The brief
To provide high class meeting facilities with a relaxing atmosphere for the annual Senior Leadership Meeting. Along with a ground programme that showcased our client’s spirit brands within a cross section mix of on-trade bar and restaurant outlets across the City of San Francisco.
Leaders from global markets gathered to discuss current and future business strategies, so our brief needed to offer the opportunity to meet both on a business and social level.
Our solution
We recommended the stylish & contemporary St. Regis San Francisco on Third Street as the venue for their meeting and accommodation; which worked fantastically well to blend the business and social elements of the whole event.
We provided our own staff members for much of the programme, as it is important to maintain a personal connection for the global attendees (many of whom attend our regular events and thus enjoyed the familiar faces here).
Across four days we staged a series of group and strategic break-out sessions. Including an address by Tom Savigar from the Future Laboratory, who was tasked with thinking about future trends and the corresponding impact on the premium drinks industry. Tom covered the tracking of consumer trends and helped brands to anticipate the future with a particular passion for the emotional connection people form with brands, products, retailers and services, also touching upon how brands can better resonate with consumers accordingly.
Evening elements are crucial to break the business mind-set of the day and encourage open conversations on a social level. We orchestrated a welcome night dinner at the hotel which featured specific branded cocktails on arrival, a stunning Michelin starred dinner at One Market, and a drinks reception utilising their spirit brands. Post dinner activities were organised by the local market giving the guests the chance to sample their brands within the ‘on-trade’ at a range of contrasting bar outlets.
The show piece of the whole trip was a gala dinner (kept as a complete surprise to everyone) which will undoubtedly live with them forever…
A costumed prison guard organised the guests in strict style on to vintage school buses bound for Pier 33, then boarding the boat for their dinner destination – ALCATRAZ! The National Park Rangers took the guests on a special behind the scenes tour of the whole island including a brief visit to ‘solitary’ before finishing at the Hospital. We set up cocktail bars inside the cells here: accessed via an eerie corridor, from which you could see the dimly lit old operating theatre and hospital cells. The guests sampled brand cocktails, served by the leading company brand ambassadors, before making their way down ‘Broadway’ to dinner within the old Shower Block.
After an excellent dinner, the Alcatraz evening ended with a hearty burst of song from the assembled guests topping off what was voiced as an extremely rare and memorable evening.
