By Ted Kruckel
The 2010 Olympics seem a long way off, I know, but it was announced in the summer that Vancouver has been chosen to host. I'm talking the winter version of course. But if you know anything about Olympic marketing, you know that he who hesitates is lost. If you have a company that plans long-range, book rooms now. I suggest the Fairmont Chateau Whistler (most people just call it the Chateau) for high rollers and the Crystal Lodge for staff.
My suggestions come from a recent ski trip (even though In Style's Martha McCully looked at me like I was an idiot when I told her I was going skiing in Canada—she watches the Weather Channel and thus knows just how cold and snowy it is). I had been hearing for a while that Vancouver's Whistler Mountain was a viable alternative to the Aspen dilemma ("Fur or no fur at lunch?") and the Vail big-weekend crowds. But I learned while there that Whistler's proximity to the West Coast provides a steady southerly breeze, when the rest of the country is Arctic. The week I was there we had one big snow, two days with true sun and the rest bearable. Overall much better than New York.
Whistler will be the site of the Alpine skiing events (slalom, downhill, etc.), while all the skating will be in town. If you're bringing a crowd, you pick one or the other, unless you are Sports Illustrated, in which case you secure positions at both. In anticipation of the hordes, the Whistler Convention Center has just been updated. It's eco-friendly (as is all of Canada, compared to us) and the staff is rightfully proud of its soaring (although not deep) fireplaces. The place accommodated 4,000 people at a full event without a hitch the night I was there.
The villages have a Euro feel. Like Aspen/Snowmass/Buttermilk, it's a trio of three peaks and a variety of communities. There are restricted cars, cobblestones, no big structures aside from Chateau. But I'm sure that will change and a luxury chain or two will pop up between now and the opening ceremonies. The restaurants are uniformly bad. It's a company town: Intrawest, the resort conglomerate that owns Mont Tremblant, has put in lots of Epcot-style nationality-themed restaurants, all improbably and enjoyably named. Tex Corleone's serves Italian and Southwest fare—get it? The grocery and wine stores are big, clean and thoughtfully stocked. They have Italian prosecco, Alaskan salmon roe and New York newspapers. Enough to live on.
For event planners, I suggest trying Whistler by attending the Vancouver Film Festival at the end of September to scope it out.
PALM BEACH'S BEST SCENE: These days it's indisputably the Brazilian Court Hotel. It warranted a spread in Bob Colacello's Vanity Fair roundup of that town, and is the home of Daniel Boulud's new boite, Caf? Boulud. Guy is the guy to ask for there I think. The Colony looks just fine, but the crowd was super tired, and they have a brochure display in the lobby, which is a no-no in my book. The same goes for the formerly fun Leopard Lounge in the Chesterfield Hotel. Awning still cuts it, but who are these people?
Posted 02.11.04
Columnist Ted Kruckel is an experienced and opinionated former event and PR pro who ran events for 20 years for high-profile clients like Vanity Fair, Elle Decor, Christian Dior and Carolina Herrera. He shuttered his firm, Ted Inc., in 2003. You can email him at [email protected].
The 2010 Olympics seem a long way off, I know, but it was announced in the summer that Vancouver has been chosen to host. I'm talking the winter version of course. But if you know anything about Olympic marketing, you know that he who hesitates is lost. If you have a company that plans long-range, book rooms now. I suggest the Fairmont Chateau Whistler (most people just call it the Chateau) for high rollers and the Crystal Lodge for staff.
My suggestions come from a recent ski trip (even though In Style's Martha McCully looked at me like I was an idiot when I told her I was going skiing in Canada—she watches the Weather Channel and thus knows just how cold and snowy it is). I had been hearing for a while that Vancouver's Whistler Mountain was a viable alternative to the Aspen dilemma ("Fur or no fur at lunch?") and the Vail big-weekend crowds. But I learned while there that Whistler's proximity to the West Coast provides a steady southerly breeze, when the rest of the country is Arctic. The week I was there we had one big snow, two days with true sun and the rest bearable. Overall much better than New York.
Whistler will be the site of the Alpine skiing events (slalom, downhill, etc.), while all the skating will be in town. If you're bringing a crowd, you pick one or the other, unless you are Sports Illustrated, in which case you secure positions at both. In anticipation of the hordes, the Whistler Convention Center has just been updated. It's eco-friendly (as is all of Canada, compared to us) and the staff is rightfully proud of its soaring (although not deep) fireplaces. The place accommodated 4,000 people at a full event without a hitch the night I was there.
The villages have a Euro feel. Like Aspen/Snowmass/Buttermilk, it's a trio of three peaks and a variety of communities. There are restricted cars, cobblestones, no big structures aside from Chateau. But I'm sure that will change and a luxury chain or two will pop up between now and the opening ceremonies. The restaurants are uniformly bad. It's a company town: Intrawest, the resort conglomerate that owns Mont Tremblant, has put in lots of Epcot-style nationality-themed restaurants, all improbably and enjoyably named. Tex Corleone's serves Italian and Southwest fare—get it? The grocery and wine stores are big, clean and thoughtfully stocked. They have Italian prosecco, Alaskan salmon roe and New York newspapers. Enough to live on.
For event planners, I suggest trying Whistler by attending the Vancouver Film Festival at the end of September to scope it out.
PALM BEACH'S BEST SCENE: These days it's indisputably the Brazilian Court Hotel. It warranted a spread in Bob Colacello's Vanity Fair roundup of that town, and is the home of Daniel Boulud's new boite, Caf? Boulud. Guy is the guy to ask for there I think. The Colony looks just fine, but the crowd was super tired, and they have a brochure display in the lobby, which is a no-no in my book. The same goes for the formerly fun Leopard Lounge in the Chesterfield Hotel. Awning still cuts it, but who are these people?
Posted 02.11.04
Columnist Ted Kruckel is an experienced and opinionated former event and PR pro who ran events for 20 years for high-profile clients like Vanity Fair, Elle Decor, Christian Dior and Carolina Herrera. He shuttered his firm, Ted Inc., in 2003. You can email him at [email protected].
