At the end of June, we put together a series of events in Marrakech. It was a jam-packed weekend full of incredible moments including a wonderful welcome dinner in the Palmeraie and a large-scale music festival-style event in the Agafay Desert.
With over 300 guests attending, multiple hotels and event venues not to mention the travel logistics, there was plenty to keep us busy in the run-up. For international events, especially ones on this scale, it’s no surprise that site visits are a no brainer…
This aspect of being able to travel is definitely a perk of the industry; getting to know a city or region, exploring the best places to stay, to eat, and meeting with local suppliers is a fabulous and enriching challenge. So, for this event we got digging the previous summer with our first site visit in October last year. The most important of all, however, was our full team site visit in April which was the final visit before the event, our last chance to get all of our ducks in a row before we came back for the build in June.
The team assembles…
The April site visit was designed to ensure that every detail was checked so that any outstanding bits could be refined and sorted well before the June event. We had a busy schedule filled with meetings with hotels, venues and caterers in and around Marrakech. We had our team divide and conquer to meet with various local representatives gathering insights throughout the day. Every evening, we’d then reconvene over a delicious Moroccan tagine to discuss our learnings from the day.
Guests at this event were to be offered walking tours of the Medina, so we were sure to carve out some time to wander the city’s souks. Marrakech’s souks are legendary, and we wanted to ensure that our tours would provide an authentic experience for guests, so a pair of guides took us on a historic route through the gardens outlining the Medina and then into the famous souks. Strolling through the labyrinthine alleys with shops filled with countless bargains and unique souvenirs, and colourful local street food and spices, it was a challenging task on a tight schedule given the one or two professional shopaholics in our group… “Look, don’t touch” quickly became the commonly overheard recurring phrase.
These trips are as much informative as they are a way to spend and enjoy time with the team in a place outside of London. We got a lot done and came back with a vital understanding of all the different relevant aspects as well as a prognosis of work cut out for us in the following months. All the while, we had laughs, we ate delicious food and met the wonderful group of local suppliers that would ultimately help pull together the success of a large event.
We are glad to say too that the event was a roaring success.
Ned
As a large international event approaches site visits are always on the cards to ensure everything is tested and that we have a perfect understanding of the location and local teams.
