Change in Meeting Forum format proves a success

GHO Meeting Forums have been held regularly since 2003, providing unparalleled business and networking opportunities for buyers from the UK, France, USA, Benelux, Italy and Germany with GHO member hotels.

In the past these were held in the specific meeting planners’ country but in a change from previous practice, the most recent event for UK buyers took place outside the UK, at the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The reason behind this change to ‘destination Meeting Forums’ is that only serious buyers are likely to attend an overseas event of two days, making the investment better value for all concerned. “Destination Forums take planners out of their office, and attendees have the opportunity to experience a destination and a member hotel which may well be new to them, while they build lasting business relationships,” said GHO’s Hosted Buyer Programme Manager Lucy Brown.

The Lausanne Forum was unanimously declared a great success. Paul Smith, Managing Director of Octopus Communications, said: “It was one of the best factual industry events I have attended in the last eight years. The setting was superb, the quality of hotels was top class and the meeting structure was perfectly balanced.

“The event kept moving at a bright and brisk pace with meetings being nicely intertwined with lunches, dinners, and leisure activities. I have come away with some very interesting hotels to present to our clients.”

Meanwhile, a corporate meeting planner was so impressed with the host hotel that she booked an event for her company with the Beau-Rivage Palace.

GH member hotels were happy too. Colin Horsburgh from the Fairmont St Andrews wrote: “This was one of the best forums that I have attended. I felt that the level of buyer who was there was well qualified and offered a genuine level of interest to the properties.”

The next Meeting Forum will be for French buyers at the Dom Pedro Lisboa Hotel in Portugal on 26th and 27th March. For more information see www.ghorg.com/forum or contact your Account Manager.