Tutankhamun Hospitality Ltd (a Cavendish Group company) was formed to provide hospitality and special event opportunities around
The Tutankhamun and Golden Age of The Pharaohs’ Exhibition, at the O2.
‘The Pharaohs’ Palace’ was a specially designed themed entertaining space, created from a completely blank canvas of 5000 square feet. With exclusive access to private viewings of the Exhibition, the facility offered a unique opportunity for a range of
corporate and social functions to be hosted for groups of between 10 and 350 guests.
‘The Tutankhamun Experience’
Designed to offer maximum flexibility, buyers were offered the opportunity to select a choice of three event timings;
- ‘Isis’ (Dawn Maker) - Morning Viewing
- ‘Ra’ (Sun Bearer) Daytime Viewing
- ‘Osiris’ (Dusk & Night) – Evening Viewing
Whilst the essential elements of the programme were the same for all sessions, the Evening Viewing offered the opportunity of exclusive private access to the Exhibition, whilst daytime events included timed access tickets.
All hospitality packages included;
- Exclusive use of The Pharaoh’s Palace hospitality suite
- Timed or private viewing of the Exhibition
- Return trip to/from central London to The O2 by Thames Clipper
- Audio Guide to the Exhibition, narrated by Omar Sharif
- Complimentary souvenir book
- Commemorative gift for each guest ( specially written biography of Lord Carnarvon by the current Lady Carnarvon)
- Fully staffed cloakroom facilities
- Themed itinerary for each guest, including map, directions and entrance passes
- Attendance of experienced event management staff and hostess throughout the event
- A choice of catering options was offered dependent upon the session selected;
With a capacity of 350 for a formal sit down dinner and 500 for standing functions, The Pharaohs’ Palace provided a flexible space for a range of entertaining options, from small conferences and meetings, cocktail parties, and dinners, through to formal gala dinner functions. Private dinners for smaller groups could be held in an area known as
The Bedouin Tent, which was also used as a welcome reception area.
Whilst the standard programme offered exclusive use of The Pharaohs’ Palace by individual companies, a series of shared evenings were introduced –
‘The Pharaohs’ Banquet’, offering a champagne reception with sumptuous Egyptian/North African themed buffet for bookings of 10 people upwards. Other tailored offerings included the opportunity to hire the venue on a ‘Dry Hire’ basis and a ‘Day Delegate’ package aimed at businesses wishing to host internal workshops and small seminars.
A range of enhancements were available to guests from traditional Egyptian entertainers including belly-dancers, and musicians to specialist Egyptian speakers/guides and calligraphy experts, and even character actors playing the part of Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter.
The Pharaohs’ Palace was a unique venture specially created around a ten month event, which offered a number of challenges in both design and construction through to the sales and marketing.
A group of supplier partners were selected -
Melville Exhibition (design and build)
Create (catering),
Wise Productions (Audio Visual and lighting) and
GDC (theming) and brought together from the outset to collaborate on the design, construction and maintenance of the venue over the 10 month run of the exhibition. One of the most practical difficulties was that the Exhibition Hall where the Exhibition and The Pharaohs’ Palace were to be housed within The O2 was still under construction right up until a few weeks prior to the opening in November 2007. This hindered advance marketing of the venue as it was impossible to get potential buyers on site.
This was overcome by using quality CGI drawings of the space which in the event accurately portrayed the end result. There was also the very real challenge of having an extremely short lead-time for the actual installation of hospitality area. The venue had to be of the highest quality and yet functional,but with a high design content to compliment the exhibition alongside.
The introduction of 6m pillars and themed panelling with block work detailing, throughout the structure, together with lathe cut hieroglyphic display panels were a feature of space and helped create a high level of authenticity, whilst high-tech sails and rigging for lighting systems reflected the modern innovative design of The O2 itself.
Lighting played a big part in the success of the venue, with a range of colour washes played off the ceiling creating atmosphere. Large silhouettes of Egyptian Gods, covered with stranded overlays were backlit using state of the art LED lighting, enabling technicians to provide subtle colour changes around the room during any event.
The Egyptian theming was enhanced with the use of furniture and ornaments sourced from the East. For the reception area a Bedouin Tent was re-created using over 1500 metres of fabric, and 200 metres of braid in its construction.
Large scale hospitality programmes of this style and quality are not common at public exhibitions, where corporate events would normally be organised on an adhoc basis, utilising existing facilities. The sheer scale of interest in this particular Exhibition - at the time of writing, the Exhibition looks set to exceed 1.2 million visitors making it the best attended public exhibition in London since the original Tutankhamun artifacts toured the world more than 35 years ago, meant that it was viable to construction a ‘permanent’ entertaining structure for the duration of the exhibition’s 10 month run.
The inclusion of a return ‘transfer’ via the Thames Clipper ferry service was offered as an inclusive element of the package. This gave an efficient and attractive way of getting people to the venue as well as defusing any potential negative attitudes to the location of The O2, dating back to its former life as The Millennium Dome. As things transpired The O2 proved itself a huge success, becoming an added attraction to the programme.
The Pharoahs’ Palace achieved both financial and critical success, with over 10,000 corporate guests and being voted
The “most creative use of space” Category in the 2008 Exhibition News Awards, and shortlisted as
The Best Hospitality Event at the Eventia UK Awards 2008.
‘The Event was a great success so please pass my grateful thanks to the whole team.....’
Scottish and Southern Energy
‘The night went really well and we have already had some positive feedback without having even asked them , thank you for all of the support you and your team have provide us both leading up to and throughout the evening .....’
Samsung Electronics (UK) Limited
‘Thanks you so much for all your hard work on and leading up to the event. It was an absolute pleasure to work with you.....’
ISES (UK) Limited
‘Feedback from our guests has been very good.....’
Overbury Plc
Sent to a Friend