Our Experience

With decades of experience in managing incentive groups, conference tours and programs of all sizes, arinex Destination Management delights in going above and beyond for each new client. We invite you to view our case studies below, which showcase the diversity of our services.

 

Case Study: CEPSA

Client: CEPSA
Location/Dates: Australia, 25 April – 3 May 2008
Pax: 120

Winner of pinnacle industry award, Meetings & Events Australia Incentive of the Year 2008

arinex Destination Management is used to managing incentives with the guests’ high expectations of quality service top of the mind. But with certain groups, the bar is raised even higher, stretching the creativity and quality of each member of the team.

The CEPSA group, a high-end Spanish oil refining company, engaged arinex to manage an exclusive, luxury nine-day incentive in 2008 for 120 carefully-selected guests from Spain and Portugal. With no budget constraints, CEPSA’s brief was quite simple: Create a once-in-a-lifetime, first-class and luxurious experience of Australia for each VIP guest.

The arinex inspiration:

Because CEPSA switched to an Australian incentive after originally deciding on the USA, arinex was presented with a very short lead time of only six weeks to put together the incentive, which spanned three destinations – Port Douglas, Uluru and Sydney. arinex went above and beyond to ensure the entire experience was a personalised, unrivalled and exceedingly comfortable one for each guest. The specialised VIP treatment that arinex provided included:

• Extensive negotiations with each restaurant to extend liquor licensing and kitchen times in order to accommodate Spanish meal schedules – dinner regularly commenced at 9pm and ended at 2am
• Chartering four planes for the transcontinental experiences. This included total exclusivity and CEPSA branding of each plane, and for one particular flight (Ayres Rock to Sydney), it also involved arranging for specific caterers to provide Spanish cuisine during the flight. Because external caterers were engaged, the plane’s flight attendants did not have authorisation to distribute the food and so arinex Destination Management staff personally donned aprons and CEPSA uniforms to serve the items to each guest.
• Complete English-Spanish interpretation services for all guests, to ensure they received a full understanding of each experience.
• Specially devised menus at various locations to provide guests with an experience of Australian cuisine, while keeping elements of Spanish preferences to keep them comfortable.
• Provision of a dedicated IT/AV manager on the tours to provide real time updates to each guest’s iPod Touch. The updates included seasonal menu changes or alterations to aspects of the program.

Result:

“Sonja and the team proved that cultural distance was no boundary to deliver a fantastic program, they made us feel at home when we were actually miles away from home!

A wonderful trip to the Great Barrier Reef, an enchanted evening under the stars in the middle of the Australia desert, all our guests staring at the sky looking at the CEPSA logo displayed in Sydney Harbour and finally, our glamorous Opera night – the most successful gala dinner to date – are moments that will stay forever in our memories.

Many thanks to every one of your capable girls for their hard work, exceptional local knowledge and ever-smiling attitude that proved to be critical to the success of this incentive. Our distinguished guests were fascinated and delighted every day of the program!

CEPSA aims high, and you met us with creative ideas, cheerful attitude and passion to excel. Thus, although I was also working, it has been the program that I enjoyed the most!”

Alfredo Gomez Esteban, Marketing Director – CEPSA EESS

Case Study: Lions Clubs International Convention 2010

Client: Lions Clubs International
Location/Dates: Sydney, 20 June-2 July 2010
Pax: 13,000

arinex coordinated five days of business, fellowship and fun for over 13,000 Lions Clubs International members and their families in June 2010, showcasing the spectacular wonders of Sydney, Australia and uniting Lions members and their families from over 100 countries. As part of the total on-the-ground logistics that arinex coordinated, full transport services to shuttle all 13,000 delegates around Sydney for five days was provided. The coordination involved in this was immense, covering:

• Regular meetings with key government and regulatory departments, such as the Premier’s office, Roads and Traffic Authority, Sydney police, City of Sydney, Sydney Buses, and Sydney Airport, to minimise effect to the city and maximise use of the city roads for the Lions delegates
• Transport attendees from 36 hotels to the convention centre daily
• Moving all attendees from their hotel or the convention centre to key drop-off points in the city to join the major street parade which blocked off one of Sydney’s main roads
• Transport to various special events
• All co-ordination of dedicated tours utilising everything from 48-seater coaches to cruise vessels on Sydney’s harbour.

arinex also coordinated the individual transport for the 1,700 VIPs arriving and departing on more than 100 different flights over the key airport transfer days of the District Governors Elect Program. This included transporting the guests from their two base hotels across the city for eight days, with a highlight being the smooth transition of the group to and from the Celebration Banquet Dinner at the Dome, Sydney Olympic Park.

The sheer size and diversity of the group also meant that arinex wanted to ensure smooth delivery of transport-related communications – both to the shuttle companies and to the attendees. arinex therefore appointed a dedicated Shuttle Manager, who was supported by a team, to coordinate all aspects of transportation.

Result:

“A convention of our size and diversity presents many unique challenges, all of which were handled expertly by your dedicated staff. Each of you played a vital role and we appreciate the long hours and tremendous effort your team put forth.”

Renee Aubin, Manager of Convention Division, Lions Clubs International