Projects
CASE STUDIES
CASE STUDY: How we organized the Whisky Fair
Enthusiasm, love and faith in what you do are crucial to start a story from the very beginning. The idea for Whiskey Fair was born out of a love for whisky, a specific culture and history of this legendary drink. Six years have passed with six Whisky Fairs behind us. For whisky lovers from Croatia and the region it has become a tradition to gather once a year and enjoy their favourite drink.
At the very beginning, we researched and visited foreign whisky fairs to be able to offer the same level of quality to the Croatian and regional audience. There was no similar fair in the region at that time, so we were pioneers in a completely new field.
We designed a concept that we presented to potential partners and exhibitors and for the first year brought together a significant number of exhibitors, producers and importers of whisky. From the very beginning, we wanted to make whisky as accessible as possible for visitors, so whiskies at Whisky Fair are always on offer at special, fair prices.
With wish to make as many people as possible fall in love with this special drink, from the first year we have introduced education, basic and advanced workshops where participants can taste special whiskies and learn more about their favourite drink.
This concept requires great commitment to agree with the exhibitors on the positions, offers, best prices and exclusives they will present at the fair. We additionally enrich the offer by searching for and importing rare whiskies that are not available in Croatia, and we must take care to offer them at a popular price.
When organizing a fair of alcoholic beverages, it is necessary to obtain a certain number of permits. To be able to organize sales at the fair, it is necessary to implement a payment system in accordance with all regulations, and for visitors is extremely important that we enable card payments.
Given the type of event, it’s important to take care about the safety of visitors. Many people enable them to enjoy the fair, from security personnel, bartenders and waiters to hostesses, coordinators, entertainment program hosts and performers.
Alcoholic beverages are subject of communication limitations, so marketing and public relations require a special touch of creativity. As not all standard advertising channels are available to us, we strive to focus on direct communication with visitors via social networks. With a limited budget, it is a real skill to gather an online community and gain loyal visitors, but sometimes enthusiasm, will and perseverance go beyond all limits.
Challenges
To organize the first whisky fair in the region
To gather all whisky producers and importers present in Croatia in one place
To promote the culture of whisky drinking
To educate participants through workshops
To unite whisky lovers in the region into a unique whisky community that gathers once a year, but also to share experiences about their favourite drink via social networks throughout the year
RESULTS
More than 10.000 satisfied participants over six years
More than 30 workshops led by whisky experts and enthusiasts
More than 180 whisky brands
Active online whisky community
More than 200 articles in the media that popularized whiskey
We are proud to have started the tradition of the gathering of regional whisky lovers and that a completely new segment of the event industry has emerged from the enthusiasm. The fair has also become recognizable on the European whisky map, and in the last few years we’ve seen greater interest from foreign visitors, with foreign whisky experts arriving to Zagreb as well.
The Whisky Fair is held every year in early February, so we invite you to join us in February next year as exhibitors, lecturers or visitors.
CASE STUDY: WinDays conference
The WinDays conference has a tradition of 20 years and is held regularly in April. Microsoft organized the first WinDays back in 2001, and over time they have grown into one of the largest business and technology conferences in the region. We have been participating in the organization since 2011 as a subcontractor of the sister agency MPG. And what makes a conference that annually brings together more than 2,000 participants?
Every year we start with selection of location that can accommodate many participants and offer all conditions for organization of the conference, from sufficient number of halls and restaurant capacity to accommodation facilities and additional facilities. Choosing a location is just a beginning because after that arrangements are made for all the details that need to be taken care of, so the participants can enjoy themselves during the conference.
WinDays are divided into two program parts, WinDays Business and WinDays Technology, and in recent years we have been bringing a joint program for all participants on Wednesdays to show how inseparable technology and business are today. One of the special features of WinDays is the way Technology content is created. During the fall, we open lecture nominations, so all those interested can apply for their lecture and hope for the prestigious title of WinDays lecturer. The program committee, which consists of technology experts, decides which lectures will be included in the final program. The WinDays Business program is created in cooperation with Microsoft Croatia, and focuses on key industries and current challenges. On average, participants have the opportunity to listen to more than 150 lectures at the conference, and renowned foreign lecturers are always happy to join along with top local lecturers. Given the large number of participants, it is essential that the applications work flawlessly. For the WinDays conference, we have developed a special registration system that allows participants to easily and quickly register and book accommodation online, and in the background are automated processes, such as sending an offer or e-mail confirmation of participation.
WinDays also have their own conference “currency” WinCoin. Participants collect WinCoins by a variety of conference activities, from attending a lecture to completing questionnaires, and can exchange them for smaller prizes or “invest” to win larger prizes. Of course, many sponsors also design various fun activities. WinDays are unthinkable without a WinDays party, so every year we try to come up with something new and bring top bands to the conference.
Challenges
Co-organization of one of the largest regional business and technology conferences
Proposal of potential locations and selection of the conference venue
Designing additional entertainment and activities for more than 2,000 participants annually
Conference production
Management of the registration system, accommodation, and accreditation of participants
RESULTS
Many years of participation in the organization of conferences (9 years)
More than 14,000 participants
More than 1,800 lectures and 950 foreign and domestic lecturers
30 great parties and 350 sponsors
More than 300,000 kunas collected for humanitarian purposes
More than 2,800 posts in the media
We are proud to have been a part of the WinDays story for many years and to pursue a new challenge every year. This is one of the “those” projects that simply make you be innovative, push the boundaries and constantly come up with some new content and that is why it is one of our favourites.
CASE STUDY: Boston Scientific
Sometimes it takes just one short inquiry, almost coincidence.
Story with the Boston Scientific began with the inquiry from the co-owner of the Mozaik grupa can we help well known corporation with few tips on where and how to organize their conference in Zagreb. A couple of tips turned into an organization of a complex conference for few hundred distributors and company employees and long-term cooperation with the GEM region of the company Boston Scientific. That cooperation takes us to the new adventures around the world every year.
First “small” event we worked on in Zagreb included 5 events in 3 days. Each event had to function independently, had its topic and all classical event elements. In the end, little help with the small conference at least included dealing with the conference segment, as we invested countless hours in finding locations, developing creative concepts, proposing entertaining content, hiring performers and organizing transfer for a large number of people.
That was just a beginning of our adventure. Next year Boston Scientific has chosen Belgrade as the location of their annual conference.
Again, our task was to take over the entire organization, from idea, creative and scenography to accommodation and transfers. The event lasted 4 days, and each day, along with lectures (that are all but classic), included workshops, entertaining content, award ceremonies and activation of participants to take part in a humanitarian action. They took care that we never get bored by choosing different locations for the events.
In 4 conference days we held 9 separate events, while lectures were also scheduled for each day. During the second year of cooperation we didn’t know the client well enough – which is a very important part of the story of how much and how the agency can contribute to project’s success. We proposed and executed different ideas during the conference – and not just any ideas.
For example, the night before the gala dinner where regional director arrives by “landing” with the spacecraft, we jointly concluded that it would be ideal to have his video reporting from space before the landing. We managed to shoot, edit, and release everything on time, just before the “landing from space”. Of course, everything we proposed and executed had to be closely related to the topic given by the client and the message client wanted to convey to the participants, so that year in Belgrade everything was about the universe and planets. One of the nicest things that still reminds us of that conference is humanitarian action for Zvončica, an association of parents of children with malignant diseases. The action continued, so the company pays new donations collected by their employees year by year.
After Belgrade, more complex and challenging stories followed. Boston Scientific likes to push the limits and our desire is to always provide something new, yet unseen and attractive, and to put their event on the global company’s map as unique, different, and the one everyone talks about every year. In the following years, we visited Cyprus and Turkey and created some more “wow” effects, such as using crane to bring the key speaker to the stage, “arrival” to the gala dinner by swimming in the pool with the sharks. We presented annual results in completely new formats of football match and submarine trip. All these years, during every step we built AS ONE spirit of togetherness between the agency and the client.
For the conference we developed system for participants registration and monitoring of their status, as well as analytics of arrivals, departures and information needed for timely transfers from and to the airport, accommodation, and meals organization. In this case, due to the specific demands of the project, the development of the custom – made solution turned out to be more optimal than using ready – made solution. After developing a solution, we further optimized costs and achieved better monitoring of all participants’ movements to be able to respond to their needs at any given moment.
For us, every year is a new start. When we create conference idea, we start from the client’s strategy and the message for the next year, then we add elements that make the idea story complete. Nothing happens without a reason and every smaller event within the whole event has its own scenario and message. From year to year we try to push the boundaries, while always respecting client’s budget and providing new and unique experience.
Of course, that wouldn’t be possible without professional technical support provided by company Promologistika. We share our adventure with them from day one and they always find the best solution to do everything just as we imagined. In 2020 we once again redefined the possible by ensuring the unique “guest appearance” of the Boston Scientific founder at the central event via holographic projection. Additionally, we enabled all participants to follow the appearance live, while the speaker had the opportunity to follow what’s happening on stage before his appearance.
Challenges
Creation and execution of event concept
Inspection and location selection
Production
Using new technologies to create wow effect
Coordination of international suppliers
Results
Long – term cooperation with the client in congress’ organization (5 years)
Successfully overcoming the challenge of organizing congress in different countries (Croatia, Serbia, Cyprus, Turkey and North Cyprus)
Unique scenography for every congress (from football field in a hotel hall and aquarium with sharks in hotel lobby to F1 track in a congress center) and tech innovations (hologram and light effects)
Successful logistic solutions for different locations
More than 1600 participants and activations during 5 years
Our web site doesn’t provide enough space to describe what we went through together, but maybe a couple of photos will manage to convey the size and scope of the projects that, year on year, increase the number of participants and number of events in one day.
In 2020 we had 21 events in 4 days.
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