ADB Meeting To Put Fiji On The World Stage

Sheraton Fiji Resort have embarked on refurbishing the meeting facilities and installation of $4 million worth of new fibre optic cables in preparation for the 52nd Asian Development Bank’s annual meeting of Governors in Nadi.

The annual meeting of the ADB Board of Governors scheduled from May 1 to 5 is an opportunity to provide guidance on ADB ad­ministrative, financial, and operational direc­tions.

The main venues for this big meet is the Sheraton Fiji Resort Denarau Island, Nadi, Sheraton Villas Denarau Island, The Westin Denarau Island Resort and Spa,Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa and InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa Natadola Bay, Natadola.

The event is being hailed as the stepping stone for Fiji to host more large conferences and also a chance to showcase Fiji to a big and influential audience around the world through live streaming.

Sheraton Executive Assistant Manager and Director Sales and Marketing Leon Thompson

One year to organise

Sheraton Executive Assistant Manager and Director Sales and Marketing Leon Thomp­son said preparations were right on track.

Mr Thompson is confident that Fiji will re­ceive high accolades for the hosting of the ADB Annual Meeting and the experience will go a long way in seeing Fiji host more such conferences.

“For an event this size to be organised quick­ly, within 12 months has been a great effort by all stakeholders, that is what Fiji does best – work closely together.

“I don’t know who else could do this this quick. would be continuous higher speed wifi.

“The thing is it is on track with all stakehold­ers organised so it’s been an amazing journey.

“It involves Marriott International under the brands of Sheraton, Westin and Marriott Momi Bay, but we also have to work with our owners because it is their investment into the event.

“Anything this large takes a lot of planning and your timelines for delivery of the event need to be absolutely steadfast, so it has been a matter of re-doing our meeting facilities so the Denarau Island Convention Centre has been upgraded.

“There has been a lot of work that has been going which includes the Golden Ballroom at the Sheraton and the Convention Centre which in itself is 1700 square meters.

“Then we’ll do the final detail of setting the rooms up.

“We’ve ordered thousands of new meeting chairs, significant amount of tables - the full ADB infrastruc­ture.

“There is also a large digital screen that will be installed in the Conven­tion Centre.

“It’s the biggest that’s ever come to Fiji, it’s going to be 30 meters wide and the amazing thing about the event is it’s going to be telecast glob­ally, there are significant infrastruc­ture plans in place.”

Mr Thompson said with their ho­tels, they have rolled out five 5 Rock Deck tables throughout the hotels to ensure that there would be continu­ous higher speed wifi.

“We have invested $4million just to install fibre optic cables for wifi to support the event and to make sure it runs smoothly.

“The new cables will ensure that we have the higher wifi speeds avail­able for all the delegates attending.

“There are 67 countries heads of finance attending along with their teams.

Meeting centres

Sheraton has also invested in a new facility that is also being built for the meeting.

The River Ballroom is being built where the former commercial laun­dry was located before.

This means that Sheraton Fiji Re­sort will have the Convention Cen­tre, the Golden ballroom and the new River Ballroom, as the three major meeting venues.

However when breaking up into smaller groups, then the Golden Ballroom could be divided into three meeting centres while the River Ballroom could be divided into four meeting rooms.

“The River Ball Room adds 280 square meters of additional meet­ing space at Sheraton, so all of those three major venues will be ready by the middle of April.

“As for the Westin, there has been an upgrade of the meeting facilities which means they have a ballroom and four smaller meeting venues.”

Bookings from delegates

“We are fully booked and have been fully booked for a while and the ADB delegations are still finalis­ing their bookings but we are hold­ing the accommodation for them.

“All of the accommodation facili­ties have been refreshed and we are well and truly for the event.”

Staff Capacity

On the staff capacity, Mr Thomp­son said this would be increased where extra staff would be sought from tertiary institutions for stu­dents undertaking studies in vari­ous aspects of tourism.

Before the meeting, 120 senior managers would be brought togeth­er to do specific training for service delivery during the ADB meeting.

“Marriott in Fiji employs around 1500 people but we will need more than that and we will be looking to the tertiary institutions.

“We are gearing up to providing the highest level of service and hopefully the legacy from there would be to maintain and keep those high standards.

“Staff have been receiving brief­ings on a fortnightly basis, but this would be done weekly as the event drew closer.

“This ADB Conference would be a stepping stone for more confer­ences on such large scales and this would put Fiji on the world stage for managing these types of events.”

Mr Thompson said many coun­tries do not have the opportunity to stage such large events and for Fiji it was an honor to be given the op­portunity to do so.

Logistics from audio visual to transportation of delegates from Nadi International Airport and to other places was all being put into place.

High tech speakers, microphones and lightings because of the live telecast to other countries are all ready to be used at the different meeting centres.

“Behind the scenes we have this huge infrastructure and logistics team working to ensure everything runs smoothly.”

Hotel rooms

The hotel rooms have also been upgraded to include the latest tele­phones, television service and com­fort for the visiting delegates.

“We are putting in a new TV sys­tem which would be fully digital which means bringing in a whole new world of television in the com­fort of the rooms.

“The legacy is that it will stay.

The latest new telephone systems would be put in the rooms, about 1000 altogether.

“All this will be brought into play with the new fibre optic upgrade.

Mr Thompson said this event should have a multiplier effect for those attached directly and in­directly to the tourism industry which includes local farmers who will be relied on for the supply of produce.

“Of course many people will ben­efit along the way for this event.

“Our focus through all this would be on tourism and environmental aspects of it.

Marquees for media and activities centre for delegates

“There is a large media contingent coming so our Denarau Golf and Racket Clubhouse is at the moment undergoing a transformation.

“It’s a project that will be complet­ed by April 28, 2019.

“That new facility will have two big massive marquees in front of it and will accommodate about 1000.”

Mr Thompson said this would oc­cupy the whole lawn area in front of the golf shop and the marquees would be fully air conditioned with high speed internet and backup power.

“One marquee will be for the me­dia and one for registration and a central access point for any of the ADB activities that are happening.

“With 3000 delegates most of them will be staying here, however they will still fill the other resorts in De­narau.

On the total investment that has been allocated for the upgrade of fa­cilities for the event, Mr Thompson said the final figure was not avail­able at this stage because this meet­ing facilities also includes Westin.”

Marriott International Mangroves, Rivers and Reefs Initiative

Mr Thompson said this Marri­ott International Mangroves, Riv­ers and Reefs Initiative would be launched during the ADB meeting.

“We will be partnering with World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), so we want to use this event to launch this.

“There will be a big focus on sus­tainable tourism which could in­clude removing bottled water from the resort and instead have water stations.”

Feedback: charles.chambers@fijisun.com.fj