On 4 Sept 07, Bencham invited Olivier Carteret, CEO of ARISTEIA Sport Communication to explain how they handle the sales of tickets and packages for the Beijing Olympics.
Aristeia has been appointed as the exclusive supplier for tickets in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Monaco. That means, if you live in those countries you must pass through them. Don’t even think of trying to get them here directly.
The turn-out for the presentation was a bit low, a real pity as it was a lively presentation and discussion.

Again, Bencham members received the electronic copy of the presentation.
Olivier explained that many people, especially working in Beijing, still have some illusions like they will be able to get, for the period of the Olympics, airplane tickets, restaurants and venues for meetings and hospitality, transportation, tickets for their guests, etc.
Some companies tried but had to get back to Aristeia six months later as they had failed to get what they wanted.
Aristeia is working very closely with BOCOG to secure hotel rooms, transportation and of course tickets for the competition events.
One of the issues Aristeia has to deal with is securing competent staff, so they do in-house training.
They have a wide range of packages, for the normal tourist up to the demanding corporate client. But the more you ask for, the more you’ll pay and it won’t come cheap.
You are warned also – better just stick to the officially appointed agencies like Aristeia, don’t trust all those fancy offers.
One of my concerns is that many of the food & beverage outlets as well as entertainment venues will not be open to the public, either because they are not allowed or able to operate or because they will be taken over completely to handle corporate hospitality. Olivier confirmed at least in part my concern.
Another controversial aspect, not discussed in the seminar, are the “National Houses” planned by many countries (and even Chinese provinces). Some of those countries might face some unexpected bureaucratic hurdles I won’t explain here…