Centara Hotels & Resorts wants to shake up the business travel landscape by introducing a fresh approach to meetings and incentives servicing.
The Thailand-based hotel operator this month began rolling out its New Agenda: Meetings Redesigned concept, introducing a one-stop MICE service to provide unique meeting, incentive and teambuilding options.
Markland Blaiklock, deputy CEO of Centara, said: “This was created through an understanding of the components of a successful meeting. When a meeting is fun, it’s more likely to be successful. We want to provide more creative spaces to allow the mind to wonder.”
Examples of moving away from cookie-cutter business events include meetings in a submarine in the Maldives and on some of the region’s most pristine beaches.
Creative catering is another element being developed under the new concept. Examples include “dinner in the dark”, which sees Thai dancers deliver each course with dimmed LED candles or blindfolds provided to create a memorable sensory experience.
Meeting and events “gurus” have also been recruited to help organisations develop unique meeting concepts to make their event, conference or gathering stand out from the crowd.
Added Blaiklock: “We don’t wait for the customer to come to us with ideas, we meet with them and say, ‘You do meetings every year. Let’s talk about something that will make it really special’.”
From March 1, the New Agenda concept is being introduced across 25 of Centara’s properties, including all Centara Grand hotels.
Said Blaiklock: “We can create an excuse for a meeting and an engaging concept. Our beach resorts are all about entertaining families with fun and unique activities. If we can apply this to leisure, then we can apply it to business and create something very unique.”
