Flock at The Manor House
Background
Flock is Exclusive Collection's invitation-only ambassador community, bringing together senior leaders, entrepreneurs, business owners and trusted partners for meaningful connection, learning and growth.
Founded in 2019, the peer-to-peer network was created to foster deeper relationships with key stakeholders across multiple industry sectors. Access to Flock is earned through recommendation or invitation, creating a community united by curiosity, ambition and a commitment to doing right by their organisations, families and themselves.
In 2026, Flock returned for its annual gathering with a central theme: Trust the Process. Over two days, attendees explored one of the most critical forces shaping business and society today: trust.
The Manor House provided the perfect backdrop and escape for these conversations. Nestled in the Cotswolds, the 14th century manor house offered delegates a distinctive retreat where heritage, hospitality and contemporary thinking came together.
Purpose of Event
Create a content-rich event that offers fresh perspectives, fosters candid conversations, and challenges and inspires business leaders and speakers.
Create opportunities for networking, new relationships and commercial collaboration.
Deepen understanding of Exclusive Collection and its approach to conferences, meetings and events.
Integrate sustainability principles through a conscientious conferencing approach.
Demonstrate why trust is one of the most valuable competitive advantages a business can have and showcase how Exclusive Collection exemplifies this value.
Objectives
Showcase the ease of travel to The Manor House, the golf course and entire estate; highlighting its unique character, breadth of experiences and positioning as an exceptional countryside escape: a credible business destination for business events and brand activations.
Enable guests to experience the hotel and estate through carefully curated food and beverage moments that showcased the depth of its culinary offering, including Michelin-starred dining, an alfresco barbecue gathering and award-winning pub dining.
Design an experience that reflected evolving delegate expectations and shorter attention spans through varied meeting spaces and engaging presentation formats.
Highlight The Manor House’s commitment to responsible business practices, showcasing its B Corp certification and demonstrating how sustainability is embedded throughout the event experience.
Outcomes
To support engagement and learning retention, the two-day event was built around circadian rhythm principles, recognising the body's natural peaks and troughs in energy, focus and creativity. High-energy keynote sessions were scheduled during periods of peak concentration, while reflective discussions, networking opportunities and experiential activities were aligned with times better
suited to collaboration and informal connection.
The event design also responded to changing audience behaviours and shorter attention spans. Sessions were shorter, more dynamic and highly interactive, encouraging participation rather than passive listening. Thought-provoking discussions were balanced with experiential moments, creating a rhythm that maintained energy and curiosity throughout the programme.
The use of outdoor event spaces brought calm and a fresh sense of perspective to sessions that tackled more challenging topics.
By combining expert-led discussions, peer-to-peer learning and shared experiences, the event strengthened relationships between delegates,
as well as with Exclusive Collection's senior team.
Rather than hosting another keynote after dinner, the hotel's award-winning pub was brought into the programme with a pub quiz. The quiz took place at The Castle Inn, our traditional pub, a short walk from the main hotel. Guests enjoyed desserts and drinks, a format that gave an unexpected and engaging alternative to Flock’s traditional after-dinner entertainment.
During break times, delegates were served brain food, including a Super Green Juice made from kale, celery, spinach and apple. Day 1’s picnic lunch made the most of the weather, and featured local produce including Somerset smoked salmon, Wiltshire sausage rolls and garden leaves from the hotel’s kitchen garden.
Dinner was created by Michelin-starred chef Rob Potter from Bybrook and included: Salcombe Bay crab, Isle of Wight tomato, kohlrabi, ponzu and finger lime and Huntsham Farm Middle White pork with girolles, turnip and summer truffle.
To help guests recalibrate after a full day of sessions, a holistic programme of activities was created across the estate. Delegates could choose from beekeeping experiences, golf practice, a run through the grounds, a historic tour of Castle Combe or a more reflective
book club session.
Flock | Trust the Process showcased the scope of 14th century The Manor House and its storybook setting in Castle Combe, one of the UK’s most picturesque villages.
Feedback
"The success of Flock lays in its ability to blend intellectual challenge, personal growth and authentic hospitality. Rather than simply hosting delegates, The Manor House became an integral part of the experience, demonstrating how venue, content and purpose can work together to build something increasingly valuable in today's world: trust."
Stephanie Hall, Group Director of Sales & Marketing, Exclusive Collection
Simon McGinn, DUAL UK
"The event was genuinely excellent in all respects from the location, venue, service and hospitality to the thought provoking and varied content. It’s a great group of people from such varied business background that you have successfully melded into a growing and vibrant community that share a real openness and spirit of friendliness: congratulations.
It is my second Flock and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to listen and observe and speak to new people so thank you for the invitation and enabling that."
Andrew Abdul-Malik, Keynote speaker
"Flock 2026 was something special, and I feel genuinely lucky to have been part of it.
The programme itself was superb. The “Trust the Process” theme gave the two days a real coherence, and the structure, the pacing, the mix of speakers, the room for actual conversation, was thought through in a way that is rarer than it should be. You built something that let people connect rather than just attend.
The setting matched it. The Manor House was a wonderful base, and the team there made it. Denzil and Rhiannon looked after everyone with a warmth that set the tone for the whole event, and Sam at the Castle Inn did the same. And the chefs, what can I say, every bite was delicious. It is the kind of hospitality people remember long after the sessions blur."
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Our hotels and estates are not just bricks, mortar and acres of land, they are places where ideas are born, team bonds are formed, and no two experiences are ever the same.
Proudly the first hotel group to become a B Corp,our commitment to people extends to every group and guest. Creating events that are not just sustainable and positive for the environment, but understanding your needs and creating bespoke itineraries and experiences. Putting your team's wellbeing at the forefront with circadian synced event design, brain boosting snacks and so much more.
Drop us an email or give us a buzz and let's start planning and plotting to make your next event a memorable one.