Crowne Plaza Launches Meeting Success Enhancements In Asia

(SYDNEY) Crowne Plaza continues to improve its innovative Meeting Success program with the introduction of new products and services across Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, making life easier for meeting planners, facilitators and delegates.

One of the most significant additions to Meeting Success is tailored food and beverage options for meetings. The first is Lunching In, a menu for time-conscious delegates who need to work through lunch, offering a variety of shared table meals developed to keep them stimulated and engaged. Lunching In includes Yum Cha, Sushi, Mediterranean meals and a range of healthy options.

Every Crowne Plaza hotel now also offers Snack Attack, an all-day snack bar within the meeting room, stocked with a range of snack options from nuts, chocolate and soft drinks through to muffins, energy bars, fruit, juices as well as tea and coffee. Perfect for interactive meetings such as training sessions or workshops, Snack Attack ensures that meetings can run uninterrupted, while still providing opportunities for short working refreshment breaks.

As not all meetings are held in formal environments, Crowne Plaza has introduced Meet and Eat for informal sessions. Meet and Eat is a menu of easy-to-eat snacks and lunches, as well as essential business products such as business services and stationary items for people holding meetings in lobby or lounge areas. With Meet & Eat, Crowne Plaza shows that they understand a range of meeting needs.

Crowne Plaza is also introducing enhancements to guest rooms to give every residential meeting delegate room to relax. The first of these is Bedside Shopping, a menu of business and personal items that guests may forget when travelling, available for purchase at retail prices. Available to leisure and business guests, Bedside Shopping is particularly suited to meeting delegates who find they have arrived less prepared than they had originally thought, yet do not have time to go shopping.

Meeting Success has been a strong driver for Crowne Plaza’s meeting business since its introduction in 2003. “Since we established the Meeting Success program, the contribution of Crowne Plaza’s meeting business has increased by over 20% across the region,” said InterContinental Hotels Group Regional Director of Sales and Marketing Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, Jolyon Bulley. “During that time, our share of high yield residential meeting business increased significantly, and day meeting room occupancy also delivered strong growth.

“This alone demonstrates the attraction of Meeting Success and the recognition by meeting planners, facilitators and delegates of Crowne Plaza as the Place to Meet. With these latest enhancements to the programme, that position is being further strengthened,” Mr Bulley said.

The new product additions build upon Crowne Plaza’s Meeting Success’ core products and services, which include a Two Hour Response to all meeting enquiries, dedicated Crowne Meetings Directors, and practical facilitator and delegate tools for meeting environments.

The new Meeting Success products, Snack Attack, Lunching In and Meet & Eat, are currently being introduced across all 14 Crowne Plaza hotels in Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, and will be implemented by the end of October 2004. For a full listing of Crowne Meeting Directors across the region, log on to or and click on the meetings and events icon.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the world's most global hotel company and the largest international group by number of rooms. InterContinental Hotels Group owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, more than 3,500 hotels and 538,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world (www.ichotelsgroup.com). The Group owns a portfolio of well recognised and respected hotel brands including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn ® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites® and Hotel Indigo®. In addition to this, InterContinental Hotels Group also has a controlling interest in Britvic, the second largest soft drinks manufacturer in the UK.

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