Describe your event.
Our meeting was a summer school on Cyber Security for Process Control Systems and was held at The Abbey Resort in Lake Geneva for more than 80 top graduate students, academics, government and industrial participants. It offered them an opportunity to contextualize their research and to gain perspective on current research activities in the field.
Why did you decide to host the meeting in Lake Geneva? It was centrally located in the U.S. and was within driving distance of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. It was also rural enough to be relaxing and to limit outside distractions.
What surprised you the most about Lake Geneva? The Abbey is a great place, and the resources surrounding Lake Geneva are vast.
What did your attendees seem to enjoy the most? Our attendees were more than thrilled with everything The Abbey Resort and the surrounding area offered. Throughout the week, they complimented the beautiful lake, The Abbey Resort’s spa and even the meeting accommodations.
Was anybody particularly helpful? Terri McClair of the resort’s event sales staff was absolutely wonderful to work with—there each step of the way making sure our event was a success.
Is there anything you wish you had known beforehand? We had two of our five meeting days in the large air-conditioned tent on The Abbey property. For the most part, the tent was fine for our needs; however, the second day it rained and the noise of the rain drowned out our speaker briefly. We hadn’t anticipated the noise problem there. If we have another event there, it will be held indoors.
What would you have done differently in retrospect? I probably would have had our opening reception in the tent and held all sessions in an on-site ballroom instead.
What other types of groups would fit well with the property? I can’t think of an event that would not be appropriate for The Abbey.
What were some of the unique off-site venues that you used? We had a dinner cruise on beautiful Lake Geneva for our final dinner. It was quite lovely and all of our guests were thrilled with it.
Did you incorporate any interesting excursions or activities into the agenda? We were only able to offer our participants the dinner cruise. We had originally planned to have a dinner at Yerkes Observatory. It would have been lovely and is well worth a look.
What local suppliers did you utilize? We used Lake Geneva Cruise Line for a dinner cruise. From the sales staff to the onboard crew, everything went perfectly. The captain of our boat and the crew were wonderful and watched after our every need. It was the best and most memorable evening of the event.
Would you return? We hope to return soon.
Do you have any advice for other planners who might bring a meeting to Lake Geneva? I would recommend that an event planner, if working with The Abbey, give specific guidelines for each meal as to what would be an appropriate vegetarian offering. One final thing: Don’t forget about the observatory. It would really make an elegant location for a dinner under the stars.