October 2008 MEET, EAT& SLEEP Why some conference menus are turkeys + How the Sage Gateshead won plaudits and business + Case studies: MSC Cruises, IPE International, Ungerboeck Systems International + EIBTM preview Distinctive locations. Rich rewards. BOOK+EARN BONUS JANUARY – JUNE 2009 Earn 2,500 bonus Starpoints for every event until 30 June, 2009. Now you can earn 2,500 bonus Starpoints® for every 25 room nights you book by 31 December, 2008, at Starwood properties throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East for events from 1 January until 30 June, 2009. In addition to your bonus Starpoints, you’ll earn one Starpoint for every three US dollars spent on eligible meeting revenue. Visit the Special Offers section and terms & conditions on starwoodmeetings.com or ring +353 21 4539100 for more information. Sheraton Park Tower, London | UK Not a Starwood Preferred Planner? Sign up today and start accumulating thousands of Starpoints for each event that you book, redeemable for Free Night Awards without blackout dates and a host of other redemption options. STARWOOD Preferred Planner SPG, Starpoints, Preferred Guest, Sheraton, Four Points, W, Aloft, The Luxury Collection, Le Méridien, Element, Westin, St. Regis and their respective logos are the trademarks of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., or its affi liates. © 2008 Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. All rights reserved. SHWSPP.08039 EAME 8/08 contents MANAGING EDITOR: MARTIN LEWIS 31 PUBLISHER: STEPHEN LEWIS EDITOR: JOHN KEENAN DEPUTY Meet, eat EDITOR: KATHERINE SIMMONS ASSISTANT EDITOR: BELINDA COLE & sleep ASSOCIATE EDITOR: SALLY TRELFORD Will the grub PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: RICHARD you dish up to CORSER PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE: your delegates AMANDA LUDMAN DESIGNER: STEVE leave them 35 WARD GROUP SALES DIRECTOR: at the peak NICOLA PRESIDENT DEPUTY SALES of concentration DIRECTOR: BELINDA MARSTON or in a deep UK SALES MANAGER: KERRY slumber? HOLLAND INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGERS: MARTIN BALMER, 41 MAREK PHILLIPS SALES ADMINISTRATOR: MAXINE BRIGGS MARKETING DIRECTOR: GILLIAN EIBTM Preview LUIS-RAVELO EVENT MANAGER: What’s new at LIZ COLERIDGE ADMINISTRATION this year’s show MANAGERS: JACKIE BOWDEN, MICHELLE HARLEY DATA AND WEB SERVICES DIRECTOR: MARIA VOLLER DATABASE & WEB EXECUTIVE: DAVID ROSE DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR: JOHAN SKOGQVIST CIRCULATION/SUBSCRIPTIONS: 29 NICK NUNHOFER, ELOISE MILLEN Winning ways Providing a warm welcome for disabled delegates has resulted in a major business win for the Sage Gateshead, 2008 M&IT award winner for Best 45 Disabled Facilities 39 In this month's issue... Regulars Supplement: Greece New and improved 05 Viewpoint Subscriptions are £60 (UK) per 20 year (ten issues) and US$200 The latest venue openings and refurbishments in our new Mailbag (ROW), including postage. monthly feature 06 The publishers cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions, A rewarding business 08 News although the utmost care is taken that information contained is 26 M&IT dons a black tie for three glittering awards ceremonies accurate and up-to-date. Typesetting 23 Fisher's file and origination by Aquatint/BSC Strategy for success Print/CAT Publications Ltd. Printed 24 Meetings mentor in England by Wyndeham Grange. 23 John Fisher says it’s not enough to simply ‘do the travel’…you Published by: need to offer incentive planning advice as well 26 Three of a kind Conference And Travel Publications Ltd, Kings House, Cantelupe Road, Survival instinct 35 Speaker speaks East Grinstead, West Sussex 37 Convention Travel has carved a niche for itself in the RH19 3BE, United Kingdom motivation travel sector. John Keenan talks to the irrepressible 110 Keyhole E-Mail: [email protected] Ian Murray on the secrets of his success Web site: www.meetpie.com Tel: +44 (0) 1342 306700 Fax: +44 (0) 1342 302547 Opus applies cruise control 51 Dubai/ 61 Kuala Lumpur/ + 69 Budapest/75 Conference ISSN 0953-2803 45 The launch of MSC Poesia combined rhyme and reason, as © Conference And Travel Publications Ltd. Belinda Cole reports Germany/81 Dubrovnik/ 87 Edinburgh & St Andrews/ Achieving the right figure 93 Belgium/96 UK&Ireland 48 Kate Braxton explains how to arrive at a budget which suits Historic and Heritage all parties venues/103 Istanbul Average Circulation July 07 - June 08: 17,222 October 2008 03 Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort, more than a new hotel, a new Monte-Carlo. On a 10 acre peninsula, offering 334 vast, bright guest-rooms, a sandy-bottomed lagoon and Monte-Carlo Mediterranean gardens, the Monte-Carlo Bay immediately sets the tone for your corporate events. Based on a blend of efficiency and coolness, it has made a name for itself in just a few months as the ideal backcloth for everything you could possibly imagine. It also proposes a new THE experience interpretation of the very best that Monte-Carlo has to offer : sublime settings, star-rated chefs, extraordinary sites, a unique array of sports, well-being and leisure activities, all with that of SUCCESS. inimitable fragrance of success that makes a stay in Monte-Carlo the most stimulating experience. OUTREMER 092008 - PHOTO : HERVE JULLIAN. Information and reservation: (377) 98 06 17 17 - [email protected] - montecarlomeeting.com viewpoint Ban the buns and get fruity John Keenan, Editor Millennium Gloucester Hotel Never compromise on catering. As many a meeting planner has learned to their cost, chefs have a way of & Conference Centre making sure parsimony sticks in your delegates’ throats. You can safely squeeze the venue hire (the walls aren’t t impressively modern going to shrink), you can quibble over the cost of dressing t incredibly flexible the room and you can be mean over man-hours when it comes to turning a conference room into a discotheque. t easily accessible But if the menu is dire, you will be paying for the mistake for a long time. London’s premier meeting As we point out on page 31, there’s a good reason why & event space you will never be forgiven if you get the food wrong. Humans are hard-wired to remember the source of their food and whether it was good or bad. Just as our ancestors learned to avoid the places where lunch might +44 (0) 20 7331 6257 prove fatal, so modern day delegates will be wary of returning to either a venue or a planner that leaves a bad [email protected] taste in the mouth. Nutrition expert Ian Marber (aka the Food Doctor) puts it bluntly. “Ninety-nine per cent of conference food is crap,” he says. And there is more at stake than the chef’s reputation for creating a fancy vol-au-vent. What you feed to your delegates and when you do so can make the difference between a memorable and a forgettable event. If Marber’s theories, which we spell out in the Anatomy of a Meeting feature, are taken up by conference planners 4-18 Harrington Gardens it could spell the end of the road for Lunchtime O’Snooze. Out will go the big (or even medium sized) blow-out in London SW7 4LH www.millenniumhotels.co.uk the middle of the day. In will come modesty proportioned and perfectly timed healthy wholegrain snacks. And to prevent your people’s concentration levels from peaking and slumping, keep them away from the caffeine and croissant combination. Instead, say the experts, try serving a little fruit and a cup of herbal tea. I can already hear the howls of anguish from the sugar junkies. While I rely on my morning fix from the local coffee shop, I can’t deny the logic of the food experts. It’s time to ban the buns and get fruity. Meeting planners must send a wake-up call to catering departments – the food we are served at events should stimulate our minds well as fuelling our bodies. October 2008 05 mailbag PCOs offer tailor- Write a letter, win a made solutions cool weekend. "Association Management variety of events and customers not all associations can afford Companies(AMCs) are the and their clients benefit from the the services of an AMC on a This month’s mailbag prize is an Overnight Indulgence Pamper Break for two people best option for association vast experience and expertise long term basis and as events at Center Parcs which includes a one hour event organising”, say's the gleaned - a dynamic cross are becoming more and more Elemis Body Wrap, overnight accommodation AMC Institute (News, M&IT section of knowledge, including dynamic in type, they often in an executive apartment (twin beds) with an September) revenue-generating ideas, either require or can only afford evening meal at one of the restaurants, plus access to Center Parcs facilities. Well they would say that, theming, technical execution, the flexible, tailor-made solution Center Parcs offers dedicated conference wouldn’t they? risk management and so on. that is offered by a PCO. and meeting facilities within a stunning Of course an AMC The greatest concern for Some associations prefer forest environment at Sherwood Forest, understands the association an AMC team is that they the broad-ranging services of Nottinghamshire (maximum 600 delegates); Elveden Forest, Suffolk (320 delegates); it is working with better than will become bogged down by an AMC, and others opt for the Longleat Forest, Wiltshire (350 delegates); a professional conference day-to-day association admin, dedicated event-specific focus and Whinfell Forest, Cumbria (320 delegates). organiser (PCO) - initially. leaving insufficient time to think of a PCO. The fact that several Prize valid until January 31, 2009. But most PCOs invest a huge strategically and creatively about significant organisations in this amount of time in understanding the event in question. industry have made successful 8 jkeenan@ the organisations they are A PCO’s core USP is space for both offers within their cat-publications.com dealing with; it is the only way flexibility; an AMC will need portfolio surely bears testament an organiser can truly make an a significant fee to cover the to the rightful place for each.