«We advise the customer on the best possible solution»

Only when the contract has been signed and the event can already take place in your mind – glases clink and people applaud – then Merle tom Dieck, Yasmin Engesser and Philip Garrod can sit back for a short moment. But only until they are contacted again via e-mail, telephone or booking tool with a so-called «RFP». This Request For Proposal usually represents the first contact between a future customer and the Zurich Convention Center.

From a click to a contract

Anyone planning an event in the Zurich Convention Center and filling out the online request on its website is setting a whole process in motion. The enquiry ends up as a task on the desk of the consulting and marketing team. «In a first step, we check what it is all about, the date and the approximate size of the event,» explains Merle tom Dieck. Within 24 hours, the team makes initial clarifications and contacts the customer for personal advice. «Whether the client wants an aperitif for 20 people or a banquet with 2000 people is quite another matter. And in between, there are a wide range of event technology and gastronomic options.» The team aims to find the best possible solution for the customer with a wide range of options. Only when the customer is completely happy with the planned event and the service agreement has been signed, they hand over the organisation to the congress and event managers in the Zurich Convention Center.

Innovative start-up-environment

However, in the current build-up phase until the new opening, many of these processes are taking place for the first time. «This is incredibly exciting,» says Philip Garrod. «We may work in a historically well-deserved institution, but in the context of a start-up company.» The Zurich Convention Center receives a wide variety of enquiries; the only thing the events have in common is that they will be taking place for the first time in the newly renovated and technically well-equipped venue. Each of these events requires a different technical infrastructure and culinary delights.

Creating great conditions

The way to the perfect spatial, technical and gastronomic design is the primary goal of the consulting team. The three specialists are very busy well before the opening of the convention centre. At the moment they are doing many guided tours of the construction site with interested customers, so that they get a better idea of the building. «A lot is still in progress and certain information will only be available at a later date», says Yasmin Engesser and you can hear that this is not the first time she has said this sentence. It goes without saying that customers are picked up early in the process, informed promptly about developments and advised individually. Soon the team is gathering initial experience and can develop its processes further during ongoing operations. «Then we can walk through the finished house with the customers and no longer just show them around the construction site,» says Merle tom Dieck, Yasmin Engesser and Philip Garrod with pleasure - and still flourish in the current pre-opening phase, in which no day is like any other.