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Business Travel

Rediscover London with London & Partners: New Convention Bureau Website

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My story goes back to 2012 when I worked at the London Olympics. I had an extensive training of six months for the role – I learned about the Olympic venues, London venues (including hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions), Olympic disciplines as well as customer service and intercultural communication. I had to know as much as possible to give the best advice, at the right time, to the right customer. Demanding role, where you have to exceed customer expectations. My role required not only to provide event hospitality, but also a world class service, in a world class city.

Now, two years later, and London is building up on its Olympic legacy, attracting investment and major events, developing new residential areas, opening new hotels, adding event space and the list goes on.

One of the major milestones was announced last week, 6 March – London & Partners, the official promotional organisation for London, launched a new convention bureau website as a virtual window into the city. A group of selected event organisers, venues and media were invited to the launch event at their headquarters near Tower Bridge.

The new website is a valuable source of information where event planners can get inspirations for event venues, gastronomy, ideas for team building or after-work and other related services. Before creating the website the dedicated team of London & Partners conducted an extensive research to understand the needs of event planners and found ways to address them.

Here you can see the successful result: London & Partners Website 

I like the straight- forward and functional design of the website and appreciate the informative “insider” information and tips of London & Partners team which they share on their blog and YouTube channel.

The new campaign is about sharing personal stories. So I want to take this opportunity and share with you my story. One of my favourite venues is Excel Exhibition Centre in east London. I love this venue for several reasons. It’s not too big, not too small and conveniently accessible with public transportation. I attend between 1 – 4 events per year at the Excel, World Travel Market being my favourite. I love the Gallery rooms upstairs where the seminars are usually held and there is always a good technical support on site to assist the speakers. In the summer I enjoy spending some time off on the river side while sipping my coffee and having the view over Canary Wharf. Last but not least, Excel has an excellent onsite diverse and healthy catering offer, sounds trivial, but many exhibition centres miss on this aspect.

The next big announcement is the reopening of the south of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on the 5 April 2014. I can’t wait to visit the park again after almost two years. I am sure it will be a very emotional moment for me to visit the place where I witnessed some of the Olympic highlights such as Usain’s Bolt 200m and 10,000m of Mo Farah.

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Heidelberg Christmas Market

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I hope that everyone is enjoying their holiday season! I am spending Christmas in Germany and here we are enjoying quite a warm weather which allows spending lots of time outside and visiting Christmas Markets.

Germany is famous for its Christmas Markets. Almost in every city and village you can find one and try Glühwein (mulled wine), potato fritters, sweet or salty crêpes, buy small souvenirs such as woodcrafts, candles and much more. Personally I can’t resist all the tempting smells of flavoured teas and nicely packed sweets.

This year I had the chance to visit Heidelberg Christmas Market. Located in the old city on a historic ground, it offers a warm, unique and beautiful atmosphere due to all the wooden huts and Christmas decorations. I even tried a Feuerzangenbowle (red wine punch) for the first time, which was very delicious.

Christmas Markets are great occasions for get together team building events. Being officially planned with reserved seating area or spontaneous after work, they are the ultimate small incentive events.

Here are some impressions from the beautiful Heidelberg Christmas Market.

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Paris Gems

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The amazing thing about Paris is that every time I travel there, I experience the city in a new way and see it in a new light. We were there just for the weekend and were lucky to have a great weather which allowed us to spend lots of time outside. This time, instead of spending time in the underground, we rented a bike and cycles through the city, stopping by the famous attractions such as the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the “Love Lock” bridge and the Louvre. We parked the bikes in one location and picked them up in another.
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For a refreshment break we chose to go to the Angelina. Rumour says that that was the favourite place of Coco Chanel. They have an amazing signature drink, the hot chocolate and that was really delicious, I would definitely recommend! In addition we tried the signature dessert which was one of the best desserts I ever had!

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That brings me to the next point, the food. I adore the cheeses in France. This time we just enjoyed having cheese and wine evenings and tried as many cheeses we possibly could.

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Did you know that originally the Eiffel Tower was built for an exhibition, the Exposition Universelle? I prefer to climb it instead of taking the elevator, and preferably at night. That way, when you are on the top you have an amazing view over Paris by night (Very romantic as well! I’ve seen two marriage proposals!). Climbing up the tower can be also a great afternoon group activity and you can book a guided tour and even have a dinner there.

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I am a big fan of hotel bars, mainly because I was working in hotels before and familiar with high standards of 5 star hotels and the good quality of products. Bar 8 at the Mandarin Oriental hotel is a great place for a small celebrations or an after work events. The bar has a beautiful set-up and exceptional and attentive service.

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If you would like to explore Paris by foot, I can recommend you to start from Montmartre, maybe also have a breakfast of coffee there, and from there walk to Moulin Rouge and then to the Opera, finishing with shopping at the Galeries Lafayette.

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Paris

Just back from Paris… such an amazing city! Every time I go there I discover it in new light. I promise to share with you some of Paris gems on the blog soon.

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P.S.- did you know that originally the Eiffel Tower was built for an exhibition, the Exposition Universelle?