Corrie has spent the last weekend in ‘Gourmet heaven’! Firstly as a guest of Marriott Hotels & Resorts, and secondly as a guest of The Bentinck in Woodend.
On Friday 25 February, Corrie and her husband John were transferred from the newly refurbished Melbourne Marriott Hotel on Exhibition Street, to the beautiful surrounds of De Bortoli Winery in the Yarra Valley
On Tuesday 8 March, Corrie inspected a brand NEW venue available for functions in Melbourne – Myer’s ‘Mural Hall’ – located on the 6th floor of the newly renovated, funky Bourke Street Myer Store!
The venue is managed exclusively by The Big Group – a catering company with access to a number of unique venues throughout Melbourne.
"Mural Hall is truly an amazing venue – and we don’t say this lightly! With capacity to seat up to about 550 people or 700 if cocktail style, it really offers loads of scope for those larger functions, Christmas parties, conferences with a difference, and even for those on a limited budget as the space requires little or no theming. The room is a mix of 'art deco', meets '2011', meets gothic Italy! It has a lot of potential, is VERY centrally located in Melbourne’s CBD, and will be open for business from the beginning of April.
A very busy past week for Corrie and Lisa who managed to catch up with a number of venue reps from around the country who happened to be in town... Most of them were reporting a ‘soft’ April period which isn’t surprising given there are school holidays and lots of public holidays / Easter in that month. However, quite a few venues have also come out with specials not only for April as a result, but also to take us through to the end of the financial year.
On Thursday Corrie also popped out to see the Lyall Hotel in South Yarra - a boutique 5 star hotel, that until recently, hasn’t actively promoted the conference facilities except to local surrounding businesses. However, on doing an inspection, this venue would be ideal for those seeking somewhere small and intimate, for no up to around 20 delegates. The main conference room has lots of natural light plus the added bonus of a small courtyard area. Breaks can also occur in the small but functional dining area, or can be served in the conference room itself. Accommodation rooms are spacious, airy, modern and have a real ‘home away from home’ feel. Definitely one we think should be put in the mix for our discerning clientele!
“What a busy and productive week it was for Ultimate Conferences + Events last week! Corrie and Lisa flew up to Sydney on the Tuesday morning, hired a car, then in true ‘Thelma and Louise’ style, pointed the car north and ended up in Manly!
We were keen to inspect Mirvac’s newly acquired Q Station, as well as catch up with our friends at both the Sebel Manly and the Novotel Sydney Manly Pacific hotels whilst there. Each of these three properties certainly have their own ‘personality’ offering great solutions to the various needs of our clients. We couldn’t help but picture many of you making best advantage of the spaces, all varying in size and style, as we toured them all…
Day 2 on the road, saw us stuck in the unenviable position of rush hour from Manly into the City and the realisation as to why we work from home as often as possible! We finally reached our first appointment for the day, enjoying a lovely breakfast with our most understanding and gracious hosts at the Swissotel Sydney.
Accommodation here is lovely, all you would expect of a 5 star hotel and more, with rooms bright, airy and welcoming. Whilst the main conference spaces here unfortunately do not offer natural light, the “skylight effect” lighting throughout, plus sunlight-flooded atrium (even on this cloudy morning) used as the pre-function space certainly compensated for this – the atmosphere serene and refreshing. This main conference space suits up to 450 delegates depending on the set up, also lending itself well to networking or trade displays. For more intimate meetings, boardrooms on a separate floor, with nearby access to the outdoor pool terrace, offer a distraction free environment.
With the long Easter Weekend and school holidays in the mix, we’ve finally had time to update our blog! Once again it saw Corrie travelling off – on this occasion, to New Zealand, courtesy of the Wellington Convention Bureau.
“Interestingly they asked us all for ‘pre famil’ thoughts – what were our perceptions of Wellington? I have to say it could have been perceived as quite negative at the start... Windy, cold, quite funky, quite like Melbourne really… and so it went on. However, the day our Air New Zealand flight landed in Wellington, it was a calm, perfectly blue skied, balmy autumn day. So, so far, so good! Martin Boland from the Bureau met us on arrival, and we were transferred to various hotels on what was to be the start of a jam packed, fun filled, highly informative three days. Given the more information on venues the better for us – I wasn’t to be disappointed.
