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Business friends with hospitality benefits
11/07/2018
Before any misunderstanding takes root, let it be known we’re not into casual relationships at Croke Park Meetings & Events. In our experience while one-off events are part of the events industry landscape and not every client is for life, we’re all for the long game and long term relationship here.
For us it’s all about spending time getting to know each other. Really understanding each other’s needs. Finding the sweet spot, so to speak, and nurturing a business relationship around real, lasting values like mutual respect, absolute trust, long term commitment.
Throughout the year we try to find ways to connect with our clients. We go to visit and have met face to face with the folks we talk with on a daily basis. We’ve brought the wider team along on client visits to share some of the Croke Park Meetings & Events magic like organising live food experiences with Ruairi and Cian, some of our super-star chefs. And who remembers when we brought in the Smoothie bikes? You got the freshest smoothies possible but we made you work for them!
Other the years we’ve had wonderful opportunities to invite clients as our guest to some of the best games, shows and performances ever staged in Dublin. This year alone we’ve had the Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift and Mickey Bubbles (aka Michael Bublé).These world class acts allow us showcase our world class meetings and events facilities to local, national and international #eventprofs. In partnership with our close friends at Fáilte Ireland, for example, #TeamCrokePark brought a lively group of Association clients straight from IMEX Frankfurt, the Meetings Industry’s top show, to Croke Park, to see one of the world’s most enduring - and endearing - acts, the all-septuagenarian Rolling Stones. Anyone in attendance will tell you 70 is definitely the new 50 if Jagger, Richards, Wood and 76 year old Charlie Watts are anything to go by! Such unbridled energy!
Hosting new and existing clients for matches, concerts and events at Croke Park allows us practice what we preach as the team is also responsible for marketing and selling our hospitality suites. Corporate hospitality is a powerful way of building business relationships by rewarding loyalty with a VIP invitation to an unmissable event.
It fosters trust because, at a match or a concert, we spend quality time with each other and get to know the person behind the endless e mail exchange. We also get to see A real, live event in operation. At Croke Park Meetings & Events we’re immensely proud of the job our operations team do when it comes to crowd management, catering and the event logistics involved in transforming from sports stadium to concert venue.
And, of course, the concerts and matches are the perfect opportunity to test the latest and greatest culinary creations from the A team at Croke Park Catering - #TasteofCrokePark. For Taylor Swift, for example, we tasted some Barbeque Crockpot Chicken, Mini Irish Beef Sliders with Dubliner Cheese & Purple Onion Relish, Skewered Yakitori Chicken and Giant Sweetshop Doughnuts.
#TeamCrokePark loves hosting clients at matches and concerts because, ultimately, it’s all about making lasting memories together around privileged, shared experiences. Who can ever forget those magical moments during last year’s Coldplay gig? Or drowning out Bono himself by belting out every word at the top of our voices to U2’s “One”? Or being there when Stephen Cluxton coolly slotted over that winning point for Dublin?
These are just some of the hospitality benefits that our business friends have enjoyed from Croke Park Meetings & Events. Building long term business relationships is always way more than discussing contracts. It’s about sharing brilliant event experiences, having fun, getting to know each other better and building trust.
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