Williams Blog: Week 22

Posted on Sunday 24 May 2009 and tagged with blog, team, corporate.

Meet Helen Marshall, our Events Co-ordinator and therefore the lady responsible for all of the team's corporate hospitality. With Monaco one of the most glamorous destinations of the season, this week is one of the busiest of the year for Helen. Here she recounts her week in Monaco...

It's the Monaco Grand Prix, the definitive sporting event of the year and with that goes plenty of guests and associated hospitality. So this week, appropriately enough, the Williams blog shines a light on Helen Marshall, AT&T Williams Hospitality Manager.

The Monaco Grand Prix is one of the busiest weekends of the year for the AT&T Williams marketing department. We have 120 guests per day over the weekend and, being a street circuit, the track presents us with logistical problems that we don’t get anywhere else. It’s sent to try us!

We flew to Nice on Tuesday afternoon and went straight to our apartments in Cap d’Ail, which are about a 20-minute walk from the F1 paddock. Preparations for the weekend then began in earnest on Wednesday morning, once the guys from Evolution – the company we use to set-up our VIP suite – had completed most of the leg work.

There is a Formula One Paddock Club in Monaco, but we choose to use the ‘VIP Loges’ opposite the pitlane for our guests. The cost per person is about the same, but we think the Loges gives a better view of the action, although our suite is actually in front of the BMW pit, not AT&T Williams!

The biggest problems we face on Saturday and Sunday are getting the guests to and from the suite. Some people come by boat, some drive and some walk, so I did a recce of the streets surrounding the suite on Wednesday afternoon to ensure that I could direct guests by telephone if they got lost. The rest of Wednesday was spent checking the equipment, such as the pit link and the Kangaroo TVs, before heading out to the Thomson Reuters boat in the harbour for dinner and a few drinks (when in Rome…).

Thursday was a bit frustrating for someone in my position because the VIP Loges were closed and that confined me to the AT&T Williams motorhome to work on emails and finalise plans for the weekend. We had a fun party in the evening, though, when we headed to the ‘Stad Amsterdam’ clipper for the team party. It ended up being quite a late night because I stopped off at Rascasse for a drink en route home.

The Loges were shut on Friday morning as well, while the GP2 race was on, but they opened at 1pm and that allowed us to complete our final preparations. Everything was in place by 8pm, so we headed back to the apartment for a (relatively) early night.

Saturday and Sunday took on similar formats: I arrived at 0700 on both days to check that everything was ready, before the first guests arrived at 0800. There was then the pitlane walkabout at 0830 and, on Saturday, we watched the final practice session from the suite. The guests ate an exquisite lunch produced by Absolute Taste on both days and Nico and Kazuki visited the suite too.

During qualifying and the race our AV expert John Sertori gave the guests live commentary and I think everyone went home satisfied on Sunday night. Everything ran smoothly, so good job, guys!

Login or signup to post a comment.