Hotel/Meeting Planning: This was our second year at the San Francisco Marriott at Fisherman's Wharf (www.marriottfishermanswharf.com). We returned to this location for many reasons; the staff at this hotel is amazing... they always go above and beyond. They are so responsive and observant to our needs that most of the time they solve an issue before we have to ask. Besides great customer service, the location is perfect and the room rate is competitive for hotels in San Francisco. We hope to return to this hotel in 2009.

MC² Hosted Evening Event: Every Tuesday night of our FastTrak conference, we host an evening event for our attendees. This year we wanted to take advantage of our location at the wharf and do something unique as well. Luckily I was able to reach out to our Las Vegas division Marketing Director, Sheri Posey, for some help planning our event.

Sheri loves to plan events and San Francisco is a great city in which to do that. She wanted this event to give our FastTrak guests a unique experience of this diverse city, and what it has to offer.

To start the process, she did a google search on unique venues in San Francisco. Sheri told me, "I was led in several different directions and one of those was Pier 39."

Pier 39 is San Francisco's Premier Bay Attraction, a festival marketplace with more than 110 stores, 12 Bay view restaurants, and a variety of fun-filled attractions for all ages including world-renowned sea lions, street performers and live daily entertainment. Pier 39 was located within walking distance of our hotel, so this fit well into the overall logistics.

"There was one venue, which caught my interest," Sheri said. "Forbes Island Restaurant (www.forbesisland.com).

"Forbes Island is the only man-made floating island in the world. Right in the heart of San Francisco Bay, it is the perfect destination for a truly memorable event and dining experience. Imagine a 40 ft. lighthouse, giant lush palm trees, spectacular views, white sand patios, sunset views, an underwater dining room, Tahiti bamboo lounge and neighboring sea lions all on a floating island."

It is one of the most fascinating, unique and original places in all of San Francisco both above and below the water. We had the city as our backdrop and the soothing sounds of the sea lions to entertain us.

Sheri added, "Ok, maybe you might not consider the sea lions soothing, but they are definitely entertaining!"

Sheri checked the venue out on several different travel websites like frommers.com (www.frommers.com) and tripadvisor.com (www.tripadvisor.com) to get real reviews by customers. Overall, Forbes Island received great reviews. Then she contacted Pierre Bleuse, the island's general manager. He was very courteous and helped work out the outline for the event so our guests would have a memorable experience. She completed the arrangements with Erick Hendricks, event manager.

Sheri puts it this way. "When the guests arrived the event, they were totally surprised by the venue. By the end of the evening, we were getting rave reviews. I believe the key to its success was having the island all to ourselves because we booked it on an evening when it was closed to the public. Our guests could roam freely or take a guided tour to hear the history of the island or speak to Mr. Forbes himself. He was also our boat charter captain for the evening and he entertained everyone with stories of the island while driving the water taxi. It was an excellent evening and everyone told us they had a really memorable experience!"

-Thanks Sheri!

I hope you found all of this helpful. Below please find all of the contact information for each of our venues. They were all excellent to work with and we hope to work with them again soon!

Elaine Wallace
Senior Sales Manager
San Francisco Marriott Fisherman's Wharf
1250 Columbus Ave
San Francisco, CA 60611
P: 415.447.1506
F: 415.771.9076
www.marriottfishermanswharf.com

Erick J. Hendricks
Event Manager
Forbes Island Restaurant
Pier 39, #205
San Francisco, CA 94133
Reservations 415.951.4900
Events 415.235.7488
www.forbesisland.com

Thoughts, suggestions, comments? Drop me a line!
www.jbodenmann@mc-2.com