PORTUGAL EvENTS

PORTUGAL events
ATENS
What’s new
Latest developments in Portugal
include:
LISBON
A second Lisboa Congress Centre is
due to open in 2011 for events up to
14,000, located in the Nations Park
district.
New hotels due to open in 2010
include the Vincci Av Liberdade (100
rooms) and the Cais de Santarem (91
rooms) in the city centre, and the Vila
Galé in Caxias (300 rooms), whilst
Hyatt will be opening the 86-room
Hyatt Regency in Lisbon in 2011
and the 160-room Hyatt Pinheirinho
Resort on the Blue Coast south of the
capital in 2013.
Orient-Express meanwhile has
recently sold the Lapa Palace to the
Lisbon-based hotel group Olissippo,
which already owns the Castelo and
Oriente hotels in the city.
Arcstream lights up the Pavilhao Atlantico
Paul Rouse looks at three separate
events showing the diversity of Portugal
A tailored launch: Lisbon
Organiser: Brett Salmon, Arcstream AV
Client: Portugal Telecom
Event: Corporate re-brand
Participants: 5,000 employees
Venue: Pavilhao Atlantico
G
iven the nationalistic
nature of anything to do
with government-owned
corporations in Portugal,
it was a remarkable tribute
to Surrey-based Arcstream AV that
they won the contract to handle the
production of Portugal Telecom’s recent
high-profile re-branding, against tenders
from several Portuguese rivals.
The event required a venue in the
capital with large enough capacity and
the ability to adapt to the event’s high
tech demands.
Working closely with Hipnose
Events of Lisbon, Arcstream’s brief was
to create a giant projection screen and
an impressive laser show within the
cavernous Pavilhao Atlantico, which is
equally at home hosting sell-out pop
concerts as it is business events.
Using a 25m x 10m Translite Midnight
rear projection screen from Harkness
as the backdrop to the stage set, with
six Barco 20K projectors edge-blended
to create vast images, the key moment
was the reveal of the new logo.
“It was a serious technical
challenge,” admits Arcstream CEO
Brett Salmon. “Especially as we had to
omit all ambient light from such a vast
venue to maximise the impact of the
reveal, which we did with five separate
lasers and more than 70 diffraction
mirrors, rigged to bounce laser beams
all over the auditorium.”
The projection screen featured a 3D
reveal of the logo, with HD broadcast
cameras filming the stage, and with
all eyes on Portugal Telecom’s CEO
Henrique Granadeiro, he held a card
symbol to the camera, which was
picked up and used to create a 3D
image as if he was actually holding the
logo, which was in turn projected onto
the screen behind him.
“Our corporate branding is an
important part of how we project
ourselves,” added Granadeiro. “And
the new look is in keeping with
the technical and service-oriented
improvements we have made of late.”
With tailored launches for the
media and the company’s key sales
teams following on from the show
for employees, Arcstream was
equally proud of its own technical
achievements on the day.
'It was a
serious
technical
challenge'
ALGARVE
The Crowne Plaza Vilamoura will
be the group’s first hotel in Portugal
when it opens in January 2010. It will
feature 327 rooms and suites and
1,200 sqm of meeting room space
including two large rooms each
divisible into three.
Work has halted however on the
proposed Crowne Plaza in Albufeira,
with the company pulling out of
the project. Work had also stopped
on the planned Conrad Vilamoura,
but this is now back on track for a
proposed early 2011 opening. The
hotel will have 158 rooms, 1,400sqm
of meeting space and a spa.
Hotels due to open include the
five-star Real Marina Hotel & Spa
in Olhao (144 rooms, meetings up
to 660, thalassotherapy spa) in April
2010, and the Radisson Blu Resort
(194 rooms, 160 apartments, 10
meeting rooms, spa), which, when
it opens in mid-2010, will form part
of the recently-opened motor racing
circuit near Portimao.
Vale do Lobo meanwhile is
planning to open a luxury resort hotel
at Vale Real in 2012, while a Hilton
property is expected to open in Alvor
in 2012.
Continued on page 54
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PORTUGAL events
ATENS
Continued from page 51
Business was brisk
The formula:
Algarve
Quinta da Bela Vista: quiet contemplation
Positive thinking: Madeira
Organiser: David Zarb Jenkins,
McLean Events
Company: McLean Events
Organiser: Maja Schröder,
AOM Art of Motivation
Event: Spatec
Participants: Buyers and suppliers
Client: Dr Hubert Fein
Venue: Grande Real Santa Eulalia,
Albufeira
Agency Partner: JC Tours
Event: Philosophy week
M
cLean Events obviously
likes the Algarve: it
has run two of its
buyers-meet-suppliers
workshops in the region
already this year: Spatec, for the spa
industry in March; and Confec Blue,
for the European meetings industry, in
June. The McLean formula is simple but
effective: take a great conference venue
in an attractive destination, host in a
wish-list of key buyers in a particular
market segment, sell workshop space
to leading suppliers, and guarantee a
series of one-to-one meetings, backed
by social networking events.
This year’s Spatec at Albufeira’s
Grande Real Santa Eulalia attracted
70 buyers and 100 suppliers. The
event was so successful, there's now
a waiting list. “It worked well,” says
McLean Events' David Zarb Jenkins.
“Business was brisk, the hotel has
great meeting facilities, the spa was
there for downtime, and the sun shone
in March. What more could you want!”
54
PHHWLQJV LQFHQWLYHWUDYHO
Participants: 15 philosophy students
Venue: Quinta da Bela Vista, Funchal
T
'Take a great
conference
venue in an
attractive
destination'
here can be few more
relaxing destinations to
contemplate the way of the
world than Madeira. So it
was AOM's suggestion when
approached by leading international
philosopher Dr Hubert Fein to organise
a week-long residential course for
discerning mature students. “Aged
between 40 and 85, all with strong
academic backgrounds, and very
well-travelled,” explains AOM’s Maja
Schröder.
The programme included twicedaily philosophy sessions, sightseeing
in and around Funchal - taking in the
Botanical Gardens, various museums,
the levadas and a Madeira tasting
and tour of Blandy's wine lodge – and
an outside dinner at Solar do Piano
restaurant.
As Schröder explains: “Most dinners
were held at the hotel in different
restaurants, including a special winetasting dinner. The hotel was so good
we didn't want to leave it!
“All
the
participants
were
enthusiastic about the venue and the
outstanding service at Quinta da Bela
Vista. The lounges offered the perfect
setting for our meetings, and the
cuisine was much appreciated, from
snacks at lunchtime to the special four
or five-course dinners organised in the
evenings.
“The hotel garden is a destination in
itself, and was admired for its beauty
and variety - not only by the biologist
in our group, who was of course
particularly thrilled to find herself in a
familiar setting.
“For me as a planner it couldn't
have worked out better - complete
satisfaction from the client and all the
group members, and talk of another
course here, and of the participants
coming back for their own holidays.
The hotel is part of the Quintas da
Madeira collection of luxury properties
on the island, and more than met my
expectations. The guests were amazed
that the staff knew all their names and
room numbers after only a few days
- extremely rare in a hotel this size
nowadays.”
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