Two for one with Stamford
CIM stayed at both the Stamford Plaza Adelaide and Stamford
Grand Adelaide at the recent Destination South Australia (DSA)
showcase. With Stamford Plaza Adelaide situated on North
Terrace, you are less than a two-minute walk to the Adelaide
Convention Centre, and just around the corner from a swag
of new laneway bars and the thriving restaurant scene in the
CBD. And the view from the higher floors takes in the Adelaide
Oval and Festival Plaza development. It also caters for groups
up to 350 in its Terrace Ballroom.
Sister property Stamford Grand Adelaide makes the most of its
beachside setting with its Grand Ballroom over-looking the sand
and sea seating up to 500 people. Adjacent to Glenelg beach,
the hotel also offers great outdoor set-ups such the sunset
barbeque dinner hosted during DSA. The ‘boho’ beach themed
dinner directly in front of the hotel featured a tepee at one end
with a bar and assorted pillows and throws offering seating on
the sand. The evening started with canapés on the water with
Temptation Sailing, departing from Glenelg Marina and taking
the group down to Brighton Jetty. The main course of fresh and
local seafood was timed perfectly with the sun setting over
Glenelg beach and jetty, with the night finishing up in style with
a dessert buffet in hotel’s Horizons Cocktail Lounge. A beachside
hotel so close to the city and the airport is just one of the many
reasons that Adelaide is referred to as a 20 minute city.
As an added bonus there is a tram that connects both hotels
which can booked exclusively for conference groups wanting
to stay at one and dine at the other.
Opposite page from left: Wild caught
venison from Appellation; Adelaide
wineries are a global attraction.
Delegates staying on North Terrace can walk
over to the Convention Centre and then to
the gala dinner at Adelaide Oval and back
again. It’s safe, it’s quick and it’s easy.”
It took two attempts by the Adelaide
Convention Bureau to secure the event,
eventually winning out over Orlando, Istanbul,
Bremen and Dublin. It was then a 12 month
process to select the event manager.
“I was shocked, astounded and amazed
when we were first selected as we weren’t
the bidding partner up front,” she says. “We
came in as a dark horse so to speak, but we
are lock stock and barrel South Australian so
it is great they made that call.”
The convention is a real litmus test for
Adelaide’s ability to manage large complex
events. IAC is being held over five days,
with a raft of associated events and
partners also running simultaneous events
off the back of it.
“Not only are we managing a complex
congress with 20 simultaneous streams, we
are running these other parallel meetings,”
she says. “Then there are multiple billing
points with different clients. In addition there
are outreach and side events, like young
professional networking events, educator
workshops and many others. Also, it being
an international convention means there are
multiple languages to deal with.”
All Occasions Group is expanding the team
as the event gets closer including 200-plus
volunteers onsite to help out and direct
attendees. Quinn describes bagging the
event as a feather in the company’s cap.
“It helps in terms of our reputation and
profile and credibility to be able to pull this
one off,” she says. “It ratchets up our profile
and pushes us up into that next bracket of
conference organiser. It’s opened doors for
me and it’s been very exciting to be part of it.
I have been doing this a long time, 18 years
or so, so to come up to a crescendo with this
kind of event, I guess we are riding the wave
of the new developments here in Adelaide.”
And with the way things are falling into
place, many other stakeholders will be
riding this wave of investment for many
years to come.
www.cimmagazine.com Convention & Incentive Marketing, Issue 3, 2017 13