Montmartre Rally for Dutch Medical Nutrition company

Colored berets for the different teams	All teams had to reach Sacre Coeur	Multi-colored berets at the finish line	Celebrations in an authentic bistro

December 2009: How does a Dutch company reward the sales people who helped it reach its 2009 sales targets? By coming to France and running a special Sales Celebration and Forecast event in Paris in December over three days. Events Management Expert Alcep was asked to arrange the whole event in France with only two months notice. Our management team set to work fast, booking the venues, the accommodation, the gala evening and organizing entertainment. We were also quick on our feet when the weather changed…

Background

This company specializes in Advanced Medical Nutrition in Europe and is the Dutch branch of an international food company. The employees, numbering around 80, were invited to an incentive trip to Paris in early December 2009 to celebrate reaching their sales targets that year (the first time in 9 years) and motivate them for 2010 challenges.

Corporate themes

Under the slogan ‘Heart Beat 50.7’ (both the 2009 target of €50.7 million and the heart rate of an athlete at rest) the employees were told that “You are the heartbeat of the company”. “Here’s what you need to do to pick up your pace for 2010”. “Feel Paris’s passionate heartbeat”.

Creative directions

To energize the participants around ‘sporty’ activities we made several suggestions: a cinema workshop in the streets of Paris where they learned to make a short film (horror or romantic); a bike tour of the city; and a rally using the Metro system to reach Paris’s highest point, Montmartre.

Special conditions

Due to the company’s special focus on nutrition, we were asked to select venues and restaurants that offered healthy food – which cut down our selection lists quite a bit. Late into the planning stage, the client person in charge of organizing the event changed and we were asked to propose eco-friendly activities. The idea of using public transport to move our participants around came from that – but in logistics terms it was definitely an events management challenge.

On the morning of the bike tour, we woke up to 5cms of snowfall. Nobody wanted to be outside under these conditions! So we made some quick changes and organized a visit to the Opera, complete with Dutch-speaking guide – all within just one hour!

In summary

At the end of their Destination Management programme in France, the 75 guests of our Dutch Medical Nutrition client company came away happy and full of drive to start 2010 with renewed energy.