Event Crown prince Haakon of Norway’s visit to Shanghai and World Expo 2010
Venue Westin Bund Center Shanghai
Organiser Innovation Norway
Group size 350
Date May 27-28, 2010
The brief
Norwegian crown prince Haakon visited Shanghai and World Expo 2010 in May with a 110-person business delegation. The schedule was very tight, featuring several events targeted at different Chinese business groups, mainly in the energy and renewable energy sectors as well as tourism.
All the events were to be held at Westin Bund Center Shanghai to keep logistics as simple as possible.
Challenges
A number of concurrent events were held all day, each requiring the prince’s attendance. The hotel needed seamless delivery of these events, which included a session for business groups, one for the tourism sector, a press conference, interviews, lunch and dinner.
Also, the ballroom hosted a single large session during the morning, but had to be divided into four sections during lunch to host breakout events. It then had to be reset for a gala dinner for 350 people with only a 90-minute turnaround time.
“These changeovers were all handled in an organised and professional manner,” says Per Reinboth, special advisor from Innovation Norway. “We even had slight time programme changes resulting in lunch 15 minutes earlier than was scheduled.”
Execution
The main seminar featured 250 people and included a plenary session in the ballroom during the morning. A separate tourism seminar for 70 people with lunch was also organised along with a contract-signing between Chinese and Norwegian companies. This was followed by a press conference and interview session with the prince.
A gala dinner in honour of the crown prince with Norwegian specialties and chefs was organised for 350 guests in the ballroom.
Comment
“Using all the restaurants and breakout rooms more or less in parallel put a lot of pressure on the hotel and staff,” says Reinboth. “Westin Bund Center was very professional in handling our complex schedule as well as the high-ranking officials and VIPs. The hotel assisted us the way we wanted and there is no doubt we would choose this hotel again.”