Converging on the Golden City

Prague has consistently been a meeting hub of choice for international and local industry alike. Whether it's corporate clients looking for a fun meet-up after summer vacation or companies needing to launch a product before the busy holiday shopping season, Prague's event and conference organizers are finding their calendars full in this recovering economy.

If you're looking for a little bit of help planning your perfect Prague event or conference, the choice and variety of services can be overwhelming. To help make the process a little easier, The Prague Post has looked at four very different destination management companies (DMCs) to help you get started.

Ask any DMC what their first rule of business is, and they will undoubtedly respond with "understanding the needs of our clients." These companies are essentially event geishas - highly skilled and ready to attend to every detail. Representatives of Maxin Prague, a local DMC, say the details are the key to successful event planning.

"Our job is to show Prague at its very best," says Katka Karlová, sales and marketing manager and a partner at Maxin. "Last year, we organized an annual conference for a Danish client. We were asked to include as many Czech features to the program as possible. The planning took two years. This does not happen every day; we were given a unique opportunity to show our country at its best, and it was our great pleasure and honor to serve the client to the very last detail."

Maxin also seems to be a master of more artistically elaborate events. Recently, they organized a theme party for 400 guests to announce a journey on a luxury train - but the hotel ballroom where the event was held had a ceiling too low to accommodate large-scale projections.

"We got the idea to produce almost life-size [models] of the train exterior," Karlová recalls. "We made [replicas] of the train interior and placed them on the sides of the hotel ballroom. Then we collected period furniture and theme accessories. Hostesses were dressed in luxury staff uniforms. When the reception doors opened, the guests were stepping into a luxury train to the sound of whistles. The illusion was perfect."

Maxin is not alone in the world of event planning here in Prague. Another DMC working with a variety of clients to put together high-end events is Prague Event Solutions (PES). But while Maxin seems to focus mainly on events with extensive guest lists, PES works with small- and midsize events.

"We don't want to be an ordinary company," said Managing Director Martin Limberský. "Every event is tailor-made, from a six-person wedding dinner on a pontoon to Madonna's concert for her son Rocco's birthday at Troja Chateau."

One unique aspect of PES is their experience in "gastronomic hospitality," to which Limberský attributes much of their success.

Limberský admits that the state of the global economy has been a bit of a challenge for the event-planning business, but says that although people have been cutting down on their event budgets, business seems to be on the way back up.

Shaping the message

All of the frills and creative flare of Maxin and PES are certainly impressive, but what if your business wants to organize an event to simply get your message out to the media?

ASPEN.PR is an agency that specializes in just that service. The small, 13-man operation organizes about 25 conferences a year for companies as diverse as diaper-maker Kimberly Clark, office supply company Kores and Coca-Cola. Aspen executive Petr Jarkovský says the best way to get the right message to the media is in a "quaint setting."

Aspen is currently working on an informal press meeting for an exhibition of artist František Kupka in Grund Golf and Ski Resort, as well as a "VIP shopping" event held by shopping center Galerie Myslbek.

With Prague being such a conference hub, there is also a market for some specialty DMCs that cater to niche markets. Congress Prague is one of these. They focus on organizing conferences exclusively for the medical environment. They offer groundbreaking services such as live broadcasts of medical procedures, and are currently working on the Prague Hepatology Meeting at the end of this month.

Despite the success of Prague as a conference destination, Karlová recognizes some obstacles confronting the industry.

"The greatest challenge we are still facing is insufficient structural and financial support of conference tourism from the City Hall of Prague and from the government in general," Karlová says. "The conference industry generates very large revenues and large tax incomes for the state budget."

With or without the city's support, Prague continues to be a popular conference and event location, meaning a steady stream of business for DMCs, because, as PES proclaims on their website, "creating an event is an art. Managing an event is a science."

Christie Elizabeth can be reached at
specialsection@praguepost.com