Brazil 8
Yes, there was immersion in work as well as play at last week’s Embark Immersion 2016 Rio, hosted at Fairmont Rio de Janeiro. Tuesday morning’s educationals were at the hotel. Instead of usual theatre-style some teams, pre-determined to have eight to 10 per group, were allocated low sofas around coffee tables: other were normal height.
As well as Embark management, speakers were impressive. In her usual inspirational way, Cindy Novotny, Founder of Master Connection Associates, urged the faithful to take the lead. Don’t wait for customers to contact you. You contact them, if only for regular hellos. Buty is no longer enough. People don’t come back for the product, they come back for how you make them feel . Overall, the flavour-of-the-month was definitely clientelling, relationship management. The assembled company heard about the connecting economy, and the growing need to combat loneliness. For the records, recent evidence suggests 25% of all adults, admit to loneliness (the figure is 36% in US). Brands bring people together. To stay relevant, however, introduce clientelling. Change traditional mindsets and use tech as connector. Travel advisors were urged to train beyond travel, and to be authoritative.
There were more Big Names up there. Annie Fitzgibbons and Peter Greenberg discussed how AI is putting fear into travel. They strongly recommended having personal contacts on the ground and checking what, for instance, the situation is really like in Dubai. Do not rely on fake news. Barbara Muckermann, CEO Kempinski, hosted a panel that included Marriott’s President Luxury, Tina Edmundson, and Alejandra Rositto, President Americas for Kering-owned Bottega Veneta.
Advisors had been asked, in prior delegated teams, to compose a celebration for a 25th wedding anniversary. The winning team produced a brilliant video with dancers out on Copacabana beach, plus photos supposedly showing the happy couple in previous years. Tuesday afternoon was devoted to the beach – Sofitel’s beach club on Ipenema – with football against a local charity for kids, and then an early evening party, with people dressed in white.
Later that evening was Frette’s PJ party. Brilliant. Everyone was given a pair of Frette pyjamas, some added hotel bedroom slippers, a pillow, a teddy bear. A bed was photo-prop for mass groups and bouncing. Paris Society’s DJ made lots-a-noise and food was mini cheeseburgers, fries and icecream…and Technogym’s Angelo Goggiolo, below, couldn’t wait to try on his mask.
