Created in 2002 by Gilles Mocklyn, a business tourism specialist, and his wife, Marie-Cécile Lafosse, who was in charge of hotel training at the Gap Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie, the agency Mountain Events is currently based in Serre-Chevalier with another office in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Their presence in the Paris area is justified by the fact that the majority of their clients are based in the àŽle-de-France region.

Because of this and because most of our seminars take place in the Northern Alps (60% of our business), in Switzerland and in Austria, we’re planning to leave Serre-Chevalier to set up an office in Annecy, a town that’s easily accessible because it has a TGV station and is close to Geneva airport, explains Gilles Mocklyn. The move will take place at the end of the year, when we hope to be located in Metz-Tessy, close to the A41 motorway .

Mountain Events is an agency that is particularly know for its position at the top end of the market for seminars and conferences as well as for incentives and PR events, with their workload divided equally between the two sectors.

Our clientele at the moment is exclusively from the Paris area, which was a strategic decision, confirms Gilles Mocklyn. Last year, we organised about 30 events and none of them were charged at less than 300 euros per person. And that’s the minimum amount, because we often organise events costing 1000 euros per day/per person – in fact our record was 1200 euros, still per day, for a board meeting that took place in Saint-Moritz!

It’s obviously a money-making niche market, and one which Gilles Mocklyn intends to continue expanding with the development of a genuine hub in Annecy which will be able to target a more European clientele. In the long term, we’d like to have brokers based in different market places such as the UK, Germany and Belgium, explains Gilles Mocklyn. They’ll be given the task of feeding all requests back to us in Annecy where our production team will be based .

This part of the company is growing in importance with the organisation of training seminars at Annecy’s Imperial Palace aimed at senior managers. The first of these to take place in Annecy is planned for 22/23 May and then 17/18 October.

During two half days, the participating business leaders will crew alongside Christine Briand, a skilled champion yachtswoman, who will share her sailing experiences. The total package will cost 2000 euros per person, including single room accommodation in a 4* property, meals, hire of equipment and conferences.

At the same time, Mountain Events is targeting the incoming business and will work in collaboration with Maison de la France to develop that market. And in 2008, the agency will open a department specialising in polar destinations, the future paradise for innovative incentives…

A whole range of possibilities that visitors to Bedouk and Coach’In, the Paris tradeshow for professional group leaders held between 3-5 April, were able to discover. Gilles Mocklyn is also planning to attend a new business tourism tradeshow organised in Monaco.

So Moutain Events has ambitious plans, based on some very innovative thinking. The company, which is handing over management of the European School of Adventure in the next few months, offers two areas of activity: business tourism, operating under the name Mountain Event Leading, and Team Development, which focuses on team building, as well as team coaching and training.