we’ve had. You also gave us lots of new ways to think about attacking our challenges, and we’re really looking forward to getting stuck into working things through.
What we did for UCL
UCL approached us about organising a pre-supper walk for a network of European environmental law academics that they were hosting. We developed a short walk exploring The Environment of London that covered topics ranging from flooding and water pollution to air quality and climate change. Here’s what Professor Eloise Scotford said about it:
Rosie’s bespoke environmental walk through London’s well known streets was inspired, surprising, funny, and deeply informative. Rosie is a font of knowledge about environmental law and policy, and about our living environment in London. She brings this knowledge to bear in highly engaging ways through her walking tours, showing us how to see our everyday surroundings with new ideas and new eyes. The walk was fabulous for locals and visitors alike. The whole group (approx 30 people) were raving about the experience over our dinner that followed.
What can we do for you?
For more about what each tour offers corporate groups, read the highlights. For further details and a conversation about what you’re looking for from a tour, contact Dotmaker Tours.