This document summarizes two workshops hosted by Castrol called innoVentures that took place in Singapore and New York. Venues Event Management planned the logistics for both workshops. The Singapore workshop was held at Marina Bay Sands and included a welcome dinner on the 57th floor roof top. The New York workshop was held at a new venue, Yotel, and included storage for luggage with the hotel robot. Both workshops went smoothly thanks to the support of Venues Event Management.

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Client: Castrol
Event: innoVentures
Group Size: 37 Delegates to
each location
Agency: Venues Event
Management
Date: May/June 2012
Venue: Marina Bay Sands –
Singapore Yotel – New York

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The Brief
The objective of Castrol innoVentures is to invest and act now to shape Castrol’s future by building material
businesses beyond today’s lubricant products.
The Insight Workshops are part of Castrol’s on-going approach to learning and building value by engaging
with experts outside their industry. This approach helps uncover trends, forces and build market
perspectives.
Three venues were proposed for Singapore as there are limited venues in Singapore that would fit the
clients brief. Hannah Pollock, Senior Project Manager says:
“The Arts House Singapore was considered as it is not a typical meeting space but exceeded the budget.
For that reason it was decided to go with The Marina Bay Sands. This venue has been used many times
before by Venues Event Management and although the meeting rooms had no natural light, the foyers
around the meeting rooms are light and spacious and the venue is a landmark in Singapore.”

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Five venues were originally proposed for New York as much more of a selection was available for this
destination.
Hannah continues “following a Familiarisation (FAM) Trip a colleague went on I was recommended to
Yotel as a possible new venue due to more research in New York destinations being carried out. The
venue has funky furniture with glass walls and met the clients brief in regards to natural light and
innovation.”

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Execution
Each of the workshops brought together Senior
Castrol staff with insights into relevant topics,
and external guests with similar interests.
2/3 of the delegates were BP employees and
the final 1/3 of delegates were external.
The Singapore workshop ran for 2 days and
the New York workshop for 1.5 days.
Delegates were greeted by Venues Event
Management on arrival where room allocations
were made and at New York luggage were
stored with the hotel robot –Yobot.

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Once delegates were settled, welcome dinners were organised on open terraces at both hotels and
at Marina Bay Sands this was on their 57th floor roof top.
On the second evening off- site dinners were arranged. In Singapore the dinner was held in Ming
Jiang at One North and in New York the Castrol delegates went to Tribeca Grill.

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Delegate Management
Venues Event Management was asked to take on
the delegate management for each of the events
including pre-event liaison, booking of flights for
external guests.
Hannah commented, “We created a dedicated
website for each of the events where delegates
could register online, see the program outline,
gather information about the hotel and links to
their support team. From this website we then sent
out confirmations to each of the delegates.”
Using the database generated from the online
registration, Venues Event Management created
name badges for each of the delegates that were
then issued on arrival with welcome packs.

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Challenges
Hannah commented regarding the challenges she faced when managing the
project;
“there were only two main challenges that we really faced with the project; firstly, health and safety is a
major priority for Castrol and Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSEE) is not always so well
known worldwide so it wasimportant to ensure each of our suppliers were compliant to meet these
requirements.
Secondly, a New York hotel did let us down on the original meeting room that was secured which then
led to a new venue search which was great timing with the recent FAM trip we could go being confident
with experience and knowledge we had gained as a company”.

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Verdict
“Both events were really successful and I am really pleased with how well they
ran. Each of the venues worked well for both of the workshops and the staff were extremely
helpful and supportive with the delegates by ensuring arrangements were in place upon arrival
and then creating a smooth process throughout the duration of the event. Having worked at
Marina Bay Sands numerous times we have a great relationship.
Due to the agenda only BP delegates went on the offsite dinner at Tribeca Grill
in New York, however everyone who attended the dinners appeared to enjoy
themselves in both fantastic venues and the service was excellent.”
Hannah Pollock
Senior Project Manager
Venues Event Management

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Testimonial
“This is just a quick note to say how impressed I have been with your teams support
during our insights workshop in Singapore.
Hannah Pollock has done an excellent job in managing the event for us, which has
made it so much easier for us organisers.
Everything has gone like clockwork and all HSSE fully covered without us having to
get involved. Similarly in the lead up to event.”
Jens Andersen
Castrol innoVentures