Melbourne Incentives - personally rewarding

Melbourne has many great incentive experiences, the ones that immediately come mind are usually sports related like corporate attendance at the MCG for the cricket or an AFL game (especially the grand final), the F1 Grand Prix, the Australian Open tennis or the Spring Racing Carnival.

Then there is Fine dining in unusual venues such as the Engine Room at Scienceworks, the restaurant on an iconic Melbourne tram, on the stage of the Regent Theatre or the Victorian Arts Centre or under the Leonard French stained glass ceiling in the Great Hall at the NGV.

I recently had the opportunity to experience something very new and something quite old.

A kaleidoscopic view of the MCG

Eureka Skydeck

Melbourne’s newest attraction is the observation deck on the 88th floor of the Eureka Tower. Apart from the stunning views over melbourne the Eureka Skydeck features interactive experiences based around soundscapes, lightscapes and presenation screens.

The specially composed soundscape provides ambient sounds relevent to the particular view, for example F1 engine noise as the viewer looks towards the Grand Prix track around Albert Park Lake.

Most intriguing are the viewfinders, tubes that are focussed on particular landmarks with accompany information. The tubes are mirrored so giving a kaleidoscopic view of the particular landmark.

The other attraction on this level is The Edge, a glass cube that emerges from the building structure like the drawer of a matchbox. The Edge can take up to 12 people on each five minute experience. The walls, floor and ceiling are made from a laminated glass sandwich that is opaque until an electric charge is applied to a substrate layer and bingo, it becomes clear – quite an interesting experience.

While the Skydeck is open to the public, Level 89 is available for private and corporate functions and features the same stunning views, its own bar and very interesting toilets.

On the ground floor entrance foyer is 'Serendipity' – The Knowledge Table, an interactive touch screen table which is designed to keep patrons amused while waiting for the lift to the 88th floor. The programmed projections onto the table contain short stories about Melbourne and Victoria. The program can be changed to suit a corporate event or promotion with the sponsor’s logos and other visual material utilised to welcome guests.

Foyer of the Royce Hotel

Royce Hotel

If you are looking for a hotel with great charm and history then the boutique Royce Hotel on St Kilda Rd has both. The original building was constructed in the 1920s as a showroom for Rolls Royce. In latter years it was used as government offices and then converted into a 5-star hotel. A major makover was completed a few months ago to add more luxurious rooms.

Werribee Park

Werribee Park is about 30 mins from the Melbourne CBD and features Werribee Mansion, the Sofitel Mansion & Spa, Shadowfax winery, Sculpture garden, Victoria State Rose Garden, National Equestrian Centre and polo fields.

The Mansion was built in the 1870s by Scottish squatters Thomas and Andrew Chirnside as the feature residence on their 93,000-acre pastoral empire that was the largest private holding in the history of Victoria. The 60-room mansion was the largest private residence ever built in Victoria. The Chirnsides introduced exotic animals to the property including deer (the Melbourne suburb of Deer Park was where they kept their deer), foxes and rabbits. This is the property from whence the great Australian rabbit plague set out across the continent.

In the 1920s the Mansion passed into the hands of the Catholic Church. The adjoining 200 room St Joseph’s wing was built and the property became the Corpus Christie Seminary.

In 1973 the Victorian state government purchased the property from the Catholic Church to ensure its reservation and restoration and it became a prime heritage tourist destination.

The Mansion Group developed the St Joseph’s Seminary wing into a 5-star boutique hotel in 1997 and in 2000 the addition of an adjacent modern wing brought the total number of guest rooms to 91.

Sofitel Mansion

For the conference market the Mansion can cater for groups up to 200 with a number of meeting rooms that were formally lecture and study rooms in the Seminary.

For the incentive market the Mansion offers unparalleled luxury with activities such as golf, dining, spa treatments and wine tasting at the adjacent Shadowfax winery.

On this trip we enjoyed a dinner for a dozen in the library. We were joined by sommelier Bed Doherty who chose a selection of wines to accompany each course and explained why each wine was chosen and how to appreciate them.

The attention of a Maître de and a waiter ensured that we were well looked after throughout the evening. This is a great product for incentive groups of up to 20 or so.

Dinner was followed by snooker on a full size billiard table – and some very nice wines to finish off.

Sofitel Mansion & Spa, in collaboration with Lancôme Paris, has launched the first signature Lancôme Beauty Studio in Australia. 

TarraWarra vinyard from the TarraWarra Museum of Art

Imagine a stretch limo that is a conversion of a military vehicle and cost $700,000. A black Hummer with wrap around seating, bars, sound system and blacked out windows that enable the occupants to check out the intriguing looks on the faces of passing drivers and passengers (especially kids) as we did on the freeway from Werribee back into the city.

Then a transfer into high performance cars for a trip to the Yarra Valley – this would be a great incentive for the right group.

On this trip the cars were Ferrari 355 Challenge, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Porsche Carrera, Porsche Caymen, Mercedes SLK 350 and Jeep SRT8. We had the opportunity to drive or to sit back and enjoy the driving skills and banter of the owner or dedicated driver of the vehicles. I chose the latter. The highlight was defiantly the Ferrari with the top down.

Brett Hollis from Big Stick Adventures has access to a range of vehicles for this program that includes rally car racing and thrashing around the Phillip Island GP track at 200 kph, or you could hop on a Harley for a trip around Melbourne or down the Great Ocean Road.

There are a number of wineries in the Yarra Valley that I have visited over the years but this was my first visit to TarraWarra Estate. I was most impressed with the TarraWarra Museum of Art that was opened in 2003 and is the first significant privately funded, public art museum in Australia. The building houses the collection of Marc and Eva Besen, owners of the TarraWarra Estate, along with a temporary exhibition program featuring Australian art from the 1950’s to the present. I love the architecture of this building, especially the way the windows frame the views over the vineyards.

There are many options for getting around the Yarra Valley and this is defiantly one of the best and of course the proximity of the valley to Melbourne makes it a must visit region particularly with so many great vineyards to visit.

For more information on Melbourne incentivies contact the Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau 02 9693 3333 email or visit MCVB online. The bureau has an excellent publication with dozens of incentive ideas.

Trevor Connell visited Melbourne as a guest of the MCVB