At the end of last month, Radisson Collection Hotel, Tsinandali Estate Georgia hosted more than 200 well-known organizers of events and weddings from 40 countries during the “Planners Xtraordinaire” world congress in Georgia. The event is organized by “QnA International”, a Dubai-based company.

“Planners Xtraordinaire” for wedding and event organizers is held annually in different countries and has been held in Georgia since Dubai, Mexico and Italy this year. The official partner of the event is Georgian Event Company "Vanilla Events". Their event has garnered the admiration of such important organizers who run high-budget, grandiose events for the Royal Family of England, Hollywood stars and celebrities (details of the event and guests, as well as their impressions and ratings, can be found here: thepxshow).

What steps Georgia took at the competition stage, what was the preparation process, how important the event was for the country, what impressions did the guests have after leaving Georgia and what is the scope of Vanila Events' activities. Tiko Nizharadze, the founder and director of the company, tells us about this.

- How was Georgia selected for the event?

- Last year, the company Vanilla Event, along with Radisson Collection, Tsinandali estate, took part in an event in Como. It was there that we offered the organizers Georgia one of the locations where the "Flannery Extraordinaire 2019" could be held. After several visits by commissioners who liked Tsinandali, and this is undoubtedly Radisson's great work, the five countries, including Spain and Greece, finally decided that Flannery Extraordinaire 2019 would be held in Tsinandali. This was certainly an important and difficult challenge for us. Our task was to plan and organize a non-standard project that would impress world-class event managers. They have unlimited budgets, they know the value of all the details ... We are very proud of being able to manage this. This year's event compared to the events of last year and unanimously acknowledged that this year was the best of them all.

- Why is this event important for Georgia?

- As the event guests are selected by certain criteria and are people who work on very large budgets, planning outings not only for individual staff but also for large companies, our country may receive many high-level events and visitors. One of the goals of Planners Xtraordinaire is to discover new places.

The event is important for raising the awareness of the country, for tourism development, for the refinement of "Luxury" service. Participating organizers and speakers are people who work at grand events around the world. For example, one Lebanese company makes only 4-5 events a year and their minimum budget for each event is 8 million.

As part of the conference, the participants shared their experiences, talked about upcoming trainings, held B2B meetings. If we take the examples of previous years for example, they have had very good results and we hope that we will not be the exception. We are looking forward for many good projects for which our team is ready. This is evidenced by this hard and long-lasting unique design project.

The value of "Vanilla Events" is to offer unique designs to clients, both, outside of the country and at local weddings and events.

- Tell us about your guests' impressions.

- The guests were excited! We received high praise from many successful organizers, exceeding expectations by the country and event we had long been preparing for, with partner companies - The menu and service were the responsibility of Radisson Collection, Tsinandali estate, and the show and entertainment - Italian company.

The first day was held at Lopota. We created the first day concept, Georgian style decoration, music program. The Georgian National Ballet Company - Sukhishvilebi performed for the guests on this day;

The second day was planned in Radisson Tsinandali. Vanilla Event took care of the concept of the gala dinner, planning, creating renders, finding and engaging suppliers. Inventory trends, quality of event performance, music and entertainment program menu were unexpected for the guests.

- How would you rate our country's potential in the world wedding market?

- Georgia has the potential to become a popular location for outing events or weddings throughout the four seasons. This is a unique place with the simplicity of event planning, where we are faced with less bureaucratic barriers. In addition, this is a country where you can get a "Luxury" service for a much lower budget.

Vanilla Events successfully manages to keep up with popular wedding trends around the world - We have the high-quality inventory. If needed, we create new unique decorations in our workshop.

Foreign couples, who have been here at least once, are interested in Georgia, as well as couples who have seen stories about our country. Our goal is for many couples to come to Georgia and have a wedding ceremony here.

- What else does Vanilla Event do?

“Vanilla Events” has been operating in the Georgian market for over 10 years. During this period, we have implemented over 1000 personal and over 2000 corporate type events. We work in the areas of personal (weddings, birthdays, anniversaries), corporate, opening ceremonies, catering and rentals. Also, very importantly, we are actively involved in MICE tourism, which includes organized corporate and professional tours, such as meetings, promotional tours, conferences and exhibitions.

Up to 15 people are involved in the company's daily operations. The technical staff is staffed from 5 to 20 people, depending on the scale of the event. The history of the "Vanilla Events" has been a large-scale event involving even 280 people in the planning and implementation process.

We are currently working on many new and exciting projects. We plan to expand and establish a decent place in the world market in the near future.