CASE STUDY

FCM Meetings & Events lands complex event air travel

In May 2023, FCM Meetings & Events successfully managed a signature in-person employee event for a major Australian corporate customer to engage and inspire their employees while also launching their new marketing strategy.

112 ground workers, 1,402 flights booked, and 1,632 stayed in hotels

Background

Planning for this large-scale event in Sydney involving specialist FCM Meetings & Events’ teams including a registration team, logistics team, creative team, production team, and importantly, a dedicated travel team. After several years of virtual events, it was important for the customer to have a dynamic live event to bring their people from around the country together in one place.

man loading luggage into the back of a van

Challenges

While the RFP was to deliver an event for 3,000 attendees, the scope grew significantly and ultimately, over 4,300 employees attended. With the numbers growing considerably, the FCM M&E group travel team pulled out all stops to deliver on the logistics for all attendee travel including airfares, transfers, and accommodation, while staying within budget.

Those attending included employees from all areas of the business, from senior executives to frontline team members. This facilitated the need for the detailed management of different airfare bookings, from multiple locations, to have all attendees in Sydney for the one-day event.

Implementation

A three member FCM M&E group travel team started planning the travel arrangements in October 2022, a full six months out from the event. With so many employees involved, the most efficient flight arrangements were needed to ensure employees were away from their home office for the least time possible.

The scale of the airline bookings required, and the diverse locations, meant FCM M&E utilized the services of all of the main three domestic carriers, plus a number of regional airlines to get the attendees to Sydney. Employees from major cities were booked to arrive the morning of the event, while those from regional centers needed to arrive the day prior due to less flight schedule availability.

The thousands of flight bookings and itineraries were managed via the FCM M&E travel platform, with the fully customized FCM M&E App used from beginning to end to update individual travelers on airline flight information and changes. With the support of the dedicated Afterhours Service, the FCM M&E travel team were on-call throughout the event to monitor flight movements and to make any booking changes that arose.

Outcome

With so many moving pieces and pivotal elements all being delivered in the one-day event, the FCM M&E travel team locked in watertight travel bookings for interstate attendees. By harnessing the unique knowledge and capability of the travel logistics team, FCM M&E seamlessly managed the complex travel and scheduling arrangements. In total, the in-house travel specialists booked 1,402 flights, arranged 112 ground transfers, and negotiated and booked hotel stays for 1,632 people. This included the travel logistics for employees from a number of business units, who stayed in Sydney for a second day to attend additional planning sessions.