Testimony - Crédit Agricole d’Ile-de-France Banque et Assurances
Joanna Marchal chose Stade de France to organise the end-of-year internal event which brought together the 65 Crédit Agricole d’Ile-de-France branches in the Cergy region. She tells us about what motivated her choice.
1- HOW DID THE IDEA OF ORGANISING YOUR EVENT AT STADE DE FRANCE COME ABOUT AND WHAT CHALLENGES WERE YOU FACING?
Each year, I have to find a place to organise the end-of-year evening, which is eagerly awaited by the 550 employees in our Cergy region.
This event lets you reward employees, as well as create a link in the region and federate the teams. It is also the opportunity for all of us to come together. Our objective is therefore to let the largest possible number of people have fun at this convivial moment.
It is with this in mind that I look for the location where to organise this event.
The year when we chose Stade de France was even more special because we had just relocated from Cergy to our new offices in Saint Denis. Therefore, we had additional challenges:
- To settle in this new territory
- To make a mark on people through an iconic place.
It was necessary to find an original place that we didn’t know (or almost…). On the recommendation of the Regional Director, I made contact with Stade de France. That’s how it all started.
2- STADE DE FRANCE, A BEHEMOTH FAR FROM BEING INACCESSIBLE?
To tell you the truth, I hadn’t thought of Stade de France at the beginning of my search and I had even started to canvass another location. For me, Stade de France was, above all, a sporting venue and not a place where you could organise drinks or any other corporate event. After consultation, it was a nice surprise. We never imagined being able to access Stade de France!
Regarding my goals to federate and create a link, the location matched my expectations. The site is easily accessible and the rental rates charged were competitive. Internally, when we announced the event’s location to the participants, there was even a "wow” effect!
3- WHAT WAS THE FORMAT OF YOUR EVENT?
The format is quite standard since it is a cocktail reception followed by an evening of dancing, with activities throughout.
For this event at Stade de France, we had opted for a treasure hunt to:
1 - bring the teams together since all of them went off in search of clues.
2 - discover the location alternatively and especially as it would never have been possible to do on an individual basis.
We also put in place the essential photo booth so the participants could leave with a customised souvenir.
4- SINCE THEN, HAS CREDIT AGRICOLE D’ILE-DE-FRANCE USED OTHER EVENT FORMATS?
Yes. Following this event, we received a comprehensive offer for our external and internal events.
This has allowed the other Departments to hold their own events thanks to a packaged Stade de France offer :
► a seminar during Disability Week with the Premiers de Cordée association,
► the General Assembly of the Regional Bank,
► the assembly of the Regional Bank Presidents,
and even,
► the provision of VIP tickets to the clients of Crédit Agricole d’Ile-de-France.
5- FOR YOU, WHAT ARE THE STRENGTHS OF STADE DE FRANCE AND WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE?
1) The simplicity
Everything is turnkey and done to facilitate our experience, whether from a commercial point of view (1 packaged offer that meets our expectations and 1 single contact person) or from an operational point of view (no logistics to manage). Everything is simple and already included (the floor manager, furniture, lighting, etc.).
You can rely on the Stade de France teams like you could with an events agency.
2) The offer
We discovered that Stade de France could accommodate our end-of-year evening. We left satisfied and with a packaged offer to meet our other needs. Each reception area is adapted to an event type, with competitive rates.
6- HOW DO YOU EVALUATE THE SUCCESS OF YOUR EVENT?
For the end-of-year evening, we conducted a detailed questionnaire following the event. This has allowed us to re-visit our specifications.
We have not implemented any other measurement tools for the moment.
Our main indicators remain:
• Accessibility
• Activities
• Catering
• General ambience of the evening
This allows us to take the points of note into account and to enhance or change them over time.
7- CONCLUSION
For the end-of-year evening with employees at an event which touches the directors of Regional Banks (representatives of shareholder clients), Stade de France is an accessible location both in terms of services and budget. A true asset that allows companies such as Crédit Agricole d’Ile-de-France to regularly use the infrastructure of Stade de France even outside of major events.
