Meet The Bidder: Grand Edition

This year the new formula of the Meet the Bidder Grand Edition gathered over 100 Exhibitors from all over the world and almost 140 MICE & Luxury Travel professionals. The met at Arche Krakowska Hotel in Warsaw – Partner of the 31st edition of Meet the Bidder. 

 
The main event: MEET THE BIDDER Grand Edition took place on 23 November 2022.

During this one day over 1500 face-to-face B2B meetings took place (of Suppliers and Buyers) 

Traditionally, Exhibitors – representatives of DMCs, hotel chains, and convention bureaus came from European countries such as Spain, Malta, Cyprus, Greece, and Italy, but also destinations like Montenegro, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and Estonia. Representatives came also from some exotic destinations such as Lebanon, the Faroe Islands, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Aruba, India, Maldives, South Africa, Ethiopia, Moldova, and Singapore.

Among Buyers there were representatives of the leading Polish MICE companies and travel agencies specialized in incentives, conferences, meetings, event agencies, and companies organizing tailor-made tours and theme events. They were coming not only from different cities in Poland but also from abroad (10%), from Great Britain, France, Latvia, Germany, Hungary, Czechia, Denmark, and even India!
 
NEW ELEMENTS and ATTRACTIONS of Meet the Bidder :

1.     Tea Time Networking – Spanish and Portuguese wine plus Henri Willig cheese with nuts were a background for relaxing and networking.

2.     Let’s Taste „Invitations” from Founders for all the most active Buyers (for example, a wine bottle from Georgia or chocolate sweets from Costa Rica)  

3.     T-Rex Night = Travel Experience Expert Night led by Captain Andy with a matching system of „Invitations” from the Exhibitor. There were 3 more categories of Invitations:  

·        Let’s Enjoy –e.g. safari in Tanzania 

·        Let’s Stay – vouchers for stay at hotels and resorts like 5 overnighs at Beachcomber Mauritius or at Bahia Principe in Dominican Republic or Sentosa stay plus Scentopia visit.

·        Let’s Fly – air flight tickets founded by Polish Airlines LOT and Emirates 

Special statuettes „Travel Experience Expert” were given for two MICE associations to thank for a long time collaboration with Travel Bidder:

·       SITE Poland – Ms Grażyna Grot-Duziak 

The statuettes rewards were also announced to other categories with the following winners:

·       Hotel - Cavalieri Art Hotel – Mr Franklin Azzopardi

·       DMC-  Rigo Malta DMC by Oswald Arrigo – Mr Simon Arrigo

·       Convention Bureau - Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau – Mr Cedric Zhou

·        Open - Visit Ras Al Khaimah – Ms Paulina Kossakowska

PRE-EVENT of MEET THE BIDDER was organised on 22nd November gathering Exhibitors and Hosted Buyers at the Welcome Drink and continuing with the Welcome Dinner. Football Championship match between  Poland and Mexico was the background theme of this Networking Evening. 

 

POST-TOURS of MEET THE BIDDER were offered to participants in different forms. On 24th November there was a group that decided for the Warsaw Sightseeing Guided Tour. 

 

At noon the Post Tour SUNTAGO – FUN & NETWORKING gave a chance to discover the VIP Zone and high-level hospitality of the biggest indoor waterpark in Europe - Suntago.

 

Hosted Buyers and Media Group went for the POST TOUR: CRACOW AT ITS BEST (24th – 25th November). First of all, they visited the historic venues: Slowacki Theatre and Sukiennice. Then they inspected modern venues: ICE Krakow and Conference Centre Fabryczna 13. The second-day sightseeing of mayor Cracow attractions fulfilled the time completely. Participants were impressed by the Cracow hospitality during the dinner at Wesele Restaurant and the overnight stay at PURO Krakow Kazimierz. Pendolino fast train trip made this post-tour comfortable.