The #Uncovermelbourne social media competition is back for AIME 2018.
Registered attendees for the Melbourne Convention Bureau event are invited to creatively showcase the inspiring experiences they have uncovered in the city to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, to have a chance at winning one of three A$250 (US$197) prepaid visa credit cards.
Posts must be tagged with #Uncovermelbourne. The competition runs from February 8 to 27, 2017.
Room Anantara Kalutara Resort offers 141 rooms, suites and pool villas spread out generously along the banks of Kalu Ganga River, with some offering views of the garden, swimming pool, river or the Indian Ocean.
The varied mix of room categories allow event planners to offer a different accommodation experience to different participants in a group, under the same roof. I would imagine meeting delegates to take deluxe rooms, while invited speakers or VIP business partners would be housed in the more luxurious one-bedroom ocean view suites.
Having said that, the lead-in premier garden view room and deluxe rooms are all beautifully furnished themselves, and at 65m2 in size, promise the luxury of space that city folks appreciate.
I stayed in the 110m2 one-bedroom presidential pool suite. The spacious living and dining room leads out to a private plunge pool and sundeck, with the serene Kalu Ganga River flowing beyond. The second part of the suite houses the bedroom, furnished with a king-sized bed and a desk. The third part – which is likely as large as the bedroom – is the bathroom, an amazing space filled with an elevated bath against huge windows that look out to the river, double vanities and a rainshower.
Meeting facilities Anantara Kalutara Resort boasts its own convention centre, a two-storey building that takes in a pillar-free ballroom for a 400-pax reception; Nelum meeting room for 20 to 50 people; Pichcha meeting room for up to 50 people and which can be combined with Nelum for larger gatherings; and Araliya boardroom for 12 people.
All these function rooms are outfitted with state-of-the-art audiovisual systems, and the ballroom comes with advanced mood lighting capability. The resort’s welcoming interior design – wood detailing, plush fabrics and warm colour palettes – follow through the convention centre, making the venue a very comfortable place to meet and talk business.
The convention centre also boasts a wooden deck outdoors where casual social dining events can be held to break the monotony of solemn meetings.
Other facilities One of Anantara Kalutara Resort’s biggest selling points is its architecture. It is one of the final projects of the late master architect, Geoffrey Bawa, who advocated the concept of Tropical Modernism. His signature is most prominent in the main resort building – the single massive, sloping roof held up by numerous slender pillars so that the interior and exterior flow as one seamlessly.
Anantara Kalutara Resort’s connection with Bawa is emphasised through the Geoffrey Bawa Library, a space modelled on his personal study, where furnishings either designed or owned by him are put together to create a particularly Bawa-style interior. Resort guests can admire some of his sketches or simply hide away in this space and read their favourite book.
There are plenty of recreational options on property. For instance, Spice Spoons offers informative cooking classes that can be paired with a trip to the local market with a resort chef.
Anantara Kalutara Resort makes a great wellness retreat for corporate groups too, thanks to its resident ayurvedic specialist and yoga master who can craft programmes to reboot the shell and soul of meeting delegates and top incentive winners.
There is also the Anantara Spa, and the Water Sports Club gets active guests on a jet ski, banana boat, kayak, surf board and more.
There are plenty of dining options on property – casual Olu for all-day dining; Acquolina Italian restaurant and bar that stretches the length of a lap pool; Spice Traders that specialises in Thai, Indian and Chinese cuisines; and Upper Deck where sundowner cocktails and tapas are served.
Service Resort staff are very friendly, often stopping to chat with guests and to check if all is fine.
Room count 141 rooms, suites and pool villas
Star rating Five
Contact
Email: reservations.srilanka@anantara.com
Website: https://kalutara.anantara.com/
Raffles Cambodia has appointed Oliver Dudler as cluster general manager of the Raffles Hotel Le Royal, Phnom Penh and Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor, Siem Reap.
Prior to joining Raffles Cambodia, Dudler was with Raffles & Fairmont Makati Manila.
The Swiss national brings with him over 20 years of experience in the tourism and hospitality industry. Previous appointments include management roles with The Peninsula Chicago, The Peninsula New York, The Peninsula Beijing and The Peninsula Manila.
Novotel Samui Resort Chaweng Beach Kandaburi has announced the appointment of its new executive chef, Stefano Leone.
The Italian has over 25 years of experience, having sharpened his knives in four- to five-star hotels in Canada to a Relais & Châteaux property in Bermuda, and from city hotels in Egypt and Indonesia to several beach resorts in Africa and Asia.
He will be upgrading the hotel restaurants’ offer with more imported ingredients and dishes with a Mediterranean twist.
Xavi Gonzalez has been appointed as general manager at The St Regis Singapore.
The Spaniard has nearly 20 years of international experience in the hospitality industry, cutting his teeth in management roles within Marriott properties such as The Ritz-Carlton Penha Longa Golf & Spa Resort, Portugal; The Ritz-Carlton Shanghai Pudong as well as The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, Pacific Place.
He also played an instrumental role in several rebranding and launch projects including the opening of The New York EDITION, and most recently led the opening of The Sanya EDITION.
Oakwood Worldwide has appointed Yasuko Sugiyama as general manager of Oakwood Hotel & Apartments Shin-Osaka – scheduled to open in summer 2018.
Prior to joining Oakwood, Sugiyama was area manager for Booking.com, where she managed the offices in Sapporo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Okinawa.
The hospitality veteran has more than 25 years of experience across the serviced apartment and hotel sectors in Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Japan.
Penang’s business events brought about an estimated economy impact of one billion ringgit (US$256 million) in 2017, as revealed by Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau’s 2017 business events industry review.
The 2017 Review was launched by the chief minister of Penang Lim Guan Eng, who further shared that Penang hosted a total of 2,511 events, with 267,518 participants. This also translated to RM1.4 million for room costs, and an accumulated 457,806 room nights.
“We have seen an increase from the 1,251 events held in 2016 to 2,511 events in 2017. Besides that, PCEB supported 94 international and national events in 2017, an increase from 37 events supported in 2016,” shared PCEB CEO Ashwin Gunasekeran.
The 2017 Review is a result of the year-long data collection initiative by PCEB to document the success of Penang’s Business Events industry. The in-depth review provides statistics and comparisons of all the sectors and markets that contribute to the business events industry in Penang. The review also showcases PCEB’s initiatives and achievements throughout 2017.
It also contains a summary of PCEB’s activities and events organised during that year. The PCEB annual review gives the Business Events industry partners an insight into the segments and markets of Penang that were available, and which areas had potential for growth.
To download the 2017 Review, please visit https://www.pceb.my/corporate-overview.php.
Chinese technology solutions provider and RFP platform 1000meetings has pulled off a coup with international meetings and events industry company MCI China adopting its tailor-made software to meet the needs of the industry operating in the country.
Julien Delerue, 1000meetings general manager, who comes from an IT background and founded the company 10 years ago in Shanghai, said the software will help MCI China transition to a paperless operation, increase its visibility with a few clicks, and help it source for hotels and suppliers more efficiently.
Describing the solution as “wholistic” and likening it to “SAP enterprise software for agencies in the industry”, Delerue said MCI China test piloted the system for six months for its corporate meetings section.
Overseas expansion is on the cards and Delerue has earmarked Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia, as well as Singapore where there are plans to open an office.
He shared that 1000meetings is filling a gap for companies facing a challenge finding solutions not covered by technology solution providers operating in Asia.
Frankie Gao, managing director, MCI China, said its key strategy is to go digital and live for its major accounts.
“We are happy to partner 1000meetings. The team has engaged us to understand our core values and business model to tailor certain systems to speed up our strategy and ensure our business operations efficiency.”
Gao added the software is “bringing the world to us and escalating our business, projects and finance operations, and where all information is live and data well stored”.
On the biggest benefit of adopting the 1000meetings software, Gao commented: “It will not just be limited to operational efficiency. There will be a major boost to our business profitability where we can also control our operational costs to integrate with and enhance our strengths as the industry leader.”
Berjaya Hotels & Resorts announced at Singapore Airshow 2018 that it will begin running twice-daily flights between Kuala Lumpur’s Subang Airport and Redang Island in June, with the aim of filling its Redang Island resort rooms.
Operated by the group’s sister company Berjaya Air, the flights reduce travelling time between the two points from five hours to an hour, said Hanley Chew, CEO of Berjaya Hotels & Resorts.
The charters will be run on two pre-owned ATR 42-500 aircraft, refurbished with new interior and 36 passenger seats each. Guests can check into their rooms in the Subang lounge before boarding the plane.
Flight tickets will be sold with all-inclusive resort packages, which include a 3D/2N stay in a twin-sharing suite and will cost upwards of RM3,500 (US$896), confirmed Chew.
He added that this move aims to help Berjaya’s two Redang resorts – Taaras Beach & Spa and Redang Island Resort – attract smaller business events groups, such as board meetings or small team retreats. Meanwhile, Berjaya is also “pouring a lot of investment to refurbish” its hotels.
The company is currently working with agencies in Germany, Italy, the UK, Japan and Singapore, and is seeing a pick-up in demand from the latter two countries, Chew shared.
He also revealed that Berjaya is currently “in talks” to establish connections between Redang and Seletar Airport in Singapore. This route is expected to be introduced around end-2018 to early-2019 with a new aircraft.
Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC), which oversees the development, management and promotion of the Sentosa island as a resort destination, has identified business events as a “new target market” from this year on.
Speaking to TTGmice in an interview, SDC’s CEO Quek Swee Kuan said the business events segment “becomes a very important source of business” for the island’s hotels during the weekdays when rooms are widely available.
“If you look at Sentosa’s arrival patterns, weekends are packed, while weekdays see many (available rooms),” he said.
To keep Sentosa busy on the weekdays, SDC is hoping to pull in meetings, corporate incentives and “smaller-scale conferences which our hotels with ballrooms are ready to handle”.
With this new objective in mind, SDC has started “leveraging Singapore Tourism Board’s incentives for (business events)”, and is working with the Singapore Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers & Suppliers and its island partners that are also hungry for business events. SDC plans to attend relevant trade events and to bid for business events together with like-minded island partners.
Association meetings are also on SDC’s radar, and Quek’s team was at the PCMA Convening Leaders conference in Nashville, US, last month to meet with global association chiefs.
In terms of geographical targets, Quek pointed to the western side of the globe. Destination marketing work in the longhaul market has kicked off with SDC’s participation in IBTM last November, and it will again promote its business events capability at ITB Berlin next month.
“We have so many attractive points for the MICE market, such as open spaces that can work as unique venues – something European groups will like, but not enough about them are being shouted in the marketplace,” he remarked.
