European Sales Conference, Bio Sciences, Barcelona 2011

Our client briefed us to organise their first ever 3-day European Sales Conference with sales teams attending from nine different countries. Under a special theme, chosen by the client, the President, VP and 150 Sales Managers had an opportunity to connect for the first time in one place.
 

Our Solution

Barcelona as the destination was a good hub for delegates arriving from several European countries. The 4* Superior Fira Palace was a great choice with plenty of hotel rooms, meeting space and a brilliant location. In order to encourage delegates to mingle with new people every day, the layout of the plenary sessions changed daily.

On day 1, the plenary sessions were delivered by the President, VP, Head of Marketing, Head of New Products and two motivational guest speakers.

On day 2, breakouts were split into three different workshops. Each delegate was allocated a group and throughout the day they rotated from one workshop to the next.

On the final day, the breakouts were split by country. This allowed all country sales teams to get back together and discuss the outcome of the different meetings they had and how this would be implemented back home. To ensure maximum results, a working lunch was served in the breakouts.

For the gala dinner, the Miramar Restaurant on Montjuic was chosen due to its spectacular views and setting atop buzzing Barcelona. Hired exclusively for this event, a separate room was used for welcome drinks and tapas and the main restaurant for dinner.

The Challenges

W&O submitted an initial proposal in September 2010 with a confirmed event date for November 2011 in Berlin. Later on, the date and the city were changed to Barcelona in February 2011. After changing dates and location, we had only four weeks to plan and organise the event before going to Barcelona - including a site visit which took place two weeks prior. But luckily we are no strangers in this popular Spanish hub.

A far more unfortunate challenge happened when on the way to the gala dinner, one of our delegates broke their foot. Naturally, one of our staff accompanied her to the hospital and stayed with her during all examinations. Working closely with the DMC, we arranged a private car, wheelchair assistance at the hotel and on her flight back home.

The Highlight

The event was incredibly well attended without a single no show. We even had two delegates arriving in Barcelona who had not registered in advance.  As a result of the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the delegates, the VP announced at the end of the conference that the company would repeat the same event in 2012.

The Client Feedback

“Superb. One word to sum up your contribution to this conference! I cannot fault your professionalism and attention to detail. It was also a great pleasure to work with you. Thank you so much. I know that the work by you and Vicky aided by Tracy was noted by everyone. A big thank you.”