By this time last week, Corrie & Lisa were traipsing around Victoria at rapid pace, taking in a diverse range of regional Victoria's conference venues.  
We were lucky enough to be invited on the inaugural ‘Accor Great Race’ held on Friday 27 May - Saturday 28 May.  We took 4 of our clients 'along for the ride' completely unaware of what we were all getting into.  I think we became a little concerned when filling in the necessary disclaimer forms, but were excited to be part of this experience first hand.

Europcar had kindly donated 10 vehicles for the race, and we were all assigned teams and a driver. Corrie’s red team represented Team ‘Ibis’ and Lisa’s blue team represented Team ‘Pullman’. Team briefings began at 0800 and by 0900 the race had begun!

In a nutshell, Accor venues covered off on Day 1 included: Novotel & Ibis Glen Waverley, Mercure Balgownie in the Yarra ValleyMercure Geelong,Mercure Ballarat and finally the pit stop for the night – Novotel Forest Resort, Creswick. In amongst all the driving were various bonus challenges along the way – everything from collecting local produce to taking photos of various landmarks (the more creative, the more points earned).  Our main challenge for the day was to write a song representing your team, to the tune of your favourite AFL footy anthem.  These were to be performed at our dinner that night - hosted by Mercure Ballarat - for some serious team bonus points... I think all were staggered at the pool of talent in the room!  The Mercure set the room beautifully, the meal was fantastic, and everyone had a great night.  A few of us then kept the Novotel Forest Resort bar open for a while whilst the more competitve amongst us grabbed an early night!

After a quick site inspection of the Novotel Forest Resort on Saturday morning, it was back to the race.  By this stage both Corrie & Lisa realised their teams were not going to finish in pole position, so were just going to have a bit more fun!  Lisa's team 'got lost' in Daylesford ensuring their team were fuelled with coffee and morning tea with some locals, before heading back to Melbourne via the Grand Mercure Caroline Springs where our last challenged involved displaying our own culinary skills in putting together a trifle!  After finishing the race with a group lunch put on by the Novotel St Kilda at the finishing post, the time had arrived to announce the winners. Corrie finished in 5th position and Lisa’s team finished 7th.

 

 

 

 

All in all, a fun filled 30 hours, and provided us all with a snippet of some of our regions' abundant conference facilities. Our next Ultimate Conferences + Eventsregional client famil is actually going to be to the Novotel Forest Resort on SATURDAY 23RD JULY – an ideal opportunity for Corrie and Lisa to revisit and for you to experience this first class venue first-hand with your partner, friend or work colleague. This will be advertised in our next newsletter, but should you wish to get a head start, please register your This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0, 90, 140)">interest here!</span></p>"</p>"</p>"</p>"