An Unforgettable Night at Survivor: The Self Storage Survival Game

On 29th April, Survivor: The Self Storage Survival Game took place at the Holiday Inn, Telford, bringing together some of the industry's top professionals for a live, interactive strategy showdown - with a twist.

Hosted by Rob Sweeney, Head of Sales at Stora, two expert teams were tasked with running a fictional self storage business in real-time, tackling everything from security breaches and tech glitches to planning delays and fires on site.

To start the night, team captains Lewis Pennicott, Marketing Director at Cleveland and Gavin Shields, CEO of Stora drew names to select their teammates. Dave Davies, Self Storage Consultant at Double D Consultancy and Sally King, Operations Manager at Norbreck Self Storage, joined Lewis's team. Jordan Black, Managing Director at Keepsafe Storage Centres and Scott Evans, CEO at Pink Self Storage completed Gavin's team.

The power rested in the hands of the audience. Through golden envelope selections and the use of a giant inflatable dice, attendees determined the course of the game, introducing surprise challenges and unexpected twists that kept the panelists on their toes throughout the evening.

With food, free drinks, and networking, the event offered more than just entertainment; it was a fantastic opportunity for professionals to connect ahead of the SSA conference.

The challenge kicked off with Rob tasking each team to name and market their fictional self storage business. Lewis’s team opted for ‘Owl Self Storage’ and Gavin’s team selected ‘Ace Self Storage’. Both teams were then tasked with handling an early challenge, and each site was revisited at the two-year and five-year stage to see how the business was performing and what other crises they had to tackle.
 
Owl Self Storage faced an unauthorised access attempt, a major competitor opening a high-end site nearby, and a landlord increasing rent by 20%. Ace Self Storage needed to overcome online booking system failures, planning delays from the local council, and what Jordan Black described as his ‘worst-case scenario’ - a fire on site.
 
With a collaborative approach to all challenges expertly handled by the panellists, the main takeaways from night were:

• Planning for a successful and fully optimised site from the beginning can mitigate these issues arising
• To not panic and make rash decisions when challenges surface
• To ask for advice from others in the industry
• Data is key to smart decision-making

After a battle of strategy and three rounds of increasingly elaborate challenges, the audience voted on how well each team tackled their crises and ultimately named their winner in a tense final.

It was an extremely close call and with only 14 points in it, Gavin’s team were victorious with a 50.3% majority, leaving fellow team captain Lewis to face the cream pie forfeit - a light-hearted finale that had the room laughing.

Thank to everyone who joined us at Survivor. It was an incredibly fun event and yet another fantastic showcase of supplier and operator collaboration and expertise within the self storage industry.