The Event
A global healthcare company hosted various meetings throughout the week at the annual European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Paris, France.
The Challenge
Within an expedited timeframe, our customer needed assistance with strategic congress management and logistics support, specifically planning multiple meetings/meeting types during the ESMO Congress. That which typically requires 6-8 months planning lead time, our team had 8 weeks to accomplish given the condensed timeline. Adding to the challenge, Paris shut down for 2 weeks for scheduled holidays during our 8-week planning phase.
The Solution
Pre-Event
Prior to the event, the MTA Global Experiences Team was charged with managing all of the pre-event planning including: managing attendee registration; securing hotel room blocks; managing speakers for each symposium; arranging speakers’ transportation; submitting requests for approval of auxiliary meetings; sourcing meeting locations; and coordinating all onsite staffing.
Our Paris-based, French-speaking associate played a key role in venue procurement working directly with restaurant vendors in-person to ensure the venue spaces selected were optimal for each dinner, meeting, etc. Our associate hand-selected local Parisian restaurants that met the desired criteria for special meetings, networking, and dinners. All of this was accomplished with our compliance team ensuring events were within the Congress and country guidelines.
Event Management
Because of the many moving parts involved in planning multiple running events within the 5-day Congress, on-site staffing was essential to the success and MTA ensured that meetings were fully staffed to manage all events.
MTA was responsible for managing a total of 28 events which included both pre-meetings prior to the Congress in Paris and meetings taking place throughout the week of ESMO. Among those were:
- A pre-conference social gathering for 200 attendees in Paris.
- 16 total ongoing events including networking dinners and business meetings.
- Business meeting management for 10 events hosted in business meeting rooms; our team managed nine room transitions throughout the day to ensure the spaces were prepped for all consecutive meetings from 7 a.m. – 8 p.m.
- Our on-site team directed the minute-by-minute oversight; contingency planning for AV emergencies; and transportation throughout the day for our team dispersed in multiple locations.
- Partnerships were also an important factor working with the client’s internal planning team and external vendors to ensure all goals were achieved.
With foresight, ingenuity, contingency planning, and MTA expertise (AV and local knowledge), our Global Experiences Team worked steadily and purposely to successfully manage a total of 28 programs related to this Congress event within less than 8 weeks of planning.
