Case Study

Hilton Prague

To find a European Hotel that could hold two groups of 800 (400 + partners) people back to back over a 10 day period and that could offer all of the accommodation, main meeting room to hold 400 people in Cabaret Style with Back Projection and 20 syndicate rooms for 15 people as well as host a coinciding Press event for 70 people.  Additionally, two offsite dinner venues were required to hold 800 people seated with room for entertainment!!

There are few venues in Europe that can hold everything under one roof so venue availability over the client’s preferred dates was the main challenge as well as suitable dinner venues large enough to hold the group.  The client also wanted to theme the Gala Dinner so an understanding from the DMC as to the client’s expectations was crucial to making it successful.

The Hilton Prague suited the brief perfectly with a large convention hall with built in stage allowing for more space on the floor for the client’s preferred set up.  They could offer all of the syndicate rooms and host the Press Event in a separate area from the group arrivals to avoid any disruption.   The client took over Fair Palace and the adjoining Art Gallery for its Gala evening which had ample space for the main seated dinner with entertainment, as well as additional areas for post dinner activities.  This was a blank canvas for the client to work with for the theming.  We had a strong working relationship with the local DMC which allowed for clear communication and the ability to work as one team.

As this is an annual event there is always a challenge to beat the success of the previous year. The central location of the hotel meant that when delegates had free time, they could get to the city centre easily and access the sites rather than having to be bussed about everywhere.  The Press Event started on the day that the first group arrived so it was important to keep these two groups separate.  This was managed by privatizing an area of the convention centre for the Press and therefore containing this element of the event whilst the first group were dropped off at a lower level of the property – again exclusively set aside for them. 

The offsite dinner venues were located close to the hotel to allow short transfers.  With this being a predominantly younger crowd we arranged with the hotel to keep the main bar opens all night for those that wanted to continue their party in to the next day!