MICE Destinations

Unexpected Monaco event in Cologne

Posted on July 25, 2018

On the 5^th of July I attended an evening event organised by the Monaco Convention Bureau in Cologne. The event took place at The View Cologne, a prime location overlooking the landmark Cologne Cathedral. It was a small and intimate evening with about 35 guests to recreate what it’s like to actually host an event in Monaco. The theme, Unexpected Monaco, was consistent throughout the evening, from typical decoration to food, drinks and entertainment, with the Vice-World Champion of Mental Magic Lucca Key giving an engaging performance. After spending the busy IMEX Frankfurt with the Monaco Convention Bureau to report about all their latest news, this evening was laid back to soak in the Monégasque hospitality. I’m delighted to share with you the photos that I took on the night and let them to tell the story!

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MICE Destinations

Monaco Convention Bureau reveals its latest news at IMEX Frankfurt

Posted on June 8, 2018

This year’s IMEX Frankfurt ended on a positive note for the Monaco Convention Bureau, where both the quality and the high number of qualified buyers exceeded exhibitors’ expectations. Nine partners joined the Monaco Convention Bureau this year as well as the local representatives from the UK and DACH. Various activities were on offer to enjoy between the meetings. The mixologist from the Columbus Monte-Carlo Hotel served refreshing cocktails and a therapist from the Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo offered hand massage for visitors. And that’s not all, the Executive Chef Philippe Joannès from The Fairmont Monte-Carlo Hotel was also on site to prepare delicious canapes and give the guests a little taste what it’s like to host an event in Monaco.

Stand partners who joined this year included the hotels Columbus Monte-Carlo, Fairmont Monte-Carlo and the Monte-Carlo SBM Group. The following DMCs: DreamCatcher, Incentive Concept, Lafayette Monaco, Raising Stones Events and Welcome Travel Team / Publi Créations. Last but not least the congress centre Grimaldi Forum Monaco was also at the show.

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MICE Destinations

What you didn’t know about Monaco

Posted on November 28, 2014

My destination coverage of Monaco turned out to be very popular among my friends and colleagues and generated great buzz and curiosity. For many Monaco is associated with glamour and luxury and seems to be out of reach. When I was there this summer I had the chance to see and experience different side of Monaco – for event planners and business travellers.

We all know the destination for glamorous events and celebrities but less know, or at least aware of Monaco as a business destination. In my first post I highlighted why I think the destination is attractive for MICE: it is affordable, the local service providers have very strong collaboration between each other, you always have an amazing sea view, modern and high-tech facilities, events are easy to manage logistically (most of the venues are in walking distance) and last but not least – you can have a helicopter airport transfer (which is also affordable).

After the financial crisis, Monaco faced challenging time because the customers couldn’t afford to come anymore. The destination has quickly reacted to the misconception and Monaco Government Tourist & Convention Authority has been working on overcoming these stereotypes.

It has launched a new marketing campaign aimed at overcoming negative stereotypes by twisting clichés around to reposition their brand and with this campaign they have also won the ICCA Best Marketing Award this month. The main sectors of MICE business in Monaco include finance, healthcare, new technologies and environment and the campaign twisted these clichés around with phrases such as “In Monaco, technology doesn’t only drive formula one cars”, “In Monaco, surgeons don’t operate on blackjack tables”, “Celebrities are not the only ones to make it an event”, “In Monaco, when it comes to banking, there is no bet on red or black” and “In Monaco, green isn’t only at play at the golf club”.

Last week I had the pleasure to meet the London based Monaco Convention Bureau team Stephan Roberge, Managing Director, Najlaa El Alami, Senior Sales Manager and Ania Fadli, Sales Manager. The event took place at the Embassy of Monaco and was a Champaign and chocolate tasting evening. It included five sorts of Champaign and over five different types of chocolate by Alain Ducasse. Chocolate and Champing is all you need on a rainy day in London (Also – Champaign and chocolate tasting is a fantastic teambuilding activity!).

To conclude, what I like in Monaco is that it has everything for everyone. If you want a luxurious experience, your choices are unlimited, but it has also a broad, high quality offer for people like me and you, who can enjoy an after-work drink with a sea front, in one of the casual bars like Brasserie de Monaco, Stars ‘N’ Bars or have a lunch at La Condamine Market, which is also very popular among locals, after a long day of conference at the Grimaldi Forum.

Celebrities are not the only ones to make it an event in Monaco and when you are there you will be also treated as a VIP.

If you have missed any of my posts about Monaco, you can find them all here.

Have you attended or organised an event in Monaco? I would love to hear your thoughts and experience.

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Venues

Hotel Venues in Monte-Carlo

Posted on September 30, 2014

Hello eventprofs! I haven’t posted anything for one week as I was so busy with the Social Media Week London but I have lots to share with you now! On Thursday I was on a speakers panel at Google Campus together with Annie Byrne from Exhibition News, Kim Benjamin from Event magazine and Hellen Beveridge from Who’s Who in Events and Pure Rocket Science. The event was about content marketing and how to generate and leverage engaging event content and blogging and it was a big honour to be invited as an event blogger. Google Campus is one of my favourite venues in London as it is the ‘home’ for London entrepreneurs and tech scene. We had only one hour for Q & A that came from the audience. Event organisers Pickevent partnered up with sli.do, a Q & A platform for live events where the audience can ask live questions and rest of the audience vote for which questions they want to be answered first. It worked out so well and the audience asked very good questions! I try to get the questions from Sli.do and integrate them in the next #EventBlogChat as one hour was definitely not enough!

One of the topics discussed was how to interact with your audience at events. As opposed to other panellist, being a blogger I have the advantage that I can share instantaneously what I want from the event on any of my platforms. I also mentioned that while I can’t write long blog articles every day, I try to interact with my readers and communicate on Facebook and Instagram with text and images. I call it micro, or live blogging where I communicate bits of information about a venue, restaurant, talk or exhibition I’m at or just attended. Twitter is another powerful platform to engage and communicate with my readers but because it has a 140 characters limit I prefer to use it for sharing links and chats.

I still have more venues from Monaco to share with you. In my previous posts I hope I took you on a nice journey that gave you some inspiration and fresh ideas, for your business or for leisure.

This time I want to share with you two more hotel venues. These hotels have fantastic conference facilities, very modern and central.

Le Méridien Beach Plaza

Le Méridien Beach Plaza is a 4-Star hotel and ideal for different types of events of different sizes such as weddings, product launches, cocktails, ceremonies, conferences and this is the only hotel in Monte Carlo that has its own private beach!

The conference centre of the hotel, the Sea Club, was renovated three years ago and has vast facilities over its five floors and 3,000 m2 to accommodate up to 2,000 people across a selection of 14 modular meeting rooms. The terraces, the swimming pool and the beach can be also set up for events of both corporate and private nature.

Le Méridien Beach Plaza recognises that the business travellers today need to maintain their work-life-balance and offers an innovative conference package that includes an entry to the fitness centre, which can be swapped with cocktails at the bar!

Also to make corporate events more fun and creative, Le Méridien offers ‘creative meetings’ where the attendees can engage in creating their own coffee drinks or cocktails or composing new macaron flavours, wine tasting and cooking classes.

Unfortunately I couldn’t see most of the conference facilities because there was an event on the day, but I had the pleasure to try the Muse Restaurant which is open from June to September. Comfy sofas in the shadow, sea view, fresh juices, was perfect! If I can give you one insider tip, you have to try the Eclairs dessert which is unique to the hotel.

Last but not least, the hotel has 403 rooms and suites and can be privatised on demand.

The only hotel in Monte Carlo with a private beach

The newly built conference centre with separate entrance

The conference centre greatly benefits from the daylight

Lunch at Muse Restaurant, open from June to September

Hotel Metropole Monte-Carlo

Located in the heart of Monte Carlo, just few minutes’ walk from the Casino it’s easy to pass by without noticing. But those who know the place know that it stands for luxury and elegance. The glamourous 5-Start Hotel Metropole offers 6 conference rooms and can accommodate up to 120 guests for lunch/ dinner and 160 guests for a cocktail in their biggest room, Salon Méditerranée.

The Japanese restaurant Yoshi (1 Michelin star) has a small outside terrace which is converted into hospitality suite during the Formula 1 race.

Lastly, the hotel has 133 bedrooms including 64 suites.

Entrance to Hotel Metropole Monte-Carlo

Japanese restaurant Yoshi has an external terrace, which during the F1 is converted into hospitality suite

City view from Yoshi restaurant

Salon Méditerranée for up to 160 delegates for a cocktail

Theatre room for up to 130 delegates for a cocktail, 100 for a theatre setting

Possibility to organise events by the pool

That’s all for now dear eventprofs, I hope you enjoyed this virtual journey to discover MICE in Monaco and I hope you were inspired, as much as I did from this wonderful destination. Please share with me what venues you liked the most and what type of events would you like to host (or hosted) in Monaco. One thing I know for sure, I will come back 🙂

All photos: © The MICE Blog

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Venues

3-Star Hotels for MICE in Monaco

Posted on September 19, 2014

Did you know that there are only two 3-star hotels for MICE in Monaco? During my stay I had the pleasure to stay at both of them and here I bring you the exclusive review for MICE as well as a surprise unique venue for special events.

Columbus Monte-Carlo

On my second night in Monaco I stayed at the Columbus Monte-Carlo hotel, a boutique hotel with 181 rooms, 4 conference rooms and one breakout room. It has a very cosy, modern and stylish atmosphere. The Columbus Hotel doesn’t belong to a hotel chain but belongs to the same company which also owns the Fairmont Monte-Carlo and other hotels around the world. The hotel can be completely privatised. During the hotel tour I’ve been told that a major international company privatised the hotel and used some of the rooms as show rooms. The sad truth for business travellers is that we barely spend time in the hotel so again I missed on using any of the facilities such as the gym or the swimming pool.

The hotel does not have an on-site restaurant, but they have good partnerships with local restaurants and possibility to bring external catering. The maximum capacity in the biggest room, Roseraie, for banquets is 100 and 140 delegates for cocktails.

The hotel is a bit outside the central tourist area, but anything in Monaco is really far away, and if you’re attending a conference at the Grimaldi Forum, the local bus will take you there in about 10 minutes. I had again a stunning sea view as well as over the Princess Grace Rosegarden and the Monaco hills. From my room I could also see the Héliport de Monaco and occasionally the helicopters arriving and departing. A bit of a James Bond feeling.

View over the Héliport de Monaco

View from my room

Car Collection of Prince Albert II

I have another tip for you. Just 5 minutes walking distance from the hotel is the iconic Car Collection of Prince Albert II. Prince Rainier of Monaco started this collection in the palace in the late 50^th as private and later on decided to open it to the public. This is also when the collection grew that it needed a larger space, which is the museum today. Prince Albert II continued the tradition and to date the collection is constantly evolving, cars are sold and added occasionally. Some cars are taken for international exhibitions and others are driven on major events. I was very impressed that all the cars are in a good shape.

While during daytime the museum is open to the public, in the evening the space can be privatised for events. It can accommodate up to 600 for banquet and 800 delegates seated. I’m not a car fanatic, but I spent over an hour in the museum, listening to all the stories of some of the iconic cars, by whom it was driven and on what occasions. Monaco has so much history and stories about the Prince’s Palace and the Grimaldi family and all the celebrities who host events there. You just want to pick up on all the details from stories associated with the venues, and believe me there are lots!

And of course there is a section dedicated to Grand Prix cars, on the walls you can see some retro adverts from 1929 and onwards. Today many associate Monaco with this event, so definitely worth to visit!

Since the cars are ordered in historical sequence, the final bit is about electric cars and innovative designs.

Type of events that can be held at the venue include ceremonies, gala dinners, product launches and awards.

Novotel Monte-Carlo

On the fourth and last night I stayed at the Novotel Monte Carlo. I arrived to the hotel after a full day of meetings in Monte Carlo and the check- in went quickly and smoothly and again, I barely could spend time in the room because I had another meeting scheduled and dinner.

Opened in 2007 (it was a radio station before), is a very modern hotel with 218 rooms with stunning views over the harbour (am I repeating myself too much?) It has its own restaurant and a bar as well as 12 meeting rooms. Again it’s slightly out of the main tourist zone, but nothing is too far in Monaco actually and you can walk to the Grimaldi Forum (about 20 minutes) or there are sometimes transfers organised.

The biggest room for events in theatre style can accommodate up to 200 delegates.

The hotel is a very business-like and corporate in comparison to all the other three I stayed at, even the breakfast is served only until 9.30am, I guess because of the business nature of the hotel. As a business traveller you don’t have too much time to spend in the room anyway.

As you can see on the photos, all the event spaces can greatly benefit from the daylight, very modern and stylish.

Hope you enjoyed the post and got some more venue inspirations. Of course that’s not all and I have some more venues to show you in the next posts! If you have questions about the venues or would like to share your experience, please don’t hesitate to share it in the comment section below.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Read more posts about Monaco on The MICE Blog.

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