MCI Partner Event Puts Relationships Before Deals

Global event agency MCI hosted its second CheckedIn event on October 21–23, bringing together some of its preferred hotel partners to spend the best part of three days with MCI’s top buyers from its global offices. Hotel partners paid between $2,050 (1,650 CHF) and $3,045 (2,450 CHF), including two nights’ accommodation, to take part. But dealmaking was intentionally missing from the agenda, which focused on relationship-building rather than business exchanges.

The event was born out of MCI CEO Sebastien Tondeur’s desire to have his normally desk-based procurement team build personal relationships with the hotels they book. Once again led by MCI’s Head of Global Procurement & Strategic Sourcing Quentin Remy, the company chose to bring the event to its home city of Geneva, Switzerland, following last year’s inaugural edition in Munich. 

Remy, regularly a hosted buyer at trade shows like IMEX and IBTM, said he disliked the transactional nature of business appointments. His alternative was a partner event with no coordinated sales pitches or sales decks on iPads. In fact, sales talk was off-limits during the event’s only appointment-style session. This session featured four-minute, one-on-one meetings with participants seated and facing each other, without a table between them. To set the tone for the session, Remy played a powerful Amnesty International video that highlighted how direct human interaction can combat hate speech and division.

Conversation Starters: Tech, Food, Sports and Legacy

A pre-event was held at MCI’s Geneva offices, designed to connect hotel partners paying the highest ticket price withMCI Switzerland team members. It featured short TED style editorial presentations from Skift Meetings and hotel market data company STR. Food-focused social media influencer Mattia Moleri made a cameo appearance, initially virtually showcasing the extended reality (XR) capabilities of the group's AV company, Dorier. He later joined in person, with participants also getting a tour of Dorier’s operation hub and in-house video studio, housed in the same building.

The main event took place at the Crowne Plaza Geneva, an upscale airport hotel that also supports the city’s Palexpo convention center. The agenda featured a keynote from the “Iceman of Antarctica” Anders Hofman who shared his grueling tale and a message of “limitations are only perceptions.” Panos Tzivanidis, director of corporate events at the International Olympic Committee offered practical insights into his team’s work. Tzivanidis also joined a panel discussion on the elusive topic of event legacy moderated by Skift Meetings Editor-in-Chief Miguel Neves. They were joined by Shawn Pierce, president strategic events at MCI USA and Emmanuelle Aix, client engagement director, sustainability lead at MCI Switzerland.

Other highlights included additional editorial presentations from Skift Meetings and STR, a group problem-solving session in which both buyers and hotel partners addressed the key challenges of hotel procurement, and an offsite escape room team challenge and networking event at the Grand Trip Tap Hotel.

Dorier was also on site further showcasing its tech and specialist knowledge in technology-focused breakout sessions and an immersive 3D projection experience in a meeting room, designed to help participants unwind.

MCI expects to run the event again in 2026, but will likely move it to late August to get away from the busy fall event season.