The client had no office in Poland and no fixed destination in mind. Its brief was to find a suitable location in Europe, choose a hotel and deliver the event within the agreed budget. After two meetings, we recommended Sofia.
It was the first event in Travel Consulting’s history with no Polish participants. For our team, it was also an important step in working with international clients: a German business had chosen a Polish agency to organise its event in a third country.
From an open brief to a practical recommendation.
We started with the purpose of the meeting, the size of the group and the budget. Those conversations gave us a basis for recommending a destination that matched the event, rather than a list of hotels to choose from.
Sofia was the proposal the client wanted to explore. The next step was to test the idea against real availability, meeting facilities and costs. For a group of this size, the city and hotel decisions had to work together.
Five hotels, checked in person.
We travelled to Sofia to inspect five shortlisted properties. Each had at least 102 rooms available for the event dates and suitable conference facilities.
A hotel’s total room count is not the same as availability for a particular event. We needed to see the meeting spaces and understand how the property would work for our group. The site visits allowed us to compare the proposals with the actual guest experience.
Hilton Sofia was our preferred option. Its initial offer was above the budget, so the next stage was negotiation. After a series of discussions, we agreed terms that made the event possible at the selected hotel within the client’s budget.
A programme for an international team.
The event combined conference time, social activities and an original city game. The game used different periods of Sofia’s history: participants worked in groups, explored the city through a series of tasks and helped create a shared timeline.
Our project manager Malwina designed the game, briefed the guides and supervised its delivery. A five-person TRCO team was on site to coordinate the wider event and support participants.
For 99 people representing 18 nationalities, clear communication was essential. The event was delivered in English. Participants needed practical information, a straightforward way to contact the team and confidence that someone would respond when circumstances changed.
The client’s verdict.
The client’s feedback focused on organisation, responsiveness and the people behind the event. The CEO summed up the experience in these words:
“Thank you so much to Travel Consulting for organizing this event. In my 30-year career, I have never come across a company that is so exceptionally well organized and so quick to respond to changes — and on top of that, such a fantastic group of people!”CEO of the German client
What this project shows.
A destination does not have to be decided before the conversation starts. A clear brief, personal site inspections and thorough negotiations can turn an open question into a workable event plan.
In Sofia, the result was a meeting at the hotel we had recommended, within the agreed budget, with a programme and on-site team suited to an international group. It gives us a concrete example of how we work with clients across borders.