Nu Skin Celebration Trip 2014

The intimidating incentive group size of 2,000 participants has M.I.C.E Matters tackling logistical issues – from flight to accommodation to tour arrangements –  effectively with creativity and sound planning, writes Paige Lee Pei Qi

Organising an incentive trip often necessarily entails challenges, but when it is to be planned for a group as large as 2,000 participants, the task can seem a tad overwhelming.

Event organiser M.I.C.E Matters was called to such a task in February, when Nu Skin Southeast Asia decided to send 2,000 sales leaders to Istanbul, Turkey as a reward for having achieved the company’s Go Double Double target this year.

Hailing the 4D3N trip as the largest ever from Nu Skin Southeast Asia and the largest ever from South-east Asia to Istanbul, M.I.C.E Matters director, Melvyn Nonis, admitted the group size did pose logistical challenges when planning for transportation, accommodation and tour activities.

The team first designed and implemented a customised e-registration system to meet the requirements of the event. This helped accommodate last-minute changes, facilitating constant updating of information in the system.

Then, obviously, the large group had to be divided for separate flights over two days, the arrival times of which posed a problem. Nonis said: “As most flights are red-eye flights arriving early in the morning into Istanbul, the hotels are not ready for check-in yet.”

Plans therefore had to be made for the tour and lunch before the hotel check-in was possible. To cater to the diverse nationalities of participants, tour guides were hired to conduct the tour in five respective languages – English, Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, Vietnamese and Mandarin – along with 60 coach buses.

Accommodation wise, it was impossible for all to be housed in one hotel. Hence, bookings were made in advance with three hotels: Hilton Istanbul, Grand Hyatt and InterContinental Istanbul, and all strategically within close proximity to the Istanbul Convention and Exhibition Center (ICEC) where the gala dinner was to take place.

The final hurdle was the execution of the group photo-taking at ICEC, which was impressively completed in an hour. Applauding this achievement, Nonis explained it was not likely for all to be photographed in a conventional setting, but a creative solution was hatched.

“We had to arrange for all participants to be in the picture, so we prepared 2,000 markings on the ground prior to the session for each of them to stand on. We marked out a star formation and even used a 70m crane for the photo-taking,” he added.

Evita Singson, regional vice president for sales, Pacific & South-east Asia, Nu Skin, said: “Istanbul is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many of our sales leaders and we managed to overcome the challenge of taking such a big group there, allowing them to truly enjoy the city.”

 
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