The inaugural ‘Accor Great Race’ around regional Victoria saw nine teams, traverse an average of 460kms to visit seven Accor hotels over two days, showcasing the diversity of Accor’s regional conferencing product.
The Accor Great Race finished at Novotel St Kilda.
A specially chosen group of professional conference organisers, venue finders and corporate meetings planners converged on Novotel St Kilda for the start and set off – in brand new Holden Cruze vehicles courtesy of Europcar – for the first day’s series of challenges en route to Novotel & Ibis Glen Waverley, Mercure Yarra Valley and Mercure Geelong finally reaching Mercure Ballarat for a superb dinner and overnighting at Novotel Forest Resort Creswick.
Day two saw the teams venturing west to the newly opened Grand Mercure Apartments Caroline Springs before returning to Novotel St Kilda for a chequered flag finish. The teams were put to the test with a series of challenges along the way which included panning for gold in Ballarat, identifying wine varieties in the Yarra Valley, finding their way through the Tangled Maze in Daylesford and composing a team ditty to the tune of an AFL team song en route to ‘Cats’ country in Geelong.
The winning team – driver SueAnn Permezal of Mercure Ballarat with Chris Porter and Rachael Houtsma from Business Events Victoria
Teams participating included MCVB, Ultimate Conferences, Strategic Project Partners, Victorian Chamber of Commerce and the winning team from Business Events Victoria who vowed to return next year to defend their title.
Event organisers Garry Tanner from Novotel Forest Resort and Gil Wong from Ibis Melbourne said the event exceeded all expectations and were looking forward to an even bigger and better event in 2012.
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